# Come on, Texas.. you're looking REALLY stupid now **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 15, 2005, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102 "2005-08-15T15:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/41 "2005-08-15T17:41:38Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Chill. I’m just saying that I didn’t know that “White Trash” is one of the sacred SDMB cows. Gays, Obesity, Declawing Cats, etc, are all definitely on my “forbidden to mention without a massive landslide of shit” list. I’ll have to add white trash as well. Is it so awful that I chuckle a bit while I do so? Got it. Sorry for the head biting and all. Crappy day here, nothing to do with the boards. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/42 "2005-08-15T17:42:56Z")
Aren’t sacred cows sacred cows? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/43 "2005-08-15T17:44:04Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > The only thing worse than white trash is those gay, fat white trash folks who declaw their cats. Didn’t I see this once in an old in a cross-stitch sampler? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/44 "2005-08-15T17:48:56Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > My take is that at some point along the line the term white trash has become one of those SDMB sacred cows (sort of like fat people, de-clawing cats and a few others). The moment you see it come up, you can count on the thread going south as one person protests, another tries to justify the term and then off we go! So, while I can understand why some folks might object to the term, I was just posting in the hope that we could short-circuit the process. Didn’t we decide in another thread that the proper, PC term is “people of trailer”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/45 "2005-08-15T18:04:28Z")
Sounds like something I might say. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/46 "2005-08-15T18:55:39Z")
I just heard him on the news, and he wasn’t any less incomprehensible than the ghetto-rappin’ blacks, or a guy from “Joisey.” I actually understodd him just fine. Maybe he doesn’t speak with a “Tofu, Sperm, & Rap” accent typical of Californicators; BFD. Neither does the guy from “Joisey.” Does the OP have anything to say about him? Or about the folks from Brooklyn? How about them “furriners,” from India, and Africa, and even wierder places, like Europe? They come over here with their funny accents, and can’t hardly speak a lick of english to start with. Got anything to say about them? Or would that be too “un-PC?” And as far as a response from the NRA goes: why does the NRA have to justify or even respond in any way, shape, or form to this incident? By what right do you demand a response from the NRA, or even any other gun owner, for this incident? Does the NAACP have to respond to or justify the actions of blacks who commit felonies? This guy didn’t even commit a felony (aside form scaring the Secret Service, which is almost as like nowadays), and no one has any right to expect a response from the NRA any more than Sheehan has any right to demand a _personal_ response from the President of the United States for the loss of her son, a grown man, and a _voluntary_ enlistee in the U.S. Army. Our little Republic doesn’t work that way. Oh, she can certainly ask; but the POTUS is under no obligation to justify to individual citizens his actions and decisions while in office. Larry Mattledge is a free citizen, and that means he’s free to kill a fifth of Jack, a case of beer (even something like Keystone :rolleyes: ), and blast away to his heart’s content on his own _private property_, up to the point that no one else is hurt. Is it advisable that he do so, with the POTUS living right next door? Prolly not. Was it reckless of him to do so? We don’t know from the news accounts (he could’ve fired a load of bird shot into a stack of hay bales _away_ from anyone), and the fact that he wasn’t taken into custody for assault, or something like “reckless discharge of a firearm,” kind of mitigates against any argument that he’s a “dangerous lunatic with a gun.” Did he scare some war protestors? Sure. Tough shit. Deal. They can always take their little protest to Washington D.C., a gun-free district (except for the crack dealers, criminal gangs, cops, and political “elite,” of course), and let the elected representatives in Congress see their displeasure at the Iraq situation. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/47 "2005-08-15T19:15:11Z")
“I like to ride my hosses and shoot my gun Seems like a cowboy’s work is never done…” Hank, Jr. When all them protesters come to Mr. Mattlage’s home territory, they should expect some shootin’ and stuff. If they were next to my place I’d shoot, just for the fun of it. I’d have a bottle of Jack next to ol’ Betsy, though, not some horse-piss beer. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/48 "2005-08-15T19:17:51Z")
ExTank. I just have to say: USA! USA! USA! ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/49 "2005-08-15T19:39:37Z")
Maybe the beer was for his horses? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/50 "2005-08-15T19:48:24Z")
