Make Love Dont Tase

I agree with Cung's argument about lowering the volts on tasers used in public school or to not just have them there at all. It really is kind of a drastic measure to pull out a taser and tase someone and giving them significant injuries. It is really kind of a hard way to come up with some alternatives. Maybe having the security guards trained on how to deal with aggressive kids would help also. Either way tasing kids who are so young and not evening knowing how the would react to it is a bad way to solve a problem.

Ghosts Do Exsist!

This is a spin off of my earlier post about have the Texas legislature becoming a full time thing and having our legislators work hard for their money.

This post is about the "ghost votes" that take place during the last couple of days during the legislative session. Ghost voting take place when legislators aren't there to cast their vote but the other legislators take it upon them to do so. Why? Is it as a favor? Is it because they had permission to do so? Or is it because they are taking advantage of the absent law maker?

It all seems fishy and shady right? What happened to "one man one vote" I guess that only counts towards the citizens that are voting in the gerrymandered area. This is all just completely and utterly, for a lack of a better term, fucked up. How do can you sit there and vote at least five or so different times completely taking advantage of the system?

This is why Texas needs to have a full time legislature, if ghost voting takes place and no actions are being taken place to stop it, how is it that our voices are being heard? Not to mention it has a huge impact on what does and doesn't go through to becoming a law. How about we have more voting machines so all our legislators can vote once for themselves and lets have a full time legislature and stop being so shady. MMMMK Texas?

Edumacation

I agree with Mr.Waddell's post that Texas should help out their college students and focus less on the standardized tests. If the Texas Education system focused more on the students wants and needs, it will be able to help us get through our college years without having the trouble of worrying whether we are going to get a job under our degree.

We should adopt more policies that have the students of Texas in mind that way our drop out rates are low and so our education system would stop being the butt of everyone's joke. It would encourage us to go to school and want to stay there knowing we are going to be rewarded in the end for all our hard work doing the right thing. Nobody wants an uneducated fool running the country.

Texas, Y U No Have Time?!

As of right now the Texas Legislature meets only 140 days and at the stroke of midnight on the 140th day everything comes to a stop and all the Legislators call it quits and head back home. What happens if they don't get everything done in that time? Do they call for special sessions, do they pick up where they left off during the next session, or does it all just forgotten about and erased from history?

These are some valid questions that the people need answers to. Why is the legislature session so short? Obviously a lot can't be done in that short amount of time but yet there has been no move to change it or add in some extra time in places? Which can lead to whether or not an important bill is going to pass or not that is going to have a tremendous effect on our Texans, both good and bad.

Not to mention all the craziness that is going on in the Capital during the tail end of the 140 days. All the Legislators look like they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. All of them are stressed out the wazoo with having to close up with their committees and finish voting on bills. But they can't be in two places at once. They either have to be running their committee or voting. And if they can't be there for the committee or to vote then who takes their place?

With more time for our legislators to actually run thing and have a smooth working system they need more then just 140 days to do it all in.

Nuttier than Squirrel Poop

On Juanita Jean's liberal blog webpage, the author had wrote a post on Michele Bachmann and her very insightful opinion on Marriage Equality.

Well it was more like a scrutinizing statement that "gays are bullies" and that they have "bullied the American people and intimidated politicians on their agenda building." Okay first to the crazy lady, um what?! Gays are bullies because they want the same rights as non-same sex couples have? Yeah okay, what century do you live in again? And secondly I just found this post to be absolutely funny because of the her picture in the post.

The post overall is short, sweet, and to the point. But it is also very opinionated and doesn't have much information other then the author bashing Michele. Which really doesn't make it all that great because it just leaves the audience to believe that the author is a very strong Liberal who just doesn't want to hear anything wrong with their views or beliefs.

Sure it is very interesting to read because the author states that Michele has "found her way to the top of the basket of crazies", which is pretty funny because the reader can tell by her use of diction that she is writing toward and for the average person with no educational background on politics, she makes it easy to understand what she is writing on. I think everyone should read this.

2+2= Fish

During one of our class lectures, a student gave a great presentation on how Algebra 2 classes were going to be cut from the standards of graduating high school in Texas. Now many people have different opinions on this like, it will only hurt our students even more with an already poor educational system in Texas. While others think it will boost graduation numbers among high school students. My take on this is with the first opinion, that it will only hurt our students even more with an already horrible education system. But in one opinionated editorial from the Dallas News, lets us know in a clear and well written article why math is important.

In the authors article she states that we need math in  order to help with our critical thinking and that more jobs are having their employees deal with statistics and probability. She understands that many think that math is useless and knowing the quadratic equation won't be used in their life at any point or time. Instead she counters that argument with how learning the basics and knowing how to solve complex problems is what kids really need to get them father in life.

Even though she doesn't name Texas solely I feel like this article is a great point in defending math classes and should be known why Algebra 2 is important to keep in our school system. Personally being one who doesn't like math at all, the author does make the valid point as to why it is such a vital subject in schools.

1,2,3 STRETCH!

      An article posted on the Texas Observer argues that because of Texas strict Medicaid laws many Texans are left uninsured and helpless to find any assistance. The organization, Cover Texas Coalition started a new campaign called, "Texas Left Me Out" in order to have the voices of uninsured Texans heard to local officials. They're main goal is to have law officials see the many citizens that are uninsured in hope that they will expand Medicaid coverage and eligibility.

       Linda Berman, who is one of the many "left out" Texans, explains that "People without insurance don't get preventative care, you don't die of diabetes. You die of complications." The coalition has posted two studies as the estimates for the death toll due to not expanding Medicaid. A Harvard University study/CUNY estimated between 1,840 to 3,035 deaths. Also a separate study conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch projected that 9,000 preventable deaths per year.

       So why can't Texas stretch out its Medicaid law to fit under Obamacare and help narrow the coverage gap? Many people will benefit from this and a lot of lives could be saved. I would like to hear an opposing side to this because this article seemed to talk most about why it should happen and not give a point on why it shouldn't happen.