I JOIN YOU IN YOUR SHOUTING-THREAD RAGE AGAINST THE CONDEMNATION OF ONE STATE DUE TO ONE OR SEVERAL RULINGS! WE'RE TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS, OK?

(I shout as a Floridian. We're screwed up, according to most folks.)

Yes! I HATE WHEN I TRAVEL INTL AND SAY I'M FROM TX AND PEOPLE SAY 'THAT WHERE BUSH FROM' AND THEN I SAY 'KIDDING! I'M CANADIAN.'

double the hate

So, and I ask out of genuine curiosity, not snarkiness in any way, what is going well in TX politically?

To clarify, before I put the dog up and go to bed: I'm not a native Texan. I've lived some 9 years of my nearly 28 here. I absolutely loathe the Texas Pride bullshit.

I'm also very much into self-depricating humor when it comes to Dallas and Texas at large. So much so, that the SO and I had a conversation Monday night regarding the 5th year protest for the Iraq war that took place at the same intersection that the Dubya Library has been plotted, which I noted and coined a new motto for the city of Dallas:

"We killed the best and honor the worst"

I'm just tired of the whole "keep the south/ send Texasw back/ they're a bunch of gay bashing segregationists". It's the yang to the yin of Rush Limbaugh. Lazy, stupid, and overhyped.

THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM IS THIS: GET WISDOM

AND WHATEVER YOU GET, GET INSIGHT


I swear, there are days when I want to tattoo Proverbs 3:7 on the forehead of everyone I meet.

So, and I ask out of genuine curiosity, not snarkiness in any way, what is going well in TX politically?

I can only speak locally, which is Dallas. Plus, I reckon it depends on what you mean by "going well".

That said, we've got an openly gay minority sheriff, and this past November was a huge coup from Reps to Dems in District Clerk, County Clerk, County Judge, and the vast majority of judges.

While I've loathed Governor Rick Perry during his entire administration, and there's a bit of controversy with his ties to the Pharms, I do support his stance on the HPV vaccine. Sadly, it's likely to get shot down by the State Senate.

Additionally, our light rail is expanding, albeit slowly and somewhat questionably.

I'm not saying it's ideal, by any stretch, and if I find a way out of here, I'll likely take it.

My initial point was simple. Lay off the Texas bashing for Dubya reasons. Hopefully that's not to hard to understand.

I did see two Kerry/Edwards stickers there last year...albeit on SUV's.

Texas gave the country Tom DeLay and devices that are "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" can't be sold there. Is 'same-sex sodomy' still illegal in Texas? Is teaching evolution still legal? I mean, the state has spent the last 30 years forcing textbook publishers to cut down on the amount of space they devote to teaching evolutionary principles, and according to Wikipedia you could end up with a $500 fine for putting your penis into a man's asshole, so I just don't know.

Yeah, the Bushes use the state as a marketing prop, and it's pretty annoying that they do, but that isn't the reason why a lot of people dislike Texas.

It's the yang to the yin of Rush Limbaugh. Lazy, stupid, and overhyped.

Exactly. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff goin wrong politically here, but it's hugely insulting to all of the people who are actively working to make things better to make stupid cracks based on media hype and stereotypes. If every poster who makes a dumb crack about Texas or Texans donated a couple bucks to Equality Texas, or the Texas Democrat Party, then maybe they'd have some just cause for complaint. Like my mamma says, you can ignore a situation, you can run away from it, or you can try to fix it, but dear God stop complaining about it!

Is 'same-sex sodomy' still illegal in Texas?

Um, no.

Texas gave the country Tom DeLay

Texas also gave the country Willie Nelson, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, and Buddy Holly. NYC gave birth to both Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. Any place with a sizable population will have both good and bad people born and raised there.

devices that are "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs" can't be sold there

Horseshit. My first apartment in Dallas was walking distance from two different sex shops, both of which sold all kinds of stimuli from the ever popular Rabbit to Giant Latex Fisty things. This is no different than it being illegal to sell bongs for the primary use of smoking pot in spite of the presence of dozens of head shops.

I don't know about the evolution thing, as I don't have and in all likelihood will never have children, but if it's true, it's hardly unique to this state. The larger controversy that you may be thinking of was in Kansas, and it's been overturned due to the election of a new school board.

Anyhow, I really didn't want to start a debate on the merits of the state. There are a ton of things I struggle with about it as well. Just bear in mind that when discussing it, you're talking about roughly 23.5 million individuals, most of whom don't fit the stereotype that you have in your mind.

And Bush ain't from here.

Heh. I just scored major points in an interview when I made some of the same points -- that South bashing, in general, is lazy and annoying; it's always seemed a way for people to ignore the bad shit happening in their own backyards and project it somewhere else. We're not racist, misogynist, homophobic, evangelically Christian, or segregated. That only happens in the South. (It came up because I once wrote a published letter to the editor, which is listed on my resume, on this topic, and it turned out one of the people interviewing me was from Texas.)

That's why I hate America.