My comment on Lorena's Blog (again, teeheehee)

Here is the comment I left on the best blog in the whole wide world.

Lorena! My favorite blog.

I was learning about this a couple weeks ago in my Social Work class. Isn't it insane?? The fact that things like this go on for so long without getting any attention blows my mind. How is it that no one talks about it? Why aren't we protesting out in the streets? Who knows.

And those links! Really good idea. So helpful.

I'm glad you chose this a a topic, because whichever side of the immigration argument you are on, this is important.

There are children being held in a place that is not meant for them, and could very well mean it isn't safe. This is not about politics anymore, this is about the livelihood of those who cannot care for themselves.

I share your frustration. Hopefully you got a few more of our classmates interested.

Good work girl!!!

Let us all get one thing straight. People don’t just all of a sudden snap and start killing other human beings.

I was reading a college's blog of mine, and she said the following

“I think it is especially dangerous in colleges what with stress out, sleep deprived, coffee driven people trying to go about their day and let’s say a student is having an especially hard day what’s to say they won’t shoot out an entire class room.”

I am sorry, but if your reasoning is that someone is tired and drinking too much coffee and overall having a bad day, that all will add up to a mass shooting… I just, Ah, I can’t. That is NOT what drives someone to kill.

NOOOooo… no no no.

There will always be a portion of every population that has mental issues. Whether that be that they have extreme anger, they’re a complete psychopath, or anything in between.

If Texas was smart, we would implement a nicely laid out process to be able to own a gun. Which would include a psychological evaluation to make sure people who are unstable to not have access to an obvious tool for murder.

There are those who shoot for sport. But if we really think about, guns are produced to kill. That's it. That is their job. And if we take away everyone's guns, how will we defend ourselves when that coffee driven, sleep deprived, stressed out mofo starts shooting up my spanish II class.

Ok, that was insensitive.  

But at the end of the day. That argument doesn’t fly. Your average joe doesn’t commit mass murder. But there are unstable people out there who are giving out warning signs like free samples of kung pow chicken from the food court at your local mall, and we all pay no attention until something goes wrong.

But the hope would be that with the open carry laws we have, someone would be able to stop that person faster.

But I also have to agree on the idea that guns are scary. We use them to kill our brothers and sisters every day. The reality is though, they aren’t going anywhere, so we truly need to come up with a solution that touches on more than just a background check.

Open Carry Laws

Let us all get one thing straight. People don’t just all of a sudden snap and start killing other human beings.

I was reading a college's blog of mine, and she said the following

“I think it is especially dangerous in colleges what with stress out, sleep deprived, coffee driven people trying to go about their day and let’s say a student is having an especially hard day what’s to say they won’t shoot out an entire class room.”

I am sorry, but if your reasoning is that someone is tired and drinking too much coffee and overall having a bad day, that all will add up to a mass shooting… I just, Ah, I can’t. That is NOT what drives someone to kill.

NOOOooo… no no no.

There will always be a portion of every population that has mental issues. Whether that be that they have extreme anger, they’re a complete psychopath, or anything in between.

If Texas was smart, we would implement a nicely laid out process to be able to own a gun. Which would include a psychological evaluation to make sure people who are unstable to not have access to an obvious tool for murder.

There are those who shoot for sport. But if we really think about, guns are produced to kill. That's it. That is their job. And if we take away everyone's guns, how will we defend ourselves when that coffee driven, sleep deprived, stressed out mofo starts shooting up my spanish II class.

Ok, that was insensitive.  

But at the end of the day. That argument doesn’t fly. Your average joe doesn’t commit mass murder. But there are unstable people out there who are giving out warning signs like free samples of kung pow chicken from the food court at your local mall, and we all pay no attention until something goes wrong.

But the hope would be that with the open carry laws we have, someone would be able to stop that person faster.

But I also have to agree on the idea that guns are scary. We use them to kill our brothers and sisters every day. The reality is though, they aren’t going anywhere, so we truly need to come up with a solution that touches on more than just a background check.

My Comment on My Buddy Lorena's Blog.

This is my comment on the blog post “Texas, a Fossil Fuel Addict State” ...

I think you did a really great job of giving some solid facts and examples to help carry on your point. Isn’t it crazy… We are number 6 for most energy consumed per capita! Number 6!!!

