An excellent question, posed in The Eagle.
My guess is he’s getting paid or has some other higher-stake personal interest at play. As they say, follow the money.
Politics
Bigotry is alive and well
I was going to going to do it, but Linoge beat me to it.
Industry response
In response to Mexico wanting to sue gun makers (see: “Oh yeah… it’s their fault“), the firearms industry responds.
Oh yeah… it’s their fault.
Mexico wants to sue US gun manufacturers for all the guns flowing into Mexico.
You know… if you really want someone to sue over letting guns flow into Mexico, how about suing BAFTE? Apparently they just sat around and let it happen. I don’t think Ruger or Remington was quite so involved….
Richard Feldman, President of the Independent Firearms Association and former gun industry association executive said: “Maybe we should be suing the Mexican government for their failure to prevent drugs from coming into our country.”
Indeed. Or perhaps better, why don’t we end this “war on drugs” because if there was ever a time to label something “EPIC FAIL”, THIS.
Why didn’t the corporations pay taxes?
People are up in arms about corporations not paying taxes. Here’s how they do it.
These companies do most of their business in the United States and other moderate-tax countries such as Germany, England and Spain.
But they often put their intellectual property – such as trademarks or patents – into subsidiaries in low-tax countries such as Switzerland, Ireland, Bermuda or the Cayman Islands.
When one of the company’s subsidiaries in a higher-tax country sells a product, it pays a royalty to the subsidiary in the tax haven. That shifts profits to the low-tax country, while the subsidiary in the high-tax country gets a tax deduction for the royalty payment.
“The income is taxed at a lower rate, and the deductions are enjoyed at a higher rate,” says Robert Willens, a Wall Street accounting expert.
And there’s other ways it moves around too. Read the article.
So all that’s happening is people are seeing large, faceless, evil corporations with their fat wallets and rich CEO’s wheedling out of paying taxes. It’s not fair… especially because it’s depriving my favoriate government entitlement program of funding!
I see.
But is anyone asking the more fundamental question? Why are these corporations shifting money around like this? Why are they not wanting to pay the taxes?
Because they want to keep their money.
You know… like you and I do.
You work hard for the things you earn in life. You want to keep a hold of them. You want to reap the benefits of your blood, sweat, and tears. And when someone comes along and takes it from you and leaves you with little left over because “they need it” or “they deserve it” for whatever reason you don’t see fit… it really gets you upset.
So how about this.
Why not figure out how to keep that money here in the first place.
Why not address the more fundamental issue — that people (and corporations) want to keep the things they earned. Allow people to keep their things, even if it is just their GPA.
You’re worried about a growing deficit? That the .gov’s S&P rating was downgraded? So then, why are you still spending money like a madman? If money isn’t coming in, you need to stop sending it out.
People really aren’t all that unwilling to part with their money — when it’s going to be spent on something they consider worthwhile. So imagine… if people and corporations are working so hard to not part with their money and not give it up, seems to me it must be being spent on a lot of things that aren’t worthwhile.
Maybe we should address that issue first.
Your 4.0 GPA is excessive
Your 4.0 GPA is excessive. We should take the GPA’s of the 10% of grade earners and redistribute it to the lower-GPA students to help them.
That would be fair, right?
Oh… it’s fair so long as it’s not YOU that’s being taken from. I see. You work hard for your GPA and you want to keep it. Well, I work hard for my money and want to keep it. If you think other people are entitled to my money, I would say others people are entitled to your grade… and your money too. So, whenever you want to write me a check, I’m waiting, because under your logic, I’m entitled. But yet, I haven’t received a check yet. Why not? If you think forced redistribution of wealth is a good thing, set the example and start redistributing your wealth.
Politicians not keeping their word… whodathunkit?
It looks like Sen. Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville) and Sen. Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) like to go back on their word.
I don’t know about you, but people who give their word then go back on it? They lose a lot of standing in my book. Integrity is about all you really have in life, so it’s important to maintain and improve it… not lose it.
From Alice Tripp of the TSRA:
Dear JOHN, Rumors include the Brady Campaign funneling money into Texas to kill CHL on Campus!Background:
SB 354by Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) would allow adult students, faculty, and staff with a concealed handgun license to carry in buildings located on college campuses currently prohibited by Texas law. SB 354 would also stop colleges and universities from creatingadministrative rules which serve to expel a student or terminate an employee for simply having their licensed handgun in their personal vehicle.
You might be interested in knowing that every college and university in the state of Texas has such administrative rules on the books. That’s what local control buys you: zip, nada, nothing!
