Hmm illegal immigrants and their way out of criminals.. can you say YIKES? mm hmm!

Being an immigrant from other country and other state, I found Erin's post very interesting and something that we all should consider regarding immigrants who committed crimes.

So, for me, getting my citizenship on the day of President Obama's inauguration day made one of big marks in my life. I finally became an American! woo! But that's not the point. There are so many illegal immigrants everywhere in United States and especially in Texas, I found it more problematic than any other states, due to the close borderline with Mexico.

It is already big problematic with this kind of immigrants with their "short stay" in Texas but Erin's blog points out that not only we have problem with illegally staying immigrants but with illegal immigrants who committed pretty violent criminals. I definitely agree with crumbling system of our judicial system and how problematic it is for our government.

If we are giving illegal immigrants with criminal loopholes to get away with it and deport them, and allow "bail bondsmen who help these immigrant's receive their reimbursement," I wonder, it would be possible that major gangs would just hire those immigrants, make them commit in crime and all we have to do is deport them? I know it's such a dramatic statement, but you know, it is just ridiculous to let those criminals go and how we actually MADE this loophole FOR them.

But as jen commented above, I think the problem is we, Texans, would have to spend more money to solve this problematic issue. But what needs to happen is that even after being deported, they need to be punished in their own countries at the same level as we punish our criminals.

Overall, Erin's post made me think that this whole issue with "illegal immigrants" is bigger than what it seems to be. Much much bigger. Sometime soon, President Obama would come up with plan, after solving health care issue.. eeeek? :p

Marriage right is illegal, but divorce is legal?

As always, my friends who are gay talked to me about many things, such as his relationship with his boyfriend and such..you know..very girly stuff.. But today for some reason, we talked about "marriage." He was mentioning when he finds his perfect match he wants to get married and have family and such. But at the same time, I asked him, "say you got married, but just like normal couple, what if you don't love anymore or he cheats on you? What would you do?" My friend's answer was clear: Divorce.

So I wondered, if he wants to get divorced, can he actually even "divorce?"

In 2005, I remember that Governor Perry clearly said same-sex marriage is illegal in Texas and that the definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. So, my dear gay friend cannot even get married in Texas as of now. But funny thing is that Texas is first state to rule that "two men married in another state can divorce here..."

This throws me off little bit, though. I don't agree but I recognize the fact that Texas bans the same-sex marriage and that I can't do anything about it (other than writing bunch of petition letters or something). But now, the judge is saying that it's alright for married gay couple to get divorced in Texas? Talking about irony. sheesh....

I do think that this might be the "floodgate" for Texas to actually recognize the same-sex marriage. As Appleton mentioned in his article, Indiana and Rhode Island denied this kind of case, because they do not recognize the same-sex marriage therefore they denied the divorce of that marriage. So, why Texas? If we want to make same-sex marriage illegal, why are we ruling the same-sex marriage divorce? It doesn't make logical sense for me. Don't you think?

It's women's problem. NOT government...

After reading through many colleagues' blogs, Randy's topic caught my eyes the most.

Indeed, whenever politicians talk about abortion and make such a big deal out of it in order to win a vote, it ridicules me in many ways. Because for one main reason, as Randy mentioned, "...the women who have experienced it firsthand are either villain-ized or completely forgotten."

This one time at UT campus, there was gigantic poster in front of Gregory Gym. They were aborted baby pictures. The babies after abortion procedures. It was mind boggling, disgusting, and horrible that I still cannot erase that memory from my brain. So from that point on, I wasn't big fan of this whole thing about abortion. I didn't want to bring that up to anybody since it's like talking about religion and it's very subjective and personal issues. Then, after reading Randy's, it occured to me that truly, the politicians are forgetting about women's and their point of view.

Isn't it, after all, women's decision to do so and isn't it women's right to do so or not? Also Randy pointed out, women who went through abortion always worry about physical and mental issues. I understand that it's partially relate to politic just because of the funding issue. Also, sometimes, I do think that the politicians need to come up with some kind of plan in order to resolve this funding issue for abortion. But at the same time, I think we should consider the women's situation and hear what THEY have to say about it.

To me, Randy's point totally gave me different point of view on abortion, not just morality, religion, and/or political issues, but to think about ourselves and our opinions.

So...you know them the best? Are you sure?

So here I am, studying for Texas government and other subjects for past 2 weeks straight and I came to realize how much study I do everyday and how much I studied in my high school years. My senior year in high school, I was stressed enough with college applications, but mostly it was due to SAT. Being an Asian and being a picky little student, I wanted to have good GPA and good score on SAT.

Funny thing started here. Out of all the prestigious schools that I got in, I decided to come to UT Austin and study what I really like with lots of opportunities that school offered me. But when I was registering, they asked me to take this test called, TSI. Of course, I didn't take it because I'm from other states. Good thing is that I didn't have to take it, thanks to my good enough score on SAT.
So I realized, in Texas there are many different tests for high school students to keep up with their education and become intelligent ones! But last night, I saw an article regarding new education standards for our own Texas.

Governor Perry is claiming that we don't need to new system called "Race to Top" and that he and board of education knows what's best for our Texas students. Ironically, this would cause Texas to loose about $300 to $700 millions for strictly for education. That's darn good amount money that we might loose. So I started to wonder about this Race to Top program fund.

Apparently, due to coming nomination for the governor, Kay Bailey Hutchison is offering Texas that we need better education system for better opportunities for students. But her opponent nominee, Rick Perry thinks the otherwise.

