[dead]

Does this mean we all have to wear those goofy hats?

[DoSomethingAboutIt]

Fort Hood, near Waco, is the army's second-largest base

Ahem, 2nd? Could someone tell me the largest then?

[Dog Gone]

Can it tame its fearsome and often barbaric prison system?

Gosh, I hope not.

[austingirl]

I don't think this yahoo has ever been to Texas. The state is largely urban??? Sure we have a few big cities, but a lot of open land. Don't get me started on all the misinformation - but that's fine - it will serve to keep his kind out.

God bless Texas.

[Republic of Texas]

So, all by himself, this writer determined that Texas, has some good, and some not-so-good facets. Like every other, state/government/business/person/entity on Earth. Amazing.

[Clara Lou]

My father in-law came from Texas to visit us in Alaska. While out hiking a short scenic trail, he met a KAL pilot also hiking. In his friendly Texas way, my father in-law introduced himself. Upon hearing the pilot tell where he was from, my father in-law said, "Well, now you can tell people you've met a Texan."

[denydenydeny]

In spite of the author's prejudices, I found this article relentlessly positive.

If Texas is the future of America, I say hurry up with it.

[Republic of Texas]

" If Texas is generous to the successful, it is equally hard on the unfortunate. This is a land of low taxes, weak trade unions, a shrivelled public sector and a paltry welfare state, all of which ensure that plenty co-exists with poverty. Houston's shimmering towers and malls sit next to festering slums, with unpaved streets and shot-gun shacks; the city's world-class medical centre squats atop a health-care system that fails to reach the state's poorest citizens. The University of Texas boasts a star-studied faculty and the second-largest endowment after Harvard, with 21m acres of oil-fields to its name. But Texas also has some of the worst schools in the country. "

The answer to these problems? Lower taxes, weaker trade unions, smaller public sector and welfare state. Give us a few years, we'll get it straightened out.

[M Kehoe]

Texas was tamed by gun-wielding cowboys and remains thoroughly marinated in the gun culture.

It seems like the author says this as a bad thing. If I didn't live in FL, I would live in TX.

5.56mm

[San Jacinto]

Texas has an almost national sense of identity. Texans love to boast that their state was an independent nation before it joined the union: that for nine glorious years (1836-45), Texans had their own army, navy, currency and foreign policy

Ah, those were the good old days.

After Texas had defeated Mexico in the Texas Revolution, many assumed that Texas' entry into the union was inevitable. However, due to the on-going North vs. South scenario going on in the United States, there was considerable opposition to Texas coming into the union. Many feared that Texas entry into the union would upset the balance between slave holding states and free states.

Sam Houston told his old friend and former commander, President Andrew Jackson, "Texas can make it just fine without the United States, but the United States cannot make it without Texas." Houston's remarks were not jut empty braggidocio. Houston really meant it, and he was right.

If Texas had remained independent it would have expanded to the West Coast and northward toward Utah during the Civil War. Texas would have possibly been in a position to "take in" some of the Southern States as well. If Texas had not been annexed, it would today be the largest, most populous and strongest nation in North America. Some of our friends in the Northeastern states would probably feel a little more at home with the Canadians than they do with Texans, anyway.

North America could have Canada, "Canada Lite", and Texas, (and what would be left of Mexico.) As for leadership in these parts, a$$wipes like the Clintoons need not apply.

[MadIvan]

I happen to like Texas very much. If that happens to be the future of America, wonderful. I'd love to see criminals get strapped into the electric chair and fried to Kentucky chicken levels.

I'd love to see the enemies of freedom worried that they are going to get a bullet in the head.

I'd love to see dynamic capitalism, the greens either quashed or ignored, an upbeat spirit and relentless confidence.

The only thing I would say is, I just hope the Texans can keep the searing weather to themselves. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[nutmeg]

bump to read later

[bankwalker]

“You can go to hell,” Davy Crockett declared when his political career collapsed in Tennessee: “I'm going to Texas”.

Didn't Waylon, Willie, and the boys say something similar a few years ago?

[jimbo123]

Lone Star bump!

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Michael Lind, a fellow of the New America Foundation, a think-tank, and the author of a forthcoming book on his native state, says that Texas is transforming itself from Mississippi into California.

And, I suppose this is supposed to be accepted as something positive? If the future of America is Kalifornia, the union is doomed.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

"George Bush is thus a perfect embodiment of this Texas tradition: a man who loves to talk about individualism and entrepreneurship, but owes much of his fortune to the helping hand of fellow members of the Texas elite, and is less interested in promoting competition than in cutting deals with powerful business interests."

Barf.

[Sabertooth]

The Texas Republican Party has thrown in its lot with openness, thanks in no small part to the Bush dynasty. The party refused to engage in the immigrant-bashing that eventually condemned the Californian Republican Party to irrelevance. Indeed, George Bush was a frequent visitor to Mexico, and an enthusiastic, if imperfect, speaker of Spanish. The party also successfully got rid of affirmative action while holding out a helping hand to poorer people, offering places at state universities in Texas to the top 10% of students from every school. The Texan GOP's national ascendancy has thankfully condemned more xenophobic Republican traditions to the wilderness, not least the isolationist tradition that flourished in the mid-west.

Sheer claptrap.

It was a de facto alliance of GOP political gamesmanship (in which then-gubernatorial candidate George W. Bush was a participant), along with the liberal press, an extreme Leftist Judge Mariana Pfaelzer, and Democrat liar extraordinaire Gray Davis that wrongly mischaracterized opposition to Illegal Aliens as "immigrant bashing" or "xenophobic."

This fight is far from over, as the uproar over President Bush's attempted Amnesty appeasement (in the form of his Section 245(i) extension), and his defeat last Spring demonstrate. The collusion against Proposition #187 only delayed and exacerbated the coming battle over Illegal Aliens in this country and the Republican Party.

[Boonie Rat]

I'm for bringing back the bumper stickers we had when I lived in Houston in the 80s. Welcome to Texas, Now Go Home!

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[What Is Ain't]

What a schizophrenic piece of Euro-pap.

This article was a British version of the pig-in-a-blanket. But instead of finding a piece of sausage when you fold back the pancake, you find a turd.

According the this elitist, what would make Texas right is a healthy dose of good old European socialism. Think of it: going from London to Dallas and not being able to tell the difference. Sound good, Texans?

[The UnVeiled Lady]

In 2000, George Bush's last year as governor, the state executed 40 people. Today, 452 people are languishing on Texas's death row, 12% of the country's total.

If we would start executing one a day ... we would drop that down in about a year. I would help pull the lever. Then we would be sure that they wouldn't get out and kill other people on parole.