Amen

That's The Republic of Texas to the rest of America! Texas still retains the Constitutional right to secede from the Union, the only state which may do so without another civil war. My mother was born in the most beautifully named place on earth: Sweetwater, Texas! Texas is more than a place, it's an place in the heart and an attitude.

God must really love Texas....since he made so much of it.......

Damn! I sure as shit cannot say the same thing about New Joisey. MUST REACH ESCAPE VELOCITY SOMEDAY....

Thanks, DJ. As a Texas transplant it's nice to be reminded that Texas is still a special place.

You couldn't have said it better DJ.
We've been doing some looking around
at parts of north east Texas, finding
nothing but friendly folks, great old
fashioned hamburgers, gorgeous country
side (Lake of The Pines), and room,
room, room!
It's a whole 'nother country.

The narrower the profit margin, the greater the volume required.

;)

I still list Texas as one of my favorite countries to have been stationed in.

If they ever close Arizona, Texas will by my second choice.

Texans are a bunch of braggarts who think that their state is superior to not only the other states but to any country in the world.

And I'm proud of that too. ;)

Please, please no one take this the wrong way - I love Texas, my dear wife is from there and all my in-laws live there- but the point could have also been made that there is a Houston in:

Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Tennessee, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Deleware, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, and even in British Columbia and Scotland.

True, P. Bunyan -- but the Houston in Georgia has been trying to get its name changed back to what it was before someone in Atlanta misspelled it.

It used to be "Houseton," and pronounced accordingly.

some folks name their state the same way a convicted sex offender is required to inform his neighbors

(Full disclosure: I grew up in Sacramento)

And our Texas legislature only meets once every two years! Only half the opportunity for mischief and misappropriation. Anybody else think that'd be a good idea the Federal level too?

And Houston is such a miserable place the wind doesn't blow - it sucks. When it sucks at all. Which ain't much at all in the summer.

Now Dallas, on the other hand...

Ahhh Baron, your jealousy shows.

Houston has ZZ Top, Dallas has ... the Dixie Chunks.

Houston has MD Anderson and The Medical Center, Dallas has ... Docmart.

Houston has consulates from 188 countries, Dallas has ... a view of the Oklahoma border.

Houston has Ninfa's, Kim Son, and dozens of authentic BBQ pits, Dallas has ... a Subway sandwich shop.

Houston has gorgeous women, Dallas has ... botox and Silicone implants.

Houston has a opera house, two symphonies, and countless jazz and rock bands. Dallas has ... muzak.

You get the idea. Poor Dallas, it's just a home for wayward yankees who miss NYC but can't figure out how to get back home.

My wife's side of the family is from NYC/Long Island are and here's how they and other New Yorkers pronounce Houston Street in NYC:

"HOUSE-ton Street"

Annoying to this former Texan.

And yes, I do correct them, but in a humorous way.

Houston has an odor - an intermingled olfactory assault of petroleum refineries, a fetid swamp, and the crew's quarters on a turkish freighter. Dallas has...prairie fresh breezes.

Houston has Anna Nicole Smith. Dallas has...Morgan Fairchild.

Houston has Buford Ewing Davis. Dallas has...JR Ewing.

Houston has Enron. Dallas has...Texas Instruments.

Houston has Dean Coryll and Wayne Henley. Dallas has...Bonnie and Clyde.

Houston has contests to see how fast a bead of sweat runs down the back of a fat guy's neck. Dallas has...the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway this weekend, two Indy car races, and a Chase for the Cup race in October, and two NHRA events at the Texas Motorplex.

And the biggie - Dallas has five Super Bowl trophies. Houston has...well, apparently Houston does have a(nother) NFL team. For now.

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

"Houston has an odor" - umm, no you're thinking of Pasadena and Baytown. Dallas, on the other hand sold off its prairies to Tyler for mineral rights back in the 80s.

Houston has NASA. Dallas has toy rockets.

Houston earned its NBA titles. Dallas rented their Super Bowl trophies.

Houston is named for a courageous general. Dallas is named for a Spanish colonist who got sick and died there.

Houston is famous in recent history for helping Katrina refugees. Dallas is famous recently ... well, there was that famous fake rancher on TV some years back.

Businesses move their HQ offices to Houston ... often from Dallas.

