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We don't have a ZEV mandate in Texas. The state even goes out of their way to make it difficult to buy a Tesla (cannot discuss price in the "gallery", must order online, must pay in full before it can be shipped to Texas, etc), recently tried to pass a bill that would have forced Tesla to close service centers, and even prevents Tesla owners from taking advantage of the Texas $2500 EV incentive as it's only available if vehicle was purchased from a Texas Dealer.

And despite all that, if you take a look at Tesla's Carbon Impact you'll find Houston, Austin, and Dallas coming in at 11, 12, and 13 for US cities.

If those that demand no Voter Identification were concerned for the poor, they'd facilitate the acquisition of ID, not seek ways to avoid it. After all, what's the best job you ever had where you didn't need to identify yourself?

Only ONE party disapproves of measures to make our elections secure, and also your president lied to you. Voter ID is NOT a function of America's "racist past". EVERY COUNTRY THAT'S not a dictatorship has some form of assuring that the person voting is entitled to. EVERY COUNTRY.

NAACP requires photo ID to attend anti-voter-ID protest march

Indian citizens have voter ID and they are buttfuck poor, much poorer than the worst of the American poor.

California liberals allege voter fraud, demand voter ID. Democrats think voter identification laws are important for their party elections, but think they're not important when it comes to our elections.

Maxine Waters, an advocate against voter ID, requires an ID to attend her town hall meeting.

Hillary Clinton's Book Tour. Valid Photo ID Required. Suppressing minority turnout, or is this one of those things that's OK when Democrats do it but wrong when anyone else does it?

Every country in the world requires an ID to vote. Every country. Not requiring it makes us look like a third world shithole. How can we verify non-citizens aren't voting in our elections? We can't. Please consult this informative infographic.

Maxine Waters, an advocate against voter ID, requires an ID to attend her town hall meeting.

Hillary Clinton's Book Tour. Valid Photo ID Required. Suppressing Minority Turnout.

In some states, illegal immigrants--by state policy--can get driver's licenses. You can register to vote at the DMV without any form of ID showing you are a US citizen. If any system dealing with PII, finances, etc. in your life had such a low barrier on security, would you use it? I don't think you would.

Bullshit. Mega, epic bullshit. Texas is the #1 State with guns stolen from owners.

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/stolen-guns-lost-firearms-by-state-data.html

http://www.dentonrc.com/news/state/2017/12/23/agents-seek-guns-stolen-harvey-100-weapons-taken-houston-stores-storm

http://www.kxan.com/news/crime/more-than-2-dozen-guns-stolen-from-copperas-cove-pawn-shop/994805063

https://www.chron.com/news/item/Stolen-Guns-Database-11252.php

If those that demand no Voter Identification were concerned for the poor, they'd facilitate the acquisition of ID, not seek ways to avoid it. After all, what's the best job you ever had where you didn't need to identify yourself? I'm just confused how anyone buys beer or cold medicine without an ID. WTF?

Only ONE party disapproves of measures to make our elections secure. Voter ID is NOT a function of America's "racist past" EVERY COUNTRY THAT'S not a dictatorship has some form of assuring that the person voting is entitled to. EVERY COUNTRY.

California liberals allege voter fraud, demand voter ID. LOL. Democrats think voter identification laws are important for their party elections, but think they're not important when it comes to our elections.

Maxine Waters, an advocate against voter ID, requires an ID to attend her town hall meeting.

Hillary Clinton's Book Tour. Valid Photo ID Required. Wait, isn't this suppressing minority turnout? Why's it racist when we do it in our super-important elections, but Hillary does it for her book-signing and suddenly it's not racist? Someone want to take a stab at this one?

If those that demand no Voter Identification were concerned for the poor, they'd facilitate the acquisition of ID, not seek ways to avoid it. After all, what's the best job you ever had where you didn't need to identify yourself? If we only had NGOs to drive people to the DMV and pay the twenty bucks for them. If only...

Only ONE party disapproves of measures to make our elections secure. Voter ID is NOT some racist bullshit, EVERY COUNTRY THAT'S not a dictatorship has some form of assuring that the person voting is entitled to. EVERY COUNTRY.

