Critique Blog

Catalina, my collegue recently wrote a blog explaining Teachers salarys needing to be raised. (http://springgov3.blogspot.com/2009/05/teachers-need-urgent-salary-raise.html)
Catalina raised many good points. For one the amount of education neccessary to become a teacher, a BA bachelors. Also she mentions that these teachers are not only educator but sometimes mentors to these kids, which may I remind you is Americas future. Catalina says these teachers are not babysitters simply educators and need to be paid accordingly. I might disagree I think in a way a lot of them ARE babysitters and make no mistake thats no fault of their own, these teachers sometimes are resorting to babysitting because the lack of parenting skills at home, and gives the teachers much more to handle. Catalina explains the avg salary for teachers in Texas is 45k/year while in CA it's 65k/yr. My argument would be the reason for that is simply the cost of living in CA is much higher.

Either way I agree with Catalina these teachers need to be paid for the tiem and effort they put in. Teachers spend many hours after school tutoring kids, wanting them to succeed for the sake of none other than the child. I think the starting salary with should be around 50K/yr But with incentives according to their overall performances on some sort of regulated test i.e. TAKS/TAAS whatever they are calling it these days.

First 100 Days

Recently President Obama reached his first one hundred days in office and every news outlet was out to grade his performance. Obama has stuck hope in the hearts of millions to get us out of these difficult times we are facing, so lets take a look on how his critics have graded him thus far.
The right is offended about how he has dealt with foreign relations, literally bowing to the Saudi king, smiling and handshaking with Venezuelan socialist dictator Hugo Chavez and (figuratively) scraping to the Russians, the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Palestinians, the Cubans and the Europeans. Also how he has changed views on "harsh interrogations" opening the door to possible future prosecutions by the Justice Department. Lastly Obama’s budget would raise taxes by $1.4-trillion over ten years and would double the national debt to over $15-trillion. Like I said these are criticisms mostly from the right wing, while a lot of left wing believes it has been one of the most productive one hundred days since FDR. Personally though I cant give Obama a grade yet, its just going to take time to see if his legislation is the answer to our problems. I know the first hundred days is a benchmark for the presidency but Obama was put in a very hard position and I just cant put a grade on some of the huge legislation that was passed thats going to take years to actually make an impact on us.

Evolution Theory

My colleague recently wrote a blog titled "If I had kids, I wouldn't trust them to Texas" (http://jtstexasstatestuff.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-i-had-kids-i-wouldnt-trust-them-to.html

In this blog JT explains the Evolution theory, and that she would not want to put her kids in Texas schools because of religion being forced on them. JT first goes over the physical evidence of evolution and quickly dismisses religion almost as wishful thinking/hoping. Then she analyzes the foundation of Christianity, the bible and how after thousands of years of hand written copies the translations must have been heavily misconstrued.

I actually do not have a problem with JT's view on evolution and for that matter the bible. I personally am a Christian so my personal response to JT and other millions out there with the same view is that why couldn't God have created evolution? Bare with me here for a second. He's omniscience right, so wouldn't he have known how evolution was going to play out? Thousands of years pass by him in the blink of an eye, thus leading to humans. I try not to get too caught up in the evolution debate because most people are set in their ways and its just a topic to stir people up. As far as JT's thoughts religion in schools I think people should have a choice, for the most part I think they do. Lets face it America seems to be "deChristianizing" more and more every day the public schools are becoming more and more politically correct therefore taking out any hints of religion. I personally don't care much for the PC BS, but thats why there are private schools for parents who want their children to be brought up in a Christian environment. Now funding for those schools is a whole different topic of debate.

Abortion-Ultrasound BIll

Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged lawmakers in the state legislature to adopt a bill that would allow women to see an ultrasound of their unborn child prior to having an abortion. Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, and Rep. Frank Corte Jr., a San Antonio Republican, are the main legislators sponsoring the bill. In 2007, the state Senate approved the bill and it stalled in the House.Patrick told reporters after Perry's address that his support is “music to these conservative ears.”


