Blog Stage #8

I blogged on Crystal Texas Gov't
Crystal, I would have to agree with everything you said in this post you brought up great points. I recently did a blgo about this same topic a little while back and would like to praise you for having the same kind of views I have. I thought i was the only one! Your liquor law on sundays benefiting Christians for their holy day which is not fair for Jewish people who have their sabbath on saturdays not sundays. I agree that texas does have many laws which are outdated and based too much on religion for my liking. I dont have a problem with anyone being religious but in certain cases the state and religion need to be seperate and not have one base something on the other.

Blog Stage #7

Georgetown, Texas 30 minutes north of Austin, Texas. In the recent elections there were two propositions to expand the ever too small and too crowded infamous Williams Drive. Proposition 1 and Proposition 2. Some of my co workers at my place of employment began to complain about the new propositions. If passed they would begin to expand the road making it wider and much smoother to travel on. My co workers were saying how they did not want this to happen because they love the way Williams Drive is now. I would have to respectfully disagree with their wishes to not have the propositions pass. The people who use Williams drive to get around Georgetown are usually quite slow, do not care to get anywhere on time, do not care if you need to get somewhere, and will turn in front of you coming out of Sun City as you are going along driving the speed limit forcing you to slow down to the pace of a snail. I suppose that is why people I have talked to about the propositions want Williams to stay the same because they are just like every other driver for the most part in Georgetown Texas who like to go 15 miles per hour under the speed limit taking their sweet time going everywhere around the city. I want it to be passed for obvious reasons expanding the road would take care of some of the problems stated above making it much more efficient and cutting the time down it takes to get around town considerably.

Blog Stage #6

Lone Star Gov, I agree with you on the fact that you are all for a cleaner greener environment but I believe that it does not have to start with the government to help get our world cleaner and greener. I believe it can start with people just like you and I and the rest of our classmates. Just regular people we dont need any help from the governemnt to get started. People can start to try and find an alternative method to driving to get somewhere by taking a bike, skateboard, public transportation, carpool, anything to cut down on your own personal driving. People can also start recycling a lot more. The amount of sodas, beers, bottled water people drink in a day if everyone recycled those items everytime they drank them that would be a good start compared to people still just throwing them in the garbage. And people can also become informed on just how much you can recycle these days and start to apply the new information into action.

Blog Stage #5

I am going to write about why every liquor store in Texas is closed all day everyday on Sundays. How come the government of Texas decided to make this a law? i just do not understand it. The only reason why I could maybe see them doing that is for religious purposes most people celebrating their religion choice on Sunday is typically common but still if this is a fact it does not make sense to me. I came from California earlier this summer and started to laugh and was in somewhat disbelief when I found out from family and freinds who live here in Texas that liquor stores are closed all day everyday on Sundays. Not one of them after I asked questions about it could really give me a straight clear answer to this question and since the city of Austin, Texas recently was named the city the most alcoholic I figured that liquor stores would be available twenty four seven to residents of Texas like I thought it would be before I moved here but I was wrong I do not really understand why this is a law but so be it.

Blog Stage #4

Susan Nielsen: Admit it you might be wrong
The article I chose to write about is found in the Dallas morning news. It is written by an opinion columnist who writes for the Portland Oregonian. The article is written for an audience which includes anyone and everyone who involves themselves in the political world of the United States which is a lot of people. It states that you should realize that there is no perfect candidate out there to run and lead this country and that no matter what Obama or McCain do they aren’t going to be right about everything 100% of the time. She states that people need to take a better look at themselves and the candidates that they are voting to run for President. People are blind to the fact of saying to themselves the person I chose to run for President did something wrong. Reasons why are your biases you barely recognize yourself, surrounding yourself with people who think just like you do, you look for information that validates what you believe in, and you dismiss and ignore any evidence which contradicts what you think is right. Mr. Greenspan who is the former longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress recently that he made a mistake believing the markets could regulate themselves. Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he didn't see the subprime lending crisis coming. This is a classic example of exactly what the article is talking about. The author’s credibility could be argued that it isn’t very good because she is just an opinion article writer for the Portland Oregonian but when you read this you start to realize that this has happened to you more than once and you realize that what she is writing about is true. This statement is a wonderful idea that everyone needs to read “So in the spirit of unity, let's try it. If you're in the McCain camp, ponder the idea that Mr. Obama might be a decent guy. If you're an Obama supporter, concede that Sarah Palin is an actual state governor.”

Blog Stage Three: Substantial commentary or criticism #1

The article I chose to write about is entitled, "Make College Affordable" and the author is Charles E. Grassley a Republican senator from the state of Iowa. He is writing about the need to make college affordable. The author's intended audience are people who decide how much college tuition will be. Students who believe tuition is too much along with parents of students who have to pay these outrageous fees for college. He states facts for both sides that there are reasons why tuition is so high and he also states facts about why tuition should be lowered in price. He states that he asked 24 higher education experts why colleges can not use their endowments to help out with financial aid or student tuition so people don’t have to take out huge loans they will not be able to pay off their fees for years to come in order to get a degree. The degree is the all important key to success in the working world and the only way to get it is by going to college which is overpriced and expensive. The author of this article is very credible because he is a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, with jurisdiction over tax policy the position he holds makes this a credible author also by the sources he cites evidence throughout the article with the facts, numbers, and percentages he provides in the article also makes it credible. He states the amount of endowments colleges received in just one year and colleges like Harvard, Yale, and the University of Texas grew in billions of dollars from the year 2006 to 2007 alone. He proposes the question to these higher education experts why colleges can not use their endowments for help in lowering tuition costs and he says that they provided some answers that could be legitimate but said that most were as pathetic as the phrase “the dog ate my homework”.

Stage Two: Article introduction and colleague’s blogs

The article I chose to write about is found on this website. http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/10/1010utsigns.html. This article talks about two students who live and go to school at the University of Texas in Austin. They are both Democrats and have burnt orange t shirts on that say “University Democrats”. Both are supporters for the campaign of potential President Obama. The students were under fire from political student groups who protested these two for having signs in their dorm room window promoting Democrats for change Obama and Noriega and also Vote for change vote democrat. They were being banned from being able to come back to school next semester and take classes unless they took down their signs in their dorm room windows. Both students decided to take the risk and keep the sign up. Democratic and Republican student groups came to their side, along with lawmakers, alumni and others in the community who called University of Texas officials to ask why school policy did not allow students' First Amendment right to express their political views. The students eventually learned that they would not get into any trouble or having anything come against them for leaving their political signs on their dorm room windows. I believe that this article is worth reading because it goes to show you that you need to stand up for what you believe in and do not let anyone or anything sway you. In this case the thing that potentially could have stopped the students was the University of Texas saying they had to take down their signs in order to come back and take classes next semester. This is an outrage in my opinion if you can put things like bumper stickers or big signs on your front lawn supporting a presidential candidate, proposition or anything like that then I believe that you should be able to put up a harmless sign in your dorm room window. These students pay thousands of dollars to come get an education at UT and should be able to put up a sign in their dorm room window with whatever kind of political preferences they choose. This is an important article to read because it goes to show you need to fight for your free speech first amendment right if someone is coming against you to take that away from you. I’m glad these students decided to take that big risk for them and possibly not being able to take classes next semester to stand up for what they believe in.