**ExTank** , as a gun owner who has purchased supplies on-line, I can say that I get more than my fare share of NRA literature. I was just poking fun at how they like to put on a rosey front on how they aren’t just another single issue group pimping for a patricular (Enter any of a dozen tu quoques here) political party, they are all about RESPONSIBILITY! I highly doubt they’ll make even a peep about this joker, at the risk of offending their base. But if you get their mailers, you know what I’m talking about. Hell, if they DID come out against this guy’s actions, they would actually earn a little of my respect. So much about what he did goes against any training I ever had, that it’s just dumbfounding. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/51 "2005-08-15T20:07:57Z")
What? He fired a gun, on his own property. Nothing wrong with that, I do it all the time. I fire into a hill as a backstop. There’s nothing beyond that hill for several miles but woods, and the occasional grassy clearing. It’s not like he was actually shooting at anyone, just getting their attention, is all. Like I said before, if he was truly dangerous, the Secret Service would’ve moved him already; if he had actually endangered any of the protestors, he would’ve been cited, maybe even arrested. He wasn’t. Nothing to see here, just an uppity city-bred from California trying to demonstrate how cool, hipply urban, and Politically Correct he is to everyone by bashing some white guy in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/52 "2005-08-15T20:10:52Z")
**zuma** (from posting #6 WAY Back on Page One) _If you actually see this guy on the news, it is so shocking to see how ignorant, stupid, and ill-spoken he is, and he lives next door to the president._ Yes, what a stark contrast he is to our suave, urbane, cultured, well-educated, eloquent Commander In Chief. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/53 "2005-08-15T20:17:17Z")
> [@Patty O'Furniture](#): > > “The President tossed his cookies across the street”. I _knew_ that guy was a tosser! ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/54 "2005-08-15T20:18:21Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > …Nothing to see here, just an uppity city-bred from California trying to demonstrate how cool, hipply urban, and Politically Correct he is to everyone by bashing some white guy in Texas. You do know that we have just as many hicks (can I still say that?) here out west as anywhere else in the country, right? You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about California. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/55 "2005-08-15T20:38:51Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > You do know that we have just as many hicks (can I still say that?) here out west as anywhere else in the country, right? You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about California. What gives? I don’t. Just throwing some of asshole’s hate screed back at him (her? it? the mind boggles). Something about “ironic use of negative streotypes to illustrate the fallacy of negative stereotypes.” :dubious: Did I _really_ need to explain that to _you?_ ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/56 "2005-08-15T20:42:03Z")
Here’s a little more [in depth](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165683,00.html) look at the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/57 "2005-08-15T20:43:24Z")
_**[KICK]**_ " That was an attention getter!" [/Sheriff Buford T. Justice] ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/58 "2005-08-15T20:52:25Z")
**ExTank** , how many twitchy conceal/carry folks does it take to take out a drunken hick menacing a crowd by shooting unannounced? At least the moron could have announced that the range was [hot](http://w3.agsfoundation.com/safety/r_range.html). There is nothing in the story to say that he was “firing into a hill as a backstop. Where there’s nothing beyond that hill for several miles but woods, and the occasional grassy clearing”. The only statement I’ve been able to see was from the sherriff, who said he warned that Mattlage can’t just “shoot across the road.” Now I admit that I may be misreading what Sherriff Larry means by this statement. Did he mean that he can’t _do it again_ and he was being given a warning so that he doesn’t repeat his actions, or was he reminding him that it was a no-no? You seem to be reading into his actions some sense of responsible gun handeling. But all the footage and photos I’ve seen show the area to be completely backdrop free, flat as a pancake. Even pretty treeless. And it is clear that he rents out his land to news crews, so did he know exactly their location? And to top it off, he was mixing alcohol and firearms. That, in _all_ of my safety courses, was considered an indefensible sin. Why are you defending this guy? ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/59 "2005-08-15T20:56:13Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > … :dubious: Did I _really_ need to explain that to _you?_ I guess so. I think that you may have been reading more into the OP than I was. For me, firing a shotgun up into the air because some people nearby are annoying you pretty much just lacks class. Now, I don’t know if that makes my uppity or citified or something, but there it is. So, yes, I was asking my question in all sincerity. The whole “California thing” seemed a bit on the random side. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102/60 "2005-08-15T20:56:44Z")
The Fox cite clarifies it a little > [@](#): > > adding that **had** Mattlage shot across the road rather than on his own land, he would have broken state and county laws. (bolding mine) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/come-on-texas-youre-looking-really-stupid-now/317102.md?page=4)