Update and Status:
SB 354 became eligible to be debated on the Senate floor last week. TSRA worked to help Senator Wentworth count the required votes to reach the two-thirds rule. The Texas House uses a Calendars Committee which prioritizes and sets the House Calendar; the Senate requires 2/3s of the total senators present to agree to bring a bill up for discussion. There are 31 senators and the required number is 21. The final vote is an up or down simple majority.
It’s a gentlemen’s agreement. I’ll hear your bill even though I might ultimately vote against it, and you’ll hear mine. It also gives power to the minority party and in the case of SB 354, a great deal of power. Two Senators have taken SB 354 hostage, two with help from their “friends”.
Senator Wentworth had counted his votes and turned in his list to the Lt. Governor and we were good-to-go with 22 votes, counting Senator Wentworth.
Governor Dewhurst recognized Senator Wentworth who made the required motion to suspend the rules and consider SB 354. A debate followed.
The list of senators agreeing to the two-thirds rule included Senator Lucio (D-Brownsville). Senator Lucio requested language that would address a primary, secondary, and child-care facility on one of his college campuses. Over night the language was hammered out and Senator Lucio’s staff believed the correction would address the school’s concerns, would be acceptable to Senator Lucio, and wasn’t harmful to Senator Wentworth’s bill. Good-to-go…
The next day, last Thursday, as Senator Wentworth laid out and began explaining his bill, Senator Lucio decided that he wanted his college to take the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) to review this language and insisted Senator Wentworth hold off.
Wentworth was ready and anxious to get on with it. He would keep the language but did not want to wait three more days. Lucio removed his name from the list and now we were down to 21 but still Good-to-go.
For quite a while the debate continued among those who opposed the bill. This included Senator Steve Ogden (R-Bryan). Ogden insisted that so few students would have a concealed handgun license, how could this number possibly make a college campus more safe. Senator, this is about personal safety! Not policing a college campus.
After a couple of hours a group of senators gathered around Senator Mario Gallegos’ desk. Gallegos was on the two-thirds list. Senator Gallegos supported a similar bill last session and told me he had no problem supporting it again. However, with some pressure from the opposition, he too took his name off and now we were at 20 and below the required number. The wheels came off!
Senators Lucio and Gallegos signed the sheet and pledged to vote for the two-third rule to bring up SB 354. The pledge sheet was submitted to the Lt. Governor’s desk. Nothing happened to cause these two senators to go back on their commitment, their word to Senator Wentworth and to Texans.
Below is the list of contact information for Texas state senators:
Please pay special attention and email and to call Senators Lucio (D-Brownsville), Gallegos (D-Houston), and Ogden (R-Bryan). It’s not a waste of time, it’s important that everyone hears from you but particularly the “opposition”. If you have children or grandchildren in a Texas college let the Senate know this information too.
I clipped out the contact information. You can find it on the Texas Senate website.
Here’s an even better part to the story. Local CHL Instructor and rights advocate, Robert Greene, visited with Sen. Lucio’s office about this matter. He asked for their source of the information and was told “this conversation is over and you need to leave.”. According to Robert:
Sen. Lucio wouldn’t vote for SB 354 Campus Carry because of the high school using TAMU Kingsville cafeteria and gym. This is not true. After calling St. Gertrudis Academy, we found they are in their own building and use another K-8 schools building for a cafeteria and gym, which are already exempted under federal law.
Yes, the particular issue is of interest to me, but regardless of the particular issue… if someone gives their word then goes back on it, how can you trust them? How can you be assured they won’t renege on a promise they make to you?
Neighborhood nuisances, discrimination
Right this moment I can hear a cat outside my house, moaning. It won’t shut up.
You know what else I hear a lot of outside? All the mallard ducks quacking up a storm.
Now personally these don’t bother me too much. I’m used to the noises and accept them as a part of the neighborhood.
I suspect there’s been yet another muscovy duck roundup because I see barely any in the neighborhood now. 😦 Either that or some larger critter is prowling the neighborhood at night and eating them (which could be, but unlikely given the pattern).
I was speaking with a neighbor about this yesterday. It’s odd to us that people complain about the muscovy’s. They don’t really make noise. Sure they poop, but the mallards do too, as well as the cats that wander around, people’s dog’s, and all the other wild birds and critters that roam about. So why are the muscovy’s targeted? Well, probably because US Fish & Wildlife Service allows them to be rounded up *sigh* but everything else gets some sort of protected status; thus, muscovy’s are easy targets (due to the USFWS’s misguided regulations). As well, I know from talking to some people that they don’t like what muscovy’s look or act like because it doesn’t fit the stereotype of a duck, like a mallard does. At first we didn’t like them either, because at first glance the caruncles on their faces can be off-putting, but once you start to really look at them you can see how gorgeous these birds can be (plus they have some pretty cool personalities).
