Professors Lose Right to Debate

Arizona lawmakers have decided college professors should not be taking positions in their classes that advocate or oppose any one side of a social, political, or cultural issue that are part of a partisan debate.

Today, it seams that every issue is a partisan issue. This would lead little to be discussed in our nation’s universities.

This would mean that professors could not discuss Darwinism because politicians have turned it into a partisan issue. The history of recent events such as the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks on 9/11 could not be discussed, because the actual events are up for debate by a partisan forum. Of course, religious debate is out of the question. I suppose religious studies professors will be out of the job.

Sadly, religion has become a partisan issue. A person’s religion molds the very foundation of their understanding. Because of this fact, almost all subjects, from mathematics to aesthetics, have become partisan issues.

Your political heroes have made it their new goal to stupefy the nation by stifling debate in our universities.

Wasn't Socrates put to death for teaching students to debate issues that were perceived by the government to be undeniable truths. I wonder what what form of punishment will be in place for our teachers that do the right thing.

This bill was approved 4-3 in the Senate Government Committee. The bill must still go before the full Senate and would need approval from the House and the Governor.

Senator Brownback vs. Video Game Industry

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) recently announced that he is throwing his hat into the 2008 race for the White House. He also announced his proposal to tighten restrictions with a bill intending to use the FTC to eliminate what he calls, “deceptive conduct in the rating of video and computer games.”

The current dominant rating system is the ESRB. The ESRB provides an age rating, as well as a description of the content found within the game. Many consumers have found this to be very reliable. This system is also voluntary. Game developers are not required to carry an ESRB rating; however, most individual retailers will not stock unrated games.

For quite some time now, the game industry has voluntarily policed itself to the satisfaction of most, just as the film industry has. Would be President of the United States, Sam Brownback, believes that the ESRB is not doing such a good job.

It is his determination, the ESRB does not give adequate ratings, because they only skim content provided directly from the game developers. He believes that since they may not explore every nook and cranny of a game and disassemble the coding inside and out to find hidden content, the system that has been in place for years is of little use.

I have played many video games most of my life. I have worked selling video games when I was younger. I have bought games for children. I find that the current system is spectacular. The only problem with the ESRB rating system is the parents that disregard the system. Even if the FTC became involved in the policing of video games, the parents would still have the opportunity to ignore the rating system.

This is just another example of Republican Big Government Nanny State ideology. It sickens me.

Austin Mayor-athon

Austin Mayor Will Wynn cares about the youth Texas. Wynn is participating in the Austin Marathon this weekend in order to raise money for “Marathon Kids,” a program meant to teach fitness and proper nutrition to children at risk of Type-Two diabetes.

AT&T promises to match donations of up to $10000. Wynn is looking to raise $1000 a mile on his own.

This is a perfect example of a politician doing the right thing. Wynn is leading the children of Austin by a fantastic example, without having to spend every dime the city has. He has found a way to raise money through a mutually beneficial relationship with a a leader in private industry.


I applaud Wynn for his participation in the community, using his position to raise awareness and educate children about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle.

$3 Billion for Governor's Personal Race Against Time

I know this can be a sensitive subject. For a reference point please read past articles about the selfish decisions Rick Perry has made with Texan's money. There are more instances that can be found on other sites as well.

• Texan’s $14 billion to Benefit Governor’s Son
• Perry's Orgy
  
  

Rick Perry has been preoccupied with bringing Texas the most advanced cancer research facility in the nation. Knowing Perry, I had a hunch that this would benefit him in some way, but I never would have guessed how important this topic would be to him.

Perry made public his fear of cancer, when he announced the fact that many of his family members had been victims of the disease. Perry knows that it is only a matter of time before cancer will change/end his own life.

I have never said I am against state sponsored cancer research, and I know that it will benefit millions if bold steps can be made towards its prevention. However, the role of governor is defined by selfless motivations. We trust our political heroes to make decisions with the interest of the people they work for in mind. Their personal motivations should take a back seat to this duty.