Ewe can keep both 'um. Ah perfer San Tone.

Ah'd really perfer Austin, if we cud git awl them dam libruls outta there.

Ahh yes, Austin. Pink-granite capital, pinko-politics, and the rudest college students in the state.

San Antone is nice, though - my sister lives just ouside Rio Medina and she loves it.

Not to mention that San Antonio has the defending NBA World Champion Spurs, the Riverwalk, Sea World, and Fiesta Texas, plus the birthplace of Texas liberty....the Alamo.

And 30 miles up I-35 there is the number one rated waterpark, Schlittebahn (though Galveston has one now as well).

One honor that Houston has is more road construction than any other metropolis; is I-10 ever not under construction in Houston?

The worst city in Texas is by far the best in comparison to anywhere else in this country. Houston is a thriving, metropolitan area. Friendly as all get out. July and August are very hot, but then heaven. ww

Whoa! Texas liberty happened at the battle of San Jacinto which is right here in Houston. Our highways are under construction because so many people want to move here, they are wearing out the streets. ww

Stormin, it's a trick we play on yankees. Someone says they're from New Yawk, we tell 'em just to drive in by way of I-10.

Lots of fun.

Whoa! Texas liberty happened at the battle of San Jacinto which is right here in Houston.

And if Travis, Bowie and Crockett hadn't delayed Santa Anna at the Alamo, San Jacinto wouldn't be the battle it was; it would have been a bloodbath. The Alamo defenders whittled the odds down and allowed Sam Houston to train the army.

Ummm, "delayed"? Stormin, I don't think anyone is doubting the courage of the Alamo defenders, but I don't see how the Alamo "delayed" San Jacinto.

...but I don't see how the Alamo "delayed" San Jacinto.

By Santa Anna stopping to deal with the Alamo, it gave Houston an additional 13 days to prepare the army. It also had the effect of reducing the number of troops that Houston faced at San Jacinto (Santa Anna sending troops to deal with Goliad also helped). Houston's army was about the same number as Santa Anna's at San Jacinto. And more motivated due to the Alamo and Goliad.

"Houston earned its NBA titles."

Um, no, they were obtained fraudulently while Michael Jordan was on hiatus over a trumped up gambling controversy. Otherwise MJ and the Bulls would have eight straight NBA titles on their resumes rather than a pair of three-peats seperated by two asterick-tainted Rockets' titles.

But you've still got that Aeros' title on which you can hang your hat.

Anyone from Texas wanna wax poetic about Del Rio? How about Amarillo?

Naaah, we earned 'em Baron. We didn't have to go steal our coaches from other teams like the MooKids did in fuball. Check the NBA Hall of Fame in a few years, and you might want to notice a certain Center and some others. You wanna see old Cowboys, try the rehab clinics.

I don't want to rub it in, but I do have to say I'm prouder having my city named for a war hero than for a conquistador who succumbed to prolonged diarrhea.

Lake Amistad. Still pristine.
And right out side of Del Rio.

http://www.nps.gov/amis/

DJ, that was great. Very funny. Houston Proud.

The lesser mentioned cities of Del Rio, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Laredo, El Paso, etc. are fine cities. Houston is just big and a happening place. ww

Stormin:

Not to take anything away from the gallant men that died at the Alamo, but they did not slow up Santa Anna's army one day.

The Mexican army needed to stop and rest in San Antonio for two weeks to recover from the effort of crossing the Northern Mexican deserts to get to Texas. They were exhausted from that. The assault on the Alamo marked the day at which the Mexican Army had rested enough to resume their offensive.

It should also be noted that had Santa Anna not been such a showboat, and if Sam Houston had not been wise enough to not execute Santa Anna out of hand, that the Texians could still have lost the Texas War of Independence.

Because General Urrea had decisively beaten a force of Texians near Goliad that was twice the size of the Alamo garrison, and suffered almost no casualties in the process, Santa Anna was worried that Urrea might prove a political rival back at Mexico City. Santa Anna decided to secure his position as top military genius of Mexico by capturing the Revolutionary Texian government. So he lit off after them with about 20% of his army at San Antonio. In the process he managed to get trapped by Sam Houston's army. Surprised (in broad daylight) by the Texians at the san Jacinto, the Mexican army there was destroyed and Santa Anna captured.

