The Wissy

Video Killed The Radio Star

2006-01-31T07:23:00.000-05:00

"Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies...the whole world has discovered the extent of America's lies and failures and the extent of its savagery in fighting Islam and Muslims...I tell you that Bush and his gang are shedding your blood and wasting your money in frustrated adventures..."

Soros? Chomsky? Pinter? Sheehan? Dean? Daily Kos? MoveOn.org? Code Pink? Nope, these excerpts are from a videotape released by a man named Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command; I will leave you to divine any similarities between the excerpt above and the statements routinely uttered by the people and organizations I listed.

Some quick observations on this latest videotape. First, notice his self-righteous indignation over the fact that what he describes as "innocents" were killed in the Pakistan strike; this coming from the man who helps lead a death cult that glories in the killing of civilians.

Notice his direct address of the American and British people and his encouragement of them to blame Bush and Blair for the deaths of soldiers in Iraq. Zawahiri understands thoroughly how important the American and British people's resolve is in this fight, and he is trying to undermine it.

Finally, he takes comfort in the fact that the U.S. appears to be moving out of Iraq and Afghanistan and points to that as a clear sign that al-Qaeda is winning the war (I wonder if Congressman Murtha has watched the newest videotape?)

There are some other interesting things about this videotape, and I encourage you to read the entire article and draw your own conclusions of its importance.

--Josh

Google Supports Gulags

2006-01-27T07:10:00.000-05:00

Google is now officially helping a communist regime maintain control and actively persecute its dissidents. The regime is, of course, China's, and apparently Google has no problem in prostituting itself to totalitarianism in order to gain access to billions of Chinese consumers. One facet of Google's complicity is their agreement to censor search results (note the Google hack's characterization of the decision as "excruciating"...right). Compare the fruits of their labor:

Google image search-Tiananmen
Google image search in China-Tiananmen
(From Little Green Footballs)

Let's hope there's a severe backlash against Google for this disgusting behavior, although I doubt it.

--Josh

Just Like Solzhenitsyn

2006-01-19T18:38:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! News AP photo (via Little Green Footballs) that describes Osama bin Laden as an "exiled Saudi dissent." I guess the good people at Yahoo! don't know how to spell "pathological mass murderer." Pathetic.

--Josh

Totalitarianism On The March

2006-01-06T18:42:00.000-05:00

A brief recap of how radical muslims have been engaging the world recently: Palestinian children handing out candy in celebration at the news of Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's crippling stroke, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly hoping for Sharon's death, a mother of three suicide bombers explaining how proud she is of them (she is also running for a political position under the Hamas party), the beheading of a high school teacher in Afghanistan, and at least 136 (mostly civilian) deaths in Iraq due to suicide bombings and roadside bombs.

This, of course, doesn't even begin to capture the daily horrors muslim hard-liners perpetrate against women, "infidels" and other minorities as a matter of routine in fundamentalist communities and countries. All of this is the work of our enemies with whom we are at war; this is the type of hate-filled ideology that these people want to impose upon the entire world, not just their corner of it. It would behoove those in power to remember that, and resolve themselves to persecute the war on terror fervently and without half-measures.

--Josh

WE ARE WINNING

2005-12-15T07:15:00.000-05:00

Iraqi police headed to the polls, courtesy of Power Line blog.

Courtesy of the Drudge Report

--Josh

Aren't They Watching The News?

2005-12-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

Iraqis, apparently unaware that they are supposed to be frightened and hopeless, have responded to a poll that attempted to gauge their sentiments on the direction of their country in an overwhelmingly optimistic manner. A sample:

There are positive political signs as well. Three-quarters of Iraqis express confidence in the national elections being held this week, 70 percent approve of the new constitution, and 70 percent — including most people in Sunni and Shiite areas alike — want Iraq to remain a unified country.

Interest in politics has soared.

Preference for a democratic political structure has advanced, to 57 percent of Iraqis, while support for an Islamic state has lost ground, to 14 percent (the rest, 26 percent, chiefly in Sunni Arab areas, favor a "single strong leader.")

