Casino :Big NOOOO

My Colleague, Paul Lanchester’s post titled, “CASINOS? A GRAET DEAL” talks about legalizing Casinos in order to overcome budget problem. Well, I don’t believe that casinos in Texas are a great idea. It will promote more illegal activities such as thefts, fights, and alleged cheaters –dealers. It will make it easier for other illegal activities and other types of gambling. Texas would need to spend a lot more money on different type of law enforcement. My dear classmate, Paul, states that casinos will bring tourism in Texas. I do agree with him to some point but we Texans don’t really want to risk our state. It’s guaranteed that Texas will make lot of money and attract tourism but at what price? Wake up people.

 Legalizing casinos means government is going to get more money out of people for a bad cause. I completely see what Paul is trying to say here. Even I have also seen people driving to Louisiana because there is no gambling here in Austin, TX. I am sorry Paul, but I personally think that gambling is immoral. It’s just a waste of time and money. Anyways, Texas has already legalized some forms of gambling to help balance the state budget and established a lottery almost two decades ago. And now, we don’t need to legalize casinos at all, its not worth it. I understand this philosophy Texan has, including Paul of wanting casinos. Believe me, Texas is a great state with a diverse communities, that’s what I named my blog too.People have good values here. Please TEXANS, rethink your stand on permitting casinos.

"Katy Perry Gets High Schoolers Suspended"

   We live in a world of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, where everyone has the right to express him or herself and realize their full potential by enjoying all the basic rights. I came across this article named, "Stupid Texas Schools:Van Twirlers suspended for doing routine to-I Kissed A Girl" editorial by Vince Leibowitz, which was published in our very own Capitol Annex.

 An incident that took place in van high school where three girls were suspended from two footballs game performances on the basis of changing the music to their performance. According to reports the Van ISD assistant superintendent Suzie McWilliams said the suspension involved a recent performance that was not consistent with the district’s student code of conduct. It might be an argument that the song that the girls chose was not fully "appropriate" but suspension on these terms seems totally uncalled for .By nature, its rebellious and such moves not only alienate certain students but also affect the student and authorities relation as a whole.
KDFW-TV reported the girls performed to Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” after school officials told them the song was too suggestive. Well for one argument the girls did not actually kiss but performed to the song. If such songs and videos have been passed by the government to be viewed on TV whose audience is young and old alike, I see no reason why the school should have a problem with the girls dancing in this track. These double standards at different levels is primarily the reason that the youth is getting more and more difficult to control for one government strategy stops them from doing something while the other promotes it. This has left not only the youth but also the general population confused but also asking questions and being rebellious.
For example 50 years ago such a song would be unthoughtful of on TV as well as on the field but today our double standards to life on tube and life off it is just making our population more and more eager to live the life we show on tube. These double standards need to be changed and be changed for good. I just think that it’s a song, “It’s just like any other song for me”.

"No news is good news"

While going through blogs, I found “ A bloodbath” by Robert, an interesting topic to comment on. The way writer projects opinion on Politics is credible. “Road to tomorrows politics” states how the citizens perceive politics. It is an undeniable truth that politician present themselves worthy to be represented, by bashing opponents. Writer expects politicians to provide with convincing factors that could encourage writer to vote them. These expectations are among many citizens who are persistently trying to get their representative work in favor of the nation and people themselves. But,if we perceive political battle in other way, it sounds interesting to most of the people who try to choose their candidates. The Tv shows, newspapers, online and other media sources make general people know about politics. Generally, in political battle candidates battle in certain issues that attracts viewers and statistics says that political battle in media increases the number of voter turnouts. Today’s voters get interested on watching political battles and attack ads rather than reading newspapers or going to campaign websites. I bet most voters would be interested on watching politician battle to prove them worthy than others. Who wouldn’t be interested if there pops out a “BREAKING NEWS: Negative Attack Ads on Obama” in youtube?? Political battle has been a new face to modern politics. This is what politician rely on to attract voters by understanding the needs and feedback on certain issues that general public create.

"Time to restore diverted unemployment funds"

The article titled "White calls on Perry to restore diverted unemployment funds" by RG Ratcliffe reports on why white called Perry to return the Texas Workforce Commission that was diverted to Texas Enterprise Fund. In the article, the author picks up the fallen sword and tries to make a point with given facts that the unemployment fund is always under-funded in economic downturns and I completely agree with him. Perry's action has led to tax increase on small businesses. His policies doubled the pay-roll taxes that are clearly affecting the job growth.

In a counter argument, the author has taken up a very sensitive issue and tried to deal with it in a very simplified way, a little "too simplified" I would say. The author has quoted that "the news media has linked Perry's enterprise fund financing of companies to donations received by his campaign.” Radcliffe proves his point by saying that all these politicians are trying to use the money for other enhanced benefits which is very true. After Perry, the trust fund has become empty. I found out after my research that all these dollars are giver to countless campaign contributors for Perry. There are few major reforms Texans are expecting which are just minor for all these politicians if they act smart. First of all, restore diverted funds that is $161.5 million Secondly, audit the enterprise fund used for subsidies and finally, disclose the plan for repaying borrowed federal stimulus funds.

