Healthier Austin

In Sedge Downing’s “Bikes” he makes a great argument. If gas prices are only going to soar why not find a way to help ourselves and the environment? Sure riding all the way across town would require a little time on the public transit system but over all cut emissions and pollutants that are in the air.

I think that it would cut obesity way down, and make Americans overall more fit and feel better doing it. It would help you shed pounds and keep you at a healthy weight. Even if you still eat junk, think about it would you ride your bike to get McDonald’s or would you rather cook at home and not have to ride anywhere else?

Of course it would take some changes on the cities part, but what a change it would be for the city. We are already a pretty healthy city; this could only make it better. An influx of income is just what the city needs and I think that doing something like this is just the ticket.

Good argument, good logic, exceptional ideas, good evidence, what more could you ask for?

Another Abortion topic.

As this issue develops it makes me wonder, how did we get here? Abortion has been an issue since 1973 when Roe v. Wade was decided.  I believe that women have the right to decide what to do with their bodies. Birth control became available to the public only because women wanted to have the choice of when and if they want to have children.

I do believe that a young woman should know what an abortion is and what is going to do, so that she can make an informed decision. However this bill is one of those times that I think the government is overstepping their bounds. Why should they even have a say in the matter?

They say that if 1 out of 5 women changes her mind about having an abortion, the bill could save 15,000 lives. Who is going to pay the babies way through life? The tax payers are. I personally don’t want to have children, so why am I paying for someone else’s children?  I chose not to have them so that the ones that are in the world can have a fighting chance. I believe that if more people decided to have safe sex, and practice abstinence that these laws would not even have to be written.

But we watch these teen pregnancy shows on T.V and they make teen pregnancy look all glorified. What a crock. I also believe that if all of our choices are taken away then this isn’t a democracy that we live in it is a dictatorship. That is not what I signed up for…

I believe that if this bill passes, some time down the road the government will find a reason to overturn Roe v.  Wade all together. At that point our bodies won’t be our own, but owned by the government.

Addressing: To Abort or to Not Abort That is the Question? by Liliana Ordonez

I am going to comment on :
To Abort or to Not Abort That is the Question? by Liliana Ordonez

Ms. Ordonez; uses credible evidence and structured her argument well. I think that she is a very smart woman, and that she tackled a subject that not a lot of people want to talk about.  She gives a good incite that I didn’t think about before. Well written!!!!!

I agree that this is a very debatable topic. As a woman I believe that I should have a choice, but apparently Texas wants to put one more stipulation to get to that choice. They seem to be putting the consequences on the woman. They should make it an equal opportunity “punishment”.  In most situations the 24 to 72 hour wait, hearing the heart beat, and seeing a picture of the fetus won’t make a difference.  

Ms. Ordonez is also correct that the father should be present so that he can see what is going on. So that they both realize what they are about to do. They need to realize that the baby growing inside her is a human being, not just a thing to be thrown away. To hear a doctor explain the procedure and do all the things that are going to be required of women. Unprotected sex is one of the worst decisions of your life, not only could you get pregnant but also STD’s.

Ms. Ordonez is also correct that some women use abortion as a way to “fix a problem”, they don’t think about that they are ending another humans future. That even in the few weeks that the fetus is developing that a lot happens. Once a pregnancy occurs there is no rewind, do over, or delete the incident.     

Are there any good choices??

I think that there are many things that are contributing to the budget shortfall. I think that we need to find where we are willing to cut and even make the hard choices.  We as citizens also don’t want to pay anymore taxes.

There are some ideas that are currently floating around. Some suggest that we legalize certain types of gambling, others that we should close schools and increase class sizes. Both options are viable but neither is a perfect option.  Raising taxes is also another route that we could go, but not everyone can afford the taxes that we have now. Also some Texans are still out of work and are scrapping by and need to be on government assistance so that is another program that we still need. Some students can only afford go to school if they have financial aid. Medicaid and Medicare are very important to the care of the young and the old.

So where to begin our search; for ways to cut spending, who has the right to say what stays and what goes.  Nobody wants to give, and everybody wants to keep what they want. Who gets to decide what programs go, and which ones get stay?

These days money is hard to come by. So we have to try harder and harder to make the money that we have to go to all the programs that need funding. That is not possible so there has to be some give and take from all sides. That is not occurring but hopefully in the future we will find a solution that suites everyone.

Eliminate school police for budget savings

I liked this article a lot. It was well written and supported really well. He is trying to reach people that are like minded and that want to be done with the nonsense.  He uses sources that are close to the matter and that he does his research before making a claim.

His claim is that if we are going to make cuts in education, why not start with non essential staff.
 He says “Shouldn't they be among the first to get the budget axe? They're the only sizable class of school employees we know for sure they can do without because schools did so for most of their history in Texas and elsewhere.”

His logic is that we haven’t needed police on campus until it started about 20 years ago, and we were fine before that.Also that using a police force to deal with routine issues usually handled by the school that it is only going to become a bigger problem. Very sound logic if you ask me, I like the way that this guy thinks.

I agree with this guy 100%. Schools should be disciplined and ruled by administrators and teachers, just like before. Using force is only making bad behavior worse. I think that he knows what he is talking about, and that his credibility is sound. 

Texas Senate should stick with two-thirds rule
I found this editorial in the Austin American Statesman, and I agree with the Editorial board on this one. They describe how Senators in Texas want to change the majority vote to be a 3/5 majority, which is 60 % instead of the 2/3 majority that is currently in effect. It is odd that right now republicans have the 3/5 majority in the senate. It provides arguments from both sides, but at the end they do tell you how they think it should be. They give you a lot of evidence, and arguments from both sides.They also give this really fascinating quote: "In fact, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton all spoke to that. They considered in the Constitution requiring a two-thirds vote to pass legislation but they decided against it because they believed that would allow the minority to rule the majority, which would undermine the republic and the fundamental principle of the Constitution." Of course the republicans want it changed to the 3/5 majority, that would mean that they could pass legislation without Democrats. But the Democrats want it to stay as 2/3 so that they don’t have a way to just pass any legislation that they want. But the editorial board believes that it will stay as 2/3 majority because that has worked for us in the past.

Texas Redistricting lawsuit: Count Citizens only

3 North Texas voters have already filed a lawsuit against the state and a bunch of others. They allege that it is unfair that counting illegal immigrants has an illegal effect on voters in districts with smaller numbers of non citizens.

“The logic goes this way: If two districts have the same populations and one has more non-citizens than the other, it takes fewer voters in that district to swing an election.”

This lawsuit is going to be the platform for legal fights against Legislatures map-making efforts.

I think that is going to be one of those issues that is going to be held up in court, because it will be the first of many that are going to file a lawsuit.

Lawmakers haven’t started seriously drawing lines. The Census Bureau will drop population numbers next week.

I think that this is worth reading because redistricting affects everyone. If we do redistricting just to make sure that one side wins, it doesn't help anyone. We need to make sure that lawmakers do what is right for everyone, not what is right for one person.