Whatever the current problems, 69 percent of Iraqis expect things for the country overall to improve in the next year — a remarkable level of optimism in light of the continuing violence there.

Everyone in the United States should read this article and understand the reason why those who are familiar with the situation on the ground in Iraq are largely hopeful about the progress being made. Were America to surrender now in the face of a murderous ideology every bit as heinous as communism and nazism, she could well go down in history as the first country to quit the field as victory drew inevitably closer.

--Josh

I'll Second That

2005-12-09T18:09:00.000-05:00

Finally, some sensible people in the Democratic party are trying to reign in the mouth that is Howard Dean. As much as it delights me when Dean makes outrageous remarks like the one recently when he claimed the U.S. could not win the Iraq War, seeing as it makes most people realize how silly the fringe anti-war crowd is, it is still outrageous that Dean would see fit to damage the war effort in such a blatant way. I know Dean apologists will instantly muster the defense that dissent can often be a form of patriotism (a sentiment I agree with), but to declare a war hopeless while we're in the very midst of it is not an act of loyal opposition. It is rather an act of bald-faced panic and betrays the anti-war crowd's ignorance of the stakes involved, and their unsuitability for leadership on this issue.

Since everyone is looking for ways to compare Iraq and Vietnam, I will oblige. It is difficult to read a single book by a Vietnam veteran about that war that doesn't at least in passing mention the sense of alienation and loneliness the soldiers felt when they realized America was not united behind them. I can't imagine how utterly demoralizing such a revelation must be; now the soldiers currently fighting have to listen to the chairman of a major political party declare defeat. I can only hope they have the good sense to ignore Howard Dean and his stupid remarks, as most sensible people do.

--Josh

Pinter Pontificates Pointlessly

2005-12-08T18:22:00.000-05:00

The Nobel committee doubtlessly got exactly what it was looking for yesterday from its decision to confer the Nobel prize for literature to Harold Pinter. In his acceptance speech that doubled as a salivating rant against Bush, the U.S., Blair, and England, Pinter managed to attain to the heights of absurd incoherence as well as plumb the depths of despicable character assassination against Bush and Blair. Some lowlights:

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand?...We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East.'

Actually, that would be a much better description of how things were under Saddam before the U.S. arrived (although I guess you could substitute depleted uranium for nerve gas). One really must have a tenuous grasp on reality to actually believe Iraqis were better off under Saddam than the U.S.: the evidence is so overwhelmingly to the contrary that there is little reason to get into it here.

Some more gems: Pinter accused the United States of supporting 'every right wing military dictatorship in the world after World War II, from Chile to the Philippines. Um, but I thought we were bastards for deposing Saddam Hussein...unless he suddenly doesn't rank in the pantheon of military dictatorships.

'The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them,' he said. 'It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.' While in my more bitter moments I might be inclined to believe saving France in both world wars may have been a bit of a blunder, I can't quite bring myself to consider the stopping of the Holocaust a "vicious, remorseless" act.

And finally, I think it's an embarassment to compare Pinter with Alexander Solzhenitsyn as this article did: The Nobel committee has not shied from rewarding writers who make a stand against authority, notably in rewarding the literature prize to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1970. Solzhenitsyn was an actual literary genius and a man who took a stand against totalitarianism that cost him greatly. Pinter may fancy himself such, but he is neither. He is rather pathetic, a moral preener who apparently cares about the suffering of the Iraqi people only if the U.S. can somehow be blamed for it.

--Josh

China: Medal Contender In The Oppression Event

2005-11-18T18:00:00.000-05:00

China is up to its old tricks again and arresting dissidents. This time they've nabbed members of an underground Catholic church; several have been released but a few are still being held.

China is so often included in the ordinary rhythms of global politics, whether it be its participation in summits, trade organizations, or its hosting of the 2008 Olympics, that it is sometimes easy to forget that China is still a totalitarian regime that routinely violates its peoples' basic human rights. One need only to consider the plight of the Falun Gong, or the Tibetan community in exile, or any dissident bloggers to understand how important it is to China's leaders to crush dissent.