But we have sooooo much land, especially out west. I think of those fields as the best place to build those Gigafactories and windmills. And I think because of the excess of land we have, that and the fact that we consume so much energy, should be the reasons we should become the leading state in renewable energy sourcing.

The context you gave comparing our energy consumption to citizens in India was really insightful. It is hard for people to realize how much we waste, when everyone around us is behaving in the same way!

It is so discouraging though, that we just elected someone who cares about cheap energy instead of safe energy. Hopefully we can look past that, and encourage our state and the companies within in to get ahead of the game.

Again, great job! Good examples, cohesive, didn’t drag on, and nice word choice.  It does my soul good to read a well written post like this one :)

Election Day Voter Registration

Thirteen states have same day registration available to its voters. So why don’t we? Don’t we want as many people to vote as possible? Yes, no, maybe so?

I believe that Texas should institute Election-Day voter registration. Why? So we can make the whole process easier. (also we could probably update those voting machines a lil, but that’s a conversation for another day.) We still vote on Tuesdays. Why? We cast our votes on ancient machines. Why? And in Texas, you have to register WEEKS before election day. Why? TO MAKE YOU NOT WANT TO VOTE.

Why are they trying to make it harder to vote? Shouldn’t it be the other way around. Well… Some people believe that all eligible citizens should be able to vote easily and quickly. OTHERS would like to make the process long and difficult, with the hopes of knocking off a percentage of folks (maybe those with less money?) from voting.

Thank the Lord Jesus that this happened…

“The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed previous rulings that the 2011 voter ID law — which stipulates the types of photo identification election officials can and cannot accept at the polls — does not comply with the Voting Rights Act.” (Texas Tribune)

But still, efforts can definitely be made to make this entire process more efficient. And if you think about it, the more diligent we are with changing this system of how we elect our officials, hopefully less BS like the Voter ID Laws will show up in our faces. I propose that election day be a holiday (I’ll settle for it being on the weekend), we give those machines a hardcore makeover, and that you can register to vote ON THE DAY YOU FREAKING VOTE.

Now please, go riot, go picket, go flip over some cars, or light a mattress on fire, whatever you have to do. Cause I am over it.

Lord Help Me.

I will be as respectful as possible in the following post. I promised myself that I would be nice, and that I would not stoop to the level shown in this blog/article/commentary/whatever. Let's get into it...

This man named Fred has a mouth on him. His blog is called The Texas Fred Blog (http://www.texasfred.net/) Good! Let's speak our opinions and let them be heard, and enjoy the freedom that is the internet, and respect one another... oh... wait.. not that last one? Oh ok, that's fine. You don't have to be perfectly respectful 24/7, that would be so much work. But at least we will be honest with each other right?!? No?!?! hmmmm.... okay. There has to be something of value in this post right? Let's take a deeper look.

There is the chance that this was put out there, just to get people talking. Look at me, I'm (kinda) talking right now! Cool. So it was supposed to evoke feelings in me. Shall we discuss those feelings now? I think that would be a great idea.

Title : The TRUTH about Islam.

Starting with the opening sentence.

“Barack Hussein Obama may not have the fortitude to call the radical Muslims exactly what they are, or he may be afraid of offending Islam if he speak the truth about his Jihadist and ISIS brothers, or, perhaps he doesn’t see anything wrong with the practices of Islam because he really is one of them.”

Okay.. I know what you are thinking. But it gets worse. Don’t walk away just yet.

“I find it amazing that supposedly *peaceful* Muslims can stand idly by as a herd of Islamic TERRORISTS do what they do in the name of their religion.”

From this article in the Huffington Post :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/muslim-clerics-condemn-terrorism_us_566adfa1e4b009377b249dea

“Almost 70,000 Muslim clerics have come together to pass a fatwa against global terrorist organizations, including the Taliban, al Qaeda and the militant group that calls itself the Islamic State.

During an annual gathering of South Asian Sunni Muslims in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh this week, almost 1.5 million attendees signed a document protesting global terrorist activity, according to The Times of India.”

