RoyGBiv
08-03-2013, 05:59 PM
I visited the TX State Capitol building in Austin today. As old buildings go, this one is fairly impressive. It's BIG and it's OLD, but it's incredibly well maintained and operated. The campus is beautifully manicured too, and it's barely a mile from the chaos that is UT Austin.
But the best part was that the visitors entrance had a separate CHL line. Show them your CHL and you skip the magnetometers. And the DPS folks seemed genuinely happy to have me.
Walking through the Capitol building I couldn't help but reflect on the differences between places that "get it", and those that don't. Can you imagine carrying a weapon into the Capitol building in Albany NY, or Sacramento, or Chicago?
Nestled among the pierced, tattooed, hippie throwbacks of Austin, there's still a sense of grounded reality keeping watch over all the weirdness (http://www.theaustingrandprix.com/storage/kaw.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1289450951461). Even the political comedy-theater (http://www.esthersfollies.com/) we attended last night on 6th street (https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQplxw66cwO8uidWFj-Hp0l6EwDwXiApACOzXacVwJ9Jwqj21Zz3w) had a right-leaning bias. After 10 years, I might be falling for this State.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6236/3n1g.jpg
But the best part was that the visitors entrance had a separate CHL line. Show them your CHL and you skip the magnetometers. And the DPS folks seemed genuinely happy to have me.
Walking through the Capitol building I couldn't help but reflect on the differences between places that "get it", and those that don't. Can you imagine carrying a weapon into the Capitol building in Albany NY, or Sacramento, or Chicago?
Nestled among the pierced, tattooed, hippie throwbacks of Austin, there's still a sense of grounded reality keeping watch over all the weirdness (http://www.theaustingrandprix.com/storage/kaw.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1289450951461). Even the political comedy-theater (http://www.esthersfollies.com/) we attended last night on 6th street (https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQplxw66cwO8uidWFj-Hp0l6EwDwXiApACOzXacVwJ9Jwqj21Zz3w) had a right-leaning bias. After 10 years, I might be falling for this State.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6236/3n1g.jpg