Texas Liars Independence Day

I nearly forgot that today is a state holiday:

"On this day in 1836, the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico."

Given the fact that 29.3%(*) of all people living in Texas were born in Mexico, I find this .. uh .. Curious.

I was reading the Bold Types Blog (columnists from the Dallas Managed News) where one of the guys (Josh Benton) is taking flak for inferring that we dispense with having schoolchildren recite the Texas pledge of allegiance:

"Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible."

Hey, I'm with Josh, but 91%(*) of the Texas population would rather send him back to Louisiana for even thinking that The Texas Pledge should be sent to the dung heap of history. Me, I find it a meaningless rote gesture that will have lost its meaning after about three recitations, but you can't tell that to a Texas native, who has it so drilled into her/his brain that it cannot be dislodged by logic.

Later, Josh tried to correct a blog commenter who wrote

"Texas is the only state in the Union that was previously a nation all its own. Texans are particularly proud of that fact."

.. which is an oft-repeated lie (think Hawaii and Vermont). The same commenter babbled on with

"And proud of the fact that ours is the only state flag that can be flown side by side with the US flag."

.. which is ANOTHER lie (see snopes.com)

All this reminds me of the need to Get It Wright Right The First Time. So many times, I've received an email from someone who has forwarded a maltruth .. and cc'ed everyone in his/her Address Book. While I used to be forgiving and only reply to the sender, pointing out the error, I have learned that she/he never sends a retraction .. so I'm now happy to do it for him/her. Let this serve as a warning to any of you who emails me with a pack-o-lies: I WILL respond to Everyone On Your List with the corrected information. This will make you look like a fool to all your friends. This is not my problem: you should have investigated it yourself and decided Not To Forward It.

Jill Wazzabob used to say: "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" which I have morfed into "A lack of fact-checking on your part does not constrict my ability to make you look like the moron you am."[sic]

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(*) I concocted this statistic. To native Texans: that means I "made it up".