Until China ceases its oppressive and often times vicious policies towards dissidents, it must not be afforded the respect and recognition reserved for countries that do not see fit to brutalize their own people.

--Josh

More: Startling article detailing the belief held widely amongst our Asian allies that China could defeat the U.S. in an open war. Several astute comments from Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, explaining his reasoning: 'I believe America cannot win as it has a civic society that must adhere to the value of respecting lives'...he asserted that China would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against Asian and American cities--even at the risk of a massive U.S. retaliation. The governor said the U.S. could not counter a wave of millions of Chinese soldiers prepared to die in any onslaught against U.S. forces. After 2,000 casualties, he said, the U.S. military would be forced to withdraw.

Granted, the Japanese and Chinese have hated each other for hundreds of years so Ishihara may well be exaggerating the threat, yet he is not alone in his opinion. It also seems that most here in the West are fashioning their plans for engagement with China around the belief that it will be forced to grant the political freedom that has historically accompanied economic freedoms of the type now allowed in China. Mr. Ishihara succinctly weighed in on that proposition as well: "I believe such predictions are totally wrong."

Kerry, Gore, Clinton, and Other Hawks

2005-11-15T18:04:00.000-05:00

In the last few days it has been difficult to miss the new offensive the Bush administration has launched against the Iraq war critics' revisionism concerning the alleged manipulation of pre-war intelligence (read: "Bush lied, people died."). In a speech this week Bush chastised Democrats for their duplicity, quoting several high-ranking Democrats who before the war unequivocally voiced their opinion that Saddam had weapons that were a threat to the U.S. Donald Rumsfeld also produced today on CNN an embarassing assortment of similar quotes from Democrats (for more, click here).

This leaves the Dems with a couple of options: they can pretend they were stupid and/or gullible by re-playing the "Bush is a sinister mastermind (yet also a bumbling cowboy)" card. They could try and convince everyone that Bush actually had some sort of a secret, omniscient source (God?) that had informed him there actually was no WMD but that he should go ahead and make the case the rest of the world was making at the time anyways. This asinine piece actually flirts with that particular strategy, suggesting the administration knew more than the legislature because "It could have been (and no doubt was) predicted that very few lawmakers would take the time to read...the National Intelligence Estimate." Even if this assertion that lawmakers wouldn't be able to scrape together the time to read the "nearly 100 pages long" behemoth full of critical intelligence that could help them decide whether they would vote for a war resolution is true, now the legislators' irresponsibility is Bush's fault?

This all would merely be incredibly pathetic were the stakes not so high. It seems self-evident that these false claims can (and more than likely have) hurt the U.S. war effort, contingent as it is upon the resolve of the American people. Playing politics is fine, but not when it is characterized by such overwhelming disingenuousness as we've seen from the anti-war crowd trying to push these claims, and not when it hurts our ability to effectively prosecute the war on terror.

--Josh

Update: The Republican National Committee has created a video montage of bellicose statements directed at Saddam Hussein by Democrats before the Iraq War erupted. Here also is an article revealing then-President Bill Clinton's synopsis of the Iraq situation.

No more retards...

2005-11-10T16:32:00.000-05:00

According to a new study, doctors can now detect Down's Syndrome in babies/fetuses in the crucial first trimester. This is good news, they say, because no woman should be forced to give birth to a retard. Earlier detection is crucial because, as Fergal D. Malone of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin admits:

By the time you're 20 weeks pregnant, most women will be feeling fetal movement. We wouldn't want to underestimate the psychological or emotional difficulty of undergoing pregnancy termination that late...

This article kinda speaks for itself, but here's another choice quote:

Screening women before the second trimester allows those who might opt to terminate a pregnancy to make that decision when doctors say an abortion is safer and less traumatic.

The casual way in which these doctors are applauding abortion as birth control is appalling to say the least. Perhaps "psychological or emotional difficulty" is a sign that something is wrong. One wonders what would happen if doctors started suggesting early abortions for other classes of babies: minorities, homosexuals, southpaws, um, Jews, etc...

