What troubles me is that Natalie Maines said she was ashamed to be from the same state as President Bush. That is disturbing, for a number of reasons. It ought to be possible to maintain minimum respect for a president during wartime, even if you disagree with his policies. To heap scorn upon your president in front of foreign nationals is egregious. But that’s not the end of it. For all the changes since the civil-rights struggle, I think the south is still burdened with a bit of an inferiority complex. The idea that someone would be ashamed of being from Texas, because of something all Texans can be deservedly proud of–that the president is from their state–is an insult to Texas, and an insult to the south. (I’m nothing but a Yankee, but you can feel the insult to the south.)