Understanding hate and where it comes from is paramount. In each case there is of perceived progress,  a backlash occurred in polite society. In the 1970s that was a backlash against the sexual and political freedom people were seeking. Women were seeking more rights and the children were experimenting with mind altering drugs. The hatred of this from many was understandable.

 

Society and civilizations are complex things. Many are still fighting that fight while others have moved on to other lifestyle choices. Certainly, racial discrimination has always been in the background of these cultural wars. However, the local and state governments seem to have found a new bogeyman to fight over. This bogeyman is the specter of transgender kids.

 

Hatred comes from fear. Yoda taught us that one. So, when we watch Dan Patrick and his merry band of idiots peacock their way around Austin it is instructive to ask what they are afraid of. They clearly hate. No one dehumanizes anyone to that degree without feeling hatred. Why do they hate so much? What has the transgender community done to deserve this?

 

The answer is fairly simple. It is the same as the drug argument and the whole sexual revolution as well. For people who have a deep belief in God, the idea of questioning God’s creation is the most serious of sins. God doesn’t make mistakes, so how could someone feel as if their sexual identity is a mistake? The question comes down to how we can reconcile what God in fact created. Did God create a man or a woman or did God create a person? Furthermore, if God creates everyone and everyone is created in God’s image then what does that say about God?

 

These are deep questions that inspire introspection, prayer, and deep thought and reflection. It also presents a conundrum they can’t solve. If someone is a child of God then what does it say about us and our religion when we dehumanize them? Of course, this is something they can’t answer whether it be women, people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGTBQ+ community that they dehumanize.

 

What we can say is that these draconian methods are meant to do one thing. They are meant to discourage people from seeking their true identities. Somewhere in their small minds there are kids wanting to go in the opposite bathroom or boys that want to throw on a dress and dominate women’s sports. We need to protect them. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need to make sure this unholy practice doesn’t spread. Then comes the question of who exactly we are protecting and who we are hurting.

 

When you look back on any culture shift you can see people fighting that same fight throughout time. It has been there in the drug war. It was there during the women’s liberation movement. It was there during the civil rights era. If was there during Prohibition. It was there when the abolitionists were trying to free the slaves. Every fight for cultural change and progress has had people on the other side pushing against this change.

 

The logic always breaks down. The logic is that if we let former boys play girls sports then the floodgates will burst forth with boys playing girls sports as new girls. It isn’t even so much that this flies in the face of common sense. Common sense rarely enters into these discussions. It is the fact that it flies in the face of history.

 

Each one of these social movements had members of the movement, but the radical nature didn’t spread like wildfire. Sure, there were long-term and pervasive changes to society, but it’s not like LSD was being dropped in every bedroom in America. We didn’t see a sudden rash of gender roles switching and we certainly haven’t seen the kind of radical change to racist attitudes we thought we would see. We saw gradual changes and each movement had a logical end.

 

We aren’t going to see millions of boys become girls and millions of girls become boys. The UIL and other sports leagues aren’t going to suddenly mix the genders in some kind new age new fangled league of equality. It won’t happen because these things never happen. So, what we get is to solve a problem that never existed and never will exist. We get to dehumanize a few in order to make the majority feel better about themselves. We get to crush the very souls that our benevolent God created. This is the hate that many of us voted for. May God have mercy on our souls.

After George P’s decision to stiff Houstonians by denying federal flood funds, he drew the ire of all Houston politicians.  But it’s worse than that…he’s now drawing the ire of Houstonians themselves.  Last night, he tweeted this, lying and trying to blame Biden for his own stupidity and pandering to Trump.

Houston, I hear you. pic.twitter.com/urAK0uL7xw

— George P. Bush (@georgepbush) May 26, 2021

It’s not going well.

 

A watered-down medical marijuana bill passed the Texas Senate this week, with the full knowledge that the Texas House and likely the Governor wouldn’t sign it into law anyway. KXAN reports:

House Bill 1535 grows the state’s medical marijuana program to include all Texans with cancer. People with debilitating medical conditions would also qualify, but the Senate removed part of a House provision that would have added all chronic pain patients. HB 1535 was amended in the House to include all forms of diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), rather than for veterans with PTSD as it was initially introduced.

The legislation was amended to raise the limit for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana — from 0.5% to 1% by weight.

I’m happy that all PTSD and cancer patients were included in the bill, even if it will never pass. I’m a true believer in medical marijuana. I know a little boy with epilepsy. He was born here in Texas and throughout his life had uncontrollable seizures. When Texas passed the first medical marijuana law to allow children with epilepsy some THC, his doctor wrote him a prescription, and he never had another seizure. It’s been something like three or four years since the last time this child had a seizure. It’s what religious folks would call a miracle.

Texas should include medical marijuana in the next legislative session and should allow patients with chronic pain access to a drug that will keep them off of opioids. It’s common sense. Too bad the Texas GOP has none.

