Who needs friends when you can have frenemies?

In a blog by Inside the USA, the author calls out some interesting assumptions regarding media and its biases towards those venues or political candidates that it opposes.

I particularly like my classmates view on the entire political venue as she equates it high school girls stabbing each other in the back. I really like this assumption as I can see it playing out as our party system really does act that way. They are super nice to each other faces during debates and campaigns if representatives are there and able to defend themselves against allegations, however if no one is around then the claws come out and the mud starts flying. I also find it interesting that both parties spread gossip and claim the other is lying another key trait of a group of freshman girls.

 I also find it interesting that our parties also choose to support each other or band against other parties that might try and come in and break up their level of control. It seems that their only main goal is to maintain their status at the top of the cheerleading pyramid that is our political system. They care who gets to the top, but only as much as that’s the one who gets to date the football captain for the next 4 years.

I enjoyed Stephanie’s quizzical look into our political system and its seemingly immature behavior. I do however slightly disagree with her though, I've been around the block enough times to realize that although both of these girls might be attractive, I've decided to go stag to the prom.

If I wanted to carry around bags I'd be a trashman

My previous editorial was on the armchair activism that is so rampart here in Austin, and this weeks will be a brief extension upon that in the realm of plastic bags.

One of the newest crazes sweeping our "go-green" city is the bag ban. I'm all for turning out the lights when you leave the room, not using DMT on bald eagles, and I even recycle, but this concept that these bags are better for the environment is something that our armchair activists locked onto, and got passed is ridiculous, and not to mention annoying.

According to some actual science and calculations that were done comparing reusable bags, plastic bags, and paper bags the following was found:

"There are also no environmental benefits to banning plastic bags — but there is potential harm. Compared to cloth bags, plastic bags require less energy to produce and less energy to recycle and produce less municipal waste. Plastic bags generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less water to produce than paper bags. Cloth bags need to be used 104 times before there is any environmental advantage over plastic bags. But most cloth bags are used half that amount. Reusing cloth bags can also lead to cross-contamination and disease."

It is interesting to even see major news outlets such as Bloomberg , who stated:

"Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag. When bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold.That study also found, happily, that washing the bags eliminated 99.9 percent of the bacteria. It undercut even that good news, though, by finding that 97 percent of people reported that they never wash their bags."

While I know it might be too much to ask for tree hugging hippies to bathe themselves you would think that they would at least wash their bags, or use some common sense and place items such as meats in a different bag due to the cross contamination that could occur.

In addition to the food factor there is the convenience factor. I recently went to Hobby Lobby on to obtain some acrylic paint for mural we are doing at work. I was able to procure a cart and fill it with paint, brushes and glazing medium which was packed in enough trash plastic, saran wrap pressure packaging, and Styrofoam to fill a small sinkhole, upon checking out I was informed that I needed to cart these items out to my car or buy bags as they don't have plastic bags. /facepalm. If I wanted to carry around bags all day Id be homeless, just like if I wanted to check out m own groceries Id get a job as a checker, not stand next to a machine and scan my own stuff.

However at the game store right next door, as well as at Best buy loaded me up and double bagged. It isnt even enforced at ALL locations, its totally voluntary, which means that the term "bag ban" is just another political term fed by social media and consumed by the armchair activists.

Im deeply saddened when I read that the city of Austin is spending 150,000 dollars on buying 50,000 bags to give out to low income families. Why is it 3 dollars a bag when I could BUY them from HEB for .99 cents? GG government. I was even sadder to read  that our state government is spending almost 2 million dollars on education and marketing on this topic.

2 million dollars on bags that are worse for the environment than their predecessors all to secure votes and feed the flames. I guess that's one way to "Go Green", although with spending like that we will soon be in the red.

A Constructive Compliment

I found this article on Courtney Robertson's blog and her evaluation very well rounded and interesting. So many people immediately discount Rick Perry based on previous actions and interactions he has had both in the political and the personal arena. I find that to be especially true in Austin news media and it is interesting to hear an evaluation from the other side.



I find it interesting that these sources automatically assume that he isn’t running for governor again so that he can run for President (since that is what stopped him from winning last time, right). When you combine this with the common 'He's so dumb how could he run the country' routine we see any time a good ole boy runs for office it’s amazing that they forget that he has been re-elected multiple times. He’s obviously doing something right, and has had a positive influence over the state in various forms.



I found your call out that the majority of Texans, and other Americans have a knowledge of who Perry is and the follies he performed during his last run refreshing, as well as your call out that you also recognized the intended article of the source material you were reading. I also love that you mentioned that which the article did not; that both sides have weaknesses. While pieces such as the one you reviewed have a tendency to ignore the weaknesses of the side they are advocating for it is nice to see that you as an educated reader were able to pick-up on it and acknowledge this as a real problem for both parties.



I personally don't think he has a snowballs chance in hell at winning, but not for the reasons that most papers cite. I’ll be interested to see how 2016 turns out and whom the parties chose to represent them in what will inevitably be a battle to be remembered.

Austin.. The Breeding Ground of the Armchair Advocate.

While I’m a huge fan of diversity and a difference of opinion I got to say I hate the armchair activists that live in this city. Everyone has a cause and I respect that especially if you are well informed, educated, and passionate about the topic that affects you. What I have a problem with are those people who pop off at the mouth, quote rumor as fact, and hop on board with any bandwagon issue that happens to be this week’s Social Media cause of the week.