Maxine Waters, an advocate against voter ID, requires an ID to attend her town hall meeting.

Hillary Clinton's Book Tour. Valid Photo ID Required. Suppressing Minority Turnout.

Keep in mind that you can "fix" crime statistics into different categories if you change the race of the offender. Something that's very popular in Chicago and Philly right now.

Like it Texas? You know, where the police tried to conceal their own malfeasance? Horrors!

Sorry, Mashiki, once again, you're suffering a mistaking of facts.

It's the police trying to hide their misconduct.

A better example might be this story about Texas Police.

You're just talking about your friend having a problem of personal identity. But there is a possibility of deliberate deception. An intent to bury a problem.

That's a very serious issue. It's worse than useless, it's misuse.

Austin defeated an ordinance that was forced onto the ballot by Uber and Lyft, who said "Pass our ordinance or we'll pick up our toys and go home."

This was never really about Austin. It was about teaching a lesson to other cities who might follow Austin's lead.

Uber and Lyft have backed themselves into a corner. If they leave, they'll leave an opening for other companies to come in and grow (GetMe is already here and probably salivating at the prospect); if they don't leave, they'll show other cities they can be cowed after all. So expect them to leave long enough to show other cities they mean business, but then come back with deep discounts and free rides to kill off any homegrown competition.

FWIW, it's not just about fingerprints. For example, currently, Uber and Lyft are theoretically prohibited from stopping in traffic lanes (because people die when they do that), but the proposed ordinance was going to change that because they can make more money if they inconvenience everybody else.

But to the extent it was about vetting drivers, don't for a minute think that Uber and Lyft are planning on cheerfully taking responsibility for the actions of their drivers anyway.

It's not the first time that idea has been floated: http://kxan.com/2015/04/02/cit...

(a) there's a difference between exercising civil rights and rioting,...

Agreed, there is.

...but the law enforcement agencies in the St. Louis area apparently can't tell what it is

That doesn't seem to be true.

More than 400 arrested as Ferguson protests spread to other U.S. cities

Ferguson, a predominately black city, has been hit by two nights of rioting, looting and arson with some businesses burned to the ground, but authorities say an increased security presence on Tuesday night helped quell the violence.

Same goes for Baltimore.

200 arrested in Baltimore rioting; 144 cars destroyed

Looting, arson, and mob violence are pretty good indicators that the line has been crossed.

The lot to our south is empty, and according to long-time residents of the neighborhood, has been since the 1960s. At the time, an old lady lived in a little house there, and it blew up due to a gas leak. The property is still owned by the lady's daughter. No idea why she's never sold it or built on it again.

There was a similar explosion a neighborhood over a few years ago. The burnt out frame remnants of this house are still there, behind the chain link fence. The house next door (on one side) was knocked a foot off its foundation and is still there, condemned. The house on the other side was fine because there was a row of trees between them to disrupt the force of the explosion. The only thing they've done to the site besides the fence was haul away the metal hulk of his car, I presume to recycle.
http://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/crews-battle-north-austin-house-fire
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Two-injured-in-North-Austin-home-explosion-136939943.html
http://www.kvue.com/news/Family-of-Austin-man-killed-in-gas-explosion-suing-Texas-Gas-Service-141829703.html

Here's the google street view, still showing the house almost two years later:
http://goo.gl/maps/mk8ck

And here's basically what it still looked like the last time I drove past:
http://media.kvue.com/images/459*264/9JessExplosion011012.jpg
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/960/img/photos/2012/09/22/ed/61/020412gas_1323574a.jpg

You want to get rid of the TSA?

Don't fly.

Make sure you don't take a train or drive a car either. Of course the TSA says this is all a myth.

That's sad, because it's already on its way. It's just a matter of time before a government agent will be asking for "your papers" no matter how you travel in the US.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/tsa-does-surprise-check-at-lamar-amtrak

Trendsetting even at home.

I wonder if Cisco's costs less than $15,000... hahaha, who am I kidding? It's probably 100k easy.

Alright all you people who don't believe, here are the "Citations Needed".

I misremembered about the bike stuff .

The Kiosks where you get the bikes cost $40,000 to $50,000. The bikes themselves costs $1000. It will cost about a quarter of a million dollars a year to operate, a cost the membership fee doesn't even pretend to cover.

But that's OK, I made up for it it by misremembering the Commuter Rail costs.
One hundred six million to build...on existing tracks! Guess how many people ride it per day. One thousand, seven hundred. Nice huh?
It takes an hour to reach downtown from the outer most suburbs...me too...in my car.

They want to do it again, but this time at the cost of Half a Billion Dollars.

To run about 10 miles via the route and maybe 3 miles as the crow flies.

Go ahead, defend it. Oh...and to a one, the City Council, which spends all this money, are Democrats. The Mayor has this dream that everyone will move to downtown and live in $400,000 lofts.

Nutzos! Were talking Big Time Nut jobs!

The simple fact is that whichever party they're a member of, prosecutors have incredible levels of immunity from the effects of both their own malice and incompetence.

To go on the attack against Republicans, here in Texas, we (the taxpayers) had to pay out a pretty hefty wrongful imprisonment fee because one prosecutor hid the existence of a bloody bandana for years, and when it was finally discovered, a second prosecutor blocked testing of it for several years more.

When the Innocence Project finally got a court to force the prosecutors to allow testing of the blood, it turned up the victim's DNA and another man's DNA... the other man having gone on to possibly kill other people while an innocent guy sat in jail in his place. No big deal, apparently. The first guy might get to face a court regarding the withholding of evidence, but his tribunal seems to keep slipping farther into the future.

At least the second guy got voted out by an angry public (though that's not going to get them their millions of tax dollars back), but don't cry too much for him, his best bud Gov. Rick Perry will keep him employed.

Abbott got caught trying to purge minority voters from the voter rolls. He's probably got a few more tricks up his sleeve that he doesn't want people to find out about:
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/dead-voter-list-agreement-reached

what about the human rights or the women in sweden

There is a line of women happily willing to give up their "rights" for every political figure that needs to be destroyed.
Eliot Spitzer
Bill Clinton
Mark Hurd
French presidential candidate
The list goes on

Sometimes it sneaks into the news.

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/woman-brings-loaded-gun-to-airport

Do they have an RN there for that, or does Barney Fife take a crack at it?

They're called phlebotomists. I found at least one state with one sec of googling that trains their regular police force do it, and I know of others that have full time phlebotomists.

http://www.azduiatty.com/law-enforcement-phlebotomy-program.htm
Arizona police might be certified phlebotomists
http://www.dui.com/dui-library/texas/news/austin-police-could-become-phlebotomists-for-dwi-blood-draw
I imagine that didn't work out so well for Austin, but they later got a full time phlebotomist.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Making-the-case-for-a-full-time-phlebotomist-89461682.html
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/police-to-get-final-ok-for-phlebotomist

What could possibly go wrong? I mean it's not like those freeway message boards ever get cracked.

and thousands of hippies descended upon Woodstock for 3 days of peace & music,

Except this year it was called the ACL Music Festival.

5. Pushed for a never ending supply of stop light cameras then basicly ignored his officers running red lights.

That said on a personal level I've had very good experiences with Austin Cops. I just disagree with department policy.

Zombies... Must be in Austin, TX. http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/Road_signs_warn_of_zombies

I think all three articles are incorrect (perhaps only two, I'm not familiar with the Navy procedure the wiki talks about).

I'm scheduled for cataract surgery next Tuesday. This procedure was explained in detail to me by the surgeon.

The cornea is the part of the eye that covers the iris. The lens itself is behind the iris. A cataract is an occluded lens. What they're going to do to me is put in anasthetic eye drops and drops to dialate the iris. They'll then stick a needle in my eye, pulverize the cataract (lens) with ultrasound, suck it out through the needle, and implant an artificial lens.

My cataract is a "young man's cataract" in that it was caused by steroid eye drops I was prescribed last year rather than UV and aging. It's further back than an old man's occlusion, and worse for vision.

I've been nearsighted since 2nd grade, and am now farsighted as well. Replacing the lens will not only cure the cataract, but also my nearsightedness. If I can come up with the cash for the new tech my insurance won't cover ($1900) I won't even need reading glasses!