- dane

Never Again...Again

2005-11-10T07:22:00.000-05:00

Tragic article here from Hitchens concerning Darfur. It seems the killings have stopped, but only because there really aren't many people left to kill. I guess the anti-war crowd must be happy that the U.S.'s unilateral, imperialistic impulses were averted and diplomacy given a chance to work; I doubt whether the families of the butchered Darfurians are quite as elated.

--Josh

We'll Always Have Paris...Maybe

2005-11-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

The rioting in Paris is showing no signs of abating as mobs continue to move throughout the slums torching cars, throwing rocks and generally causing upheaval. I can't imagine that the French government can be all that surprised by this, the non-integration of its immigrant community, specifically the Muslim population, has been causing concerns for a while now. It is a measure of the unrest that has been brewing that the rioting erupted over such a flimsy pretense: two boys were eloctrocuted to death while hiding in an electrical transformer station after fleeing from the police who may not have even been chasing them in the first place. Somehow the police were blamed for this, and the rioting (which has interestingly been described as "well-organized") commenced. I'll be interested to see if the Parisian peace-lovers might be willing to crack some heads to restore order.

--Josh

Oreos and Uncle Toms

2005-11-02T17:52:00.000-05:00

This is perhaps the most infuriating article I have read for months. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is black, is currently involved in a governor's bid in Maryland; for his pains, his political adversaries have publicly branded him an "Uncle Tom," pelted him with Oreos at speaking events, and caricatured him on a blog as a black-faced minstrel. For those of you familiar with how black Republicans are treated, for such Steele is, you probably aren't surprised that it is Democrats perpetrating these overtly racist acts.

I can't think of a better example of how Democrats cynically manipulate the race card for political leverage. They publicly crucify people at will for straying from the speech codes they have established concerning proper discourse on racial issues; they then engage in flagrantly racist activity and think it's no big deal--in fact, they think it's justified. Why? Because Steele is a conservative, so he deserves what's coming to him.

So where are Democratic defenders of racial tolerance and empathy? Why isn't there an uproar emanating from the Democratic National Committee over blatantly racist attacks on a black public figure? Why is the NAACP MIA? Where are the mass resignations from disgraced Democratic activists? Where are Jesse and Al working themselves into fits of poetic indignation? We are not going to see any of the above, for, as Democratic state Senator Lisa Gladden states, "Party trumps race." I think what she meant to say was that party trumps principle.

--Josh

Update: Two of the top three Maryland Democrats have opted to not condemn the racist attacks on Mr. Steele. I can only imagine the horror they could muster were this an example of Republican bigotry, but since it is black Democratic bigotry, apparently the rules have changed.
Note also how brilliantly the Democratic party has been able to equate being conservative with not quite being black (see the assertion that Clarence Thomas, as a black man, "deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America." This is similar to the argument that woman do not count for diversity's sake unless they have a feminist outlook). What makes this such an achievement is that, one, Republicans are more closely aligned to the majority of mainstream black opinion on social issues; two, it seems their Democratic loyalty is not getting results, the black community's plight is worsening in key areas. As President Bush asked in a speech to the Urban League in 2004, "Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?"

Plus, People Call Him 'Scooter.'

2005-11-01T17:32:00.000-05:00

In an editorial that will probably get the entire staff of the New York Sun black-listed from the cocktail circuit on the Upper East Side, the editors call for a Presidential pardon of Scooter Libby. It seems that such a move would only open Bush to further charges of cronyism, yet, as the Sun contends, if the higher principle of protecting the Presidency from partisan attacks designed strictly to cripple a war-time President is at stake, perhaps it should be considered.

At this point, I would be content with a gag order placed on Joseph Wilson. It has gone beyond tiring to see him don the mantle again and again of the persecuted yet tireless defender of truth against the sinister manipulations of the Bush administration. Both a British and a bipartisan Senate report have concluded that Wilson is essentially a liar and that the intelligence Wilson attempted to discredit after his trip to Niger was, in fact, quite sound. I doubt whether Wilson will remember to mention that fact in his new book detailing his travails.

--Josh

Not to let the facts get in the way of a good story...

