Comments Revisited

I thought I would reposnd to a comment here becuase I had a fair amount to say. The original comment was

"No offense, but the only surprise I'm feeling is that Texas wasn't banning gay marriage earlier. Texas, don't forget, was the state banning consensual sodomy. Y'all might be friendlier than those mean-ass Northeasterners, but you don't have a reputation for open-mindedness.

I'm not necessarily a supporter of rogue judges going off on their own, but you're effectively stating that whatever the majority feels is correct, and I don't agree with that. Especially because the majority of people who are against gay marriage do not have rational reasons for feeling this way.

Sometimes it takes a few rebels to confront a flaw in the system, and consciously flaunt the will of the majority because they know it is wrong."


I think that Texas has a very unfair reputation in the media. While i will grant that we did ban concentual sodomy and can be somewhat non-openminded, Texas also gets sulled as a place where "all bad things happen". The fact is that we were still the 19th state, meaning 18 were before us. Now, while we might be somewhat no open minded, what about Oregon? This is supposedly the great openminded state of the country. The home of the Green Party and the center for the extreme left of the political battles. Yet, they banned it too? Where was the media coverage blasting Oregon that Texas received? Why was Oregon's vote simply dismissed while Texas' was lambasted? It was the same result afterall.

Rouge judges should be disbarred plain and simple. I am not saying that the majority is right, I am simply saying that there is a way to do things. These are called public debates. We have a debate, we have discussion, and we vote. Thats the way democracy works. Rogue judges simply deciding law on a whim is a very dangerous precedent to set. Judges should not be allowed to simply change or create law when they feel like it. That is not their job. Congress(federal and state) make laws, the courts decide whether it is constitional, and the president or governor signs it in. Rogue Judges in essence break this system and that is wrong and they should be disbarred for not doing their job.

I am not debating whether banning gay marraige is right or wrong. My point is this: we must have debate, disccussion, and then we vote. If we do not like the outcome, we can then elect people who feel the same way we do to public office. THIS is the way things should be done: BY THE PEOPLE. The Rogue judges have made the decisions that they do not have the authority to make.

The PC Police Have Sunk to a new Low

I was having an interesting conversation today with many of my coworkers and people thzt I know. It seems that many individuals have chosen to say "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas. I initially wondered why anyone would choose to say happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas? Initially I thought maybe becuase it was becuase people wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. However, for most people that is not what Happy Holidays, really mean.

In essence, the Happy Holidays is to include Hanukkah as another holiday. But the question is why is Hanukkah celebrated as it is? Interestingly enough Hanukkah is considered a minor holiday in the Hebrew calender. It is not considered to be a major event in Israel and only has the pomp and circumstance celebration here in the US. Why is that? It is becuase some Jewish parents did not want their children to miss out on the Christmas day celebrations and found a holiday to have around the same time. That is the essence of Hanukkah.

What about Kwanzaa you ask? Well it was invented in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga for the purpose of giving African American individuals a way to reconnect to their African ancestors. There are a bunch of 7 principals which it is founded on. However, the question is, why is it placed at this point in time? Why not at another time of the year? Again, kids are given small "kwanzaa gifts" so now you mogiht be able to see the connection.

So why is it that we have these two holidays around Christmas? And what if you are not Christian, Jewish, and/or African American? Does that mean you too should have a special holiday as well? Should the Hindus get a whole week as well? Should we give the snake charmers a day? And where or where is the day set aside for the Druids?!

See what I mean, it is getting silly. To create a day just becuase someone else has a holiday is ludacris. If you have specific days in your religious calender go ahead and do so, but creating or making others important is asinine in my book.

And if you don't want to celebrate Christmas then dont. There is nothing that says you have to at all. Nobody is forcing you to do anything Christmas related. If you wish to celebrate in a secular sense go for it. If you are a purist and want to think of it as a religious day: Power to you. So as the days count down, think of ol Big Tex and his wishes to you and yours. They are not happy holiday wishes, since Big Tex does not believe in that Bullshit.

Big Tex wishes you a Merry Christmas! Why? Becuase THATS how I roll...

The Return of Big Tex

So it has been a while since my last post. 28 days actually. Let me tell you what has happened since then. I went through Thanksgiving, midterms, , insane 3 day classes, difficult finals and of course fun times at my internship. Now that the semester is over, I will be heading back to Htown for 10 days.

Before I close out another year I thought it would be interesting to tale a look at the past year and think about all that I have accomplished this year. I figured I would look at 3 big things I have accomplished this year.

1. Working with Schizophrenic, Schizoaffective, Bipolar with psychotic features patients in a long term rehab live in facility. This has to be my biggest accomplishment of the year. This is a group of people that can be very polarizing. Some people run out screaming never to return within a couple of days while others are able to work well with this population group. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to work in this enviornment and I am proud I have done well so far.

2. Keeping myself at a stable weight. Last year I dropped 25 pounds and this year I have managed to keep the weight off. It is interesting to see people who I have not seen for a few years. They hardly expect me to be the new lighter Jim. In fact it inspired some people to refer to me by a new nickname: Slim Jim.(In case you are interested: 165 is my current weight).

3. Doing well in my classes in grad school. My goal has always been to get a couple of graduate degrees and I am really happy in my progress in my classes. I expect to finish my masters in the next few months then hopefully will continue on to get my doctorate. And when I get it, yall will not have to call me Dr. Big Tex, unless you really really want to!

In the next few days, I will wrie down some goals I have for next year and the next few years. If I dont see you before, have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!