[factotum]

Life-long Texan here, and I couldn't disagree more. I grew up in the rural pandhandle area and lived in Amarillo, Austin and Houston. Now, I'm living on the road in an RV, driving across the nation, and I've found many places more beautiful, friendly and accepting than Texas ever was. Texan exceptionalism is a bizarre and subjective phenomenon that I'll never understand.

[scarecrowbob]

I also grew up in the panhandle. The state isn't so bad, but it's also not great.

I don't understand the exceptionalism, either. There are a lot of really nice places in the world, and frankly big chunks of Texas (anything north of San Angelo and west of Abilene) are pretty depressing on social, cultural, and ecological fronts.