new thread
I was reading Rokker's post about that school in Texas that wouldn't allow one of it's students to grow out his hair. I also read the article to.
Stuff like this could only happen in Texas. There's something about that state. It's a scary place..it doesn't sound to appealing. I mean, it's overly right-winged conservative to the point of insanity, religious fundamentalism is rampant and longhair discrimination never ceases there. It's a crazy state with crazy people. That is one state I am sure to stay the hell away from.
With this in mind Does it not worry anyone that there is a 50:50 chance that a typical Texan will be running your entire Country for another 4 years?
OK Technically Dubya was born in Conneticut, but he was raised in Texas, worked there in the Oil & Power industry, Was Governor of the State and still calls the place home...
Those of us in Europe are starting to See America as "The United States of Texas" as it appears that the entire foreign policy of the Bush Administration is based around unfound prejudices against people who are different and Oil... very Texan in nature.
OK - I'll move off the soapbox now... and as a footnote... Victor & That Ball Guy seems to cope remarkably well in Texas... maybe we should ask them about the place.
Like me, Victor lives in Austin, where the environment (thanks to the University of Texas), is actually quite liberal, especially by state standards.
That Ball Guy lives somewhere east of Waco, I believe. That area is far more conservative. How are things there, Ball Guy?
Not so bad, I used to attend a Baptist church, and didn't get much flak about my hair. My Junior College on the other hand.. . .
I'm now attending the University of Texas at Tyler (SE of D/FW about 2 hours) and the environment is great. Seen a few long haired guys on campus.
Yes, Texas has its fair share of religious nuts, but you also have plenty of atheistic nuts to balance them out.
That "Ball" Guy
www.thatballguy.com
By the way, although I live in Austin now, I actually started growing my hair past shoulder length in Dallas.
...so, no, I never worry that much about who is 'running' this country.
At the moment, the polls indicate that 'safety & security' is at
the top of the list of things that concern the voter the most.
When you think about it, if you do not have security
everything else in your life could be at risk.
That's why I believe a large percentage of voters is
not interested in changing commanders at this point in history.
And though there may be many people who are not satisfied with
the way some things are being done,
at least they feel safe enough to get on a plane
with the expectation of arriving safely at their destination.
No, I am not worried...
we have no king.
Last time I checked, regardless of a vote count or anything, our current prez was appointed by our supreme nimrods at the big court!
Hmmmmm, interesting.
People say Bush is good at security, yet at the same time think we're no safer now than September 11, 2001.
So where is the security?
We're bogged down in a country we invaded with no legitimate reason. We have HUGE, ENORMOUS, MASSIVE deficits, the biggest in history.
Safe flying planes? Bush was against changes in the airport security system and only grudgingly agreed to make the officers at airports federal employees. Heck, half the people in charge of our "security" at airports are still either very old or very overweight. I don't mean for this to sound negative, but if I'm a terrorist, some 80 year old woman with a guard suit on isn't gonna scare me, folks; and neither is some dude who is 5 foot 6 and 300 pounds!
Turns out the air marshall thing is a farce! Less than 10% of domestic flights have one. Impressive, eh? How about the 20 year old kid who twice brought fake explosives on planes and stashed them in the bathrooms. The stuff was never found, and the kid called the FAA to tell them what he'd done.
Now Bush has cut the FAA's budget by some 14% for next year.
What an impressive record.
Tell me this...if your former CEO left your company with record profits (surplus) and your new guy racked up record debt, would you keep the new guy? What if you had security issues and he basically ignored them? What if he gave contracts to his friend's company without anyone else being able to even bid on the work - and then you found out his friend's company overbilled for work done and billed for work never done?
What if you found out his former employer went bankrupt right after he sold all of his stock?
What if he thought another company was a threat, even though there was no credible evidence to suggest it, and then did a hostile takeover and you found yourself spending billions (far more than he said) because things have gone terribly awry.
Would you still keep him?
I doubt it!
And yet this is what we've gotten from this president! Like Reagan said in 1980 - are you better off now than you were four years ago. The answer has to be not only no, but he// no!
If this is leadership, I don't want it! Give me someone with some intellect. PLEASE! I'm tired of a guy who can't even add 1+1!