Hmmmm...if we get more money for our educational system, isn't it better to try it rather than shooting down like that? Also, when I was in high school, the school system was cutting so many classes in order to emphasize the focal academic classes, like math, science, history, and English. But because of that, I had to go through tough time of not being in orchestra class, which was cut outed due to this emphasize on focal classes and that the board of education knows "us" the best. So I'm not sure if I agree with Governor Perry. I'm very disappointed that poor high school students might be "dumber" than other states' students because our governor thinks that he knows them the best and not joining the "Race to Top" program. How unfortunate!!

Well, one thing for sure for coming governor election. Governor Perry might loose many of educators' vote, including mine. :/

"Fearless Carrie.." just fearless...mm

Remembering the 2008 Election, it was like "sun shines through my window" experience. I realized that there are many possible things for this world. Regardless his skin color, President Obama took President Bush's spot. Also, regardless her gender, Hillary Clinton ran for the candidate. What an amazing changes!

So, I was reading this blog and something caught my eyes strongly!

My typical relaxing Sunday was little bit ruined. And again, being a very subjective and opinionated person, I was agreeing with author of In the Pink blog.

I think author was trying to point out that indeed the liberal media is attacking women in general who are playing in political field. But at the same time, Eileen Smith, the author, is saying that Prejean is being unreasonable for her statement. Also, being a one of popular TV shows, most of Americans watch Larry King and saw on the TV about what Prejean was saying. No need to find harder proof than this!

Being a Miss California, one would know that many little princess-like girls would look up to her. But as soon as the release of her porn video/pictures, Carrie Prejean published a book regarding her position and how much media attacked her, blaming them for the gossip about her and such. Wow… This fact screams at me saying that pretty face doesn’t mean pretty background. So let me get this straight. She’s defending conservative women, such as Sarah Palin, being attacked by liberal media and that conservative women should stick together. On the side, Sarah Palin is her hero and that Prejean is Palinzed. Oh, not to mention that she was about to walk out of studio because Larry King was inappropriate.

So is she saying that she is another conservative woman who got attacked by liberal media and that conservative women should take side with her and protect her? Um, the answer is no.

Guaranteed, I'm not a big fan of Sarah Palin. But to compare to Carrie Prejean? I think Sarah Palin is lot more worth to interview in Larry King Live and “logical” than Prejean. I’m actually glad that somebody like Eileen Smith commented on this interview! Sheesh. Carrie Prejean needs to find other ways to raise her status. Not by comparing herself to somebody more logical and legit.

Community Garden...Why not!?!

I was just chilling in my backyard, smoking away, and saw the rosemary herb on the corner of the fence. Then, I was reminiscing last year's Thanksgiving Day, and how I pulled bundle of rosemary herb with my friends to mix it with butter and rub it on the turkey. Also, the other time, I pulled some of rosemary leaves to add to my focacia bread. While thinking about this, I read this article regarding establishing a community garden in Dallas area.


This article was very interesting to me mainly because I always strive for organic foods. The author, Jim Shutze, was very clear on what he was saying, and was able to support with string evidences, such as interviewing with actual community garden would-be groups and supporters. To sum up his article, Shutze basically argued that Dallas City Hall, specifically Paul Dyer of the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, is blocking many eager supporters of community garden with unreasonable excuses.

According to Shutze, many eager community garden supporters encountered Dyer. Only way to create such a wonderful garden is to basically not going through the city lands. But one of main reasons that City Hall is blocking this great idea is because city wasn't getting "$300,000 in federal stimulus funds." Irony is that, all those supporters clearly said they don't need city's funding. They would use their own pocket money to establish the community gardens. hmmmm...That doesn't makes sense to me..

Regardless the federal funds, Dallas City Hall should actually use this kind of commitment and say "hey, we are doing this kind of program so, little funding please?" Personally, this would help City Hall to earn that $300,000 or even more. Also in Shutze's article he actually addressed this kind of suggestion, taken by Eric Griffin, interim director of the Office of Environmental Quality (on page 3 of article).

To me, Shutze's article sold me! He argued the both sides very well, with strong evidences of both sides, and definitely, he reasoned well why it is worth every penny to establish the community garden and why the Dallas City Hall is being a obstacle to garden supporters.

His article made me think so many times about so many things. First of all, I always buy those organic foods at the store, but you never know if it is truly an organic product. But having community garden, I personally know that it IS organic. But that's just minor thinking for me. But mainly, I'm wondering why the city hall would not commit to this kind of simple program. Politically speaking, is it going to hurt somebody or some departments' power? I'm not too sure, but if I have some kind of political power, I would praise a director who would support and considers people's opinions and programs, and would support that director to be seated on higher chair. Maybe I'm too opinionated about this issue, but I'm having hard time understanding Dallas City Hall and Paul Dyer.

It's just simple community garden....Why Not?!??

Coming Election with many things to consider...hmmm

Whenever there is any kind of election, we, as citizens of this country, consider many things that candidates talk about, such as where the candidates stands as on certain issues....But this coming election day in San Marcos, the voters have more things to consider. The voters have to consider the new 11 propositions that "passed both chamber of the Legislature." So now, it's on voters hand whether to pass those new proposals or not, and hopefully, it would be added to the state constitution! I think it's worth reading to check out new 11 proposals and think about what you guys think! :) Hopefully, Texas would re-write the constitution..not just kept on adding on it...eeek!