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/Muslim-Scholars-Groups-Against-ISIS-Speal-Out-361309791.html

(Here you go. )

It is obvious to me that the audience for this kind of blog are possibly ignorant people who are scared of what they don’t understand. Yes, there are many extremists within many religious.. Examples like the KKK come to mind quickly. His evidence is loosely translated verses from the Quran. For example, one that he lists is as follows

“Kill the Jews and the Christians if they do not convert to Islam or refuse to pay Jizya tax (9:29)”

NOWHERE IN ANY TRANSLATION OF THE QURAN DOES IT TELL ANYONE TO KILL ANYONE ELSE IF THEY DON’T PAY THEIR STATE TAX.

Although it does say to fight against that, because that’s not cool dude. Just pay your taxes… c’mon.

Yes, we all understand that religious texts have crazy shit in them. Like in the Bible when Moses is freaking out about the Midianites.

(Numbers 31:17-18)--"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. 18 But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves."

I cannot get past the broad generalizations of how all Muslims are standing idly by, and watching this happen, and not doing anything about it. Then again, does my mother feel the need to defend the KKK because they say that they do what they do in the name of Christianity. NO! She understand that they don’t truly represent her. And if someone made the correlation of her church and the white supremacy group, that would be super offensive.

Anyways, it was hard to digest all of this ignorance. But I did it. Can’t wait to see what comes next out of this guys ass. Sorry! Mouth. I meant mouth.

Texas vs Refugees

The Dallas Morning News' Editorial section, has put up a lovely article called "In dropping legal challenge to Syrian refugees, Texas is pragmatic — but hardly humane". I highly recommend taking a look at this piece. It really represents how inhumane our state government is being towards the Syrian Refugees.

“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office has quietly dropped its 10-month legal crusade to bar Syrian refugees fleeing their homeland's barbaric civil war from entering this state.” Obviously, this case would have never made it into trial, because our state does not even have the power to sue in a situation like this. We didn’t drop the case because of “a sudden humanitarian impulse on the part of our state's top GOP leaders.” We dropped the case because litigation costs money.” Period. End of sentence. Done.

I like the way that the author (whoever he or she is), doesn’t just go with their gut, but that they give some solid evidence in their argument, which truly helps them to look more credible as a source. They point out that Governor Greg Abbott hasn’t made a peep about why the lawsuit was dropped. Hmmmm…. Interesting.

This argument was clothed in the robe of safety. “Well, all these refugees are terrorist and they can’t come here cause that isn’t safe, and cause… well… I said so!” (not an actual quote btw.) They believed that they would be putting Texans at risk by bringing in people who are escaping from horrors that none of us could even imagine. They are dangerous extremists, and they have no place here apparently.

The author is believes it is “unlikely to have been a change of heart, a startling sunburst of recognition that of more than 1,000 Syrian refugees resettled in Texas since 2011, none are known to have posed any semblance of a terror threat.” Agreed.

I think that the target audience for this post would be people who disagree with Texas backing away from this resettlement program. This is very much so on that side of the argument. I felt like it was geared towards me and I personally feel the same way.

I also think that it was really smart of the writers to break it down for us at the end. They put up a little section called “How We Got Here”. Listing various things in the recent past that all in all lead us to this point in time. I love that just because not everyone ready will be fully versed in this situation. Which will totally turn readers off! If they can’t understand something, they will more than likely just skip over it, or not bother to even keep reading at all!  This to me is a clear effort on their part to make the story easier to digest, which is the opposite of what other sources do. Why do they make legislation so hard to read and understand? Maybe they don’t really want you to know what they are up to… Ruh Roh.

Weeks After Campus Carry Implementation, an Accidental Misfire at Tarleton State

Last Friday, The Texas Tribune posted an article about the "Accidental Misfire at Tarleton State". This incident occurred less than two months after the "Texas law allowing guns into public university buildings went into effect". The article explains how no one was hurt, and that there was minimal property damage... but man, still scary. 

I am very up and down on the open carry laws here in Texas. One minute they make me feel safe, and the next minute they don't. I understand this isn't a great example, because no one was hurt and it wasn't on purpose. But what if next time (even if it still was an accident) someone DID get hurt? Then again, how incredibly safe would you feel sharing a room with someone who owned a gun and kept it in your dorm, and something crazy started happening at the school, like a situation where you would need to defend yourself - hey! Y'all are more protected than anyone else! You know what I mean? ANYWAYS, the article is a good read, because it also mentions a little interesting tidbit about what people who are against these laws are thinking. 

Howdy Y'all.