The Internet tends to be exactly like the people who use it: entertaining, informative, and stupider than anyone might have imagined. The latest example of ignorance comes from Breitbart, Texas, whose managing editor Brandon Darby traveled along the Rio Grande to inform us Mexico is on the other side of the river. Darby starts his…
The failure to expand Medicaid in twenty-three states is undoubtedly creating victims. Critics suggest people are dying because of their lack of access to health care. But humans might not be the only casualties of the political standoff over provisions of the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid. Rural hospitals may begin to disappear because…
We are not done with Rick Perry. While partisans hope there is a chance he will be held accountable for either blackmailing or bribing the district attorney in Austin and go to jail, there is just as much of a chance the Texas governor might end up in the White House. Yeah, I know. But…
Texas ain’t a battleground. It’s more like a slaughterhouse, especially if you are a Democrat. And the candidacy of Wendy Davis made matters worse. Democrats have a ten-year uphill climb to get back to being a viable party in Texas. Davis was never going to win. Celebrity is insufficient. But she also made all the…
During the past few months, the people of Texas and the rest of the country have been hearing about the Rio Grande Valley. Unfortunately, the type of publicity we received was unwanted. A surge of child refugees from Central America created a humanitarian crisis that again stirred the debate about immigration. Our communities largely ignored…
“Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before dawn and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played…” – Thoreau I rode up to…
During the two months I was decamped from Austin to Mount Carmel watching the federal government and a religious clown destroy several sets of belief systems and dozens of lives, a British tabloid reporter had asked me, “What is it about you Texans?” “What do you mean?” I asked. “There’s always epic, bombastic things happening…
If the court of public opinion has an impact on a jury’s decisions, Texas Governor Rick Perry may have a chance of beating his indictments. While poorly informed Democrats like Obama advisor David Axelrod call the indictments “sketchy,” Perry’s advisors have him concentrating on defending his constitutional authority to exercise the line item budget veto.…
The frontier between Texas and Mexico has defied a cultural and economic simplicity since long before General John “Black Jack” Pershing wasted almost two years fruitlessly chasing Pancho Villa through the high deserts of Mexico and the American Southwest. Very little is what it appears to be in such a landscape. Villa was a hero…
Because Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have fallen in our name, I am republishing a story I wrote several years ago. This was first printed in American Legion magazine and was noticed by political leaders in Texas, who were unfamiliar with the little town’s history of sacrifice and service. The attention…