I think American Auto companies should latch on to this marketing campaign.

A good rundown can be found here.

Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas…makes you fell kinda proud to live here!

If someone in a Lowe’s store offers you assistance and they don’t work there, you may live in Texas ;

If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Texas ;

If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas ;

If “Vacation” means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas;

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Texas;

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas ;

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas ;

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas ;

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph — you’re going 80 and everybody’s passing you, you may live in Texas ;

If you find 60 degrees “a little chilly,” you may live in Texas ;

If you actually understand these jokes, and share them with all your Texas friends, you definitely live in Texas .

Here are some little known, very interesting facts about Texas .

1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742 miles
2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles
3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
4. World’s first rodeo was in Pecos , July 4, 1883.
5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water.
6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston .
7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America .
8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America ’s only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.
10. The worst natural disaster in U.S . history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane, in which over 8,000 lives were lost on Galveston Island .
11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20, 1969, was ” Houston .”
12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island .
13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43″ in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.
14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.
15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.
16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.
17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.
18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington -on- the Brazos, Harrisburg , Galveston , Velasco, West Columbia and Austin .
19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).
20. The name ” Texas ” comes from the Hasini Indian word “tejas” meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas .
21. The State Mascot is the Armadillo (an interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females.).
22. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston .

Cowboy’s Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie , Texas :

(1) Just one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma & Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin’.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin’ before God.
(6) No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal.
(7) No killin’.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don’t take what ain’t yers.
(10) Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff

I think the CATO institute should study the number of fatalities and transit time in India’s busy intersections. Could be very interesting.

A succinct definition.

Representative Scalise (R, LA.) dares to question Al Gore

Al Gore does not stand up to scrutiny well.

You gotta see this to believe it.

A worthy read. Taleb lists ten things we need to do to prevent further debt bubble catastrophes. I’ll list one and link to the rest.

Do not give an addict more drugs if he has withdrawal pains. Using leverage to cure the problems of too much leverage is not homeopathy, it is denial. The debt crisis is not a temporary problem, it is a structural one. We need rehab.

This picture is in at least a half dozen blogs out there so I don’t know where it started but it is telling given where things are today.

My initial reply was this:

The Chicago Tribune endorsed Barack Obama last November, the first time in the modern era it endorsed a democrat. Also, a month later the Tribune declared bankruptcy. So things do change…I guess we should be grateful it took this long.

A response from a friend (and Obama voter) regarding the CNN gotcha video.

John,

The YouTube video you posted on Logpundit of the nervous (and stupid) CNN reporter is a good catch.

I can’t believe that she tried to write the entire crowd off as Fox News right-wingers. What poor reporting.

CNN: 0, Bloggers: 1

I really agree with the angry woman’s implied point: it isn’t so much that I object to federal income taxes, per se, but rather than neither I nor any other citizen has any real say in how they are spent. I would feel a good deal different if there was some real transparency with washington’s finances, starting w/lobbyists and their capitol hill donations. Maybe the ‘net will make things different, though I’m not yet convinced that it will. Certainly, it can, at least in principle…

My biggest wish would be to encourage as many people as possible to have ZERO taxes withheld throughout the year, so that they would have to pay their taxes all in lump sum payments during April.

My response:

Yeah, when the dude had the sign that said, “Republicans suck too” with “Ban the Federal Reserve” underneath it, I’m sure that made the reporter feel small. I also thought that “the ban the fed” stuff would never be shown on any news channel…and it wasn’t, as this is on YouTube.

I looked at the news…the story was hard to find in the NY Times, and non-existent in the money hemorrhaging Boston Globe. I heard NBC was being confrontational as well. Fox had a few stories, but less than I thought. National Review, much the mouthpiece of the GOP, did link that video I showed you, but otherwise the response from them was VERY muted. In other words, no featured articles on the Tea Parties. The editors had a pro-bailout stance when it hit the fan last fall, sounded like a bunch of welfare queens. You could tell William F Buckley, Jr. was long gone at this point. So, I don’t know if they pulled back coverage because of concerns of astroturf (i.e. media fed fake “grassroots”), but I think the more likely explanation is that Fox and National Review don’t want to see anti-bank, anti-fed signs. It’s all about socialism, see. I was a little surprised that the video slipped through the cracks at National Review, but sometimes it happens.

Thing is, Obama didn’t even raise taxes yet…just wait until next year.

I’m sure most protestors pay their taxes in full in April, or pay quarterly. I’ve heard about people who have been waiting for a substantial refund and have been delayed for at least a month, they are worried they won’t get it back.

Populism has long been about the struggle between citizens and the banks, not so much with employers (unionism). Right now the Dems are very beholden to the banks (Chris Dodd as head of banking and commerce, is particularly egregious) but so are the GOP. That’s why the mainstream spin is so ridiculous. At this point nationalism of failed banks (Citibank, Goldman Sachs) isn’t such a bad idea. Pay the bankers what I make, a government employee wage and if they want to make more money let them risk rich people’s extra money, but don’t mess with our pensions. That way if they fail they fail. But if it’s too big to fail, then, like the Hoover Dam, it is property of the US government.

I mean, at this point, could a bunch of Timmy Geithner’s do worse than ruin the economy of the entire world?

Qualifier: OK Free Marketeers, I’m open to suggestions. This is an open forum. Persuade me that I’m wrong.

Update: I don’t have cable. It seems that Fox News TV was saturating the airwaves with Tea Party newscasts, but there were few reports on the site about it. So Fox provided more than ample coverage. I just saw the outrageous video on MSNBC and I have to say they have no class.