Is Texas Secession even Possible? Can other States Secede?

Growing up in Texas, I have always been familiar with the idea of Secession.  In school I was taught that Texas had the right to Secede as it was once it's own independent nation (republic).  I was also taught that Texas was the ONLY State that had that right!
Over the last several years, talks of Secession have come about numerous times for a variety of different reasons.  There are those that believe that Texas was never properly admitted into the Union in the first place, and others that think Texas still belongs to Mexico, and others still that just simply don't like the Federal Government.  Then there seem to be a large majority of folks who believe that Secession would be suicide, that the Federal Government wont 'allow' it, that the talk of secession is 'Treason', or that its simply just not 'legal'.
No matter which category you fall into, there seems to be a LOT of misinformation, and a WHOLE lot of questions, out there regarding Secession.
Without getting into the claims that Texas was never properly 'Ratified' (or whatever other terminology you may choose) or the claim that Texas 'still belongs' to Mexico; the fact is that Texas IS a MEMBER of the United States of America today.  With that in mind, lets look at the makeup of the good ol' US of A.  Each State is an individual 'entity' in 'Union' with the other 49.  The United States of America is exactly that, 50 individual and independent States, united through a common interest, goal, and purpose.
The US Constitution was designed lay out the relationship between the States and to limit the power of the Federal Government.  The 10th Amendment states that any powers not expressly granted to the Federal Government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States or the People.
In the interest of staying on track with our discussion of Secession; the question at this point begs to be asked; Is Secession, or withdraw from the Union, prohibited to the States?  Or, conversely, is the ability to refuse withdraw from the Union granted to the Fed?  In both cases the answer is a resounding NO!
Article I, Section 8  (Wiki) is a list of the 18 powers expressly granted to the Federal Government in the Constitution.  Not a single one of them even remotely implies any power over or possession of any or all of the 'several states'.
Article 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution lays out the 6 things that are prohibited to the States.
During the Civil War, the Federal Government stated that the 'Confederacy' could not be a legal entity due to the provision in A1, S10 that States could not enter into Alliance or Confederation, or make a Compact (agreement) with another state.  Do you remember math class?  In math there is an 'order of operations' (PEMDAS).  If you do things out of order you will not get the correct answer.  The same applies here.  While no State that is a member of the Union may enter into a Confederation, no where is said State Prohibited from leaving the Union!  Did you catch that?  The question becomes, did the State leave the Union prior to joining the Confederacy?  Once a State leaves the Union, it is no longer governed by the Union constitution and thus no longer prohibited from joining into any contract or confederation that it so chooses!  So, Assuming that a State first removes itself from the Union (thus becoming completely independent of Union rule), then joins a separate Union (Confederacy), then there is no question of legality of the new Confederacy!  I don't know exactly how it all happened during the Civil War, and this isn't a discussion of History, this is an analysis of current legality; so, moving on...
Given the fact that we have now established that the Federal Government does not have the power to prevent or refuse an individual States decision to remove itself from the Union, and the States individually are not prohibited from leaving; it would appear that any and all States, individually, have the Right to Secede!  What is prohibited is States (collectively) forming an alliance or confederation before Secession.
Now that we have looked at this from the standpoint of the US Constitution, what else could be a factor in this legality?  Well, each State also has it's own Constitution that governs it's people and lays out it's relationship with the other States and the Federal Government.
I will apologize to all Non-Texans now, as I know very little about any individual State's Constitution other than Texas', and quite frankly, being a Texan, I simply don't feel like looking them all up and analyzing them!  However, if you happen to have an analysis of your State's Constitution that would apply here, please feel free to post it in the comments!
Disclaimers over, lets move on to Texas' Constitution and see if it prohibits or even limits our ability to Secede.  It has often been said that the 'Right to Secede' is protected by the Texas Constitution; however, no where in the text of the Texas Constitution is 'Secession' expressly mentioned, nor is it denied!
Article I, Section 1 states that "Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States".  We have already established that the US Constitution does not prohibit us from Secession, and now we have established that we are only subject to the US Constitution itself, and not to the Federal Government, or its various whims of fancy.  So, there is no conflict here.
Section 2 states: " All political power is inherent in the people and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient."  Well, I'll be...  If We the People have the right to 'alter, reform or abolish...' then it would seem to me that We the People can certainly choose to Secede!  I have found no other writing in Texas' Constitution that would prohibit us from removing ourselves from the Union.

Of course, whether technically legal or not, none of this would necessarily prevent the Federal Government from declaring War upon the newly independent State or States as we have seen in History through the Civil War!
There are many practical concerns to be considered before simply saying 'Goodbye' to the Nation that we have been a part of for so long, and becoming once again a Free and Independent Nation or Republic would be a very long and difficult road for sure, which is a discussion for another time.  But the Fact remains, that, YES, Texas CAN Secede if its people so choose, and likely so can any other Independent State of the Union depending upon it's own Constitution. 
Either we are Free or We are Slaves!  I choose to be Free!

