Gay Marriage...

I definitely agree with you, I don't understand how can Texas recognize divorcing a gay marriage, but they do not recognize gay marriage in the beginning? It's understandable that some people have their opinions and it's against their religion and such, but what their opinions and their values are should not affect other people's lives.

People who are gay do not choose to be gay and get discriminated, they have rights just like everyone else and should be treated the same. Our city is all about no discrimination, but wouldn't you say not allowing them to get married is discriminating.

Unemployment Benefits...

For the 7.2% rate of unemployed peopled here in Austin, unemployment benefits will end soon after December 31st. Employers just got notices that they will have to pay almost triple the amount in taxes for each employee. Employers will now have to pay a minimum of $64.80 per employee starting in 2010, compared to the $23.40 in 2009.

In the event of this, thousands of unemployed people will lose their unemployed benefits and will not be able to apply for more, that's if Congress does not pass the bill to extend unemployed benefits. The bill has just been presented to the House, but it may be too late for some people. The hours the unemployed people are putting into applying for jobs both in person and online may just all be a waste of time.

In my opinion, I think this whole thing is awful. I understand that we are in a recession, but raising taxes will only worsen everything. Employers will refrain from hiring more people to avoid such high taxes which will not help our unemployment rate. Since the recession, I’ve know a few people who have gotten laid off and it is not like they are sitting on the butts, watching TV and eating bonbons on the couch collecting unemployment, they are actually out and about looking for work. My dad was actually laid off a couple of years ago, and it is stressful situation for someone to go through. After working for a company for 20+ years, it is hard to look for something new and start over.

Yes, there are some people who do nothing and collect unemployment just because they can, but there are some deserving people who need the benefits in between jobs just to survive.

Abortion in Our Politics?

Abortion is always such a touchy subject. I personally do not believe in abortion but I would not go as far as saying that the women who do it are murderers. I actually know a few women who have had abortions, some still have trouble coping with it after years, and others just think it's just a way to solve a "problem". There are some circumstances that are truly understandable, like for example, getting raped and as a result ending up pregnant, and many others, but who are we to say if a person is right or wrong for doing this? Abortion should not be a politcal deciding factor, that should be besides the point. No one knows why that person did it, it's their life and if they chose to do that so be it, I think it is enough suffering for a person to have to live with that for the rest of their life anyway.

Our government....

Texas government is obviously Republican dominate. We like our freedom, such as we get to keep our guns, we have our pride and it makes sense why our government is more Republican than Democrat. Texas also gives a lot of power to the lobbyists. Here in Texas there are many lobbyists for different things and they usually make it happen, for example the new bike laws and such. Also, I think we need to do something about our healthcare situation. We have some of the worse percentages of uninsured people here and that is unacceptable. As Texans, we should have enough pride and provide the proper healthcare needed in our state. Overall, I think our government is runned fairly well, I honestly do not think I would last in another state because of the freedom we are given, but I think we can work on our healthcare.

How sad....

In the article, Manslaughter at a State School by Dave Mann, is about a "state supported living center" where one of the employees killed a mentally disabled patient. The author's intended audience is for anyone in Texas who would allow something this awful to happen to a person who is defensless, or for anyone who is thinking about admitting their loved one into a "state supported living center" like the one in Lubbock. Mann's arguement is that they are doing reform's to these state schools, yet they ignore the pay increase that state workers should get. They are the lowest paid state employees and only get paid $8 an hour, which is around how much most retail workers get paid. Dave Mann always has concrete facts and numbers in all of his articles. He has written plenty of articles in the Texas Observer as the Contrarian. I do agree with what Mann states, how does a person learn to care about a job as difficult as taking care of the ill and getting paid as the lowest state worker. No one would want to accept that pay and have such a difficult job unless they could not find a job anywhere else, and there is probably something wrong with them if they could not get a job else where.

That many uninsured women here in Texas?!

Dave Mann of the Texas Observer, wrote an article about how women are more likely to be uninsured. It is appalling how many Texas women are uninsured, we have the highest rate in the country of uninsured women which is just unacceptable and nothing to be proud of. 28% of women in Texas do not have insurance, and what's even worse, 52% of low income women lack health insurance. Health insurance is something that everyone needs, no one likes to pay a couple of thousand dollars just to visit the emergency room. Hopefully a new health care reform can fix things, I don't really understand why health care is not free in our country really. Countries like Canada and France do not pay a dime for their health care and yet they are still alive and doing well, why is it that one of the wealthiest countries in the world cannot even cover health care for their citizens?