The parade of horrors continues

It’s been a pretty terrible couple of days, huh? I feel a bit paralyzed and sad and hopeless. I haven’t gotten my workouts in, which usually keep me more level-headed. I’ve simply given in to despair this week.

Ah well!

Steve Toth of Conroe filed HB2258 today: imposing private civil liability on anyone who causes or contributes to the social transitioning of a minor.

My brain is fried, so I found a succinct description:

“The bill establishes private civil liability against any person who causes or contributes to the social transitioning of a minor. The bill defines "social transitioning" as any act by which a child adopts a gender identity different from their biological sex, including changes in clothing, pronouns, hairstyle, or name. It also includes liability for individuals involved in the castration, sterilization, or mutilation of a minor through medical or surgical procedures related to gender transition.”

Toth stated in a video that 80 percent of people de-transition by the age of 24, which is a flat-out lie. The bill allows for someone to sue a counselor or doctor for 20 years beyond the “crime” or whatever you want to call it. This goes so much further than providing gender-affirming healthcare, let’s say you’re a therapist trying to assist a kid suffering from gender dysphoria and you tell them it’s fine for them to dress however they feel comfortable or wear their hair however they’d like. This is such dangerous, awful stuff.

Dan Patrick announced his priority legislation for the Senate yesterday. It’s about what you’d expect, full of culture war nonsense. Here you go:

I don’t know what’s going to happen with the THC stuff. There are dispensaries on every corner now, it’s a booming business with plenty of lobbyists and economic opportunity.

The line on establishing Texas as American’s film capital may seem out of left-field until you read this from the Austin Chronicle:

Patrick started to get interested last session because of his increasingly close friendship with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, leading to the joke that the program should be renamed from TMIIIP to TSIP – the Taylor Sheridan Incentive Program.

At an October hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, speakers including Sheridan and Dennis Quaid muttered obliquely about Hollywood Babylon while lawmakers complained about swearing onscreen and unions on the lot.

So the question is, when Patrick says he wants to make Texas the new Hollywood, does he mean a place where dreams of stardom and big commerce intertwine, or Reliance-Majestic Studios, where notorious racist D.W. Griffith felt safe to churn out his neo-Confederate propaganda?

Even so, some Republicans took to Twitter today to complain about this LIBERAL HOLLYWOOD HANDOUT.

So, who knows.

Measles is BACK and enjoying time in our fair city.

At least four cases of measles, including two involving school-aged children, have been reported in Texas in less than two weeks, putting state health agencies on alert.

For some communities, this is the first case of measles in more than 20 years.

Laura Anton, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the agency sent out an alert to health providers statewide once measles were confirmed to be found in two adult residents in Harris County last week.

The alert stated that both individuals reside in the same household and were unvaccinated against measles. These were the first confirmed cases of measles reported in Texas since 2023, when two were reported.

Consider this along with all of the vaccine freedom bills coming at us this session. Pretty astounding that there are a fair number of healthcare professionals in the lege who peddle this vaccine choice stuff, but a friend of mine went to a new doctor this week with a list of concerns and the doctor responded by asking if she believed in God, so I guess I’ve just been lucky to have good doctors in my life.

Pick-me boy Briscoe Cain continued doing his best to get Daddy’s attention today with HJR128 to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. I hope Trump is proud of our Big Guy!

That’s it for today. I suppose I should take care of myself somehow, but I don’t have the energy.