Thursday, November 1, 2007

In Which I Attempt To Explain

(Not to be outdone by Mike, by God!)


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There’s been a lot written and said about Texas and what makes it different from every other place on the planet – and much of this, okay most of it, comes from Texans. My father was military and I spent my childhood moving from place to place, but I’ve spent most of my life in Texas. So what I’m saying is this: I’ve seen a pretty good part of the rest of the world, and I’ve seen Texas, and yes it is, well, different.

Oh sure, you say, like we don’t know NOW. That part about everything being bigger in Texas? Well, sure, that includes Assholes, too. Exhibit A:



Everything is just done on a grander scale here: our assholes are more flaming, our wingnuts are more wingnutty, our crooked politicians more crooked. So what's a sane person, much less a liberal, to do? Well, as the saying goes, you do the math. I mean after all, sure we've got crap like this and this, but we also have the San Antonio Spurs, and Big Bend, and Lyle Lovett for crissakes! And if you had ever awoken on the finest of spring mornings in the hill country to the call of a distinctive song, sat up in bed and looked out your window to see a golden cheeked warbler perched on a branch less than a gasp away, well then you would know all you'd ever need to know about Texas.

5 comments:

Ricky Bones said...

It is just gotten crazy how the climate has changed since 2000. It seems those who were just as set on "changing the tone", did just that and not in a positive way.

The saddest example of the hypocrisy is all of those dead set on showing us just how bad and immoral Clinton was are getting nailed left and right for criminal acts or caught in sex scandals.

Pot, meet kettle - kettle, meet pot :-)

Mike Thomas said...

I think it is worse in the sense that Bush is just a really, really lousy president. But I'm not sure the tone is all that much worse. Remember Newt Gingrich, Ken Starr and the impeachment crusade was all prior to 9/11. Robert Bork, Willie Horton, the "L" Word, Clarence Thomas, Vince Foster, Sore-Loserman, etc. That all preceded 9/11.
Politics has always been a full-contact sport. It just seems more blatant now that one team is out to win at all costs, and we are suffering the consequences.

capmconnundrum said...

And we have KFAN radio, which is a wierd little small town radio station in the shadow of clearchannel ( the Chris Rhea song reminded me)

This place (the hill country) was settled by a bunch of Marxist Atheist Germans, much to the dismay and voiciferous denial of the local fundies.

Positives in Texas are like the seasons, there, but subtle, evn hidden. You have to look for them. Bush has exported some of Texas' biggest negatives (besides himself). They are the three pillars of Texas governance: Corruption, Incompetence, and Arrogance.

capmconnundrum said...

BTW, regarding the video. I've never seen a Trabant in Texas (the little car the family is travelling in) There is, however, an East German Wartburg mouldering away on the outskirts of Comfort.

AnnPW said...

Thanks Cap! The local fundies can holler about it till they're blue in the face (and they do) but there is a well-established liberal community in Comfort, God love 'em!

Trying to explain what's to love about Texas is a little like trying to explain what's funny about a joke. Either you get it, or you don't.

I left a comment earlier in which I talked about one of my favorite Texas writers, Joe Landsdale, but the link got screwed up and I had to delete it. To any interested, check out Lansdale's "The Bottoms" - and thanks again, Mike, for your help and for the tip about LibraryLink. I'm definitely going to look into that!