One for one?

This, When bad things happen to bad people, is a very easy understanding article that has strong opinions blended in. The author weaved the new Office of Capitol Writs into the story naturally. It made the article more convincing.

I completely agree with the writer about the issues. Should a man be pardoned or deserve sympathies from jury just because he was mistreated when he was child? We all have sympathies for the murderer’s twisted childhood; however what he did was not forgettable and forgivable. He sure does deserve death for what he has done. A few hundred years ago, he would be slaughtered for his crime already, but we are civilized. No one has any right to take anyone else’s life regardless what he has done.

There is one thing about the title of article that I find is a little confusing. I am not very clear on what the bad things that have happened on the bad people are and who the bad people that the writer referred to.

After all, I really like the author’s opinion and style of writing. I have found a lot in common, opinion wise.

What is it that should really be cut?

As I mentioned in one of my posts early, Texas government is economically liberal and socially conservative. It mainly focuses on economic growth, and does not involve in social issues very much. There are not as much funds to education and health care from states as other states do. It believes the growth of economy will put people in better financial situation in order to control one’s own life and problems. Texas constitution requires a balanced budget. Right now the state's budget shortfall is estimated to be as high as $27 billion. Therefore, budget cut is happening.

One of the major cut would be medical cut, such as Medicare, Medicate and state children health insurance. There would be 33 percent cut on this industry. Is the cut necessary? I would say no. There is one most important reason I would like to point out – illegal immigrants. How is this related? Former President Bush by his negligence or ignorance is allowing Illegal Aliens to step to the front of the line in the United States Medical System. According to the Texas Hospital Association, Texas hospitals spent $393 million treating illegal aliens in 2002 alone and increasing yearly with $225 million to be paid by taxpayers. If we really do the math, 33 percent of $27 billion (this number is total budget cut, not just on health care itself) is $891 million and it is way less then what we paying for treating illegal aliens alone. There are not many researches on exactly how much the tax payers are paying for the illegal aliens medical bills in recent years. However the number from 9 years ago is shocking enough.

Illegal immigration is a problem. Where does the state law stand and what are the polices on these? Illegal aliens are taking jobs from legal citizens and taking advantage of U.S. forgiving healthcare systems and played key factor in putting people and children who deserve the benefit of their own country in a tight situation.

Should we not to treat the sickened illegal aliens or should we keep on playing the savor of all and put its own citizens in lack of medical assistance that they deserve and have been paid for by their hard labor tax? Taking care of its own citizen should be the priority of the state regardless the nation polices.

Before the state cutting the funding on health care programs, I think it should really take care of how the funding for medical programs has been spent first, and then establish a black and white policy toward this issue. If illegal aliens do not have to pay their hospital bills, why should we pay for it? Just because we have a social security number and we are in the system?

So, State of Texas, what is it that should really be cut? 

Out Come of the Increasing.

In the commentary Higher Tuition, the writer has clearly stated the fact that ACC is going to raise the tuition by $5 per credit hour and would raising it again by the following year. The writer analyzed the outcomes of such decision and why such action would cause such outcomes. However it would be nice to see the writer to have some input about the reasons why ACC is going to raise the tuition.
I strongly agree with the author that the increase of tuition would bring more financial burden to the full time students, especially at current time. However, all we can blame on is the inflation. 
I also agree with the writer’s opinion that just cutting back on expensive equipment and technology should not be the only choice. 
My personal opinion, the amount of increased tuition would be $60-$75 each semester, that is how much a tank of gasoline would cost today. What ACC need to do is report the reasons of such increase and not to cut back on the hardware quality, this include keeping the qualified professor and hire suitable ones. In this way, people would still enroll in ACC, and more enrollment means more money coming in. After all, it is still way more affordable than 4-year colleges. 
Increase of tuition would happen for many reasons. The writer had made a few very valid points of the consequences the increase would cause and I, again, agree.

My View of Texas

Texans are proud of being Texans. I often hear people say, I am a Texan rather than I am an American. Texas has a very unique history, from an independent Spanish country to a state of United States, and then declared its independence with a bloody price，and finally became part of the United States again. No matter where it belongs to, it has always been able to keep its own taste and political character. Texas’ constitution is very similar to the original constitution of United States – small government.

The government mainly focuses on economic growth, and does not involve in social issues very much. There are not as much funds, to education and health care from states as other states do. It believes the growth of economy will put people in better financial situation in order to control one’s own life and problems, and it believes you could choose to be a winner or a failure. This has made Texas government economically liberal and socially conservative. However, in my personal opinion, this is transforming. More and more people from other states, such as California are moving to Texas. More and more cross border uneducated immigrants are flooding in the state. Different political views have been brought to the state, the ideology distribution yet to be changed. Higher demanding for public benefit is contradicting Texas’ “small government” philosophy. As we all know, Texas does not have income tax, therefore the state government’s funds for public benefits are limited. What do we want and what should the government do? Do we want bigger government to collect a big chuck out of our hard labor on top of federal tax to supply us more in return like socialism or communism, or do we want a small government to do the minimum and let us to take care of ourselves? Just like President Obama’s healthcare plan, do we support it or post against it? Which side would win really depends on the voters that reside in Texas. As so far, I do like to support small government and the less the government involve the better it is. I like to have the freedom to decide what I can and can’t do, but everything comes in good and bad.

