What's right with Texas?

[Uncle Ted]

My two son's have been in Austin all summer installing for Vivint. They've made good money but I think Vivint gets a pretty good deal also with they kids running their cars all over and working until midnight. Anyway I flew down Friday to ride back to Idaho with my youngest. In all my business travel I've never had to go to Texas and I wanted to see it and spend some time with him. Friday we drove around Austin, walked 6th street, visited Mellow Johnny's and looked around the campus. UT would be a nice place for a young man to attend college. We drove up to Dallas that evening for a Ranger game. That's a nice complex with the baseball stadium and the football stadium right there. Saturday we drove from Dallas to Monticello Utah. West Texas is a barren wasteland, really not sure why anybody would live out there unless they owned several oil wells and wanted to watch them pump money. It wasn't Texas but I liked that Farmington, New Mexico area.

Texas could be five different states...

[imanihonjin]

Perry doesn't seem too worried that the DA in Austin is making an *ss of herself....

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https://twitter.com/GovernorPerry/st...110848/photo/1

As stupid as this indictment is, he should be worried. Tom Delay's life was a living hell for 10 years for similarly frivolous charges in an indictment from this same district.

[Uncle Ted]

As stupid as this indictment is, he should be worried. Tom Delay's life was a living hell for 10 years for similarly frivolous charges in an indictment from this same district.

It seems that even a lot of the dems around are applauding Perry for his actions... Rosemary Lehmberg is a drunken fool and an embarrassment to her party:

Everyone would like her to just resign and go away. The only reason her own party hasn't forced the issue is Perry would get to appoint her replacement.

[Uncle Ted]

North Texas school has a new sign...

gun-school.jpg

http://myfox8.com/2014/08/25/gun-tot...ts-gun-policy/

[Pelado]

How Do I Love Texas? Let Me Count the Ways

Texans tend to be cheerful, well-mannered, welcoming, and relaxed, which makes certain national headlines a bit vexing. This April, when Businessweek ran a story titled “Austin Is the New Brooklyn,” I almost tossed my computer into a cactus. Nope. Nope. Nope. I am sorry, people who live in Brooklyn: You have a bunch of really uptight people merely pretending to be relaxed. People in Austin are actually relaxed. Please do not move here until you learn to stop using your double-wide jogging stroller as a lethal battering ram on the way to Sunday morning brunch.

Despite right-wing concerns about imported, liberal Californians “ruining” the state and wistful left-wing hopes for a deep-blue Texas, here’s the good news: Chances are, the Lone Star State will remain its own animal for years to come. In a recent analysis at Five Thirty Eight, statistician Nate Silver argues that “migration isn’t turning red states blue”; rather, he writes, “there’s evidence that migrants’ political beliefs mirror those of voters in their new destination.” While Silver worries this could lead to greater polarization—a “Big Sort,” as writer Bill Bishop argued in his 2008 book—the Texas brand of success seems more robust than that.

In 1998, Virginia Postrel’s book “The Future and Its Enemies” outlined the concept of dynamism, meaning the support of “an open-ended society where creativity and enterprise, operating under predictable rules, generate progress in unpredictable ways.” Dynamists embrace trial and error, experimentation, market competition, entrepreneurship, and the messiness of life lived freely—all values widely embraced in liberty-loving Texas. Business and success stories are celebrated across the state; even in ultra-liberal Austin, successful local entrepreneurs gain hero status.

The opposite of dynamism is “stasis,” Postrel argues, which is a devotion to a “controlled, uniform society that changes only with permission from some central authority.” Leftists, interestingly, often describe themselves as change agents, transgressors, or mold-breakers, but in the states they run, they almost always advocate for more and greater central control. The results of this—broken budgets, struggling services, outdated bureaucratic regimes, and a fleeing populace—are clear.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...#ixzz3CMvw2xE2

[Blueintheface]

Really a microcosm (or not so micro-) of the US as a whole. While other nations might have fractured against the immense weight of political polarization our nation has thrived. (Don't bring me down, you pessimists, I'm feelin' patriotic!!!)

[Uncle Ted]

Another first for Texas...

CDC confirms first case of Ebola in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first case of Ebola that's been diagnosed in the United States.


The Texas Department of Health Services said in a statement that the patient is at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The patient -- "an adult with a recent history of travel to West Africa" -- was admitted into an isolation unit at the hospital Sunday after developing Ebola-like symptoms "days after returning to Texas from West Africa."
[...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/09/30/cdc-confirms-first-case-of-ebola-in-the-u-s/

[Jeff Lebowski]

Pretty fascinating read about a small-town Texas DA and Sheriff who teamed up to withhold crucial evidence in order to send an innocent man to jail for the murder of his wife. I suppose it fits in this thread because they finally got it right (even if it took a NY attorney to prove they had initially gotten it wrong).

Part 1
Part 2

Prosecutor in this case is going to jail for withholding evidence. First time that has happened.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-godsey/for-the-first-time-ever-a_b_4221000.html

[Drunk Tank]

Fun Fact: Today's inauguration of Texas' new Gov. Greg Abbott will feature a barbecue on the Capital grounds for 17,000 people. They are serving a mile of sausage, 800 Briskets and 4,000 pounds of chicken. All in less than an hour! How's that for a party!

Way to go Texas!

[Green Monstah]

Fun Fact: Today's inauguration of Texas' new Gov. Greg Abbott will feature a barbecue on the Capital grounds for 17,000 people. They are serving a mile of sausage, 800 Briskets and 4,000 pounds of chicken. All in less than an hour! How's that for a party!

Way to go Texas!

"God blessed Texas"
-Little Texas

[Moliere]

"God blessed Texas"
-Little Texas

Self-deporter....

[Uncle Ted]

Texas, the ‘great American job machine,’ is largely responsible for the +1.2M net US job increase since 2007

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[...]

http://www.aei.org/publication/texas-great-american-job-machine-solely-responsible-1m-net-us-job-increase-since-2007/

You're Welcome, Bro...

WHITEHOUSEBEER-300x217.jpg

[imanihonjin]

http://www.aei.org/publication/texas...se-since-2007/

You're Welcome, Bro...

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How many of those "new" jobs in Texas we merely jobs that were moved from another state? I have no issue with that as I think it is great for States to compete with one another, but the graph you provided doesn't paint the whole picture.

[Green Monstah]

How many of those "new" jobs in Texas we merely jobs that were moved from another state? I have no issue with that as I think it is great for States to compete with one another, but the graph you provided doesn't paint the whole picture.

I don't know. I think the graph paints a "Texas is a great place to do business" picture, and it pretty much nails it.

[Uncle Ted]

How many of those "new" jobs in Texas we merely jobs that were moved from another state? I have no issue with that as I think it is great for States to compete with one another, but the graph you provided doesn't paint the whole picture.

Maybe this will paint a better picture...

http://dallasfed.org/assets/documents/research/swe/2014/swe1401d.pdf

Of course, folks are going to move to where the good jobs are.