Just to add one more American voice--no some of us are NOT at all happy about the prospect of this man being president for another four years. We are not safer. In fact, we seem to be more hated than before. We had a national budget that was in the black for the first time in decades, and in four short years we are running a huge national deficit--and this from a party that is supposed to be fiscally conservative! Ha! And it was a "liberal" democrat who got us out of the red.
Fear is what is running our country, and the current president and his party are masters at capitolizing on fear. As recentlfy as two weeks ago his v-pres. suggested that if Kerry is elected we will be hit with an attack worse than 9/11. Very cheap shot. By the same line of "reasoning if you can call it that, was 9/11 a response to who had just been elected president?
Of course not. That's absurd. Fear is not absurd though. People are afraid, and in order to make ourselves feel better for a minute, our populace is leaning toward a man who uses fear to keep himself in office.
Part of why I wear my hair long is that I do not, nor have I in my entire life, felt any kinship with the status quo. The status quo would have us all cut our hair and "clean up". We frighten them just a tad bit.
Robert
Thanks to Dubya - I don't feel safe... his unilateral approach to foreign policy "vaguely legitismed" by support from Tony Blair of the UK and Jose Maria Aznar of Spain without popular support from the people of the nations they represent, caused 300 innocent people to be killed in Madrid. Over 1000 allied troops to be killed in Irag plus some 11000 civilians in Iraq.
Personally I don't think Bush has made the world a safer place at all...
And as for having a King... well there's a great thing about constitutional monarchies... The Monarch doesn't actually have any political power... there role is principaly ceremonial, so basically, they just drag in the tourists from America.
Sorted
And Saddam Hussein slaughtered half a million of his own people. Let's see....
300 + 1000 + 11000 = 12300.
12300 << 500000.
Quien es mas evil?
Can't we all just get along?
--Rodney King
Not all kings are bad.
Yes, he likely did. How did he do it? WEll, with the weapons we, yes we the United States, provided. Hand delivered by a man you may have heard of, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld. When did this happen? Back in the Reagan years.
We not only provided the weapons, but practically begged him to use them so we could see how effective they were.
There was no outrage over his gassing thousands of people until we found no WMDs in Iraq. We had to legitimize the invasion with something. Anything!
We talk democracy. We talk about getting rid of dictators. Yet we support countries like Pakistan, led by a ruthless dictator. Sure, Musharraf hasn't killed tens of thousands, only hundreds or a couple thousand - thus making him acceptable for the Bushies. He's a kindler, gentler dictator!
I wish we could. If everyone just agreed with me, we would!
No, not all are. But King George is!
I thought ulitmately that the Queen had the right to over rule parliament?
She has the right of veto, but it hasn't been used since Queen Anne
Found this a little while back...
I missed what the Texas nature is. Can you explain? (careful you don't offend any Texans, heheh)
I understand how you feel and why you would think that way. After all, Texas has more churches per capita than any other state in the union, and likely the world. We are indeed a state filled with conservatives. If you want progressive, Texas is certainly not the place to be. Well, outside of Travis county anyway.
On behalf of all Texans, let me be the first to apologize for Dubya. After four years of running this country we can all see why every single business he ran (thanks to daddy) went belly up and bankrupt!
Fortunately, I live in the Austin area (in Travis county) where the environment is much more liberal. I read somewhere that 80% of the county voted Democrat in 2000. Unfortunately, the rest of the state is pretty backwoods and conservative. My long hair here (keeping on topic) has never really been an issue. However, just 70 miles south in San Antonio, it has been. Go down to Harlingen, where this school is, and you can forget about going about your business peacefully with long hair.
Even worse, try driving a car into Mexico and coming back! My former bandmates and I made that mistake once. The border guards can literally tear your car apart looking for contraband (i.e. drugs), and not have to put anything back. It's incredible. They tore the headliner out, emptied the glove box, even took the tires off the rims because there was NO WAY that five longhaired guys would go to Mexico and not bring back something, anything! Well, they found nothing and my friend eventually got the state to pay for the damages - thanks to his congressman - eight months later!
Yeeee hawwwwww, y'all!
LOL! LOL! LOL! LOL!
Excuse me Rokker, but you do not speak on behalf of any Texans besides yourself, certainly not ALL Texans, and most certainly not this one!
The statements you make about conservatives and Christianity are extremely offensive, and I for one am getting sick of it.
Leave the politics alone and talk about hair.
