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Everything’s bigger in Texas, including white lies: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is relying heavily on the “Texas Miracle,” his strong record of job creation during his decade-long tenure in order to paint himself as the right man to lead the U.S. through the ongoing economic downturn. He is also using this growth to trumpet the conservative values of small government and lessened regulation. There’s only one problem: The vast majority of Texas job growth has been of state and federal jobs, or funded via the 2009 stimulus package. Perry’s campaign has said the numbers “speak for themselves.” Indeed they do, and, unlike Perry, they do so correctly.

Revolutionary boiling points: Rebels in Syria and Libya, countries mired in months of social and political turmoil, have made significant inroads against ruling powers recently. In Libya, armed rebels have surrounded the capital city of Tripoli, increasing the likelihood of a NATO-aided military victory against Moammar el-Gadhafi, whereas the regime in Syria is under increased international pressure to relinquish power with President Barack Obama calling for current President Bashar al-Assad to step down. While it is still unclear whether these men will willingly surrender their decades-long holds on power, it is apparent these struggles are close to reaching a conclusion, one way or another.

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Sensibility in the immigration debate: With a 2008 deportation program, designed to alienate and discombobulate arrested illegal immigrants, on the rise and fundraisers for $50,000 to send the SB 1070 case to the Supreme Court, illegal immigration continues to hold the heavyweight belt of hot topics in Arizona. Illegal immigrants are not only drug mules, as Gov. Jan Brewer once alluded to, they’re essentially captured live stock whose human rights are on the auction block.

Cinematic creativity: The ongoing shameful film necromancy continued last week, with remakes of “Conan the Barbarian” and “Fright Night” hitting theaters, along with the newest entry in the ever-so-original “Spy Kids” series. What’s next, a “Smurfs” movie? Oh. Mother smurfer.

Google , minus enthusiasm: Despite a strong start that had hipsters salivating at a viable alternative to the sellouts at Facebook, Google’s foray into the social networking market has ground to a halt faster than a sumo wrestler in a tar pit. Sorry Google, America has spoken, and they love having their personal information sold to advertisers at a tremendous corporate profit. And hipsters liked it before it was cool.