Sunday, February 07, 2010
Don't mess with Texas
I like Texas more every time I visit it and every time I pay taxes to Trenton. I am not unjustified in my affection, for it is the only state among the ten largest to have created more jobs than it lost over the last three years.
13 Comments:
By 
Papa Ray, at
Sun Feb 07, 01:05:00 AM:
Well glad you like to visit. Just keep visiting, because we don't need anymore immigrants from the south, north, east or damn sure the west.
It seems half the U.S. is moving to Texas. We are going to have to put roadblocks on all the highways and put a stop to it soon.
Texas is big, but it ain't that damn big.
Papa Ray
By 
, at
Sun Feb 07, 01:05:00 AM:
Were you to ask Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island why this has occurred, he would undoubtedly reply that it’s because Texas is a growth market for lynchings and pogroms. ( see references to “strange fruit” and shattered glass) :)(that is supposed to be sarcastic, for those who have trouble with humorous online statements)
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Feb 07, 02:27:00 AM:
Oh don't be so cranky, Papa Ray. I was just in Dallas last month and saw suburbs that were still undeveloped. We have plenty of room, especially out west.
Word of warning, though. We have our way of doing things, and we like it. And we don't like foreigners (I'm looking at you, California) agitating to make our happy and productive state more like the POS basket-case you fled. One of the more recent issues in Austin is all the freaking Californians flocking there who then group together and try to make it more like California. We hate that. Not only is it rude, it's irrational; if their way of doing things was so great, why'd they leave and come to our state? Damned locusts.
Google "Californians to Austin Texas" for some examples of what I mean.
By , at
Sun Feb 07, 04:24:00 AM:
The Texas legislature's out of control spending is becoming more like California's all the time. The noxious franchise tax (gross receipts tax) was their worst idea yet. Texas also has a $33 billion outstanding debt, which is no small potatoes.
With the big cities electing Democrats for mayor, Texas' cities could be in line for a concerted effort by ACORN to corrupt our elections. Not that it matters in the long run if the Mexican border isn't walled off, eventually Texas will become irrevocably Democrat just like California.
By , at
Sun Feb 07, 07:17:00 AM:
Texas to me is a state of mind and closer to where we once were and where we should be: Red River
Someone needs to write a bizarro sequel to The Grapes of Wrath. The Joads move back in disgust.
Time magazine did a cover and extended coverage a few months back touting California as still being the model for America's future, especially because of its lead in Green Energy. Time repeatedly used the following factoid in support of this: that California used much less energy per person than many other states. The bar graph showed Texas as a bad boy outlier.
But when you look into these numbers you'd find that "personal" energy use in Texas wasn't much different than California. Texas was much higher because of its industry. California has been driving industry out of state for years. But you can't say that California is better at making a dollar of output with less energy than Texas because of this. A great example is California-based google. If you only look at California, google is amazingly Green. But on a global basis, it probably uses more energy than many nations.
"Dividing total in-state energy use by number of persons" is bogus ... worthy only for a high school paper. But Time extrapolated from this to tout California over Texas on Energy. By this logic, the House-passed Energy bill is a great idea because it would reduce per person US energy use ... but we'd just export energy use to China and India and buy it back as finished goods and services. Just like California, we wouldn't be reducing total energy use -- the actual result would be dirtier production and higher emissions -- but we'd feel good about ourselves, wouldn't we Brian?
We need a big state to go bankrupt as a wake up call for the rest of us. If Michigan went under, who'd care? California, here we come!
We need to see that we need to be a lot more like Texas, and a lot less like California.
By JPMcT, at
Sun Feb 07, 10:24:00 AM:
Does it seem to you all that Democrat voting blocs largely consist of unsuccessful people who want other people's money?
Or...is it by voting Democratic that we create an environment of politicians who love wealth redistribution (and the economic chaos that follows).
Which came first...the chicken or the egg.
Texas may be the laboratory where we find the answer!
Heh..."locusts"....I like that
By , at
Sun Feb 07, 04:51:00 PM:
I am seriously contemplating moving my family from the Denver area to Texas, probably Dallas or Austin. Colorado has gone from reliably red to solid blue in the past decade. The decline in Colorado's economy and state finances has been severe since the Democrats assumed control of the state circa 2004.
State spending in Colorado has increased by $5 Billion in this time frame, from about $3300 per resident to about $4100 per resident. About 90% of the growth has been in HHS and K-12 Education. We're constructing a welfare state to rival California.
By Gary Rosen, at
Mon Feb 08, 12:49:00 AM:
"California used much less energy per person than many other states."
Very simple answer for this: the mild climate. For many Californians the cost of heating and air conditioning is minimal compared to most of the rest of the country. Not surprised the MSM was too f*cking stupid to figure that out.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Feb 08, 12:09:00 PM:
You want a real fright, look at non-government payroll numbers over the last decade, not bad until the Dem takeover of the legislature in 2006, then right down the slide. Government seems to be recovering quite well from this recession and is posed for amazing growth over the next ten years. Provided they can find enough taxpayers to squeeze.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Mon Feb 08, 08:03:00 PM:
Two of my sons have moved to Houston in the last few years Papa Ray, and you wouldn't mind them much - though one left to join the USMC and is at Camp Lejeune now. One was raised in NH while it was still red - I know exactly the phenomenon Dawnfire and Anonymous describe. The marine was adopted from Romania, and is as reliable an anti-communist as you'll find.
But it is true that some folks move to a place because there are jobs, but don't seem to figure out why there are more jobs in one place than another.
By Miss Ladybug, at
Mon Feb 08, 11:36:00 PM:
Dawnfire, are you in Austin?
I've been hearing on the radio that they want to turn Nueces Street into a bicycle boulevard a la Portland, OR. Nevermind all the harm it would do to the businesses along that street who would eventually lose out because of reduced traffic. Also heard a local business person call into a local radio show to say that when they were "counting" the bicycle traffic on that street to help make the decision, she say the same dozen cyclists going back and forth over the sensors. On a normal day, she sees maybe 2....
Fair warning, Austin is pretty liberal. You can't build things just anywhere you want - you might harm the environment. A large part of SW Austin is over the Edwards Aquifer... I wouldn't be too terribly upset if I found a teaching job not in Austin/the surrounding area...
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Feb 09, 05:03:00 PM:
I used to live there, graduated college there (UT), and would like to one day return.
By , at
Wed Feb 10, 05:00:00 PM:
I'm a Fightin' Texas Aggie, the reddest college in the reddest State.
Currently expatted to Colorado...and trying to make the State at least purple.
But I do hope to move back one day....
