Why Texans Are Sheep

Texas governor Rick Perry is to the welfare of Texas citizens what a black hole is to matter. Yesterday I linked to an article that explained how Perry, and conservatives in the Texas legislature, are allowing construction companies to get around existing law so that workers have no insurance, no workman’s comp, no safety net whatsoever.

Not only do these workers lack health insurance – in Texas, workers’ comp is optional – they’re also not paid by the hour, don’t receive overtime pay, lack safety training and, of course, get no retirement plan. If you venture out to one of the many subdivisions being built just about anywhere in Texas, you’ll see row upon row of houses under construction. The workers, mainly Latinos, are one serious injury away from needing the volunteers of the Living Hope Wheelchair Association or other faith-based groups. They’re toiling in the hot Texas sun with no safety net. If they’re hurt, they’ll be patched up at the emergency room. Their employer will not get a bill. You and I will pick up the tab through our property taxes. Socialized medicine at its best, I suppose.

Perry also just vetoed a bill that would have prevented wage discrimination against women. And last week the “Merry Christmas” bill was signed into law.

The measure allows schools to display religious symbols such as nativity scenes and Christmas trees so long as at least one other religious image or secular icon is also included. …

…“It’s a shame that a bill like this one I’m signing today is even required, but I’m proud that we’re standing up for religious freedom in this state,” Perry said at a “Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion.” …

… At the Thursday signing ceremony for the new law, cheerleaders from Kountze High School wore t-shirts that read “I cheer for Christ.”

In May, a Texas judge ruled that the cheerleaders could continue to display signs at football games emblazoned with Bible verses.

Since this is Texas, in effect this means the public school system will revert to being a recruiting arm for evangelical Christianity. Let’s see what happens when a kid shows up at school with a yab-yum T-shirt. Freedom from religion will start to make sense to them then, I suspect.

Texans vote for these clowns. Texans are sheep.

17 thoughts on “Why Texans Are Sheep

  1. No, maha, Texans are not sheep.
    Even the stupidest sheep can sense the presence of a wolf.

    But too many Texans get in line (dance? – we wish) to vote for shepherds, who then lead them to the slaughterhouse to become lamb-chops.

    Or, at least enough of them do – for now.
    And that’s what terrifies Conservative Texans.
    A blue Texas will kill the Republican Party.
    And they are lashing out, hoping to put-off the inevitable (we hope – unless they can suppress enough votes, it eventually will be).
    But, instead, they are hastening the process – because they don’t know any better, and can’t offer anything better.
    The death throes will be ugly. The sociopathic, stupid, ignorant, and uncompassionate “people,” like rabid rats, have backed themselves into a corner, and will fight to the death, against change.

    For Conservatives, (pardon me, Mr. Godwin) like for the Nazi’s, the tide has turned against them. Their dreams of a thousand year Conservative Reich are crumbling all around them. And Texas is Hitler’s bunker. The saddest thing is, these Fascists won’t kill themselves. I firmly believe that even after they lose, they’ll form an underground movement, to do as much damage as possible to their state, and country.
    They’ll think they’re patriots and hero’s.
    The rest of us will know that they’re nothing more than sociopathic treasonous traitors.

  2. I think the people of Texas have been fed a steady diet of crap for generations, and the chickens have come home to roost. FREEDOM; to pray to Jesus in public and to be exempt from government hassles like licenses and worker’s comp and health insurance. Well, if you pray the RIGHT way, who needs health insurance or WC ?
    PLUS, if you’re an independent contractor, you get to keep more of your hard earned cash ( I found out about that LIE the hard way!) Nothing from nothing leaves nothing!

  3. You missed the mark on this one Maha. Texas has *exactly* the government the *voters* voted for.

    And who are the voters? White, mostly wealthy (compared to the guys building houses especially) Texans who do not want to provide *anything* to anyone who is not white.

    I understand the issues with wage-slavery, but you got to make the sacrifice to take the time to vote if you want to improve your lot. The small fraction of white guys (like me) who vote progressive are not enough to change the government here in Texas.