I am willing to support spending $3 billion on cancer research, if the people of Texas find this a worthy investment. However, I am not willing to allow someone to make this decision blinded by their own race against the clock. I hope Perry's heart is in the right place, but I can't be too sure.

He is quotes as saying, "I'm going to get it," when he announced his plans to fight cancer. I would have rather heard him say, "We're going to get it." The people of Texas should be included in this battle.

Texan's $14 billion to Benefit Governor's Son

Rick Perry is at it again. The governor of Texas has proposed selling the state lottery for a sum of $14 billion dollars to a private company. I am not necessarily against selling the lottery, but I do always take a second look when Perry makes a decision and boat loads of money are involved.

Under Perry’s plan, the $14 billion would be placed in three separate trusts. The earnings from these trusts would fund health insurance for poor Texans, public education, and the largest cancer research project in the nation.

The financial firm helping Perry make these decisions about what is good for our money is UBS. They would have much to gain if this deal went through. $$$$$$

The kicker is the connection the governor has to UBS. Griffin Perry, the governor’s son, was recently hired by UBS. This could be a coincidence; however, with Rick Perry’s track record of spending state monies to benefit his associates, I sort of doubt it.

It does not help Perry’s case that one of his best friends, former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, is the vice chairman of UBS investment bank.

Consistently in the case of Rick Perry‘s decisions, you can follow our money into the pockets of his friends and family. Again, Rick Perry is in bed, but I never suspected it to be with his own son.

Public Schools or Total Recall

Remember that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall? Remember when he had to pull that giant red blinking transmitter out of his head through his nose? If Prince George County lawmakers have their way, students who skip school would be fitted with a device such as this.


Maryland Delegate Doyle Niemann (D-Prince George’s Co) is quoted as saying this about parents in his district, "They're not in control of their children. They take them to school, the kid walks in the front door and then out the back door. It doesn't make any sense to continue to beat on the parents.”

I agree that many parents are not in control of their children, but I do not believe that the government should be strapping tracking devices on our children. I suppose it is cheaper to fit a child with a tracking device than it is to make school interesting.

If this is acceptable in this instance, I can only imagine what other crimes would warrant such an action. Should we strap tracking devices to convicted marijuana users to make sure they do not enter parts of town where drug sales are rampant? I am sure there are many times lawmakers would love to slap tracking devices on their constituents.

Too bad there isn’t a tracking device that we can strap to our political heroes that would alert the public when they make stupid decisions.

WARNING THIS VIDEO IS A FIGHT SCENE FROM TOTAL RECALL.
THIS MAY NOT BE WORK/ALL AGES APPROPRIATE.

Austin Climate Protection Plan = Bloated Bureaucracy

Will Wynn, the mayor of Austin, is attempting to step outside his bounds with the formulation of the Austin Climate Protection Plan. While some view this as a cutting edge program designed to lead the nation in energy efficiency, I see this move as the aggressive injection of unnecessary bureaucracy.

Wynn’s plan will require that all home sellers make costly improvements prior to the sale of their house. These improvements would be necessary in order to meet new strict energy standards in Austin.

I believe Wynn’s intentions are good, but that does not mean that this is actually a healthy move for Austin. Wynn makes the point that at closing time, there is already a large stack of documents to sign. He just wants this to be another one of those papers that must be signed before the completion of the sale of a home. This attitude is worrying to me. He justifies another layer of bureaucracy by simply saying that there is already so much, so who would notice another layer.

Someone will have to monitor the sale of homes. Will we create another agency with this purpose? Will we have to hire people to staff this agency? Will these workers need offices, phones, special devices to measure energy efficiency, and other miscellanea?

Housing in Austin is expensive in comparison to the majority of Texas. Many people complain about this fact. Will it serve Austin to increase the sale of a home to contain the cost of these mandated improvements?

Wynn had stated that the government would help to get sellers the help they needed to make these improvements. I assume that this means matching people with contractors to make the necessary improvements. To which contractors will the government lead people? Follow the money.

