4. Gun owning and toting. This too, for me, was a major perk to behold. I had indeed found my tribe. Yeah, I had landed within a group of people who love guns, who buy guns (many of them of various calibers, gauges, types and actions), who use guns, who tote guns and who make zero apologies for the aforementioned. They understand the 2nd amendment and relish in what it affords them as citizens and sportsmen. Ka-Pow.

5. Very pleasant. A crazy thing that I noticed that was different to my South Florida surroundings was how friendly everyone was. How weird. I didn’t hear people yelling and screaming because the barista at Starbucks put one 1/8th of an inch too much foam on their skinny cappuccino. I did not see the middle finger flying with more regularity than a ferret turns its head. Where I live in Miami, I have an acquaintance that has used his middle finger so much it is actually shorter and thinner than all their other fingers. (There should be a tax write off for that somewhere.)

While in Texas, I heard things like “please,” and “thank you,” and “yes, sir” and “yes, ma’am” . . . not just coming from octogenarians of yesteryear either, but from (believe it or not) peers and teens. Teens of all people! Yeah, the young people there were not some sneering, chip on their shoulder, 5o cent wannabes who are ready with an F-bomb if you happen to look at them for a nanosecond.

6. Military honoring and terrorist hating. The Texan brethren I had the good fortune to hunt with also had in tow an utter disdain for all Islamic miscreants who wish us ill. And you know what else was cool? They were up-front and didn’t try to sterilize their contempt and their wishes for death to all those who would try to derail the American dream for them, their children and their children’s children.

One last thing that struck me, while hunting in Texas, was the many young soldiers I saw at the airport. These young warriors @ DFW walked with heads held high and were greeted and thanked by the many Texans who saw them cruising through the airport. B-e-a-u-tiful.

Compared to South Florida, Texas was weird, in a good way. To be honest, I have been severely tempted to move back. However, I kind of think I might lose my edge if I left the whacky waste places of zany South Florida. Who knows? What I do know is that I’m proud to be from Texas, proud to know such people and proud to be a red neck rather than a pink, yellow or no neck, rootless and feckless, secularist regressive.

* Logon to ClashRadio.com for Doug’s interview with author Mark Steyn, as they discuss his new book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. Also, Giles’ 3-Minute video blog can be viewed at ClashRadio.com and can be seen throughout the week on NRB TV [Direct TV Channel 378]. His latest book, Bulldog Attitude: Get it or Get Left Behind, can be purchased at Amazon.com.