That "Ball" Guy
www.thatballguy.com
This is the typical reply from a conservative and someone who supports our current administration. Rather than a healthy dialogue or a reply to the specifics, one goes off the handle and becomes inflamed.
Tell us what makes Dumbya a good president? The record deficits YOUR CHILDREN will have to take care of? The jobless numbers that while not that bad are not what he claimed they would be? Perhaps being the first leader of this country to actually start a war? Tell me what he's doing right, make a point, don't just fly off the handle like the typical Republican.
State your case, dude. Tell me what Dumbya has accomplished in four years, because I haven't seen anything positive from him.
Texans who were born and raised here all have this "Texas is the greatest state" attitude, when most haven't even been outside the state. Americans in general tend to think we have the greatest country in the world, when in my opinion we don't. Last time I checked, our standard of living was 17th in the world.
I lived in Europe for 13 years and can tell you they have a far better lifestyle than we do. We work 40 hours a week, they work 35. We get two weeks of vacation, they get eight. We get an hour for lunch, if we're lucky. They get two and take very second of it. We have 43 million people who can't see a doctor, they have everyone covered and they can see any doctor they want any time they want to see him. We have women who have to take vacation and sick time to have a child, they get MONTHS of time off with full pay. It's no wonder we die, on average, at a far younger age than they do. It's no wonder we have a far greater number of people with heart disease.
Get educated and learn to think critically and not follow in blind faith. Ignorance may be bliss, but it's still ignorance.
OK. I'm putting on my webmaster's hat not to put a lid to the direction this thread is headed. This thread has the potential for growing boundlessly and off-topic while at the same time putting people at odds with each other. I'd rather not see that happen. I'll set the example and not comment on the subject even though I feel the urge.
Yeah, but we don't have to put up with funny languages, and kilometers! [wink]
The funny thing is that in the TV show "Walker:Texas Ranger" you see quite a few longhair. Admittedly they are mostly Native Americans, but still.
I helped a friend move down to Texas (Loving/Graham area) about 14yrs ago and at that time my hair was fairly long in back. And I must say that the Texans I meet were polite, friendly and gave me no hassles. It always the people you meet that make the opinion. Maybe I was just in a better part of the state.
Well! I happen to like it here myself. As far as it being a religious, fundamentalist or whatever place, I think that you didn't see all of it. It is a really big state with many people, some educated and then.... there is the uncouth. You probably had the pleasure of running into the uncouth part. I see a lot of men/boys come into where I workk and are sporting long hair/earrings (some in both) and no one says anything even if they don't like it.
A famous person once said those that give up liberty for security deserve neither. I think this is on of those times when we have to chant the above slogan until insance conservitives get it.
I have been to Texas about 3 times. My Grandparents live in El Paso.Lived the first 8 years of my life in Lawton OK.
Before I left for Germany when I was 9 we crossed the El Paso Juarez border.
Its a nice state, if you want to keep the long hair bigotry down keep to the biggers cities which are a little more liberal. I think dubya is draggin the Great State of Texas down with him in Infamy. Texas use to be known for its cowboys, and ranch herders. Now its known for being the home state of the worst president in American history since Herbert Hoover, or Lyndon Johnson.
The last American president that lied us into war was Lyndon Johnson. Vietnam last for 13 years. Will Bush's war have the same effect. We shall only see.
I was reading Rokker's post about that school in Texas that wouldn't allow one of it's students to grow out his hair. I also read the article to.
In my opinion, El Paso is more of a hybrid between old Mexico and New Mexico. It has more in common with both of those than it has with the rest of Texas. If someone goes on a trip from El Paso, the most common destinations are Las Cruces, NM, Juarez, Mexico, and Albuquerque, NM.
It is not throroughly New Mexican, though, since I don't believe the state question is pervasive in El Paso like it is in the rest of the state.
Yeah, when I lived in El Paso, I was within walking distance of New Mexico and Chihuahua. I was almost a thousand miles from Texarkana. El Paso and Juarez are so big, though (their population approaches that of all of New Mexico, all of the rest of west Texas, or all of the rest of north central Mexico) that they throw around enough weight to culturally exist as an entity all their own.