But meantime, there’s more disturbance and trouble from what’s protected than from what is not.
Isn’t discrimination wonderful?
Elitist politicians aren’t our friends
An attempt to exempt elected officials servants. Here’s what Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, author of the bill said:
“This is not intended to be any type of elitist bill,” Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, said Monday.
“We spend a disproportionate amount of our time with the public in these particular locations. And therefore it’s a safety factor,” said Kleinschmidt, the measure’s sponsor.
[…]
Under the state concealed-weapons law, citizens who take a course and pass a background check may carry concealed handguns in public but not in bars, schools, sporting events, hospitals, amusement parks and churches.
Kleinschmidt said those restrictions make it dangerous for politicians. He cited the shooting three months ago in Arizona in which a federal judge was killed and Giffords was severely wounded.
“There are so many places I’m scheduled to go where we don’t know the circumstances, but you’ve got to be there,” he said. “In some instances, you really don’t know what type of neighborhood, what type of risks you may be exposed to.”
We mere plebeians spend a lot of time with the public in these particular locations.
Those same restrictions make it dangerous for us lesser people too.
There are so many places that I have to go where I don’t know the circumstances, but I’ve got to be there. And in some of those instances, I don’t really know what type of neighborhood, what types of risks I may be exposed to.
So what makes you more important than me, Rep. Kleinschmidt? other than your perception of yourself and your importance, of course.
Is roller derby a professional sporting event?
Is roller derby a professional sporting event?
Before I attended my first Texas Roller Girls roller derby bout, I had to spend a good deal of time trying to figure out if I, as a concealed handgun license holder, could legally carry at the bout.
I spent time re-reading the Texas legal code. Specifically, PC §46.035 (b) (2) says:
(b) A license holder commits an offense if the license holder intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries a handgun under the authority of Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code, regardless of whether the handgun is concealed, on or about the license holder’s person:
(2) on the premises where a high school, collegiate, or professional sporting event or interscholastic event is taking place, unless the license holder is a participant in the event and a handgun is used in the event;
So… is roller derby a professional sporting event? Does this apply to me?
I asked some people, one of whom even asked a lawyer. I spent a lot of time in Google searching around trying to see if the question had been answered. Maybe the Austin Convention Center had 30.06 signs (it didn’t, from what I could see). Could there be security restrictions in place at the entrance such as metal detectors (no), bag checks (no), frisking (no), or any other such measures (nope, nothing really, but there were some DPS troopers present along with venue “security”). But I had no idea if there would be or not, and if I could and then there was a metal detector would they allow me through (regardless, setting off the detectors gives you a Scarlet A for the rest of the night); would I have to go back to the car and store my gun… but that’s just a recipe for a break-in and my gun ending up becoming an instrument of crime (as well as all the hassle and hell of dealing with repairs and insurance paperwork).
So more searching to try to determine what is a “professional sporting event”. Can’t find anywhere in the Texas law code that defines it, so I guess we turn to what “reasonable people” would define it as. Competition, ticket sales, money involved especially the players and participants being paid. Hrm. Texas Rollergirls are a registered non-profit and lots of things point to the ladies NOT getting paid… but with all the ticket sales, merch, concessions, sponsorships, where is all that money going? maybe they get some sort of stipend or allowance to help pay for some things? I don’t know. How can I know? In fact if anything, I keep seeing conflicting messages if it is a professional sporting event or not. Sporting event sure, but professional? I’m not meaning any disrespect to the ladies involved, merely trying to interpret and understand the law.
And the list goes on and on and on and on. So many things to consider, but in the end, no one seems to be willing to become the court precedent. That’s a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of risk. Furthermore, this is only this one event. Any time and any where I go, I have to think about these things, consider these things, research these things. That adds up to a lot of time, money, and effort spent.
But you know what’s sad?
Bad guys don’t care.
I’m spending all sorts of time and effort to try to ensure I follow the law. Bad guys, by definition, don’t care about the law. They won’t spend any time on this. They don’t care. So what does that do? It means bad guys have the free reign to go anywhere and do anything they want. Good guys don’t.
Does that seem right to you? Does it seem right to burden good people? To put good people at a legally mandated disadvantage? The law is supposed to abridge bad people, to make the burden so great that people wouldn’t want to do bad things. But all I see here is making a large burden for good people trying to do good things. How is that right?
Stuff From Hsoi 