I’m a chronic pain patient and I have “incurable” chronic pain, meaning two separate neurosurgeons, along with a team of physical therapists, my general physician and an orthopedic surgeon have all examined me and determined that I am beyond help. There is no cure for my problems until a bionic spine becomes available. I would LOVE to be free of opiates. I would LOVE to not have to take so much Ibuprofen that my doctor says it’s “when” not “if” my kidneys start to fail. That’s my choice, I can walk or sleep today, but my kidneys will fail in the future.

My last hope is that maybe THC will relieve my pain enough to back me off of the harsh opiates and ibuprofen. The Texas government is currently withholding that choice from me.

The Texas Legislature only meets every other year for 140 days. That’s all we can stand. This session ends May 31st and they haven’t even started with redistricting. One member of the Lege describes today —

 

 

Best I can figure, that’s also pretty much every day.

The Lt. Gov, where all the real power in Texas government is vested, is already calling for a special session to begin in June.  Here’s his agenda.

The bills sought to ban transgender students from playing on sports teams based on their gender identity, prohibit local governments from using taxpayer funds to pay for lobbyists and punish social media companies for “censoring” Texans based on their political viewpoints.

Because, you know, those are major issues to the life and liberty of all Texans.  Plus, we ain’t got any other problems because they already passed that you don’t have to have a permit, background check, or training to carry a gun and made it super hard to vote. So, Texas is practically heaven except for those transgender people and that Republicans can’t recruit for their next insurrection on Twitter.

And under the category of Quit Forking Around, we have Comfort High School (just north of San Antonio) where half the senior class was suspended, including the valedictorian and salutatorian.

 

SUSPENDED❗️ Half the senior class at Comfort High School has been suspended after participating in a senior prank last week. The extent of the damage? See the pictures below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/OrDHmPfxE8

— Morgan Burrell (@Morgan_Burrell) May 20, 2021

 

They stuck plastic forks in the football field. No property was destroyed. They put balloons all over the floor of one classroom and tilted a mounted animal head.

I saying they were tourists.

If they suspended kids for doing stuff like that when I was in high school, I’d still be in high school.

 

You’ve seen this before. Someone complains about working hard and seemingly not making it while others get to sit on their duff and collect a government paycheck. I have to admit, it’s a tempting thought process. I allowed myself to go down that road one or two times. It can be a comforting place to be when you are struggling personally. It is a thought process built on two intricate cons.

First and foremost, life is not a zero sum game. My success or lack of success has little to do with anyone else. Sure, we have direct competitors for the jobs we want but most of the vitriol being spewed is spewed at people that have nothing to do with us. So, when I don’t succeed, that has nothing to do with 99 percent of the people around me.

The trouble is that the conservative con has made us believe that this is the case. So, when I don’t succeed there is usually someone (or a group) I can immediately blame for my lack of success. This is where the xenophobia comes from. Immigrants are coming to take your job. Of course, we all know that’s not true, but the con is an emotional con. We don’t think well when we’re angry and scared.

The second con is essentially a con of conflation. Look at all the free stuff people get. This con has been going on since the Reagan years with his Welfare Queens that are almost certainly black and driving around in their Cadillac. It’s a complex web they weave. It’s built on a number of lies and half truths but it focuses on misdirection more than anything.

Even if we consider ourselves enlightened enough to see through one of the major lies, we find ourselves vulnerable to the others. Sure, many of us know that most people on welfare are white. Congratulations. You saw through one of the major lies. The second question we have to ask ourselves is how good do they have it really?

Notice how few details you see. There are always stories of people buying Air Jordans, T-bone steaks, and lobster on their Lonestar card. Yet. there is rarely any hard and fast data about how much someone actually gets on government assistance. They really don’t want you to know. The dirty little secret is that it’s not much. It’s certainly not the kind of life 99 percent of us would want to lead.

It doesn’t mean there isn’t waste or people that game the system, but we really have to ask ourselves what that all matters. If that money goes away and returns to the government coffers does my life become any better? If we make their life miserable and force them to fend for themselves am I any better off? We really need to ask ourselves why we think denying others the basics of human life makes our lot in life any better.

A large part of the con is that this money has never made it back to us. That is unless you are in the top one percent financially. If you are then I’d kindly accept a donation to keep this blog up and running. Otherwise, it’s not going to you and me. So, when we find ourselves struggling to get by it is fair to ask what’s in it for me. It’s at this point that we have to remember both parts of the con.

First, this is not a zero sum game. You can help the vast majority of people all at the same time. That of course brings us to the second part of the con. When we are struggling it makes no sense to ask why they get help and we don’t. That diverts our attention away from us and onto them. It is more productive to simply ask why we don’t get help. Who is it that isn’t helping us? Who is it that actually is actively making our lives harder than it needs to be? The answer is usually related to those pushing the con.