In reply to Bastards

I read this article with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek. I do not agree with Mr. Pickle on this issue and personally I feel less safe now that House Bill 1815 has been passed. I find it appauling that my safety and that of my fellow texans has been compromised by the irresponsibility of the legislature. Being from west Texas I know the kind of people who own guns and I really don't want them to be able to carry them in thier vehicle ready to shoot on whim. Road rage in this country is insane. People get angry over nothing. Seriously though why is this a safety issue? I have personally never felt threatned enough in my car to need a firearm for reassurance but, I might now that this bill has been ammended. This article I found in the Dallas Morning News sheds some light on the horrors of road rage:



A man shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in east Oak Cliff early Friday during a road rage incident in which each pulled a gun on the other.
Anthony Gray, 30, told police he was heading home along Marsalis Avenue about 3:45 a.m. when the teenager, Frank Vega, cut him off in a 2004 Cadillac.
The two exchanged words at the stoplight where Marsalis meets Saner Avenue.
Either at the stoplight or soon after, both men pulled out handguns.
Mr. Gray fired multiple shots, and a bullet hit the teenager in the chest.
The teen's Cadillac ran off the road nearly a mile away near Overton Road. Mr. Gray pulled off the road and called 911.
"We don't know who displayed a weapon first, but both were armed, and we believe it could be a case of self-defense," said Sgt. Bruce McDonald, a Dallas police homicide supervisor.
Authorities say the teenager did not fire his weapon.
Police plan to refer the case to a grand jury.
Mr. Gray could not be reached for comment.
"It's sad that we have a 15-year-old out on the street at that time of the morning armed," Sgt. McDonald said.

Juicing up

Today the UIL annouced a state wide steroid testing program for High School student athletes. The program would not test for illegal substances but focus solely on performance enhanceing drugs. It will cost an estimated 6 million dollars to check only 3% of the 720,000 student athletes in Texas. Despite the small percentage we will be testing more athletes than the NCAA and Olympic committee combined. No vendor has been selected but 15 firms have a applied for the 6 million + dollars a year gig. While this cause is indead noble it really says a lot for Texas when our highest priority is to make sure the friday night football game is fair, whenever we have millions of uninsured texas children and things like higher education getting cut. And sadly there isn't even a surefire test for steroids. Many new drugs on the market are untraceable which has led to much controversy in Major League Baseball. So really whats the point? We are spending 6 million dollars to test 3% of athletes that may or may not take steroids that may or may not be traceable. And in order to suspended from sports they have to be caught three times but with this random testing that is very unlikely to happen.