Critique of The Worlds Most Uninteresting Man

I find this post really interesting as when I heard the news of Osama's death the naive little English girl came out in me as I asked "does that mean that the war is over??". Now upon review and various taunts from many people do I realize that this War on Terror has escalated way past this one man. That being said I feel as though Mr. Snow was completely correct in saying that our thoughts and prayers should still be 100% with those still fighting over seas both from the US and UK. I truly hope that no bitter retaliation will occur because of this and also that we never forget the reason why this saga started in the first place.

Anti - Sonogram Bill.

So i guess the Abortion Sonogram Bill is THAT much closer to getting passed. This does not please the liberal London girl in me at all. It is and will always be my firm belief that anything to do with a woman and her baby is to do with her and her only. No one should have the power to dictate what someone does with their body whether it is a pregnant woman or a man getting a chin implant. 

The main reason why I am so adamantly against this abortion bill is the fact that i feel as though the government is downplaying what a huge decision terminating a pregnancy would be for a woman. In my opinion the government big wigs are making it seem as though women get abortions every day to avoid using a condom or some kind of birth control... Now i am not naive enough to think that no women out there do that, because I am sure that some do, but these people are in the vast minority. When a woman gets pregnant she gets somewhat attached to that baby whether she wants to or not. 

I have recently watched this happen with my best friend while she was going through her pregnancy. Every day she became more attached to that baby and became more of a motherly nurturing person; however, before she took that fateful pregnancy test, she was absolutely adamant that she would never have kids... ever. This just proved to me that anyone could become a mother while they are pregnant and just backed up my theory that choosing to have an abortion is a huge, life changing decision for any woman (with some exceptions obviously). That being said i am firmly against any government mandated bill that would make that decision any more traumatic and difficult for the woman.

Critique of Red, White and Brown.

"Red, White and Brown" is a post by Mike Youngblood about America's demographics changing so that the current minorities will be the majority by 2020 and how that may change societies perceptions.
I completely agree about the theory of society casting away their previous negative beliefs about other races once there is not such a huge gap between us; however, as Mike mentioned in his blog my breath is not held for such a day to arrive any time soon. My pessimistic view is that nothing is really going to change at all, minorities are still going to be treated as minorities even if they are not, and the majority race is always going to act just as that. Until society as a collective can learn to completely rethink the hierarchy that has been in place for so long, I do not think that any dramatic change will be seen.

To Carry or Not to Carry, That is the Question.

 The bill to allow concealed carry guns on school campuses has me in a bind. There are so many arguments for both sides of the story that I just do not know which one I lean towards more. 
 Coming from England where guns are illegal they have always been a somewhat taboo subject, mostly because the civilians who carried them were obviously dangerous and were therefore not talked about and were avoided at all costs. 
 Moving to Texas has been a huge adjustment in that sense, especially moving in with my stepdad who is 100% pro guns and prides himself on his personal collection. Living in this new environment for the past three years has slightly desensitized me towards firearms; however, I still do not know if I would be completely comfortable knowing that my fellow classmates were packing and I didn't know about it. On the one hand there is the argument that someone carrying a concealed weapon could diffuse a potentially harmful situation should a crazy killer come onto campus; however I do not know that my faith in humanity is strong enough to believe that one of these students carrying a gun would not turn into that same crazy killer and turn on their fellow classmates. 
 That being said I am back to being torn with this whole proposition. I guess at the end of the day it just comes down to ones trust and faith in other people because whether the bill gets passed or not is out of my hands. I just hope that if anyone were to have to use their concealed carry weapon on campus it would be to protect and not to harm.

Critique of Eliminate School Police for Budget Savings

Scott Henson writes about the recent talk of cutting school police officers out of public schools budgets in his blog Grits for Breakfast. The blog is based on facts from an article that states that public schools employ as many non-teachers as teachers and that spending per student has increased by 68% in the past decade.

Scott Henson then goes on to say that he feels as though school police should be the first to be cut as Texas schools were just fine without them for many years before. I tend to disagree with his point because even though schools throughout Texas’ history have been fine without police, they have grown exponentially over the years. Teachers in themselves are not prepared enough to handle a rogue student as well as take care of the rest of their class. Also, the fact that there is a police or two on campus does prevent a lot of crime from happening as police are much more intimidating than a security guard for instance.

Henson then brings up the fact that Attorney Don Dickson said that in his school they had a nutritionist, not a policeman and that with the obesity rate being so high it would be more beneficial to have a dietician on campus instead of a police officer. I do agree that having dieticians at school would be a nice luxury; however, I am compelled to think that if one needed to review their diet they could go and consult their doctor outside of school whereas if an incident were to occur on campus a policeman would be extremely necessary. That being said I do not agree that a nutritionist is more necessary than a police officer.

Lastly Henson says that the Senate Criminal Justice Committee are thinking about cutting back the amount of tickets that they write on school campuses and that he sees no point in having school cops at all if they cannot write tickets. In conclusion I feel as though campus police officers do more than Henson is giving them credit for, even if it is just preventative measures. Also I think that if the bill to allow concealed carry weapons at school gets passed then I feel some people may be changing their minds about this budget cut back.

Would Jesus Mandate Sonograms but Cut Pre-K Critique.

In the column Would Jesus mandate sonograms but cut pre-K? in the Fort Worth Star Telegram Linda Campbell is arguing the point that Texas Government has a double standard when it comes to budgets. She bases the argument on the fact that Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston used God as the basis of passing the bill requiring women to have sonograms before they are allowed to get an abortion. She then takes the concept of Senators doing the "Lords Work" to show that by passing the sonogram bill the legislature is, in a way, forcing women to keep their babies but are then cutting budgets that will have a huge impact on said babies' lives. Campbell does this by using the Gospel of Matthew to illustrate that Jesus did not have double standards and helped everyone, no matter what situation they were in. She also illustrates the fact that the government spends vast amounts of money on "unnecessary luxuries" such as restoring old courthouses that could otherwise be put to extremely necessary causes like public school budgets. I feel as though the argument was extremely succesful as I had never considered this double standard before. No matter how one feels about the issue of abortion Linda Campbell makes it perfectly clear that the sonogram bill and the public school budget cuts just do not go together when it seems as though they should completely intertwine. I am and have always been pro choice so I think that this argument will let other people see that until the government can take care of people who are already out in the world, they should leave the unborn ones alone.

Major Budget Cuts in the Future for Texas' Top Universities

The Fort Worth Star Telegram reports that a meeting on February 9th left the officials of Texas' major public universities less than pleased when they were told that their budgets could be cut by up to 20-25%.
The proposal will affect such major university systems as the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech along with all of their satellite campuses. If the bill gets passed then both current and prospective students will have to worry about a significant cut in financial aid which Dr. Francisco Cigarroa, chancellor of the UT board of regents, thinks will hinder the possibility of college for hundreds of students.