Lesser of 2 Evils

    In case you haven't noticed yet, this blog's primary purpose is to encourage an informed public (hopefully) to the end result of getting this Country back to what it was meant to be! All too often these days we hear some variation of the phrase: 'really it's just a question of the lesser of two evils'; or 'voting independent is just the same as a vote for [insert current 'other guy' here]'. Really? Is that really what we have come to? Giving in to the 'lesser of 2 evils'? If it's evil, why would we want it?
    When neither candidate is someone that you really care to support, there is almost always a third choice! I know what you are thinking, 'but there's no chance that an independent can actually win!' Well, if the independent is actually a decent choice, why wouldn't you vote for them? What happened to 'may the best man win'? Why are we so content to settle? Vote your conscious, and let the chips fall where they may. Who knows, if we all vote for someone we truly believe in, that independent may actually have a chance! Even if they don't win, a large enough chunk of people voting independent will at the least shake up the system a little bit and maybe just grab some attention and remind whoever it is that does get elected that they can and will be voted out if they don't pay attention to their boss!
    How much do you actually know about the candidates? Are you planning to vote for one simply because you don't like the other? Are you sure that what you are getting with that vote is actually any better or even any different? Now, don't get me wrong here; I believe that our current administration is purposely and intentionally doing everything within its power (and many things that it does not have the power to do) to destroy this nation! However, I'm afraid that simply voting Obama out of office is simply not enough! Especially not if we replace him with someone who really isn't very different! Just because someone SAYS that they are the answer or opposite of the problem, but can we believe what they say? So, what happens when we get Obama out and we use Romney to replace him? Are you just going to go back to sleep believing that somehow everything is now better? We need to WAKE UP AMERICA!!!! Do some research into who you are planning on voting for and figure out exactly what they DO stand for, and what exactly they plan to do once in office! Romney may be the 'lesser of 2 evils', however he is NOT what this country needs! In fact, if getting him elected is simply going to put the slowly waking sleeping giant back to sleep, then I'd almost rather Obama get re-elected! We, as Americans need to get MAD! Get LOUD! Stand up and VOTE! But don't throw your vote away, cast your vote for someone you actually believe in! Voting independent is NOT throwing your vote away. It is NOT 'voting for the other guy'. It IS a vote AGAINST BOTH of the evils!
    I believe that what we truly need to focus on this election is unseating as many 'incumbents' as possible; then send all the new guys letters stating that the only reason that they got the job was because we were SICK and TIRED of the 'Entrenched BS Politics' of their predecessors and that we REQUIRE of them to listen to their constituents (their BOSSES ie: US!) and that if they don't start seriously working on getting this country back on track, back to the basics of the constitution, and back to being a LIMITED Government that STAYS OUT of our personal and business daily lives that WE WILL REPLACE THEM the next go around and continue to do so until WE have OUR government and Country back!

Homosexuality

Ok, so I should probably start this with a disclaimer…  While I will ‘cite’ any sources that I use, this post is mainly consisting of what I believe to be ‘general knowledge’ and the rest is simply my opinion.

                Before you comment, or bash me for being ‘anti-whatever’, hate mongering, or whatever other drivel you will come up with, make sure that you actually READ ALL of what I have written below!

                I do NOT support ‘gay marriage’!  Big shocker; right?  I believe that homosexuality is simply unnatural.  Regardless of ‘religion’ or spirituality, etc., nature itself is full of ‘male’ and ‘female’ pairs and requires both sides in order to reproduce.  Before you scientists get after me, yes, I know there is some species of frog that can ‘change’ gender if there are no males available or whatever, but, again, that is nature ‘changing’ the gender to make sure that once again there is BOTH genders available to reproduce!  And furthermore, that is some rare species of frog, NOT a human!  As for the spiritual/religious aspect…  Yes, I’m a Christian who believes in the whole Bible.  I also believe that Jesus Christ came to ‘Fulfill’ the Old Testament Law, and therefore many of the ‘rules’ of the Old Testament no longer apply in a New Testament Covenant, so, no, I’m not going to quote the Book of Leviticus for my ‘religious’ reasons against homosexuality.  There are many places in the New Testament that speak against homosexuality.  The good book also tells me to love all people and not to judge others, but rather to speak against their sin and inform them of the Love of Jesus Christ!

                BUT, this is not a spiritual/religious/science/etc debate.  This is a POLITICAL debate.  One of the greatest things about this country is that while it was founded on ‘Christianlike morality’ [no, not on the religion of Christianity, just it’s moral code! ("The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God." –John Adams)], one of the main morals that it was founded upon was the freedom from persecution and the freedom to practice whatever (or no) religion as each individual pleases, SO LONG AS that practice does not infringe on anyone else’s basic human rights!  God has given us ‘Free Will’ to choose Him or the world as we please.  As far as I can see, homosexuality does not infringe on anyone’s basic human rights to life, liberty, and property (Constitution, the ‘pursuit of happiness’ quote is from the declaration of Independence I believe; however, both apply here.)  That said; I cannot persecute someone for being gay, simply because I don’t agree with it!  I don’t like beets either, but I don’t think I’d get very far trying to outlaw them!

                The biggest problem with today’s government is that everyone wants a law for or against every little thing!  This country was also founded on the basis of a limited government principled in the idea that “a government that governs least, governs best”* (Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, however no real source seems to exist except by Henry David Thoreau.).