2005-10-29T19:03:00.000-04:00

Reuters is reporting that Saddam Hussein accepted a deal to go into exile in order to prevent the war. His offer was rejected, however, by a war-mongering cabal intent on death and destruction. But its not who you think. In fact, Saddam Hussein and the U.S. both tried to avoid war, it was the 22 member Arab League who scuttled the arrangement. This is a new story, and there are more details to come, but it should at least put a new perspective on the idea that the U.S. was intent on war "no matter what"...

- Dane

Hitchens Burning

2005-10-27T17:48:00.000-04:00

Hitch indulges in some justified crowing at the possible impending conviction of his old nemesis, George Galloway. Galloway, of course, is the former British MP who lectured the U.S. Senate during the hearings on the Iraq War (it appears he indulged in some fabrications during his self-righteous scolding); he is also a hero to the anti-war campaign and friend of Syria's Assad regime.

What is most interesting is the list of people who are slowly being exposed for their participation in the Oil-For-Food scandal (I once heard it described as the largest money laundering scheme in history); so far high-ranking officials from the U.N., Britain, France, and Russia have all been implicated or indicted, and this is sure to be only a fraction of the people who were actually involved.

Could all of that opposition to the Iraq War emanating from various countries and the U.N. have possibly been predicated on something other than principle? One would have to be naive indeed to think the millions of dollars dignitaries around the world were receiving as kickbacks from the Oil-For-Food program didn't at least in part inspire their righteous indignation over the Iraq invasion.

--Josh

Yes, it Really is Like That

2005-10-06T18:39:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have had the good fortune of viewing Fernando Meirelles's magnificent The Constant Gardener may have found yourselves wondering, as the final credits rolled, whether the horrific events depicted in the film have any basis in reality. In short, the answer is yes.

Beware--if you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read the review. It doesn't even know the meaning of the word "spoiler," and sums up the movie's plot in its second paragraph. If you're especially sensative to the give away, stop reading right now.

Central to the movie's plot is the nefarious practices of a fictional British pharmaceutical company (KDH), that tests its drugs on unsuspecting Africans. When some of the subjects of the study die, their deaths are covered up. The main action of the film concerns the efforts of Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) to uncover the nasty plot behind his wife Tessa's (Rachel Weisz) death. In short, the problem is this: Tessa has information about the drug companies' nasty practices, and she wants to go public with her report. So she is killed, and Justin (of course) goes after the truth.

Writing about the film in the New York Review of Books, Marcia Angell concludes that it is largely unrealistic--but not in the way you would intially think:

On the basis of the research I did for my book I believe that most of the background facts about drug company behavior in The Constant Gardener, however hard to believe, are correct.

Yet the story is based on the premise that a pharmaceutical company would be so threatened by disclosures of its activities that it would have someone killed. That is what is fantasy. In fact, many of the practices that so horrified [the] heroine are fairly standard and generally well known and accepted. They seldom provoke outrage, let alone murder. A company like KDH would not kill someone like Tessa even if it were willing to do so; it wouldn't have to. Her concerns would have seemed isolated and futile, and the companies would hardly have taken notice of them.

The rest of the article goes on to document a few of the more tame crimes commited by drug companies, and explain why Western pharmaceuticals so often test their drugs in Africa.

This is great reading: well-researched, well-timed, and devastatingly revealing.

--Ted

The New Monasticism

2005-09-26T19:03:00.000-04:00

Wissahickon friend and contributor Shane Claiborne appears on the cover of the latest issue of Christianity Today. In the lead article, Shane, as well as other Eastern-alumni (Chris & Cassie Haw, Jonathan & Leah Wilson-Hartgrove), discusses what is being called "the New Monasticism."

The article reports on a "new crop of Christian intentional communities," and features the Simple Way, the Camden House, and the Rutba House.

It's difficult for me to fully summarize or comment upon the article, since all of its principles are intimately connected with my own recent life. But it demands to be read and commented upon. Give it a read, and let us know what you think, both about the article and its contents.

