USA is a lovely country, too bad it's inhabited. ;-)
"What is Heaven like? It has everything at its best: delicious food, classy wines, mild climate, superb views from all sides.
A bit like France, but without the French."
(Jeremy Pascall)
My country has lost its damn mind.
The US is vastly better than many parts of the world and we get a disproportionate amount of attention on our ills because we're an economic powerhouse that does many things. The country is a collection of states that each have their boons and drawbacks.
Texas is near (or at) last in public education. Don't make public threats to kill children in a state that might not understand or care about sarcastic context.
According to what metric? They rank in the the top 25% in US News rankings, 14th in Quality Counts rankings, and have one of the highest high school completion rates in the country.
I would imagine that Austin in particular is probably over average compared to much of the rest of the state due to the number of colleges in the area and significant tech sector.
Either way, I find "shut up" to be inhibitive of civil discourse in all but the rarest of situations.