Talk of secession is heating up again in Texas. I know, I know, many of you are thinking, “Adios, mofos.” I can’t say I blame you. But, there are some of us here behind the curtain of ignorance (otherwise known as the Red, Sabine rivers) that need your prayers.

There’s a part of me that wishes the yahoos could have their own place, call it Yahooville. I’d like to watch them try to get along with one another and with the world. Imagine their dream state: no public education, no science, everyone is armed, and everyone is home schooled to obey their immediate supervisor (parent, boss, secret policeman) and to distrust everyone else.

A white Ford F-250 pick-up rumbled through town, a Confederate rebel flag on a pole behind the cab; on the rear bumper were a pro-life and three Anti-Obama stickers, two of which could not be revealed in a family newspaper.

It wasn’t a lone wolf protest; several cars, trucks, and homes in the area sport similar flags and messages.

Rick Perry and I go back a ways. As a reporter in the 1980s, I covered his undistinguished years in the Texas House. As a staffer to a Democratic lieutenant governor, I sat in meetings with him and watched him getting teased by his colleagues for his vanity. He clearly loves him some Rick Perry. He’s reported to shave his legs. Something about jogging speed. It’s earned him the name, “Nair Do Well,” but maybe shaved legs are de rigueur among the coyote-whacking-while-jogging set.

It looks like South Sudan already has the necessary votes in hand to secede from Sudan and become the planet’s 195th country. Some regions are showing 99% of the vote for secession. What will follow after certification is a five-month process that eventually will lead to independence, no sooner than July. This is a great victory for the South Sudanese people (or whatever name they plan to come up with). But among the many outstanding issues includes the status of the troubled Abyei region.

The Right believes humankind is sorted naturally upon a ladder. The Left believes we walk together upon a bridge. Aparthood, enforced hierarchy and separation, is the goal of the Right.

Talk of secession is so morally repugnant it’s hard to adequately condemn. Secession is a racist code word being used by some Republicans to improve their 2010 chances. They should repudiate it.