Following the late great Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, Texas has developed a notorious reputation for electing governors who have no real business presiding over anything more important than a pie-eating contest. George W. Bush and Rick Perry were, at the end of the day, the same guy: nauseously conservative and each one battling it out to join Sarah Palin as several of the dumbest former governors ever to have occupied a state capital.

Then along came Greg Abbott.

Abbott, the current governor of Texas, is not necessarily a Perry- or Bush-style idiot in the traditional sense; and, frankly, his conservatism isn’t actually his most disturbing character trait, though his conservatism is awful, to be sure. (For example, last month, Abbott signed an anti-choice bill into law making it impossible to get an abortion without proof of age and identity.) The most disturbing thing about Abbott is that he’s missing a part inside his lizard brain that weeds out crazy conspiracy theories for the fiction they are. This glitch also has led him to pal around with some nefariously fringe characters along the way.

In the most recent example of both, Abbott last week vetoed a mental health bill passed by his fellow conservatives in the state legislature, and he did so apparently at the request of the nation’s most infamous cult.

Senate Bill 359 would have allowed hospitals to detain for evaluation potentially dangerous patients for several hours. In this relatively short window, doctors would’ve had the latitude to bring in law enforcement officials to decide whether the patient in question were potentially dangerous, either to himself or others. The Dallas Morning News called it a “common-sense measure,” one supported by two of the most prominent Texas medical associations, including the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians. But Abbott insisted the law was unconstitutional, since it gave doctors similar authority as law enforcement in these cases — even if four hours in a hospital to make sure a mentally disturbed patient isn’t going to do something drastic is a far cry from an extraordinary rendition to Guantanamo.

The truth, according to the Texas Tribune, is that Abbott likely vetoed the bill after being lobbied by a group called the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. In addition to its opposition to fluoridation of drinking water, the CCHR also believes that Big Pharma controls everything and everyone. (Red flags, anyone?) Back in 2005, the CCHR opened a museum called “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death,” which links modern psychiatry to Hilter and other villains. The group also alleged that the 9/11 attacks were spearheaded not by Osama Bin Laden, but by his psychiatrist. It all smacks of the Alex Jones worldview, in which chemtrails, weather weapons and shapeshifting lizard people from outer space are plotting to get us.

Oh, and one more thing. The CCHR is a tax exempt organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology. (In other words, Greg Abbott killed SB359 at the request of intergalactic warlord Xenu.) Especially following the groundbreaking HBO documentary “Going Clear,” Scientology has deservedly been scrutinized as a creepy, powerful, deeply exploitative cult led by megalomaniac David Miscavige. Abbott apparently didn’t see the film, or if he did, he clearly wasn’t disturbed, like most of us were, by bizarre and coercive tactics of this tax dodge thinly disguised as a “religion.”