No, the United States is not the greatest country in the world and Texas is not the greatest state. I’m sorry. You’ll just have to leave your ranch, take down that orange U of Texas flag, and join the rest of us in reality.
I’ll leave the first to Aaron Sorkin and just handle Texas … Texas where we proudly executed a retarded man and ignored the U.S. Supreme Court, and wallow in the bottom with states like Mississippi when it comes to health care.
Execution
Of Mice And Men: The Execution of Marvin Wilson
By Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic
Aug 8 2012
How the State of Texas blew off a Supreme Court decision so it could execute a mentally retarded man.
At 6:26 p.m local time last night, an hour or so after the last appeal was denied, Texas executed a mentally retarded black man named Marvin Wilson, a man who could not handle money or navigate a phone book, a man who sucked his thumb and could not always tell the difference between left and right, a man who, as a child, could not match his socks, tie his shoes or button his clothes, a 54-year-old man with an IQ of 61. …
Health Care
Texas is the #1 state with the highest medically uninsured residents and was rated among the 10 worst US States for Women’s Health from Health.com.
Texas ranked dead last in the percentage of women receiving first-trimester prenatal care in 2006 (just 62%, versus 89% in Massachusetts), and the percentage of women with health insurance (31% had no coverage in 2008-2009, compared to 5% of women in Massachusetts and 20% in the U.S. overall).
Women in the Lone Star state had the third-highest rate of chlamydia infections (12% in 2010, up from 9% in 2007). Nationwide, the chlamydia rate was 7% in 2010, compared to 3% in West Virginia, the state with the lowest infection rate.
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A real gun license
Published August 26, 2012 Commentary , Society Leave a CommentGail Collins writes in Arms and the Duck in the New York Times:
I’ve been kickboxing for ten years. I’m a muscular macho guy in great shape. When I began sparring I had the false confidence of the pro-gun crowd, as well as the oil rig workers in Collins’ article, and got creamed. I could barely last one round.
The first lesson any fighter must learn is to conquer your fear. A combat situation is fundamentally different from any exercise, class, or simulation, including shooting at defenseless animals. It’s biologically impossible to keep your wits about you. The natural adrenaline rush is conducive to running, not effective fighting … not thinking … and absolutely not firing a gun. Be very afraid of those with concealed guns.
Now if you really have to have a License to Kill, there should be a way to qualify where you’re trained and have proven you can be effective under extreme pressure. Perhaps a Marines Boot Camp. With copious live and accurate return fire. That ought to cull the herd.
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