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The Lone Star State

Texas (Spanish: Texas or Tejas) is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.

Geographical type: Territory

Latitude: 31° N — Longitude: 100° W

Area: 696,241 km²

ISO 3166-2 code: US-TX

Birthplace of

Steve Chapman, in Brady, on 1954
Dwight D. Eisenhower, David Dwight Eisenhower, in Denison, on 14 Oct 1890
Jacob G. Hornberger, Jacob George Hornberger, in Laredo, on 28 Jan 1950
Lyndon B. Johnson, Lyndon Baines Johnson, in Stonewall, on 27 Aug 1908
Andre Marrou, Andre Verne Marrou, in Nixon, on 4 Dec 1938
Willie Nelson, in Abbott, on 29 Apr 1933
Matt Stone, in Houston, on 26 May 1971
John Varley, in Austin, on 9 Aug 1947
Jimmie Vaughan, in Dallas, on 20 Mar 1951

Home To

Libertarian Party of Texas, Austin

Deathplace of

Michael Badnarik, in San Antonio, on 11 Aug 2022
Norman Borlaug, in Dallas, on 12 Sep 2009
George H. W. Bush, in Houston, on 30 Nov 2018
William Harold Hutt, in Irving, on 19 Jun 1988
Lyndon B. Johnson, in Stonewall, on 22 Jan 1973
John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, on 22 Nov 1963
Jeff Riggenbach, in Houston, on 24 Jan 2021

Web Pages

Michael Badnarik - 2004 Libertarian Presidential Candidate, by Bill Winter
Includes picture, biographical summary and quote
Badnarik announced his campaign for president at a press conference at the state Capitol in Austin, Texas on February 8, 2003 — and promised to work to "light the flames of liberty one heart at a time." ... Before his foray into presidential politics, Badnarik had twice run for office as a Libertarian: In 2002, in a three-way race for the Texas state legislature (District 48), he won 1,075 votes (2.2%). In 2000, in a two-way race in District 47, he won 15,221 votes (16.9%) ... In August 2005, Badnarik announced he would run in 2006 for U.S. House in Texas (10th Congressional District).

Measures of Freedom

Freedom in the 50 States 2015-2016 | Texas | Cato Institute
2014: Overall rank: 28, fiscal policy rank: 10, regulatory policy rank: 27, personal freedom rank: 49, economic freedom rank: 18
LP State-by-State Membership Numbers [PDF], Libertarian Party News, Apr 2006
31 Dec 2005: Number of Members: 1029

Articles

The Liberty Manifesto, by P. J. O'Rourke, 6 May 1993
Remarks at a gala dinner celebrating the opening of the Cato Institute's new headquarters in Washington, DC
And the Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue, why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?
Patriotism along the Southern Border, Part 1, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Freedom Daily, Dec 1998
Discusses patriotism, loyalty to a country, and treason, in the historical context of Texas between 1821 (as a territory of Mexico), 1836 (when it became an independent republic—not recognized by Mexico) and 1846-48 (the Mexican-American War)
Crucial to the history of the people of the Southwest—Mexican, Mexican-American, and Anglo-American—is the story of Texas. In 1822, with the permission of the Mexican government, Stephen F. Austin (for whom the state capital is named) began bringing American immigrants into Texas, which was a territory in the Mexican state of Coahuila. In return for being permitted to settle in Mexico, the colonists were required to become Mexican citizens, swear allegiance to Mexico ... Americans colonists began flooding into Texas, and it wasn't long before American-Mexicans far outnumbered the Mexicans.
Patriotism along the Southern Border, Part 2, by Jacob G. Hornberger, Freedom Daily, Jan 1999
Continues discussing patriotism and treason in the historical context of Mexico and the territories annexed by the U.S. after the Mexican-American War, up to the early 20th century; includes parallels in more modern contexts
In February 1846, the independent nation of Texas was annexed as a state in the United States of America. The citizens of Texas were now American citizens. However, there was one major glitch. Mexico still considered the Texas territory to be part of Mexico. It threatened war over the annexation of Texas, which it refused to recognize ... U.S. President James Polk ... sent the troops into the area now known as Brownsville, which was located at the mouth of the Rio Grande, well within the disputed territory that both Mexico and Texas had claimed since the time of the Texas revolution some 10 years earlier.
The Second Superpower is the Real Fourth Estate, by Kevin Carson, 28 Jun 2013
Explains the term the "Fourth Estate", how the current fourth estate are simply stenographers and who are supplanting them as true journalists, as per James Moore's idea of a "Second Superpower"
Cue in Texas Senator Wendy Davis's filibuster of a bill to severely tighten government restrictions on abortion. The Republican majority, after three challenges ... managed to shut her filibuster down several minutes before midnight ... Nevertheless, the body took a vote and declared the bill passed just before midnight. But wait: ... somebody else saved the official video ... that showed the vote concluding after midnight! And the Republicans were caught altering the time-stamp! And so, it wound up being watched by hundreds of thousands of people on YouTube who deluged the Texas government with outraged complaints.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Texas" as of 5 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.