Comment on my colleagues work, "Zero Tolerance Punishment: It Fails... Epicly"

To view the original post by my colleague, [click here]


Ahhh yes, the “punish all” attitude, which is the one thing I never understood. When I was in middle school, we had the “meet the police man who walks the halls” day. He explained that if you fought back to “defend” yourself that you to would get punished and that you should just “call for help”….what the %$#@, how is this logical? Anyhow, I am glad that they are trying to pass a bill to end this nonsense. Fights in schools should be treated the same as any other wrong doing act would be treated/dealt with “in the real world”. Especially with today’s technology, they practically have video cameras everywhere in these schools; it wouldn’t be hard to find out who was the one in the wrong. Overall nice blog post, it’s interesting to see that they actually care about something like this enough to do something about the current situation.

Swine Flu? More Like Whine Flu!

Swine flu this, swine flu that, you better sanitize your hands after you touch something! Be careful you might get swine flu from just reading this. Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for staying healthy and not becoming sick, but the fact is this is not something that should be being blasted all over the media. It scares me when I watch the news and see men wearing surgical masks and women carrying Costco sizes of hand sanitizer in their purses; It is not the swine flu that is scares me, it is the fact that the media has this much control over the American public. This is much bigger than just the swine flu, this is an attempt to see how much control the government has, through the media, to control the average dumb American and, from we have shown them, we must look like mindless lab rats. Please remind me, how many deaths have we had, in the United States, from swine flu? NO, not 150… we have only had 1 reported death “from the swine flu”. Why do I quote “from the swine flu”, because the 23month old, that came from Mexico with his family to visit Brownsville, Texas, who is assumed to have died from Swine flu, actually died from multiple medical health problems. The cause of the child’s death was pneumonia, caused by the flu virus. So with enormous death count /sarcasm, please tell me why we are closing 100’s of schools here, in Texas, when there is no evidence of transmission of the disease within these schools? Like Dennis Perrotta, of the National Center for Emergency Medical Preparedness and Response, Texas A&M Health Science Center, said, "Closing schools and canceling events is useful when there's evidence of transmission ... but if you don't (have that), then what are you preventing?" Let’s face it; it is absolutely ridiculous how everyone is reacting, right now. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning or falling off a building this year than you do of dying from swine flu! Don’t let the mass media pump you full of swine goo, be your own reporter and do your own research!

Hang up and drive?

Today I read a blog post from my colleague, Zack, who believes that Texas should outlaw the use of cell phones while driving a motor vehicle without the use of a headset. I have to respectfully disagree with him on the issue of making it illegal to use a cell phone while driving without a headset. The reason I disagree with him on this is for one, it has already been proven that the use of cell phone headsets does not aid road safety. Also secondly this is just gives police one more reason to pull us over, and write us tickets for. As far as making it harder for teen drivers to achieve a drivers license I do somewhat agree with this part of your blog. I feel like the “test”, not only for teen drivers, but for all drivers should be harder to pass. It is way too easy to achieve a driver’s license in the state of Texas, I am sure you have seen what I am talking about out there on the roads. Overall this was a nice post, but I simply have to disagree with you when it comes to laws against using your cell phone without a headset while driving.

Don't Mess With Texas!

With jobs falling to an all-time low you would think Texas should take any and all money being given out by the government, however, Texas should refuse any federal stimulus money that comes with strings attached, sending that famous message to Washington, “DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS!” Why should Texas reject the stimulus money, because Texas is leading the way in the United States; Texas is No. 1 for job creation, for government transparency online, for having the most Fortune 500 companies, in tort reform, in exports, and in population growth, Texas does not need any help from President Barack Hussein Obama. Texas, along with a couple other states is not facing a large budget deficit due to that fact that our leaders have been careful in spending and because of this our economy has grown. The only thing this stimulus money is going to do is provide short-term relief. Governor Rick Perry has already made it clear that he will reject the $555 million if it comes with federal strings attached. Some members of the Texas Legislature are talking about overriding the governor’s decision, however if I remember correctly this would be a violation of state law and an unconstitutional power-grab. This is just it, the private sector is best at creating wealth and prosperity, particularly when provided with a reasonable regulatory environment, low taxes, and an available workforce, not the Government. Let’s face it; Texans know how to spend our money. Rather than attempting to call the shots in Texas, Congress and the Obama Administration should probably take a page from Texas’ playbook.

