Common Sense

The travel bug

I've been thinking about how I've always wanted to visit Thailand lately. I'm not sure exactly why, but something about the beaches and the culture seem really appealing to me.

I know what you're thinking. It's the hot asian chicks.

But I don't think so. I think it is the allure of being on the other side of the world. It is so far away that it is not here. It is in my nature to want to travel and experience different things. Lately I've realized that is not happening as much as I would like. And so I think of Thailand.

The cheap beer could also possibly be a factor.

Rumors, rumors and heap o buzz

I just read a Quorum Report Hot Buzz that says a new franchise tax is being shopped around in the Senate, and will be formally unveiled next week.

What? You don't think a new franchise tax proposal is exciting? This could be what makes or breaks the Special Session. A new franchise tax might be just what the doctor ordered to come up with the missing $200 million in Perry's Plan, or to work as a compromise to reconcile the two different versions of HB2.

More education than you can shake a stick at

The Senate took up and passed CSHB2 today. They are now adjourned until Wednesday.

The problem still lies in bridging the gap between the two houses. This is an amended version of HB2, passed in the House two days ago, and includes

Major gaps exist between the two plans, mostly in funding methods and formulas which would give some school districts more money and some less. Shapiro said the Senate plan provides an additional $2.9 billion in funding for schools during the next two years, along with the $3,000-per-teacher pay increase in the same period.

During debate, senators lamented that they were not able to provide bigger pay raises for teachers, and that additional money could not be pumped into facilities and programs that will benefit students.

"But this bill makes a strong statement about equity and that is extremely important for Texas," said Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville. "This bill is better than the House version. If we can't stick to our guns, then no bill is better than a bad bill."

This "better bill" has 21 days to be reconciled with the House version, otherwise we will end up with no bill, and possibly another special session. The kids are counting on you.

If I were going to place a bet on whether the Special is successful, I would have to put all my money on "No." Maybe it's because I'm seriously pessimistic, or because I'm a realist who thinks the Republicans will never get their act together on this issue. Who knows.

Chris Bell is still sounding off on what we really need to be talking about, making schools better instead of trying to figure out another tax break for wealthy landowners. He's also asking for your thoughts, so click on over.

An 8-hour nap

For those of you who must know, Thursdays are a little strange here at Common Sense. You would think I would be able to post twice as much on a day off, but somehow, it never works out that way.

I always end up going to bed at 8 a.m. and waking up at some God-awful hour of the afternoon. And all my grand plans about doing things that need to be done just fall through. So I end up watching TV all night.

But not today. Today I'm up early enough that I think I can vacuum and wash my car before the sun sets. And believe me, it needs it.

Another traffic update

So far today I have had 460 hits, or roughly 90 more than yesterday.

If this keeps up, I'll be getting higher traffic than Pink Dome, which I think would somehow be an affront to God. We can only hope for as much.

Actually, I'm very happy with the increase in traffic. I don't need celebrity status, just some recognition and honest debate. I've said it before: I'm biased as all f**k, but I'm honest. I hope that's what you new people are coming away with.

Full contact baseball

Thanks to Asshole for the photo and the link.

AP Photo — In this image from TV station KTVT, Kenny Rogers wrestles a camera from Larry Rodriguez of station KDFW before throwing it to the ground and kicking it.

I take up the challenge

Some of you may or may not have read a recent comment here. MajorDad more or less challenged me ("I reject your reality and substitute my own") to stop dropping f-bombs because "it's getting old." He also said I should probably leave it to Dick Cheney.

Well, I'm takng him up on his challenge. I don't think of myself as eloquent in the least, but I will try to avoid swear words. My original comment was to do it for a week, but on further reflection, and in an ode Morgan Spurlock, I will go 30 days without writing swear words on this blog.

To make it a little easier, I'm going with a basic cable definition of a swear word. If they wouldn't bleep it out on The Daily Show, then I consider it safe to use. I will try to keep it to douche, boobs and dick. You know, just writing all those words together like that should automatically disqualify me. So I'm not going to use all three in the same post again for 30 days.

Let the games begin!

Common Sense gets the scoop, sort of

I've been sitting on something all evening, trying to think of the best way to handle the story. If I just tell you the headline I thought of first, you might panic, and I do not want to be responsible for that.

Oh, I'll just let the Dallas Morning News tell it:

A cow that tested positive last week for mad cow disease was born in Texas and spent its entire 12 years here, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

...

The so-called downer animal, unable to walk, was taken to a pet food processing plant in Waco in November, where it was rejected. A brain sample was taken and the animal's carcass was burned along with those of four other animals.

The Ag Dept. is stressing that this animal was not part of the food supply. It was noticed that the animal could not walk so it was taken somewhere and destroyed and a sample of its brain was tested. Everything went the way it was supposed to. Your Wendy's hamburger is safe.

I've known about this since just before 5 o'clock, but I was going to wait until the morning to link to the Trib story. I finally decided against it just now because I want to at least beat the 10 o'clock news to it. My competitive nature and all.

The only really scary thing is that this is the first case of U.S.-bred mad cow disease. The last scare came from a Candian cow, as I recall. I'm interested to see the investigation into how this cow was infected.

Roy Moore for governor

Yes, the same judge who put a giant granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama State Supreme Courthouse and lost his job because of it, may be drafted into running for the governor's mansion in Alabama, according to Political Wire.

If he actually got on the ballot and won in the primary, which is entirely likely from what I understand of the vulnerabilities of the current GOP governor, then we would be in for a real show. The great majority of the people of the state, I would say, might fall into the "moderate" or "persuadable" categories. I wouldn't call them total wingnuts, let's put it that way.

So they would have to make an interesting choice. They could vote against us terrible, America-hating liberals with our talk of helping the poor, or the can vote for the uber-patriotic (so patriotic, in fact, he was removed from office for refusing a federal judge's order and disregarding the Constitution), God-fearing Roy Moore.

If he actually won, I would loose all respect for all the people living in that state. It would be further proof that a "f**k the south" strategy is what is required to win because the deep south is just too far gone, though.

The children aren't bright deep in the heart of Texas

Texas was recently ranked 33rd in education out of 50 states, and the Texas Lege is back for it's, oh I've lost count, special session to figure out how to pay for public school. To an untrained observer, it may look like we have a problem.

To the trained eye, however, we still have a problem.

And while Republicans argue over how much to cut in taxes and being revenue neutral, one lonely soul is actually talking about education reform: Chris Bell.

Here's what it all comes down to with tuition deregulation.

“When tuition rises four times faster than inflation, we need to admit that tuition deregulation has failed.”

As a 22-year-old college dropout, I can tell you college is expensive. So expensive that I, well, dropped out. And that was just community college. I can't imagine how I would ever pay to go to UT or A&M. I would literally have to sell my soul to Satan to make tuition and room and board.

New BOR writer Damon also takes a stab at explaining how horrible tuition is. Something needs to be done.

Also, check out Bell's podcast about grassroots education reform.