 Austin, the capital of Texas, is the opposite of Texas. It is more liberal. Government controls nature resource and giving back the profit back to society by building parks and forming agencies that would benefits local people in many ways; however government can charge whatever they would like to. Unlike other Texas’ cities, enterprise controls nature’s resources. Yes, the competition brings the cost down, but where are all the profits? Another down side of being economically liberal eventually would give corporations too much power and the government would one day be controlled by them. The best example is toll ways. Who are we paying and what are we paying for and how long we are going to pay for these roads.

Here are some social issues that exist in either liberal or conservative governments. In Austin, it is illegal to smoke inside of any building. In my personal opinion, shouldn’t this decision be left to the owner of the building, regardless the ownership belongs to an individual or an organization?  State wise, shouldn’t gay marriage be recognized and whether smoking marijuana or abusing any drugs be a personal choice?  I guess my point here is no government is perfect and absolute. Knowing what we want and participate in anything that we could. People, who can vote, please vote with well considered decision.

The existence of government is necessary, but too big of government will not survive. We all wish for the perfect government when we can't even describe what that would be. We can only hope and try to make the government which we are ruled under would find its balance between capitalism and socialism. Too much of either one will not work for long term. 

What are your priorities?

             “What are our priorities?” It is a very well written article argued why “national debt; unrest throughout the Middle East; and the devastation of Japan” should be the national priorities. I indeed find myself could not agree with him more except “the devastation of Japan”.
            In the discussion of the national debt issue, Mr. Hubbed collected many data that strongly support his reason why national debt should be the top priority. The debts are measured in trillions dollars and the numbers are shocking of course. He also included the data of private debt which seems to me is very interesting, because it is about 4 times of total federal government debt. The whole nation agrees on the biggest agenda of the nation is the nation’s debts issue. However, it is hard to agree on how to fix the problem. All the solutions that Mr. Hubbed suggested are convincing, some of those I do agree, such as stop incurring debt and re-structure salary. Some are just simply too ideal, by which I mean we can only hope.
            When it comes to Middle East issues, he made it very clear that supporting the renewal of the Patriot Ac does not mean supporting “continuation of the war”. He listed four reasons and one of those was, I quote, “First, we can’t afford continuing this fight in the manner we are fighting it (remember, that the National Debt would be my first priority).” I think it would be more persuasive if he had included some statistic evidence. I understand that Mr Hubbed thinks U.S. should stay away of involving and transfer the attention from elsewhere to itself and we need a leader who can order to “bring the troops back!”  Is it really that simply?
            Japan, what have happened is a tragic. All countries shall support Japan in all means regardless what they have done in the past. Japan should be one of the priorities because of China according to Mr. Hubbed’s argument. So, really, China is United States’ priority. I say United States is the forever standing giant if it wins this “world new domination” competition in such chaos as Mr. Hubbed argued in this article. Losing the game does not make United States a failure. Maintaining the number one status should not be this nation’s priority, maybe United States would be the forever standing giant.
            This is a very intelligent argument and it is logically reasoned. Mr. Hubbed sees problems from the surface to certain depth and analyzes them with strong evidences, intelligent opinions and strategies. I really enjoyed reading it. 

"We need calm in face of storm"

We need calm in face of storm -- an interesting but true statement. Imagine your general panicked when the enemy army attacked and you were in the front defense line on a battle field? Lucky in this case we are looking at a panicked district's chief executive officer. Education budget cut has became one of the most popular topics that local people talk and act about. Who doesn't know the government is going to close some schools and lay off many teachers. Kids have been participate in such activities as found raising and raising awareness of the importance of their schools and teachers. This school budget cut is a serious problem and we should be concerned. However the author of this article does have a very outstanding and valuable point --"The facilities task force that recommended school closures was supposed to be looking at options for the next 10 years — not weeks." The author also pointed out three good reasons to to delay an exigency for a few weeks. Timing, which gives the decision makers some more time to think through the problem, because there might be better solutions; the Legislature, which create some means that might help to keep more teacher employed; and the transparency -- let the public see the plan! 

Government and media tend to exaggerate the emergence of problems either to draw greater attention by scaring people or for higher viewer turn out. Whatever the reason is, it is working! Budget cut issue came out of nowhere in one day and people started to react to it immediately. People panicked for personal reasons. The leader, however, shall not be anywhere near being panicked. It would only create more chaos . Everything has a solution. By giving it a little time will lead to answer. For better or worse, at least we can say that the decision was made with many consideration. After all, this is not a either now or never situation. 

Austin is Growing?

Austin is growing! How big is it going to be? Will it be over populated? Can a growth of a city be planed? If so, will the plan be fellow? Most importantly, how is this city going to grow? Those are the questions I have after reading "Blueprint for Austin's growth heading to council". I don't think my questions would be answered with certainty, but the idea of growing within the urban area instead of expanding endlessly outward is very attractive to me. Concentrate the population into a well developed or a developing area is most definitely a way to control city growth and limit unnecessary environmental destruction. Austin metro train system would be fully used and potentially public transportation system would be developed to an extend that people do not have to rely on cars. Concentrated area would bring more local business and boost local economy. Urban area's housing price would not be outrageous anymore compare to suburb housing, etc.
So, here is the conclusion of my personal opinion: a growing city is unavoidable. I prefer the Austin that's from 10 years ago. Many prefer the one from 20 or 30 years back. Human population is growing. If we have to grow, let's grow within and grow taller instead of fatter. Let's work with what we have already destroyed instead of destroying more beautiful woods and land. Let's reserve some of those precious land for the animals we love and next generations we hope for.