I used to be scornful of facts, now I have a new attitude.

The experience of living in a guest house where the overwhelming majority of guests who come through are from Texas, has been an eye opener for me. Some of these people have 'education', some have made great money in their lifetimes, several were in the so called Peace Corps previously. All are still fighting the Civil War, the Alamo, the last US Presidential Election...all at the same time, all the time. I am talking about all of them (except Tucker, the Texan who doesn't stay here.)

I walk out when the 'discussions' commence. The guys end up having a blast yelling the same side stuff at each other. Fox news in miniature. Facts are utterly irrelevant. The first thing that happens is the "birther" thing. The great constitutional wisdom comes out. The constitution doesn't allow foreign born people to be President. He is a phony. It is a plot to get all our money. We need to arm ourselves more. How many guns can two arms hold at a time? I had never met a real life 'birther!" I thought they were a late night comedy construction. I really did.

One guy asked me if I could stand to listen to the lies on any of the major Networks. I said," No, I listen to Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera. He said he didn't know Al, but Democracy Now! sounds about right. He would shit his pants if he could ever listen to it. The thing is that that they are not prejudiced, they declare this to a man, but the niggers and wetbacks need to be taught a lesson. They are taking over the world. We need smaller government, but many more people on the borders to keep out the intruders. We need to wipe Iran, Syria, and so on, off the face of the earth because they bombed (!) the US on 9/11. Facts are not the thing. Birth control freely given is communist, abortion is a sin, in every instance. What's a poor woman to do? But it doesn't really matter because if you're a Christian, you will not only be saved, but you know who else will be saved when the end times come. Nifty package. You know all this stuff, but I tell you thaat it is shocking to hear it from real people's mouths.

It is no longer nuts blathering on Fox or preachers on the hustle for power. It is real people. I can understand how messed up the old time Republicans must be about the GOP. It doesn't resemble anything I grew up thinking of as conservative. George Bush 11 was the perfect transition guy for this transformation of the GOP. He had the blue blood background (Andover, Yale, and so on-- summers in Maine, Connecticut Yankee grandparents and then the Texas thing and the evangelical transformation.

People talk about Texas leaving the Union, I think it is a done deal.