  4. Not all Texans. I’ve never voted for Perry and cannot fathom a time where I will. I belong to a very progressive, positive local Democratic Party organization. Our objective is to continue with the hopes that enough folks will finally wake up.

  5. I have Texan in-laws, and visit the state every year. My sense is that Texans are not like sheep, though they do share the characteristic of being able to be herded easily by dogs.

    Instead of being meek followers and herd animals, Texans are often oddly and fiercely proud of being “independent” and other phrases that essentially boil down to being pig-headed, self-centered, and willing to do the stupid thing if someone they don’t like should make the mistake of suggesting they do the smart thing. This often extends to situations where, left to their own devices, they’d do the smart thing, but can’t allow themselves to, once someone else has suggested it, because then they wouldn’t be “free”, or something.

    That said, the bulk of my in-laws and their friends are civilized, educated people who mostly have outgrown this characteristics and are sadly trapped in the asylum with a bunch of dogs like Perry.

  6. Well, if you pray the RIGHT way, who needs health insurance or WC ?

    “Come unto me all ye who lack worker’s comp.. For I shall hook you up.”

    The problem with Christians not receiving the Lord’s abundant mercies and healings is their lack of faith…If they were walking in the Lord and doing what they were told, praying the right way and going boldly before throne of grace, they’d have no problems rebuking a severed spinal cord or even crushed fingers.
    By his stripes we are healed!

  7. Texas does have some really great Progressives and Liberals.

    And we should with them luck!
    They’ll need it – until the brown masses begin buying and building homes, and start hiring formerly employed white folks as nannies and gardeners.

    But that will only further entrench the bigoted haters.
    But you know what?
    Fuck ’em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. …but you got to make the sacrifice to take the time to vote if you want to improve your lot.

    How many of the guys building those houses can vote? If they’re mostly Latino, I would imagine they’re mostly not citizens, and maybe not even in Texas legally. I remember how Perry got in trouble last year for not hating Mexicans enough, and I can see why there’s a fault line on the right over immigration. If you keep the Mexicans out, who’s going to do the shit work?

    I was reading about the confederate constitution recently, which was largely based on the US constitution but with some crucial differences. One of the changes was that the confederates took out the general welfare clause.

  9. If you keep the Mexicans out, who’s going to do the shit work?

    Oh, there’s plenty of us white trash happy to gobble up the shit work. Nothing motivates like hunger. Technically I’m a Spic, but most people mistake me for a Wop so I can easily pass myself off as being white. The trash part of that nomenclature isn’t necessarily a self assessment, but when El Jefe’s got a framed 5×7 photograph of George and Laura Bush sitting on his desk signifying he’s a minimum $2500. donor, you kinda gather the impression that you are trash.

  10. “Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion.”

    …say the tools who would scream like stuck pigs if subjected to any religion other than theirs. If a clerk at the DMV was wearing a pro-Muslim t-shirt they’d be the first to complain, but they have no compunction about cramming their religion down everyone else’s throat, because they have the only “true” religion.

    So glad I got out of that fucked-up third world state dominated by greedy oligarchs and the theocrat rednecks stupid enough to be duped by them over and over.

  11. Where can I buy that t-shirt?
    I just paused for a second to Google the item, and there are places where it is for sale. I am simply amazed. Is there anything that cannot be brought to us in a trice?I think I will Google world peace and see if I can get some of that! Or Rick Perry’s hair.
    I know his brains are not available — supply shortage.

  12. Perry I don’t see as cunning. I see him as sincere in his stupidity and I believe he really doesn’t get it. Not that he can’t inflict damage on society with his dull intellect, but he’s certainly a candidate for Jesus’ appeal to heaven…Forgive him for he knows not what he does.

    Happy EID everyone! May the hidden Imam reveal himself to you this holiday season.

  13. Off topic, but I thought maybe somebody else might enjoy a laugh like I did when reading this paragraph….
    Rules Committee Ranking Member Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) slammed her Republican colleagues for advancing an abortion bill without women’s input. “I think the American people are getting pretty disgusted with a group of men in blue suits and red ties deciding what the women of America can do,” she said.

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