It Ain’t Good
January 31st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, this morning released the 2007 version of his profoundly depressing booklet “Texas on the Brink: How Texas ranks among the 50 states.” It’s a handy quick-reference to exactly how bad things are in Texas. Shapleigh’s office has compiled the rankings, complete with footnotes and all, for three straight sessions. Perusing the numbers, you realize Texas is actually worse off than you thought. A few of the highlights (and we’re using that term loosely):
49th in per capita tax revenue raised;
50th in per capita state spending;
47th in average SAT scores;
50th in percentage of population over 25 with high school diploma;
1st in percentage of uninsured children;
1st in percentage of population without health insurance;
49th in percentage of women who vote;
1st in air pollution emissions;
1st in toxic chemicals released into water;
1st in cancer-causing carcinogens released into air;
44th in home ownership rate;
50th in electric bill affordability;
1st in number of executions;
1st in number of gun shows.
There — now didn’t that brighten your day? Shapleigh’s point wasn’t to depress the Hell out of us, but to say that the state has pressing needs more urgent than another property tax cut. Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) joined Shapleigh to stress that increased support for the Texas Grant Program, which provides tuition for college, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program could help alleviate some of these rankings.
At the end of the press conference, a reporter asked Shapleigh if anything had gotten better in Texas?
He paused. “Tax cuts.,” he said.
February 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
And that’s not all?
Texas Words And Nonsensical Groupings
Denise from New Jersey with the language so clear.
She sure ain’t from here!
She’s the inverse
In this land of speaking so perverse.
From proper English she does not stray.
With others - ‘ain’t no how, no way Jose’!
Her words are carefully composed.
Others talk through their nose.
She uses verbs with ING.
Most just sling linguistic debris.
With language so proper
No syllable cropper.
Texas twang -
Just ain’t her ‘thang’!
Absence of a drawl -
Not even a ‘you-all’!
Others verbally askew -
She utters not a single “I’m a fixin’ to’!
Perfect elocution -
No spoken pollution!
This explanation is offered.
It’s all the fault of that inarticulate fool in Crawford?
i iz sooo prud uf minen anglizh aun ritin! i iz purty muzh purfect!
Hubert Wilson
GBT and GBM
February 4th, 2007 at 12:01 am
Sweet requirements to post on your site. Now I see why the comments are consistently either zero or one. Nice job in limiting the opportunities for challenging your narrow minded view on policy. Thanks for the “insight”. I am guessing you have a degree in “journalism” and you graduated sometime after 2000. Best of luck in your endeavors.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Dave Mann’s article, ‘It Ain’t Good’- very informative, nicely written.
Hubert Wilson’s response poem: Hilarious!
February 4th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Hey, I guess that’s where that old chestnut “don’t mess with Texas” comes from. Who the hell would want to.
February 5th, 2007 at 2:25 am
2nd in the sheer numbers of tax-burdening illegal immigrants.
1st in relative oil-profit corruption and corporate welfare.
1st in installing vast, land-grabbing, “free trade” tolled highways run by foriegners for a HALF CENTURY.
We’re real winners.
February 5th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Not Texas.
And if they should so dare,
To let that be the fate of me;
Oh God,
There’d better be;
A suicide prevention center there.
February 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I think Texans are proud of the fact that they’re so ignorant, mean, and stupid. No wonder Bush found a home there.
February 5th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
I do think that Janeane characterization of Texans is totally wrong. Matter of fact, come on down and meet a few of us liberal Texans. It should be noted that the Bushes are not, repeat, not Texans. Their are just more carpetbagging Yankees from New England.
February 5th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Texas has been poisoned for too long by its own stupid myths of superiority in all things. Until Texas climbs down off its white horse, puts away its toy six-shooters, and stops behaving like some drugstore cowboy things will never get any better. A good start would be to tear down that useless monument to a dead past, The Alamo, and put up a Burger King instead.
Yes, I’m from Texas. Wanna make sumpin’ outta it, Podna?
February 6th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Y’all play nice.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
well, a quick audit of the current state of the state of texas, should give us all a pretty good idea where the entire country is headed under the ‘leadership’ of george w bush. a takes a decade or two to destroy a state. mr bush gonna destroy an entire country in less than one! nice
February 6th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
To Steve, there are a few liberal Texans, who all seem to live in Austin. Y’all need to be airlifted out of there to a safe haven like right away. There’s maybe 10 percent of you, and the other 90 percent of Texans are the biggest a-holes in the world.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Janeane and Steve,
It’s so much fun watching y’all arguing.
I lived in Texas for a year, and it gave me so much ‘eddycation’ that I even got to write a blog post today about the latest looniness from the Lone Star State (in fact I linked back to this very post in it). What I said (talking about the death penalty) was:
And that’s the way the death penalty is in Texas. It’s a little like when the Dallas Cowboys win on Sunday. People may be falling behind in their bills, have a leak in the roof and Little Johnny may be getting F’s on his report card, but if the Cowboys win on Sunday then it seems like everyone in Texas feels much better on Monday. True that the bills still have to be paid, the leak still has to be fixed and Johnny still has to get caught up in school, but people think that because the Cowboys have won, their life is better somehow. The same thing with the death penalty. Never mind that [anti-dp facts listed here], the fact that some miscreant has been sent to the next life makes people feel better the next day. They still can’t pay their bills, the roof still leaks, Johnny is still failing, but doggone it, we sure showed that loser a thing or two.
February 9th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I was planning to move to Austin from California and inflate your real estate prices a little more, but now I think I’ll stay.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:39 am
[…] in per capita tax revenue raised and oddly enough Texas is 50th in per capita state spending. http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/in…/it-aint-good/ Also from what I have seen and noticed from living there. Is that there is pretty much no middle […]