I Mess With Texas, Part 12

They just make it so bloody easy.

Texas arresting people in bars for being drunk
Wed Mar 22, 6:05 PM ET

Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.

"We feel that the only way we're going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this," she said.

"There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they're intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car," Beck said. "People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

That said, once again music proves smarter, braver and better than the whole rest of the state combined. The redeeming factor for Texas today? The Dallas-formed Dixie Chicks, whose new song will begin playing once you go to the site). "Not Ready To Make Nice" is not just a kick-ass track, it's their raised finger in the air in reference to the 2003 controversy (singer Natalie Maines said on a London stage that she was embarrassed that Shrub was from Texas) that led to their main fanbase turning on them and boycotting their music.

Some lyrics:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

Let's just hope the Chicks don't try to drink in a Texas bar. Because, you know, they might get drunk. And then arrested. And then charged with common sense.