Sharing in Texas

We live in schizoid Times, New York edition. It appears that, once again, the Editors don't talk with each other. Texas arrogance has been a bete noir since the days of the first OPEC oil embargo, and Texans' display of the "Let the Yankee Bastards Freeze" bumper stickers. Today, it's "Let the Texas Bastards Desiccate". Look it up.

So, what did the knuckleheads do? In the Business section, they review an encomium to the rebel shits.

Texas's laissez-faire mix of weak government, low taxes and scant regulations is deeply rooted in its 1876 Constitution, which was an attempt to vehemently dismantle an oppressive post-Civil War government of radical reconstructionists. Texas business interests flourished after turn-of-the-century legislators passed an early antitrust law, which kept much of its oil and natural resources squarely under local control.

It's also worth noting that Alaska, too, is socialist when it comes to petro resources: each citizen gets a check from the resource haul.

But over in the Review section, is story about water, or lack of it. And Texas's willingness to beggar its neighbors, whether within the US or outside. All of that Ayn Rand shit doesn't mean much if there's no water. And there isn't.

The implications have finally sunk in among lawmakers and business leaders here, who like to boast about the economic appeal of Texas's low taxes and relaxed regulatory environment: no water equals no business. In a state fabled for its everything-is-bigger mentality, the idea of conserving resources is beginning to take hold. They are even turning sewage into drinking water.

Drink shit and bark at the moon.

Let the bastards die.