Don't get your panties in a knot.

So this evening I read an interesting blog post by, Vince Leibowitz, Capitol Annex’s daily publication’s supervising Editor & Publisher. The article was criticizing SBOE Chair Don McLeroy for “endorsing a new book calling those who support the teaching of evolution, including more than 11,000 members of the clergy, “atheists,” “monsters,” and “morons.”” The book, Sowing Atheism: The National Academy of Sciences’ Sinister Scheme to Teach Our Children They’re Descended from Reptiles, from my point of view, is coming from a biblical stand point. With that said, some of the “offensive insults”, for instance, “Regarding parents who support teaching their children about evolution: What kind of monster parents teach their children that they’re descended from rodents and reptiles?” might not be as offensive as everyone is making them to be. I believe the author is just fed up with all the “hypocritical Christian” parents, calling them, hypocritical Christian” parents, the “monsters” because they think that they can believe in Christianity and evolution, when the two should and can never be combined, if you are a “true Christian” and understand exactly what the Bible teaches. Although I agree with what the book teaches, as far as the principal of not being able to call yourself a “Christian” and believe in evolution, I do not think this book should be used as a school biology book. Instead of having a book simply stating opinions of what one author thinks about people calling themselves Christians and teaching evolution, we should have a book that digs deeper into the background of creationism to help further the views of creation vs. evolution. If this is the reason for criticizing SBOE Chair Don McLeroy for endorsing the new book, strictly because it is not an educative book for furthering creationism, then more power to the criticizers. However, they should not criticize him for viewing the book as being educational toward people who believe you can be a Christian and support evolution, because this book, as far as I can see, is doing a good job of that.

You Choose, Life or Death...

So here I am sitting at Starbucks, on a magical Monday night, sipping on my steaming hot white chocolate mocha when I came across this editorial from the Austin American Statesman. The editorial was about “forcing” future abortionists to view the ultrasound while listening to the heart beat of the unborn child. In a way I kind of disagree with this article and with the writer. I think that it is necessary to show the future abortionists exactly what they are about to do. The writer states in this message, “It is an incredibly invasive requirement forced on women, many already traumatized by an unexpected pregnancy and the decision to have an abortion.” This contradicts what the writer is saying here, “The doctor also must display the ultrasound images and present the printed material, though the bill says the woman doesn't have to look at it.”A pregnant woman may avert her eyes from the ultrasound images required to be provided and reviewed with the pregnant woman." In the article it is stated that this is a humiliating act. “Now comes an intrusive bill mandating that pregnant women seeking an abortion be force-fed information designed to humiliate them.” I don’t believe that they are being humiliated by being presented all this information since they are not technically being forced to look at it. Sure, you can say, “The bill is popular with the anti-abortion activists because the required reading and images puts them right there in the clinic, shaking their collective fingers at the woman. It is an incredibly invasive requirement forced on women, many already traumatized by an unexpected pregnancy and the decision to have an abortion.” Everyone has a different perspective on things, so I don’t believe that they are necessarily pointing the finger at them, but just trying to go that extra mile with this procedure.

P.S. Even though I think that the bill should pass, I do not agree that Texas should still be able to “misinform women that there is the possibility of an increased risk of breast cancer from an induced abortion. Extensive medical research has found no correlation.”

Burn baby burn

As many of you know, in June of last year, during the renovation of the governors “mansion” an arsonist torched the mansion burning it to a crisp. The proposed cost to restore the “mansion” to its original state and renovate it is $27,000,000 (that’s twenty-seven million dollars!). Many ask, “Where are we going to get that kind of money?” Previously, state funding had been requested to pay $25 million while private fundraising was expected to raise the other $2 million dollars. Instead, however, “the chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee suggested, on Tuesday, that the restoration of the fire-gutted historic Texas Governor's Mansion should be paid for with federal stimulus money.” Texas is due to receive $16 billion dollars in federal stimulus funds as part of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion dollar measure signed into law, this past Tuesday. Although it is easier said than done, John Sneed, the State Preservation Board's interim executive director, first has to find out if they can even use the money to do this. I highly recommend you check out the original article for yourself from the Austin American Statesman.