Good morning,

Modern liberalism is a philosophy that leads to tyranny. That explains why leftists always seem so grim. I close out the week wondering... what's our excuse?

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, August 30, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Paxton Sues Dallas for State Fair Gun Ban

• Earlier this month, organizers of the State Fair announced new safety regulations, including a blanket ban on all firearms—even for those with state-issued licenses to carry. Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately condemned the plan as a violation of state law and threatened to force compliance with legal action. Now, reports Brandon Waltens, Paxton has filed suit.
        
• In a formal warning to the City of Dallas two weeks ago, Paxton argued that licensed gun owners have the right to carry firearms in locations owned or leased by governmental entities unless explicitly restricted by state law. Because Fair Park is owned by Dallas and is leased to the fair, he gave the city 15 days to bring the fair into compliance.
      
• The State Fair's policy also drew backlash from 70 lawmakers, who penned a letter urging the organization to reconsider its position.
      
• Now that Paxton's deadline passed without a change in the policy, the Office of the Attorney General filed suit on Thursday.
      
• "Municipalities cannot nullify state law, nor can they shirk accountability by outsourcing official functions to third parties," said Paxton. "The City of Dallas and the State Fair of Texas cannot infringe upon Texans’ right to self-defense. I warned them fifteen days ago to end their unlawful conduct, and now, we’re going to court."

New Federal Subsidies Skyrocketing for Unreliable Energy Sources

• A new study explains the driving impetus behind the country’s energy transition is the growth in federal subsidies for unreliable energy sources. Luca Cacciatore breaks down the findings.
    
• According to a new Energy Alliance study, subsidies for unreliable energy have skyrocketed this decade. From 2010 to 2019, just over $74 billion was allotted to unreliable energy. By 2029, that number is projected to reach around $245 billion.
       
• The Biden-Harris administration has made dramatically shifting U.S. energy policy over the next decade from reliable to unreliable sources one of their top issues, exemplified by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
      
• “The subsidies are the only reason that wind and solar generation exist in the U.S. on a commercial scale,” said Bill Peacock, who authored the study. “If Americans want to be able to afford travel across their states and country and avoid European—and California—style energy poverty, their only hope is for politicians to end subsidies for renewables and all other forms of energy.”

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Texas Comptroller Issues Study on Housing Affordability Challenges

• As Texans prepare for a discussion of housing affordability in the 2025 legislative session, Adam Cahn details how a new report from the Office of the Comptroller has added fuel to the fire.
        
• The report details how government regulation has diminished the number of units built over the last fifteen years. That is primarily (though not exclusively) because of zoning and land use restrictions and byzantine permitting regimes. As such, housing supply has not kept pace with demand, causing prices to rise.
       
• The affordability crunch has been made worse by the explosive growth in local government spending and property taxes.
      
• If you think the problems caused by the government are bad, just wait until you see their solutions...

RELATED NEWS

‘Rogue Staff’ Broke State DEI Law

• Two Tarrant County College trustees want "rogue staff" held accountable for continuing to mandate leftwing DEI training after a state law banning such requirements went into effect. Valerie Muñoz has the story.
       
• Senate Bill 17 explicitly prohibits mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training in public institutions of higher education. Yet a TCC trustee was told her institution was still mandating such training for faculty and staff.
        
• Reportedly, TCC's chancellor found "rogue staff" were responsible and said such actions would not be tolerated. It is unclear what, if any, punishment was assigned.
      
• Trustee Laura Pritchett has expressed concern that such violations could jeopardize state funding, have negative effects on the college’s enrollment, and compromise its standing in the community.

Fort Worth Mayor Calls on Declining School District to Make Changes

• As the Fort Worth Independent School District contends with students’ failure to meet grade-level standards, the city's mayor has called on the district to make changes. As Emily Medeiros reports, only 35 percent of students in grades three through eight perform at grade level.   
    
• Mayor Mattie Parker is criticizing FWISD for not having "kept pace with our city’s rapid ascent." She wants school officials to develop a "turnaround strategy with measurable outcomes."
       
• Among her recommendations, Parker said the district should set student academic goals and conduct a financial audit.

RELATED NEWS

• The appraisal district previously announced it would freeze valuations at 2025 levels and re-assess them every other year. TASB is worried the plan will stop school districts from automatically generating "millions of dollars" in funding.

Uvalde County’s Gang Crackdown Leads to More Than 30 Arrests

• As part of a multi-year investigation aimed at stunting drug trafficking and violent gang activity in Uvalde County, law enforcement officials have rounded up and detained a group of 33 individuals. Will Biagini reports those detained were members of nearly a dozen gangs, including the Texas Syndicate and the San Antonio Walk Down Gang.
    
• The arrests followed indictments for a variety of state and federal crimes, including illicit drug trafficking, organized criminal activity, and racketeering.

Friday Reflection
Happy Warriors in an Unhappy World

With the passage of time and differences in culture, we often miss the cutting and sometimes subversive humor employed in Scripture. That’s unfortunate for many reasons, not the least of which is that a healthy dose of humor is a good way to combat a fallen world.

Now, let’s be clear: Jesus wasn’t a standup comedian, nor were the ancient prophets performers on “Whose Soul Is It Anyway?” Yet they were effective communicators and didn’t shy away from employing that most dangerous of rhetorical weapons: the wry chuckle.

The problem for us, as one author has put it, is that we, in our very serious faith, don’t want to appear impious by laughing in the presence of the Divine. And there is the practical challenge for us as modern readers of English Bibles translated from Greek, which—in Jesus’ case—had themselves been translated from the spoken Aramaic. We don’t catch the play of words, hear the lilt of the voice, or simply see the smile.

Everyone in earshot got the irony when Jesus said, after viewing a Roman coin bearing the image of the Roman emperor, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” You can easily imagine Jesus smiling as he said this, and every Jew listening would have smiled along with Him. They all knew this basic truth: everyone, including Caesar, was made in God’s image… and everything in creation belonged to God, even Caesar’s coins. A nicely subversive dig at the occupying Romans.

Jesus’ description of the ruling class as the blind leading the blind would have received a knowing chuckle in an era not known for being particularly easy to navigate for the visually impaired. He would sarcastically confront hypocritical religious leaders with the cutting phrase, “Have you not read?” since, of course, their claim to authority was their learned status. 

Very often, Jesus was saying out loud about the country’s rulers what many quietly believed. He compared them to “vipers” and said it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Jerusalem’s political ruling class to make it into heaven. 

On one of the occasions in which Jesus was about to be stoned by those rulers’ sycophants, He not only kept his wits but employed them. He asked His would-be assailants, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

Yes, Jesus got angry—and with good reason. But more often than not, we find Jesus directing that righteous anger into loving action tinged with humor. He was the happy warrior in the battle for the souls of men.

What about you and me? There is no end to the litany of things about which to be angry—but it doesn’t mean we have to be endlessly upset. The issues facing our republic are deadly serious, but that doesn’t mean we always have to be.

I understand why the other side is a grim lot, driven as they are by greed and envy. They’re on the side of slavery and death. They know, deep in their hearts, that the best they can expect if they are wildly successful is to be ruled over by tyrants who will destroy them last. I’d be grim, too.

We, however, should be of good cheer. In the eternal fight, our victory over death has been secured for us by Jesus. We’re now the adopted sons and daughters of the Most High King. In this world, we get the honor of fighting to expand the promise of self-governance and extend liberty. So, we might as well do so with a smile on our faces.

Quote-Unquote

"We’ve made much progress already. So, let us go forth with good cheer and stout hearts—happy warriors out to seize back a country and a world to freedom."

– Ronald Reagan