9 reasons why Texas is the worst state in the union

[cb1000rider]

Maybe I should have chosen a better word. But in the context of delusional....I don't want to go over everyone of the 9 reasons....so I'll start with #4, Texas textbooks distort history. While I'm sure it's true, it's delusional because it implies the textbooks of other states don't distort history. Not only do all public school textbooks distort history (and they have since long before I was in public school), I'd venture to say they teach virtually no history at all....just the current political mythology. The only thing that has changed in that regard since I was in school is the current political mythology, which has drifted leftwards. So, what the writer is really saying is that the distortions don't favor his political ideology.

I agree with you that all history textbooks are perspective-based.. you can't get away from that. However, we've got a particular cling to the biblical in regard to our education "factory" here in Texas. Even if I agreed with that, we've got a constitutional right to expect a separation of church and state.

Just because it's impossible to get the perspective perfect from all points of view, I don't see that as permission to go far left or far right, especially when it's not motivated by facts, but is motivated by political spectrum.

Next, #5, anti-sodomy laws. Here my liberalism may show because I don't think it's the government's business what consenting adults do in the bedroom. However, to point at this as somehow indicative of the present culture in the state is absurd. In the first place, the USSC ruled the very same laws Constitutional in 1986 and overruled them in 2003. When I grew up in the state sodomy laws were very very rarely prosecuted. The only real impediment to homosexual behavior was a public expression of sexuality. Even then, way back 40 years ago, when I was in school, I knew of several homosexual relationships in my small town and none of them were prosecuted. It wasn't even considered particularly extraordinary, even by my very conservative parents (who employed one half of a known male homosexual couple). It's delusional to pretend like a legal case that was adjudicated over 10 years ago about a law that was virtually never prosecuted in over 50 years says anything about the state today.

I think it speaks to political climate because it's still on the books today. What conservative politician would spend the political capital to remove it? It'd be a slaughter. It's just a mark of conservative disapproval, that's all. I totally agree that it's not very likely to be prosecuted..

#7, marijuana arrests. I'll show my "liberalism" again and state that I favor decriminalization of drugs....and actually legalization. I told the DA that when questioned on a jury panel. However, I suspect the "statistics" cited distort the reality. In any case, marijuana is illegal under the federal government so beloved by progs under The One. Not only that, the Democrat controlled Congress just overrode the DC voter initiative to legalize recreational use, spitting in the face of the 70% of DC voters who voted in favor. And since marijuana is illegal in, what, 46 states?....and DC (again), it's somewhat delusional to pretend Texas is some horrible state because marijuana is illegal.

The One "got high" and admitted it, that's pretty bold.. Even Clinton wouldn't admit it. My guess is that he (Obama) is not directing any effort to go after small time recreational users. In fact, I understand he's directed federal prosecutors to stop enforcing federal laws that conflict with state policy. Nancy Regan.. Now those were not good drug policy years. Give me Obama's drug policy any day, at least compared to any other president in the last 30 years or so.

It sounds like you're blaming the Democrats for ignoring the will of the DC people, I'm not sure that's the case. Yes, the Congress is a Democrat majority, but that provision, which overrode DC was attached to the spending bill, so it's going to be hard to call out motivations for voting for/against. I couldn't find the vote split, not that it would matter because it's a spending bill. Do note that House Republicans voted down an amendment offered by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Norton (D) to strike that particular rider from the spending bill, which speaks to responsibility. However, I'm offended that Congress got involved at all - either party. It's their job to listen to the people, not ignore them. I'm ready for a do-over.

Texas is just slow to the game. Marijuana legalization is coming. The longer Texas waits the more taxes we'll have. Legalization is voluntary taxation on all those hippies and progressives... Who doesn't want that? Someone needs to campaign it that way.

What it comes down to for me is that I care more about being able to defend my family, myself, and my property, and to remain relatively free in the use of my private property, than I care about what lies are in our history books, what legal battles occurred 11 years ago, and the fact that marijuana is illegal. And I like living in a place were a lot of other people feel the same way. However, I do hope that many many people from other states, especially progs, read articles like this one, believe them, and do everything in their power to stay away.

I don't think Texas is bad either, other than allergy season...

[barres]

"Which one isn't factual?"

"The nation's busiest gas chamber."

We don't have a gas chamber. I have been in the death chamber, and, as I'm sure we all know, we use lethal injection.

[VMI77]

I agree with you that all history textbooks are perspective-based.. you can't get away from that. However, we've got a particular cling to the biblical in regard to our education "factory" here in Texas. Even if I agreed with that, we've got a constitutional right to expect a separation of church and state.

