Welcome to Texas – it’s a whole other nanny state

If being a conservative means you interject your personal morals and religious beliefs into everyone’s life all the damn time, then count me as a card-carrying liberal.
This is from today’s Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4704365.html
The most annoying and horrifying conservative in Austin is not nut-case radio talk show host/station owner Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston). It is, and always has been, State Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa). He has orchestrated prior legislative moves to defund programs that provide low cost health insurance protection to poor children and other such “pro-family” moves.
But the bill being proposed goes beyond the scope of anything seen before. Now he wants Big Brother to tell you what you have to do PRIOR to getting married and what you have to do prior to getting a divorce.
WAIT! That’s what you have to do in the State of Chisum … wait. And pay more. And wait some more.
No legislator has that right and least of all, a person who solely bases his priorities on his personal religious beliefs that has wants spread (and accepted) by everyone else – regardless of THEIR personal beliefs. Mr. Chisum has already introduced a bill that would have the Bible taught in public schools and used as a textbook … again, dismissing the fact that thousands upon thousands of Texas use something entirely different as the basis of their religious worship.
And Chisum wants the clergy to lecture people on marriage and divorce. Someone explain to me how a priest, who can never marry or allegedly have sex (emphasis on allegedly), counsel anyone about those two areas? Based on any practical experience?
Monetary issues, more than anything, tend to be the root of marital break-ups. That kind of pressure leads to wrong decisions, thus destroying relationships. Add to that list, drugs and alcohol and other problems along those lines. Chisum and his ilk don’t address those problems areas because … oops, that would run into money that conservatives want to horde for themselves under the banner of “tax cuts.”
The problem of spousal abuse is a serious one; steps should be taken to prevent that. Of course, people should never rush into anything, including marriage, without fully realizing the consequences in total.
But for the state to force people into waiting periods, and forced education and counseling, is just wrong! Don’t cloak your blood thirsty desire to convert everyone to one manner of moral thought under the guise of helping the poor. Those people are the least of your concern.
When will people like Warren Chisum learn to stay out of my life and the lives of my friends … and even my enemies. Apparently never and that’s the biggest problem in Texas and the United States.