--Ted

Hyperbolic Revelry

2005-09-26T17:32:00.000-04:00

I'm sure plenty of people have seen this coming if they've been following the Hurricane Katrina news closely. The Times-Picayune has released a story revealing that many journalists' reports on the chaos and devastation in New Orleans in general and the Superdome specifically were greatly exaggerated. Apparently reporters were not doing follow up investigation on the wild rumours they were being fed, and instead rushed to print the most sensational stories emerging from the mess.

In many ways this is wonderful news, being that not nearly as many people actually suffered violent atrocities and death as was so widely reported at first. On the other hand, it is disconcerting that professional journalists were so easily swept up in the hysteria; for all the sanctimonious blathering they have done about the race factor, perhaps their blind willingness to believe the worst of the predominantly black crowds in the Superdome is revealing? Just a thought.

--Josh

Update: Another story about the media's inflated claims. Also, it seemed that although his government crumbled in a heartbeat and many of his policeman abandoned their posts, Mayor Nagin could at least claim that he was on the ground and sticking it out with his people. But the reality is that he actually had no idea what was going on, as he perpetuated many of the wildest rumors on national television...what was he actually doing during this disaster besides giving hysterical interviews?

The Lesser George

2005-09-20T18:59:00.000-04:00

For those of you who missed it, Christopher Hitchens and George Galloway, a British MP, staged a debate last week over the Iraq War. Galloway is passingly famous as the man who went into full school marm mode and scolded the U.S. Senate during hearings over the Iraq War. He is also the man who has openly praised Saddam Hussein, defended terrorists' tactics, and considers himself to be a friend of Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad. Naturally, he is a hero of the anti-war left.

The low point of the debate? When Hitchens asked for a moment of silence to commemorate the Iraqi victims of the latest terrorist attack that had occurred earlier that day; he was promptly jeered and shouted down by the Galloway partisans in the crowd. As the article says, "America, meet your 'antiwar' activists."

--Josh

The August Wissahickon

2005-09-15T01:13:00.000-04:00

The August Wissahickon - POETRY SPECIAL

Features the work of:

Foster Dickson
Ortisegbemi Jakpa
Aryan Kaganof
Ashok Niyogi
Lynn Strongin
Elizabeth Switaj
and AE Woods

Visit today!

There's No Other Reaction: I Simply Must Pity the Fool

2005-09-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

A must see: Mr. T's Rap Video

Yes, Mr. T actually put out a video in 1984, and it's just as bad as you would expect it to be. I know it's hard, but try to stay with it until the end, and watch for the unsuspecting mother who receives a box of Whitman candies from her son.

--Ted

Heat Check

2005-09-12T17:23:00.000-04:00

In an egregious act of overstatement not seen since the Al Gore days, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri of Iran has warned that 'If the U.S. attacks Iran, each of America's states will face a crisis the size of Katrina. The smallest mistake by America in this regard will result in every single state in that country turning into a disaster zone.'

Jazayeri then goes on to explain that the U.S. could never endure a military confrontation with Iran, especially since the Iranian army has gained so much experience from their 1980-1988 war with Iraq. Um, the war that cost an estimated 1.5 million Iranian lives, $350 billion in damages, while the borders of both countries remained unchanged? One wonders if Jazayeri is even cognizant of the fact that the U.S. army dismantled in the space of a few months (twice) the same Iraqi army that fought Iran to a stalemate over the course of eight brutal years. It is no wonder Iran is so desperately trying to build the bomb when they have officers with such a tenuous grasp on military realities like Jazayeri in charge of their conventional forces.

--Josh

Texas nearing refugee capacity, governor says

2005-09-05T10:49:00.000-04:00

Some quick facts...

About Texas:

- Texas is the 2nd largest state in the United States.
- Texas is larger than Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee COMBINED.
- Texas's Gross State Product is around $880 billion USD, the third largest in the United States.
- Texas's Gross State Product is greater than Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee's COMBINED GSP.

About Hurricane Katrina:

- Over 220,000 storm refugees have fled to Texas, totaling less than 1% of Texas's population.
- Katrina's damage estimates vary greatly, some are as low as $9 billion USD, others as high as $100 billion USD. The average, $30 billion USD, is about 3% of Texas's annual state income.