It's not just perspective based....it's most often misleading to promote the prevailing political mythology and sometimes flat out false. When I was in school they were still teaching the drivel that Columbus set out to prove the world is round. The typical high school history of ancient Greek "democracy" is misleading to the extent that it's not an outright falsehood. No real history is taught in schools below the college level. There is the real history of specialists, and the prevailing political mythology for the public schools.

I don't care if the historian is a leftist I only care if he is honest. I prefer honest people who disagree with me to liars who agree. Howard Zinn's history of the US while not completely accurate presents a more balanced and honest perspective, without hagiography, than any high school history text, and I think most people on here would consider him a flaming lefty. Ditto for Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's history professor....though not a flaming lefty. If all the high schools did was throw out the current history texts and teach "Tragedy and Hope" we'd have a far far better educated population.

Instead, the primary lessons are state worship, political hagiography, conformity, and obedience.

Finally, a parent should be reviewing what their children are being taught and providing other references when it's wrong. I didn't use any canned history text when homeschooling our children. I used original sources, and volumes like Spengler's "Decline and Fall of the West," Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," the Autobiography of Henry Adams, Tragedy and Hope, etc.

It sounds like you're blaming the Democrats for ignoring the will of the DC people, I'm not sure that's the case. Yes, the Congress is a Democrat majority, but that provision, which overrode DC was attached to the spending bill, so it's going to be hard to call out motivations for voting for/against. I couldn't find the vote split, not that it would matter because it's a spending bill. Do note that House Republicans voted down an amendment offered by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Norton (D) to strike that particular rider from the spending bill, which speaks to responsibility. However, I'm offended that Congress got involved at all - either party. It's their job to listen to the people, not ignore them. I'm ready for a do-over.

You're right, I didn't call the split, just who has the majority. However, what we know with absolute certainty is that the majority who voted for the spending bill are straight up bankster whores. I don't believe the majority of either party voted for a single thing that benefits anyone but themselves and their ruling oligarchs. What the vote on the spending bill makes crystal clear is that we can't vote ourselves out of our problems because the criminals in power simply don't care what we want or don't want, even when we send them a clear message. I consider the Republican leadership to be the most treasonous and the most deserving of the wrath of the people when it comes.

Texas is just slow to the game. Marijuana legalization is coming. The longer Texas waits the more taxes we'll have. Legalization is voluntary taxation on all those hippies and progressives... Who doesn't want that? Someone needs to campaign it that way.

When enough of the old control freaks die off, yes, marijuana will eventually be legalized. The oligarchs don't care if their serfs get high, otherwise it would never happen.

I don't think Texas is bad either, other than allergy season...

I heard a survey years ago that claimed that Texas had the highest percentage population of people who identified first with the state over the Federal government.....15% or something on that order. If that is still true today then it's another reason to like Texas and also a cause for hope.

[cb1000rider]

"Which one isn't factual?"
"The nation's busiest gas chamber."
We don't have a gas chamber. I have been in the death chamber, and, as I'm sure we all know, we use lethal injection.

I don't get that one either, even assuming they were just talking about capital punishment.. CA has more people on death row.
They might have been referring to the most people executed, in which case Texas is winning.
We use lethal injection for now... Maybe not much longer...

[philip964]

"Which one isn't factual?"
"The nation's busiest gas chamber."
We don't have a gas chamber. I have been in the death chamber, and, as I'm sure we all know, we use lethal injection.

I don't get that one either, even assuming they were just talking about capital punishment.. CA has more people on death row.
They might have been referring to the most people executed, in which case Texas is winning.
We use lethal injection for now... Maybe not much longer...

One of my favorite scenes in Law and Order was a guy who wouldn't confess, so the DA threatened to allow his extradition to Texas where the defendant was wanted for capital murder. The guy immediately confessed to the murder in New York, so he wouldn't get sent to Texas.

[The Annoyed Man]

Just more idiot liberal and delusional prog speak...

Which one isn't factual? Yea, lots of them are conservative decisions, but the description is pretty up and up... The title should be "Why Texas is one of the most conservative states of the union".

Maybe I should have chosen a better word. But in the context of delusional....I don't want to go over everyone of the 9 reasons....so I'll start with #4, Texas textbooks distort history. While I'm sure it's true, it's delusional because it implies the textbooks of other states don't distort history. Not only do all public school textbooks distort history (and they have since long before I was in public school), I'd venture to say they teach virtually no history at all....just the current political mythology. The only thing that has changed in that regard since I was in school is the current political mythology, which has drifted leftwards. So, what the writer is really saying is that the distortions don't favor his political ideology.

