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Odd, strange, or bizarre news stories: Texas Edition

 
 
Reply Fri 8 Nov, 2013 08:17 am
Because Panzade didn't want to start up a new thread:
panzade wrote:

Texas rivals Florida for bizarre but there's no thread so I'll dump this here....


As a great philosopher once wrote:
Quote:
I cannot believe a thread of this nature has not been started before. If you read an off-the-wall or truly odd news story, there is an excellent chance it's out of Florida Texas.

Feel free to deposit them here.


I'll start things off!
An Abstinence-Only Class In Texas Suggests Students Who Have Sex Are Like Chewed Up Gum And Used Toothbrushes
http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/an-abstinence-only-class-in-texas-suggests-students-who-have

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Type: Discussion • Score: 4 • Views: 4,314 • Replies: 16

 
edgarblythe
 
  2  
Reply Fri 8 Nov, 2013 10:23 pm
White guy wins after leading voters to believe he’s black

HOUSTON -- Dave Wilson chuckles as he talks about his unorthodox political campaign.
"I'd always said it was a long shot," Wilson says. "No, I didn't expect to win."
Still, he figured he'd have fun running, because he was fed up with what he called "all the shenanigans" at the Houston Community College System. As a conservative white Republican running in a district whose voters are overwhelmingly black Democrats, the odds seemed overwhelmingly against him.
Then he came up with an idea, an advertising strategy that his opponent found "disgusting." If a white guy didn't have a chance in a mostly African-American district, Wilson would lead voters to think he's black.
And it apparently worked. In one of the biggest political upsets in Houston politics this election season, Wilson -- an anti-gay activist and former fringe candidate for mayor -- emerged as the surprise winner over 24-year incumbent Bruce Austin. His razor thin margin of victory, only 26 votes, was almost certainly influenced by his racially tinged campaign.
"Every time a politician talks, he's out there deceiving voters," he says.
Wilson, a gleeful political troublemaker, printed direct mail pieces strongly implying that he's black. His fliers were decorated with photographs of smiling African-American faces -- which he readily admits he just lifted off websites -- and captioned with the words "Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson."
One of his mailers said he was "Endorsed by Ron Wilson," which longtime Houston voters might easily interpret as a statement of support from a former state representative of the same name who's also African-American. Fine print beneath the headline says "Ron Wilson and Dave Wilson are cousins," a reference to one of Wilson's relatives living in Iowa.
"He's a nice cousin," Wilson says, suppressing a laugh. "We played baseball in high school together. And he's endorsed me."
Austin tried to answer the mailer with his own fliers showing Wilson's face, calling him a "right-wing hate monger" and saying he "advocated bringing back chain gangs to clean highways." But the campaign clearly caught him off guard.
"I don't think it's good," he said. "I don't think it's good for both democracy and the whole concept of fair play. But that was not his intent, apparently."
Just how much a role Wilson's mailers played in the campaign is unclear. Other incumbents running for re-election were forced into runoffs, perhaps because the community college system has come under intense criticism for insider business deals and spending money on overseas initiatives. And after 24 years in office, Austin's name should have been somewhat familiar to his constituents.
"I suspect it's more than just race," says Bob Stein, the Rice University political scientist and KHOU analyst. "The Houston Community College was under some criticism for bad performance. And others on the board also had very serious challenges."
Austin has said he plans to ask for a recount. But in an era of electronic voting, political analysts said Wilson's victory will probably hold and send him into office for a six-year term.
0 Replies
 
panzade
 
  3  
Reply Sun 10 Nov, 2013 12:14 pm
@tsarstepan,
Great philosopher indeed!
I'm planning similar threads for Tico in Arizona, jespah in Mass, and Miller in Maryland.
0 Replies
 
tsarstepan
 
  2  
Reply Mon 25 Nov, 2013 12:00 pm
4 Signs It’s Winter And You’re Texan
http://www.buzzfeed.com/janeclaireh/14-signs-its-winter-and-youre-texan-cqtr
0 Replies
 