I know this is a very touchy subject with many Americans, but I like this bill. I like this bill because it not only gives the mother have another "hoop to jump through" but to be able to see there is actually a living human being inside her body, and that maybe it is closer to killing someone that she previously thought. Who knows the bill could make women think a little harder before "pulling the trigger" and putting that miracle in someone elses hands that would love to raise him/her. If this bill helps one women change her mind about abortion I think its done its job, and I'm very confident that can happen.


That is obviously the pros to the bill. I like to be fair and give both sides of the story, but opposition to this bill simply states that letting women see an ultrasound of their baby jeopardizes their health. My question is, how? Are we talking mental health? I'm not sure thats a very sturdy leg to stand on. Simply weigh the pros and cons, and you should see this is a great bill. There are more than seventy four thousand abortions in Texas annually and legislatures are hoping this bill as well as others in the legislature is considering will greatly reduce that figure.

The Myth of 90 Percent

The Myth of 90 Percent is a editorial from Texas Fred's blog page. The blog is explaining that there has been a myth going around that some liberals and anti gun activist love to throw out there whenever possible. The whole myth is simply stating that 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States. The anti gun activists and some liberals heard this and just repeat it as if it were fact. It sort of took a somewhat of a snowball effect one person heard and never questioned the fact and people kept repeating it for the sake of their arguments against Americans owning guns. For example

– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

– CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

– California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: “It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors … come from the United States.”

The fact of the matter is that the people have been a bit misled by the myth. The initial report of the "90 percent myth" was indeed stated by the ATF's assistant director of field operations, but the thing that is misleading is he was reporting on traced weapons. "But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S." "Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

I think it goes without saying I agree with TexasFred, these skewed numbers really need to be heard. Unfortunately much of the news is liberally bias so I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.

Texas Gun Control

There have always been those who disagree with the way that our national, state and local governments are run. One such disagreement centers around the opinion that state legislators often spend their time focusing on issue that are not as pertinent as other situations facing their governing jurisdictions and the people affected by such issues. The Texas State Senate has been spending their time debating a new gun control law. According to the article “Bothersome racket is just Texas Legislature firing blanks” which was published in the Editorial section of the Austin-American Statesman on Saturday March 21, 2009, the State Senate is simply wasting their time on the issue.

The article seeks to illuminate light on the Senate’s decision to debate legislature that would allow employees to carry firearms with them in their vehicles to their place of employment. Employers are concerned that such legislation would make it more difficult for them to keep their businesses and employees safe. While this is an interesting debate and a tricky piece of gun control legislation, myself as well as the authors of the article believe that there are much more pressing issues at hand.

The authors put their concerns, which echo my own, into a concrete argument by stating that a “governance discussion” about gun control “is a time-consuming luxury that Texas legislators facing economic crisis can ill afford.” Simply put it is not a pertinent issue to spend time debating upon when our economy, both locally and nation-wide is struggling and Americans are in need of help and assurance. It is not acceptable for our tax dollars and our elected officials’ time to be spent analyzing a very minute piece of a gun control issue which is insignificant in terms of how many Texans will be affected by the outcome.

Our government needs to be focusing on how to reverse the downward spiral that our economy is taking in order to restore the public’s faith in government. Us as Americans need help with an economy that is forcing us to change the way we live. Unemployment rates are phenomenally high while the dollar is losing its strength by the day. It does not put the minds of Texans at ease to learn that the people we hve elected to help us are spending time with tedious issues when so much more could be done to help turn the economic situation in our state around.

Journalist sheild law

Many different laws affect how crimes are tried in court in Texas. When new laws are proposed that will have an impact on how court cases are able to be tried they are often heavily scrutinized. Over the past few years one such proposed law that deals with the confidentiality of sources has been placed in front of the Texas State Senate and House to be debated and voted on. The law being proposed would give Texas reporters more options when dealing with information given to them by confidential sources. The new law would allow “whistle blowers" to come forward,without giving up their right to remain anonymous “and to protect news organizations from being used as an alternate to investigation by prosecutors.” In an article published in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram this issue is discussed and points made by both sides of the argument are given. The article is unbiased and gives an honest and informative look at the issue and how it is being addressed. The article can be found on the Web at http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1234450.html and is titled “Texas House committee looks at journalist shield law.” While the law is still in the process of being debated and voted on, this article gives the reader the most recent and accurate information on the issue available.