Next, #5, anti-sodomy laws. Here my liberalism may show because I don't think it's the government's business what consenting adults do in the bedroom. However, to point at this as somehow indicative of the present culture in the state is absurd. In the first place, the USSC ruled the very same laws Constitutional in 1986 and overruled them in 2003. When I grew up in the state sodomy laws were very very rarely prosecuted. The only real impediment to homosexual behavior was a public expression of sexuality. Even then, way back 40 years ago, when I was in school, I knew of several homosexual relationships in my small town and none of them were prosecuted. It wasn't even considered particularly extraordinary, even by my very conservative parents (who employed one half of a known male homosexual couple). It's delusional to pretend like a legal case that was adjudicated over 10 years ago about a law that was virtually never prosecuted in over 50 years says anything about the state today.

#7, marijuana arrests. I'll show my "liberalism" again and state that I favor decriminalization of drugs....and actually legalization. I told the DA that when questioned on a jury panel. However, I suspect the "statistics" cited distort the reality. In any case, marijuana is illegal under the federal government so beloved by progs under The One. Not only that, the Democrat controlled Congress just overrode the DC voter initiative to legalize recreational use, spitting in the face of the 70% of DC voters who voted in favor. And since marijuana is illegal in, what, 46 states?....and DC (again), it's somewhat delusional to pretend Texas is some horrible state because marijuana is illegal.

What it comes down to for me is that I care more about being able to defend my family, myself, and my property, and to remain relatively free in the use of my private property, than I care about what lies are in our history books, what legal battles occurred 11 years ago, and the fact that marijuana is illegal. And I like living in a place were a lot of other people feel the same way. However, I do hope that many many people from other states, especially progs, read articles like this one, believe them, and do everything in their power to stay away.

Not much I can quibble with here. I would clarify #7 by stipulating that any law which "gives permission" to possess/use marijuana is not acceptable, because permission can be taken away. Granted the highly horticuluralized variants are extremely potent, but in reality it is just a roadside weed, and people will grow it in their backyards next to their corn and tomatoes if just left alone. I think the proper way to handle it is to strike any references to it from the law entirely, except for any existing wording concerning driving while impaired, being wasted in public, carrying a firearm while intoxicated, and stuff like that. Is it a gateway drug? Well, yes, yes it is.......maybe not for everybody......but it is for a significant enough percentage of people who use it that it is a concern. But abuse of alcohol can lead to those things too, and people are - or at least should be - responsible for the consequences of their actions, and their addictions.

I'm not even sure I'm in favor of taxing it - or alcohol or cigarettes for that matter - because government needs to learn to do with less. And, as Colorado has recently proven, taxing/controlling it has NOT eliminated organized crime from the equation anymore than taxing/controlling cigarettes in New York has stopped New Jersey mobsters from having a booming business smuggling in untaxed ciggiebutts. Crime will find a way, despite government attempts to control and extort revenue.

But all in all, I pretty much agree with everything you said.

[Magnawing]

Since I will be moving from NJ to TX in a couple of weeks, I'll weigh in here. Many of these are the reasons I WANT to move to Texas!!!! Although, I have no problem with people doing whatever they please with whomever they please in the privacy of their homes. And I'm not a marijuana smoker but I have no problem with those who want to smoke it...away from me so I don't have to smell it.

Capital punishment is OK by me as well...as Ron White said "if you kill someone in Texas, we'll kill you back". I'm a firm believer in "an eye for an eye".

History...I got a rude awakening when my daughter brought home her first assignment during the Civil War chapter in American History. I was born and raised in a very rural area in Southeastern MD (close to VA). When we learned about the Civil War, we were taught that the impetus of the war was the states rebelling against the Federal government taking away their right to freely govern themselves (i.e. State's Rights). The way the Civil War is taught here in NJ is that it was all about slavery and equality for all people...no mention of State's Rights at all. Even during a conversation with a history professor (from Montclair State University, a NJ state school - liberal cesspool), he insisted that slavery was the sole reason for the Civil War. In the words of Jeff Dunham's pal Walter - "Dumbass"

[LeonCarr]

To echo what Mr. Barres said, I lived in Huntsville a long time, have been to the death house several times as a TDCJ Employee, and I have still not seen the Texas Gas Chamber.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr