Death Penalty -- Right or Wrong?

What crime would warrant the death penalty? Is the death penalty considered humane? These are just a couple of questions that our society asks? In my opinion, the death penalty is necessary and for some criminals it acts as a deterrent. Capital punishment is needed especially for those individuals who commit the most serious crimes. For those who are against the death penalty, what suggestions do you have to punish those who commit serious crimes? Currently, there are five methods of capital punishment in the United States: hanging, firing squad, lethal gas, electrocution, and lethal injection. The criminals of Texas can be thankful that our state only falls under one of these methods -- lethal injection.

In comparison to the other methods of capital punishment, I feel that we are giving the criminals the lesser form of death. According to Texas statute (Penal Code 19.03) here are a few crimes that merit the death penalty: murder of a peace officer or fireman in the line of duty; an individual who commits a murder in the course of kidnapping, robbery, or aggravated sexual assault; and an individual who murders a child under the age of six http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/PE/content/htm/pe.005.00.000019.00.htm. There are more crimes listed, but I just named a few. At the moment, we have 9 women and 362 men currently on death row. Presently, Texas has executed 405 inmates since 1982. For those who say that capital punishment is not a deterrent, maybe Texas should consideration additional methods of executions that would possibly turn criminals away from committing these serious crimes. Given the history of Texas and for you criminals, don’t commit the crime because we will not hesitate.

College Students Allowed to Carry Guns to Class

I completely agree that allowing students to carrying guns to class is an outright foolish idea and would only create more problems. Who wants to entertain the thought that the person next to them might be carrying a weapon? Yes, in order to get your concealed handgun license you must pass a criminal background and the rigorous process. However, in every line of thinking, someone has always been known to slip through the cracks – there is always that “ONE”.

Schools are not battlefields; they are institutes of higher learning and we should keep them as such. In addition, weapons are not toys and they are not for fashion. In time (if a law like this passed), students have the potential to compare and possibly handle each others weapon to see has the better one. Not to mention, that one student who might be already having a bad day (who happens to be carrying a weapon in class) could be unstable at the moment and should not be carrying. Students do have the right to protect themselves, but not at the expense of others.

If students were allowed to carry weapons to class I could foresee an accidental discharge of the weapon, persons who may act or react on impulse to a situation, flaunting, comparing each others weapon, and much more. Students have various ways to protecting themselves and others. One way could be for all students to become aware of their surroundings – they should be observant to all that is around them and not have “tunnel vision”. Furthermore, students should report all unsafe findings to the proper personnel. The pre-list of protecting oneself could go on and on, but as I stated earlier it would be foolish to allow students to carry a weapon in class.

http://side-view.blogspot.com/2007/11/college-students-allowed-to-carry-guns.html

Public Assistance in Texas

Public assistance programs in Texas. As everyone may know, the United States is the land of the many opportunities. In other words, there are numerous programs out there crafted specifically for families in need. However, cleaver recipients of these particular programs have developed ways to manipulate the system by failing to record their accurate information. Therefore, allowing them to take full advantage of these programs for an extended period of time. Listed are several types of public assistance programs available in Texas. They include the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), food stamps, head start, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program.

The way the system works is that if a person or family applying for these benefits meet the criteria to qualify (below poverty-level income), then they are entitled to receive the benefits for that particular program. Public assistance is designed to temporary assist persons or family members in need. The key word that people need to remember is temporary. It’s understandable that there will come a time in a persons life that they will stumble across a difficult path and will need help getting back on track. However, the government does not owe you anything and for those persons relying solely on these types of programs need to realize that it is unfair --- unfair to all tax payers. According to the website of Susan Combs (Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts) more money goes into the category of public assistance payments then any other area --- $25.5 billions or 34.2% (year ending Aug. 31st, 2007) http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/expendlist/cashdrill.php?id=netexp
How much of this money is being distributed accurately to those in need? I feel that we need better guidelines and constant auditing to better grasp the misuse of these programs. If not, the ultimate consequence could be that we lose part or all of a particular program causing us not to help those actually in need.