Good morning,

Big-city mayors want gun control... A state commission is hiring an "equity" consultant... And Dan Patrick slams a Republican House member's attempt at rewriting history.

Speaking of history, I conclude the week reflecting on the silly lengths people go to in ignoring the pivot point of history. 

Here is the Texas Minute for Friday, January 20, 2023 A.D.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Lt. Gov. Patrick Slams 'Blatantly False' Statements By House Republican

• After being accused earlier this week by a Republican lawmaker of helping kill legislation to end child gender mutilation, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is fighting back against the allegations, calling them “irrational” and “blatantly false.” Brandon Waltens has the story.

     
• A recent audio recording from the Texas Capitol caught State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) placing blame on Patrick and the Texas Senate for being part of the reason why the legislation was killed in 2021.
      

• Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi immediately denounced Toth's comments as false, with ample evidence available in news reports and the journals of both the House and Senate.

      
• Patrick issued a statement highlighting the Senate's efforts on the issue.“The Senate passed multiple measures to protect Texas children, but every one of these bills ultimately died in the House.”
     
• “Rep. Toth has a reputation for blaming others to cover up his own shortcomings on getting his bills passed. He pulled the same stunt last session by blaming the Senate and others for his failure to pass his Critical Race Theory bill. In the end, it was the Senate that saved and finally passed that legislation. Rep. Toth’s baseless allegations and misplaced blame have cost him any shred of credibility.” – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

Texas’ Big City Mayors Want More 'Control' Over Citizens

• An alliance of 18 urban and suburban mayors from across Texas is promoting a policy agenda for this year’s legislative session that emphasizes “local control.” As Erin Anderson explains, this is a term often used by elected officials to describe policies that benefit local governments, not local citizens.

     
• Among other things, the big-city mayors want to keep using tax dollars to lobby for laws that are often against taxpayers’ interests. They also want to keep using tax dollars to funnel cash to out-of-state corporations.
     
• They are also calling for "common sense" gun control measures – a euphemism for restricting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

Republicans Adopt Rule to Penalize Members for Walking Out on the Job

• As Darrell Frost reports, Democrats opposed a rule targeting legislative walk-outs – but Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi questions the Republican majority's resolve to enforce it.
     
• The rule is aimed at preventing a Democrat walkout reminiscent of those that occurred at the close of the last regular legislative session and two of the three special sessions that followed. None of the Democrats suffered consequences for thwarting legislative business.
      
• “We have no expectations this rule will be implemented going forward in light of the speaker’s failure to do anything to punish quorum breakers last session and because the monetary penalty is not automatic and requires the speaker to allow a motion,” said Rinaldi, alluding to Speaker Dade Phelan's refusal in 2021 to allow actions against the quorum-busting Democrats. 
      
• State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, who chairs the Democrat caucus in the House, has refused to rule out another quorum bust this legislative session. 

Legislation Requires Notice on Products Made With Fetal Parts

• If a new law proposed in the Senate takes effect, companies doing business in Texas would be required to label cosmetics, food, or medical products containing ingredients derived from aborted human fetal tissue. Soli Rice has the story.
       

• State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood) explains the intent of his legislation is to provide transparency to consumers. “Many Texans are unknowingly consuming products that either contain human fetal parts or were developed using human fetal parts.”

Texas Library Commission to Hire ‘Equity Consultant’

• The Texas Library and Archives Commission is searching for a Library Management and Equity Consultant to help public libraries “implement equitable and inclusive services.” Katy Drollinger reports the agency has a history of promoting critical race theory and other leftist ideologies.

      
• The commission's job posting says they are looking for applicants with experience in “EDIA,” or equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.

📺 Watch The Headline!

On today's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens, Patriot Mobile’s Leigh Wambsganns talks about the Grapevine Police Department bowing to the woke mob over a pizza party. Watch the show now on Texas Scorecard, YouTube, or Rumble.

Friday Reflection: The Common Era

Jesus is a hard guy to get away from…  And the funny thing is that by trying to ignore Him, the cultural and academic elite only highlight their futile struggle.

I was recently reading an historical account of World War II, in which the author made repeated reference not to “1943” but “1943 CE.” The designation “CE,” of course, stands for “Common Era” – an Age of Enlightenment creation of German and French academicians eager to get Jesus out of their day. The author wanted his readers to know he was an academic, and not some Jesus guy.

Let me step back.

There is nothing biblical about using “A.D.” – Anno Domino, Latin for “Year of the Lord” – on the calendar. After all, we don’t equate calling the first month of the year “January” with worship of the Roman god Janus. Even today, the Hebrew calendar uses Anno Mundi – the year of the world – and references back to what they believe to be the first day of Creation. By their reckoning, this isn’t 2023, but rather 5783.

But the centrality of Christianity in Western Civilization has meant that the dating system developed some 500 years after the life of Jesus has taken sway. Our annual dating is based on imprecise work done some two hundred years earlier, when a monk named Dionysius attempted to determine how many years people had been celebrating Easter.

So, while Jesus was most likely born three to seven years before 1 A.D., the calendar itself was nonetheless an honest attempt to set the dating of current events in relation to the birth of the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Whether it is the reign of a monarch or the creation of the world, every culture has set dates based on their perception of significant events. Our own Constitution notes that it was completed on September 17 “in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.”

That is what makes the use of “CE” and “BCE” so laughable. Removing Christ from the dating – literally, in the case of “Before Christ” – isn’t the power move the secularists believe it to be. At best, the vaguely confusing “common era” is an exercise in futility.

Whether one likes the existence of gravity or not, we are nonetheless held to the ground by it. However diligently we ignore its existence, there it remains. The use of “common era” is similarly an attempt to ignore the most pivotal event in human history… even while still using it as such.

The euphemism itself – “common” – demands questions. What is common about the era? Like it or not, the arrival of Christ. What were the years counting down toward prior to this “common era”? Inconveniently, the arrival of Christ.

Shun Him, ignore Him, mock Him… None of it is new to Him. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, the reality of Jesus is not impacted by our common dismissal of Him.

As was written by the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul, if not now, then most definitely in the coming era, “every knee shall bow… and every tongue shall confess.” In that day we will all, in common, recognize Him as Lord.