When I lived in Las Cruces (just barely beyond the outskirts of metro El Paso), I found they looked towards the rest of New Mexico for their cultural identity. El Pasoans, on the other hand, looked somewhat towards Texas but mostly just around town. And "town" included Juarez. The two cities are separated only by a creek, most El Pasoans speak Spanish, and many have relatives on the other side.
I was there 35 years ago but this sort of thing almost never changes. It gets passed on from generation to generation.
Bill
I moved to Texas from, typically ultra-liberal, California (and have visited 47, of the 50 U.S. States, as well). I haven't noticed any more discrimination against long-haired men in Texas, than elsewhere. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say that it seems to be more accepted, here in Texas (fewer uptight yuppie-types to complain about images).
Funny you mention Texas, San Antonio, Harlingen, The Border, Austin and especially UT. I happen to work at UT in the Engineering dept, no less, lived In San Antonio for year, was born and brought up close to Harlingen (the valley) and would frequent Reynosa (a Mexican border town) a lot. I understand what Rokker is talking about. I go back home to visit family and I get asked when I will get my hair cut, even when i lived in San Antonio and was growing my hair, co-workers and even my previous manager always had a comment about long hair !!! Unfortunately that attitude runs rampant in those cities (McAllen, Mission, Harlingen, Edinburg, La Joya, etc, deep south Texas, that is what is consider “The Valley”) right till you get to Austin.
UT and Austin are great, which by the way last Monday was the first time in 9 months I was able to wear a ponytail, small but a considerable step for me..wwoohoooo. I am wearing one right now…..double woohooo,,,, UT is in my opinion the best place to work at, my bosses could care less how my hair looks and they are as conservative and right wing as they come. Oh and to add to that I step outside the office and I look like a student, I blend in perfectly. I love Austin.
I've recently moved to Texas (from Alaska) to start my Ph.D. -- NOTHING else could convince me to move here.
One thing I've noticed is that there's a LOT less long hair, especially on men, than I'm used to seeing. In Alaska, longhaired men are everywhere, but here it's a rare treat. I'm not sure if it's the weather, the conservatism, or some other factor, but I noticed the lack of long hair pretty much right away.
NOTHING else as in, I meant that moving *away* from Alaska is what I didn't want to do - whether the move be to Texas or Tokyo. My post wasn't meant to be offensive, but I can see that I expressed myself badly. Sorry.
But yes, once I arrived here, I found that I don't like Texas as much as other places I have lived. I can't help it, and I don't think it's reasonable to assume that people are going to like every place equally. I don't happen to like polluted air, hot weather, litter-strewn streets, etc., and that's what I find here.
Mainly, though, since this is a hair board, I lament the scarcity of long-haired men hereabouts. Alaska is also conservative (with pockets of liberals) yet long hair is everywhere. So that's probably not the reason, then. Hot weather? I don't know...
I think its harder to have long hair when you go outside of the cities. I was born and raised in dallas and never really had any problems. But i guess part of the reason I like having long hair is because its different from the norm, but it seems like long hair is becoming more popular, so that means Ive really gottat let it get even longer in order to stand out! I guess I have it a little different then most texans because I live in a bubble, lol, our town actually has a website called http://www.bubblelife.com !
I gotta post some new pics soon. Im finally reaching waist length!
I'm not meaning to flame you in this post, but I do find it to be very offensive. Texas is my homeland, it is where I was born and raised, and all nations/states have their positive and negative qualities. There are plenty of conservative people here, and plenty of liberal people here. Plenty of people who dislike long hair on men, and plenty who don't give a crap. This statement could be made about almost any state in the Union, or any other nation in the world.
That "Ball" Guy
www.thatballguy.com
Sorry, where I live, nobody cares at all about guys with long hair, whether they live in rural or citified areas. Farmers, fishermen, and laborers are as likely to have long hair as city folk.
Not just Texas, but the South is more conservative and religious than the North.
You need to relax.
I love Texas. I was born and raised here, and it is the best state in the U.S. I've lived other places too, like Washington state and California, but it's much easier to get ahead in Texas because salaries are good and costs are low. And yes, there are many conservatives there, myself being one of them and having long hair. I'm even a member of the Young Republicans and my long hair is not an issue. And I certainly hope W gets four more years in the White House.
When it comes to long hair being more of an issue in Texas than other places, I'll agree that it created less attention in California, but as long as it's kept neat and you do your job and act professionally you can keep your hair long and do fine.