LASIK, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't do anything at all to the cornea, it slices the lens.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have LASIK on the non-occluded eye. I've been wearing contact lenses for several years; TFA is completely wrong wrong wrong when it says LASIK is for "convenience or vanity." Glasses are a pain in the ass, and you won't know how much of a nuisance they are until you get rid of them. You're used to them, they're normal for you, as they were for me.

But when you walk into a building in winter wearing glasses, you can't see. When you walk to your car in the rain, you can't see. When you're mowing the lawn in the summer and sweat runs down your glasses, you can't see. It's far more than "convinience."

Contact lenses have their own drawbacks; you can't rub your eyes. They sometimes slide above the eyeball, annoying at best and downright dangerous while driving. You get eye infections easier with contact lenses. If you get a speck of dirt in your eye, you have to remove the lens, and you have to wash your hands first (not always practical).

I, for one, welcome getting rid of my old spectacle overlords!

Because I'm not aware of any cameras on the streets of Austin, Dallas, or Houston.

You're not aware because you're not paying attention.

* Dallas has them
* Austin has them
* The police have allready been caught for selling footage from the (now allegedly not recording, but still present) Deep Ellum cameras.

And the thing is, while UT had to publish the locations, that requirement no longer exists for street CCTV.

They could be installing hundreds of cameras - and wouldn't have to tell you. If you're Texan, then presume you're being watched.

Um, Forrest Mims is a creationist wingnut (and I say that with no offense meant to any nuts that might exist on wings). This article is similarly being spread by people like Dembski. Here's a debunking. Here's more.

There's one minor, itty-bitty difference between Pianka's speech and Forrest's reporting. Pianka said that it's going to happen, not that he wants it to happen. Pianka believes that a worldwide airborne plague is inevitable due to overpopulation, and campaigns to try and encourage population control (esp. in third world countries) are critical. While I don't agree with that, it's a valid argument, and is anything but "I want 90% of the world to drop dead."

I think that story is a hoax, or at best taken out of context. See http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=4720390

or perhaps i can blame him for trying to pass his guard days off as some military service that gives him credibility.

Yeah, 'cause no one in the Guard ever faces the possibilities of being called to go to war.

the flight suit 'mission accomplished' fiasco?

Anyone who lands aboard an aircraft carrier is required by Navy regulations to wear a flight suit. They contain important pieces of equipment, such as locators, in case you have to ditch. So it's not a fiasco to wear a flight suit when landing on an aircraft carrier, it's the law.

i can slam him for being disingenuous as hell is what i can do.

Hello Mr. Pot, have you met Mr. Kettle?

Though they only spent three-quarters of a page of copy on this, I found it interesting that U.S. News and World Report did a decent job with this week's coverage of this topic.

Typically, I don't have many kind words for USNWR, often questioning my own subscription tendencies, but I am pleased to see they reference the Johns Hopkins and Rice report regarding the insecurity of the Diebold system.

Now, if only folks would see the same potential flaws in the Hart Intercivic system, then perhaps they would not be shipping 9,000 e-Slate voting machines to California.

Personally, I detest that the last four times I've voted here in Texas I've walked away with a laundry ticket. I demand a paper trail! Or at least an online database where I can review all my past votes cast. (Of course, in a perfect world, the database would be open for peer review - r/o - and the source to the programs that access and tally the votes would be available for peer review.)

I live in central Texas, and it gets HOT here. In fact, it's 98 degrees right now, and it'll be worse next month. Because of the heat and my natural desire to drink, some time ago I decided to always have a glass of water handy.

Paying $1 at the vending machine several times a day got really old, though, and the tap water where I work is less than ideal (I admit I'm rather picky - I hate the taste of chlorine).

Then I picked up a water pitcher filter. It is one of the best investments I even made! I fill it with water from the tap at the end of the day, put it in the refrigerator in my office, and the next day I have cool, fresh, clean-tasting water. Companies like Pur and Brita make these things and sell them at the grocery store. Overall, it's a helluva lot cheaper than bottled water at a fraction of the price.