Nutbar Dan Patrick blames god for being a nutbar

Friend Perry, doing yeoman's work serving on the Early Voting Ballot Board in Harris County, lists today a number of items he ethically can't blog about.

But I can! Mostly, per the header, it's about Dan Patrick. But, there's a bit about fracking, too.

First, Danny Boy.

Of course, Danny Boy doesn't admit to being a nutbar, but, he is.

Mother Jones is our first stop on the nutbar as dog's messenger tour.

Here's a few samples, starting here.:

On his first book, actually titled The Second Most Important Book You Will Ever Read: "As the author, I am obviously biased," Patrick wrote in an Amazon review of his own book. But "since God inspired me to write this book," he added, "He automatically gets 5 stars and the CREDIT!'"

Stop blaming god, who doesn't exist anyway, for inflicting dreck on us.

And, the most important book I read wasn't the Bible. That said, it was important enough to be an important part of my deconversion process, with all of its errors, contradictions, misogyny, racism, violence, genocides and more. It led me out of the Lutheran version of fundamentalism, then I moved on from there.

Then here: 

On Duck Dynasty: Patrick tried to raise money off of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson's comments about homosexuality in GQ, boasting that the bearded reality star was channeling another bearded visionary. "This is an exciting time for Christians," he wrote on Facebook. "God is speaking to us from the most unlikely voice, Phil Robertson, about God's Word. God is using pop culture and a highly successful cable TV show to remind us about His teaching."

Really? So, if a successful cable show is the sign of divine inspiration, we should take lessons from Heisenberg and "Breaking Bad," right?

Then this:

On his inspiration for this painting of Christ's face on the Statue of Liberty:In teaching myself how to watercolor I was trying different styles. After a beach scene, I decided to try a Peter Max type of painting of the Statue of Liberty. I could not get the fact right and used water to remove the paint on her face. When it dried and I tried to clean it up suddently [sic] the face of Jesus appeared so clearly. It struck me that Jesus face on the Statue of Liberty sends an incredible message that the real light that our country has sent in the past, and needs to send once again today, is we are a nation that stands on His Word This was only my 4th try at a painting I had no idea of how to paint the face of Jesus, nor was I trying to do so.

Note to The Stinking Anglo Formerly Known as Danny Goeb™. First, as you're probably not aware, Emma Lazarus was a Jewish liberal anarchist. Second, she wanted those "huddled masses" to come here freely.

And, stop blaming god for your artistic crudity, too.

Then, there's this chestnut:

On the separation of church and state: "There is no such thing as separation of church and state."

Well, wrong. Unfortunately, barring the secular equivalent of a miracle, there's no separation of Dan Patrick's ideas about church and the statehouse's Lite Guv position. 

Meanwhile, voters in Denton want to ban fracking. Interesting. Of course, next year's Lege will find a way to take this power away from cities, whether the Denton proposal passes or not.

Is there a measure short of this that is workable?

In a more liberal state than Texas, like, say, Colorado, which also struggles with fracking in urban and suburban areas, yes.

But, we ain't in Colorado, Toto. As long as the EPA pulls its punches on wellhead methane leaks, methane traceable by carbon isotope analysis from fracking appearing in water supplies and more, and the state of Texas willingly encourages the EPA on its punch-pulling, when Greg Abbott's not suing it, a ban seems justified.

At a minimum, cities need to be as restrictive as Dallas.

Speaking of, and to go beyond Perry, I wonder what fracking-friendly Wendy Davis thinks of the Denton measure. I wonder how much she'd squirm if asked.