An expert’s opinion on this issue is totally similar with what the author says. Personally as a keen observer of current events, I would rate the article an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10.I actually liked working on Ratcliffe's work but moreover the language of the article in itself does not seem convincing enough for such a sensitive issue and is flamboyant and casual, more suited for an article on celebrities and their ever happening gossip. Well, just a thought of mine.

Skilled Immigrants fleeing the US

I came across this very interesting blog written by Moira Herbst, in “The Texas Fred Blog”. In “skilled Immigrants fleeing the US”, the author discusses about how an expert Indian who came to the US 10 years ago and earned Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer engineering from UT, Austin 2005 is now moving back to India.  His name is Swaroop Ganguly and he personally thinks that he can come out with better results in his home country with all the knowledge and research stored in his brain. Talking about his salary, Swaroop will be making less than a 50% of what he makes in States with a guaranteed job security and freedom to the research without any hassle. The author made a very good point here. I personally think that when skilled persons are willing to explore things in their own way and don’t really get to, they take a step against and that becomes never ending issue. It is clear that the “brain drain” is reversing. Herbst is trying to bring a point where recession is slashing jobs and opportunities. Immigrants have a lot to do but don’t really have a space, whereas in India huge amount of funding goes into technology so how much salary one gets isn’t a really big issue.Now the major problem for the Americans once these super skilled immigrants leave US, there is a higher chance of coming up with new companies and create a job opportunities. This will result in cutting prospects of recovery from recession. It will result in huge downturn in the economy as per economists.Why should immigrants care about it anyways? Well, the answer to this is they are important part of country's economy. After my research, I found out that immigrants are co-founders of Google, E-bay,Yahoo and many other booming firms. I am sure they crave for a comfort of being close to loved ones back there in their country. I came to the United States on student visa and the one and only factor that brought me here is educational development opportunities.As an Indian, I believe that American have right in controlling immigrants and we owe them at the end of the day. But then immigrants expect more, the burden of tuitions are just not fair as compared to Americans. People like Swaroop, who came here to pursue higher education now wants to go back and do something for his country, then why STOP him? If they helped launch numerous projects here in recent years then they are paying back what they owe this country for providing better education. Now the only solution to this problem is come up with some satisfying deal or Let Them FLEE :)

PERRY LEADS WHITE IN CAMPAIGN CASH RACE

As we all know about an upcoming election in Texas, where Texans will be choosing a governor for themselves. The candidates are Rick Perry, who is republican and his rival Bill White is Democrat. This is an interesting editorial commentary about Perry leading the race against White. Democrat's campaign says, “It has fewer dollars on hand because it bought air time in advance”. Rick Perry has raised $8.3 million since June compared with the $4.7 million raised by White.

The editors of this article stating “Perry leads White in campaign cash race” are Jason Emrby and Corrie MacLaggan from Austin American statesman. Editor’s detailed report tells us about how much the campaign raised and spent, held by Perry and White. White spent most of it on future TV spot. Perry has raised immense amount of money and apart from that he is proud to have a broad support for his policies to run Texas. Perry’s spokesperson, Mark Miner said that they creating more job opportunities, secure border and also proper education.

From my research, I found out that Perry is flooded by money and his main donors are Houston homebuilders, dallassites, and reputed CEOs from the companies. Whereas White is getting more from local people and has a more comprehensive base. That is what the general election is about. Perry is still running like it is the primary. White has lots of prepaid advertisements for the future. He is playing it accordingly.Well, there is this never ending long list that has to be altered in Texas, starting from amending the constitution to changing a governor for a CHANGE.Go for it WHITE. :)

Health Reform

The article by Emily Ramshaw is a report on a high court judgement, the judgement passed makes the case of a broken bed fall under the malpractice cap .This article which I picked from our very own Texas Tribune raises a very important question "Does a broken hospital bed constitute a medical mistake?” This article revolves around a case that centers on Irving Marks, who fell while recuperating from back surgery at Houston’s St.Lukes Episcopal Hospital in 2000.

The articles reports "Marks alleged that a broken footboard on his hospital bed led to his fall and that he should be entitled to sue St. Luke’s for unlimited damages with a so-called “premises liability” claim. The hospital argued the Marks incident involved medical care and should fall under Texas’ medical malpractice law — which requires a timely expert report and caps damages for pain and suffering at $250,000."After many years of struggle the case was finally declared to be under the "medical malpractice law”. The argument was if the bed was a part or integral to Marks's health care and more so there was no expert who would write down the report. The final judgement however came in favor of Marks and did qualify the bed as an integral to the health care. Moreover the case argues if a person claiming medical liability would have to find a maintenance person to write down an expert report even for slipping on a wet floor.

The reason that I chose this article and why I would personally suggest this to my fellow classmates is because it raises a very important and sensitive issue. Health care in Texas is a complex issue and an important one and needs to be addressed as the complexities need to be solved and innovative and creative solutions need to be thought of. I raise this issue as it concerns all of us and any solution would be a solution to a problem all of us face. With this one article about one particular case, I want to point out that the laws regarding healthcare need to be revised and it has to be done urgently. I would say it is a LIABILITY for us.  :)