Austin seems to have a large group, in my experience, with those that are less informed but way more vocal than other areas in which I have lived. I find this very interesting because Austin is the state capital and has one of the best colleges in the country with an extremely active liberal following and political program. Yet despite this mecca of knowledge the masses are fine with just reading about the events on Social Media, changing their internet picture and showing up to a rally that someone setup on Facebook.

What does this have to do with Government? Our local government is failing this generation. Rather than engage them via the avenues in which they can gather the most attention (like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and harness the young political minds that are at their fingertips, I feel like they are just playing to the ‘Old School’ by making large scale decisions and holding city hearings in a boring drab ass council chamber. They focus on issues not relevant to the younger masses and or those issues that aren't ‘sexy’ or are too controversial. With the majority of this city being liberal, and children from all over Texas flocking here for school they are missing a huge chance to cross pollinate, educate, inform, and the redistribute the knowledge and the masses across the rest of the state. Planting the seed is only the first step, but if presented in a mobile, consumable way , their attention span IS limited to 144 characters, you increase the chance of them actually looking deeper into the issue than just the tagline.

I’m not sure if a City Council Kegger, or a Senate Lingerie party is going to fix the problem, in fact it may just make the 6 o clock news, but the chance of drawing in young fresh voters, informing them of the issues and WHY they are relevant to them or will be in the next 5 years as they graduate is the key thing that our city and our state should be focusing on, not what to do with peoples guns or their uterus.

We may have a chance to actually fix this state, but only if people stop posting about it, and start doing something about it, people and politicians both.

Texas.. We got a Code Blue...

Its no doubt that our health care system has its problems, whether its funding, coverage, insurance companies, politicians or red tape. Rarely do you think of Doctors being a problem. 

In a Dallas Morning News editorial labeled “What does it take to shut down a hospital” discusses the issue and controversy surround just one type of Doctor.

In America we love a feel good story, especially if that story has to due with protecting the weak and sick, and aiding business. Enter Dr Mahmood who has a habit of taking over failing hospitals, which one would think is a noble cause. Unfortunately the “Good” Dr has a habit of running them even further into the ground, stealing and extorting money from insurance and patients and having shitty service that has resulted in death.

The even more appalling thing… This has happened approximately 6 times. How does that happen our author asks? He attributes it to poor communication between government organizations, which is no surprise to this reader.

Both state and local officials have cited Mahmood’s 6 hospitals over the last 5 years, including onsite inspections resulting in power outages, unpaid taxes, poor venting and air circulations and false billing. I can see 6 hospitals having problems, even some as bad as the ones cited, but I would think that a red flag would go up in some governmental system of 6 failing hospitals were bought by the same guy.

An interesting article that reinforces why I hate doctors and resolve what ails me the old fashion way... by rubbing dirt on it, taking a swig of whiskey and walking it off.

West Texas... Remember that?

Its been almost 2 months since our social media feeds exploded, excuse the pun, with news about the West Texas explosion. In typical fashion as all things social media once it was off our feed, it was out of our thoughts.

Not so with the Editorial titled  Demanding Answers on West Explosion in the Dallas Morning news in which we see two unlikely allies, a California Democrat and an Austin Republican working together to call for answers.

In this interesting example of bi-partisan cooperation the author calls out the, gripes and  concerns that have been made, including the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to properly identify the West Facility as potential risk that needs to be identified on the watch list. I’m inclined to agree with our authors level of confusion regarding why a facility, with a history of break-ins, holding large quantities of a known ingredient in explosive devices previously used in previous terrorist attacks wasn't on the list of an entity whose entire job was to keep our homeland… secure. /facepalm

More surprised was I to read that a California Democrat said something intelligent. Normally they spew a bunch of random jibber jabber trying to use some scare tactics to get what they want. Barbara Boxer stated that large quantities of caustic and explosive material should be documented in case of emergency and kept in a separate location far away from largely populated areas. While I wouldn't call West a densely populated area, I do agree that with all the space out there it seems interesting to keep it so close to town.

Overall I enjoyed reading this sensible editorial regarding a tragic mistake. I hope that this doesn't fall on deaf ears and that we work to fix existing problems before focusing on this week’s new cause.

Tampon Gate: They took my Tampons (and my feces)!

With all the Abortion Bill stuff in the news I was interested when I started hearing about the tampons being confiscated at the Capitol. I followed up with one my favorite sensationalist Austin News organizations the Burnt Orange Report. In their article After Tampongate, We Have Some Questions for Texas DPS they pose accusatory questions regarding the actions of officers.

The article first says the officers were peaceful and polite helping people into overflow rooms, but later state that they assaulted peaceful protestors, ignored reports of assault, and stole tampons from the homeless.

What the article doesn’t state is that after learning that people were being denied entry because of the tampons “Kirk Watson, D-Austin, spoke to the sergeant-at-arms and DPS officers were told to allow people to bring in the products.” According to another news outlet

The DPS has already issued a statement regarding the confiscation of the items which as well as significant quantities of feminine hygiene products, glitter, urine jars, feces, paint and confetti... The BOR article suggests that they DPS is lying about the jars of urine and feces, but makes no mention of the paint, confetti, or glitter. I’m all for people being able to bring in what they need to take care of their bodily functions, but why the urine, feces, glitter etc but does this lady really look like she is getting a visit from Aunt Flo, or does it look like she is armed for battle?

 

The articles on the BOR could do , in my opinion with a bit more fact finding and actual news reporting on important matters regarding the rights of people in our fair city.