A reminder

C'mon now, this is not the time for cheap shots like this one Scott Thill takes at Austinites who write him in Salon today:

In all seriousness, cultural figures as diverse as Gibby Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jim Hightower, Mars Volta, And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, and many more go a long way toward redeeming Texas in my eyes -- and they've received my undying loyalty, unwavering support and press coverage. But with a Texas-based administration screwing the nation out of the lives of its sucker-punched youth, waist deep in Iraq's Big Muddy -- not to mention trillions of dollars by the time 2008 rolls around -- while sheltering unrepentant punks like Tom DeLay, Clear Channel, Kenneth Lay and countless more, you've got to cut me some slack for calling out the Lone Star faithful as red-state reactionaries.

Many more?! Damn straight, many more! If you're not down with Austin, you are a fucktard, my friends.

And fellow Austinites who want to have a psuedo-secession from The Rest of Texas, I think a reminder is necessary. Yes, it's one thing to call our red-state fellows The Rest of Texas. It's another thing entirely to scrub the Texas out of us. We're only as cool as we are because we're Texans, goddamit! That laid back, iconclastic, eccentricity-tolerant atmosphere bred everyone from Daniel Johnston to Trail of the Dead. Who I would have never fingered for getting famous when I first saw them, since I didn't like them. Of course, when I don't like something, that sometimes is a good signal that they are fixing to go big. After all, I voted against Bush when he was a mere governor. Which is one more reason to appreciate our futile weirdness, since Austinites tried to throw Bush on his ass long before he ran for President.

Austin is Texas, and it's important for people to remember this. Don't let the red voters define what being a Texan is, much less being an American. Sure, Texas is the home of Tom DeLay. It's also the home of this nation's sole hope of getting Tom DeLay out of power, our local D.A., Ronnie Earle.

Alright, alright, alright. It's okay if you don't get the complexity that is Texas. But it'd be a lot cooler if you did.

Edited to add: If you want something more interesting to read than my defensive rants, here's a little slice of life around town. I suggest reading the story involving involving Spike Gillespie, an afterschool book club, and the words "donkey cock". It's a true tale of the sort of thing that makes me never want to leave.