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 11 Dec, 2013 01:06 pm
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 16 May, 2014 10:46 am
Quote:
[DW:] Texas is the US federal state which passes the most death penalties. Why is that?
[Kathryn Kase, Executive Director of the Texas Defender Service:]Some of that is our history. And our history is that we are very afraid of African Amercans and Hispanics. They are overrepresented on our death row. Texas has shown a tendency to kill those it doesn't understand, whether it was Mexicans during the Mexican-American war and African Americans after the Civil War. And our death penalty is unfortunately an extension of our history.
Source
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Fri 16 May, 2014 10:56 am
@Walter Hinteler,
The Hispanic community could set the agenda in Texas politics, if only they would vote. They are vastly unrepresented at the polls.
panzade
 
  1  
Reply Fri 16 May, 2014 11:38 am
@edgarblythe,
Are they afraid to vote? Why is that?
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Fri 16 May, 2014 11:43 am
@panzade,
I can't speak for them. I don't know if they fear retribution, or if they just don't believe voting will do any good.
0 Replies
 
panzade
 
  2  
Reply Fri 16 May, 2014 12:22 pm
Perhaps immigration issues will force a larger turnout, or a rising young Latino political star will come along and galvanize Texas voters. Its only a matter of time before Texas becomes a swing state.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 6 Jun, 2014 02:19 pm
The Texas Republican Party is considering endorsing psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight:

Texas GOP To Consider “Reparative Therapy” For Gays
Quote:
FORT WORTH (June 6, 2014) The Texas Republican Party would endorse psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight under a new platform advancing at the group's state convention on which delegates will vote Saturday.

The anti-gay language, which is partly aimed at rebuking laws in two states that ban so-called "reparative therapy" on minors, survived a key vote late Thursday at the Texas Republican Convention and will be up for final consideration Saturday.
panzade
 
  1  
Reply Fri 6 Jun, 2014 02:57 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
Great Caesar's Ghost!
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sun 8 Jun, 2014 06:16 am
@panzade,
Of course the Texas Republican Party has endorsed ‘reparative therapy’ for gay people.
Texas Republicans endorse ‘reparative therapy’ for gays
Quote:
One influential tea party group called Texas Eagle Forum had urged the party to support psychological treatments that seek to turn gay people straight. It comes after Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last fall signed a law banning such therapies on minors, and California has a similar law.

The Fort Worth Convention Hall cheered when party leaders announced that Christie finished a distant 11th in a 2016 presidential straw poll.
[...]
Under the new plank, the Texas GOP recognizes “the legitimacy and efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual lifestyle.”
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 9 Nov, 2022 10:38 am
@Walter Hinteler,
8 years later and nothing ODD happened in Texas? Seems fishy to me.

Odd and quite painful to the students who this happened to.
Dozens of SAT tests have been lost after flying out of an El Paso UPS truck
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 9 Nov, 2022 01:54 pm
@tsarstepan,
Actually, it is a bit unsettling to hear about anything flying out of a UPS truck
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Wed 9 Nov, 2022 02:14 pm
It's so commonplace we just take it in stride. After all, when the pandemic first started, Dan Patrick urged old people to seek out the virus and die for the sake of the economy. Zoom Right over our heads. He got reelected yesterday. We're too stupid to understand bizarre.
0 Replies
 
tsarstepan
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Mar, 2023 01:00 pm
Quote:
It was tiny when it left the zoo and nearly 8 feet long when it returned: A Texas woman says she got an alligator from a zoo some 20 years ago, and has been raising it in her backyard ever since.

The woman, who lives in Caldwell County in central Texas, told Texas Parks and Wildlife officials that she treated the alligator as a pet, naming it Tewa. Authorities did not release the woman's name.

It's not clear whether the large reptile came when it was called. But, Texas Game Warden Joann Garza-Mayberry told NPR, "The gator was compliant with her as she had raised it since a hatchling."

It was Garza-Mayberry who first spotted the unlikely pet last month. Videos from the scene show the gator was living in a fenced-in area with an artificial pond — the type of water feature often found in a landscaped garden.


A Texas woman raised an alligator as a pet for 20 years. Now it's been seized
0 Replies
 
 

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