The bureaucracy will keep growing. Wynn has stated that many rules will be required to make this monstrosity functional. This means that there will be special cases for the poor and elderly. The government will have to pay the price to make the necessary improvements on their homes. Again, follow your tax dollars.

This program will increase government, cost more money, make the sale of a home more difficult and lengthy, deter home buyers from buying in Austin, and will put money into the pockets of special contractors.

Will Wynn should motivate Austinites to make choices to save money with energy efficiency through education. Educating the public and giving them the ability to make their own decisions is always better than force.

Secrecy in Public Schools

Mathew LaClair, age 16, is a student in the Kearny School District. Recently, his American history teacher, David Paszkiewicz, decided to begin adding his own irrelevant commentary to the our nation’s history. He told the students that Noah’s ark carried dinosaurs and that the students would go to hell if they had not accepted Jesus into their hearts.

This peculiar addition to American history is not what bother’s me, however. What bothers me is the reaction of the school board when they had found that LaClair had recorded the ranting of his American history teacher.

LaClair was afraid that nobody would believe him when he would try to bring this infraction by Paszkiewicz to the administrator’s attention. It seemed to the student to be logical to obtain proof through taping the teacher’s rants, before going before the board.

The school board’s reaction to this event was to place a ban on taping lectures in Kearny School District without consent of the teaching staff.

This action benefits nobody but the school district and its staff. They have cast a secretive veil over the school. It is the right of tax payers to have the ability to monitor what is being taught to our children in the most candid fashion available. Our public schools are not secret brain wash camps and should not be subject to the same sort of ideology.

If there is a problem in the school, then fix it. It is never appropriate to mask an issue from the eyes of the taxpayers.

The school board also took “corrective” action against Paszkiewicz, but they would not elaborate on what actions were taken. However, It does not seem the school as much faith in the “corrective” action taken based on the decision by the board to place this ban on taping.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE TAPES.

Action...Reaction

Boston Mayor, Thomas M. Menino, has banned all guerrilla marketing, in the attempt to save face after the city’s over reaction to advertisements that were installed around the city last week. The advertisements consisted of cartoon characters designed with blinking led lights.

The advertisements had been installed in several other cities, but Boston was the only city to entirely shut down. The city had somehow gotten the notion that these flashing cartoon characters were explosive devises.

This seemingly stupid reaction made Boston the laughing stock of the nation for a few days and reminds the everyone that Americans are still strongly motivated by fear.

The act of banning all types of guerrilla marketing in the city of Boston is typical of the ‘Action...Reaction’ mentality that is sickening America.

One the greatest things about having the right to make decisions for myself is that the time period between any stimulus and my reaction to that stimulus may be extended at my own choosing to take the appropriate action in connection with whatever event had occurred. Either Menino is not aware of this human ability, or this was a calculated schoolyard tactic in response to his own embarrassment.

The Mayor of Boston should take a step back to laugh at the situation and learn from the mistake. Instead, Menino has chosen to punish.

Perry's Orgy

On February 2nd ,Gov. Rick Perry, bypassed the legislature with an executive order requiring all Texas school girls to be vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer.

The vaccine, Gardisil, is produced by Merck.

Merck funnels large amounts of money through an advocacy group called Women in Texas.

One of Merck’s three Texas lobbyists is Mike Toomey.

Toomey is Perry’s former chief of staff.

Perry’s current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Dianne White Delisi, is the state director of Women in Government.

Merck also contributed $6000 directly to Perry’s recent re-election campaign.

I could possibly be persuaded to agree with allowing the government to provide free vaccination on a voluntary basis ; however, this program will require that a parent specifically request that their child not receive the drug, if they do not wish their child to be vaccinated. It should be the other way around. The parents should have to specifically request that the child be vaccinated instead.

I hope that Perry has received a dose from his buddies at Merck. He will probably be needing it since he is in bed with anyone willing to pay a few bucks.