Texas Rainmaker

On March 27Th, 2009 the Texas Rainmaker blog, criticizes the national government for not aiding the the families affected by the recent flooding in Fargo, South Dakota. But his argument for this criticism is very fallacious and goes as far to say that the reason the government doesn't help is that Barack Obama hates white people. The author asks a series of rhetorical questions, that effectively ask where are the liberals while this problem is occurring, and then goes on to say that the citizens "busting their asses in sub-freezing temperatures to help themselves". The error with this argument is if the citizens are helping themselves then where are the conservatives that are part of our national government and why aren't they helping. The other major fallacy in his argument is that later in the comments he boldly states, "Personal responsibility… A concept lost on liberals" (meaning the people affected should do it), which totally contradicts his initial bashing of the liberal government when he claims it is not helping. He even makes me remember election time when he states "How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Fargo flooding ever again?", because throughout Barack Obama's campaign the conservatives were constantly criticizing the media sources for being too "easy" on him. Overall this authors work was very fallacious in my opinion, did not have a lot of supporting evidence and more so did not make sense at all because it was poorly organized and written. Obama does not hate white people, I guarantee it.

Guns and College don't necessarily mix.

Recently in the Dallas Morning News, there was an editorial concerning whether or not guns and concealed weapons should be allowed on campus by students and faculty with the proper certifications and paper work. The article brings up several good point on both sides and then makes a very compelling argument against the possession of firearms on school campuses. The author points out that most people do not want another incident like the one at Virginia Tech in 2007 and therefore weapons might help, but soon turns it completely around by stating "it's also possible that a well-intentioned gun-toting student or professor could make matters much worse. They could wind up being shot by police, mistaken as the gunman. They could shoot the wrong person." These are all valid and compelling points, the author's ability to point out how a possible solution to the problem could make matters even worse, is probably his best attribute in writing. Personally I am all for protecting the citizens' second amendment rights, but I believe that there is a time and a place where guns should absolutely never be carried by anyone except by those who are paid to keep people safe. Another good argument that he makes is that by law, unless the school has it written that certain people can have weapons (11 universities) it is completely illegal to have a weapon on school properties. He also brings up the issue of other secured (gun free) facilities that we have such as polling places and secured airports where there have been problems with gunmen in the past and the fact that armed civilians could help the problem is debatable as well.