Peggy Fikac of the The Houston Chronicle writes that Texas lawmakers are in a quandry during this session because: Before a free hand with spending is a possibility, lawmakers must grapple with a constitutional spending cap. Unless the cap is bypassed (lawmakers can vote to waive it), it limits their ability to spend billions of…
Op-Ed Blog
Executions Down Nationally…
…but they’re up in Texas. The Houston Chronicle reports: The convicted killer of a 3-year-old boy is set to die this week, the first of five lethal injections scheduled this month as Texas bucks a national trend and bolsters its standing as the most active in carrying out capital punishment. Twenty-four condemned Texas killers were…
Certainty
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell. Welcome to Black Shards, a continuation of my blogging from the last 4+ years. You will see a certain amount of certitude on this site along with many…
A Speech for the New Year
Senator Gordon Smith (who?) recently gave an excellent speech on the Iraq situation. MuckRaker.com has a transcript here. Many of the posts on this topic focus on the fact that Smith is Republican, that he’s broken ranks with Bush, that Ted Kennedy congratulated him on his speech, and other armchair gamesmanship. The preening, masturbatory nature…
Local Immigration Laws
The ACLU and Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund say: Farmers Branch’s ordinance prohibiting apartment landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants discriminates against Latinos… Yes, it does. So what? Latinos represent the overwhelming majority of illegals; it’s correct that the law should target them. Note that this isn’t because Americans are inherently anti-Mexican or that…
Robert Paterson on Web Communities
I’m not particularly a big fan of web-based relationships or communities. But Paterson’s new essay on the topic is a good one. Read it. I think there are definite possibilities in the spaces he describes. The question for me is whether our “forced” participation in the current system will allow enough of us sufficient time…
Illegal Immigration = Identity Theft?
Dave Navarrette wonders why La Migra is spinning their daring raid on several chicken plants as “a crackdown on identity theft“. I don’t think this is any mystery: it’s because the other branches of the government and a certain political party that benefits from illegal immigration don’t care about the root crime itself. Immigration is…
Guy’s Inspiring Business Story of the Year
Read Guy Kawasaki’s interview with Aziza Mohmmand, an Afghani female entrepreneur – wow. Prime Q&A: Question: What did you like the most and the least about America? Answer: What I liked was the discipline in driving, great roads, advancement in the infrastructure of the country, respect, cooperation of people with each other, the value of…
Bad Liberal Ideas
Here’s a blog entry that shows, yet again, why liberals shouldn’t be elected dog catcher, let alone to a real job. The prime quote: Principal Paul Richards said a key reason for stopping the practice [ed. of printing the names of honor roll students in the local paper] is its contribution to students’ stress level…
MySpace to be Safer?
MySpace is trying to make itself safe for kids but it’s a waste of time and effort. Don’t be fooled – there is no reliable way to keep human trash from trolling for underage victims given the current state of the Net. Do we really want to eliminate that sort of behavior? Sure, but at…