Sam Houston traded Santa Anna his life in exchange for Santa Anna recognizing Texas independence and ordering the remaining Mexican army back to Mexico. There were only some 5000 Mexican soldiers still in Texas (including those commanded by Urrea). Houston had maybe 1000.

The Mexican army retreated because it followed Sanata Anna's orders. The Mexican government repudiated Santa Anna's treaty, and ordered the army to return to Texas and reconquer it. By the time the Army got those orders they were almost through the desert going south, and did not want to march back through it again.

Until the railroads came in a big way (in the 1870s and 1880s) the only way to get an army into Texas in good shape was via the Texas coast. The Southern and western frontiers of Texas were protected by desert. Swamp bars the way from the east. To the north are the Great Plains. No navigatable river runs through Texas that does not start in Gulf. Individuals could penetrate those barriers, but an army that depended upon muscle to move its supplies (whether human or baggage animal) could not move enough supplies over the distances involved. Santa Anna came closest -- closer than the Union did in the Civil War -- but ultimately he failed, too.

You get the idea. Poor Dallas, it's just a home for wayward yankees who miss NYC but can't figure out how to get back home.

14. Posted by DJ Drummond

Man, that is Brutal.

I'm a river rat from the lower Rio Grande Valley. Born and raised in Weslaco, Texas (google it if ya don't believe me) It was named after the W.E. Stewart Land Company.
I've been in Virginia for 18 years and still tell folks I'm a Texan. When they hear me speaking Spanish to the hispanos that I work with, their eyes get big.

I'll most likely retire back there when the time comes. I really miss the beach at South Padre Island and the bars on the River south of McAllen.

http://www.dallashistory.org/history/dallas/topics.htm

For Whom Was Dallas Named?

Over the years, there has been a lot of debate about the name Dallas. We know that Dallas County was named for George Mifflin Dallas, vice president of the United States at the time of annexation. However, all that is known about the origin of Dallas for the name of the city is that John Neely Bryan named it for "his friend, Dallas" There are several candidates for whom this friend might be.

The town was known as Dallas early in 1842. At that time, George Dallas was a practicing lawyer in Philadelphia. He had never been very far west, and Bryan had never been very far east, so it's doubtful they ever met. One theory is that the town was named for Commodore Alexander Dallas, a brother of George, who was combating piracy in the Gulf of Mexico. Another theory is that the town was named for Walter Dallas, who fought in San Jacinto, or his brother, James, a former Texas ranger. After the war, they had received land grants in McLennan, Hill, and Burleson counties, which are close enough that Bryan might have know them. Yet another candidate is Joseph Dallas who came to Cedar Springs in 1843, from Arkansas. It is assumed that they knew each other in Arkansas, and Bryan invited his friend to Texas. However, the truth is that no one is sure whom Dallas is named for, and the answer will probably never be discovered.
----------------------------

Hey DJ, did Houston native Dan Rather peddle you that conquistador with the trots story?

How progressive can you get? Dallas may have in fact be cristened as such because of forbidden love. "His friend, Dallas", unless Dallas was a local showgirl this story goes a long way toward explaining how Cedar Spings just happened to end up as the epicenter of Dallas' gay community.

Sure, some people swear a war-mongering white male is a great person for whom to name a city. Pass up the 360* tomahawk dunk for the easy lay-up. Pick a war hero. Bryant chose instead to celebrate a love whose name shant be spoken - in a judgmental time likely at great personal risk of frontier justice. Seems a lot more heroic to me. Pioneers. And in more ways than one, maybe?

Not like those drunken sailors who washed ashore and picked the first name they saw in an 1836 newspaper.

And seriously, the Rockets may have indeed completed the requirements to obtain their trophies. But I don't know anyone outside of Houston who didn't look at those two series and think, "Geez, MJ and the Bulls would bury either one of them by three touchdowns."

They'd think that way because when it comes to team sports all that really matters is football. When the fancy strikes me I can drive about 10 miles and see five Lombardi Trophies. And six this time next year.

And six this time next year.

Only if they ban Jessica Simpson from the stadium...or whoever Tony's next high profile girlfriend will be.

"Touchdowns"? Baron, not all sports begin and end with fuball.

Speakin' of which, you seem very careful not to mention (drum roll) The DYNAMO!!

heh.

And in case you hadn