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Exactly five years ago, my wife, our two year old son, and I rolled into Bandera for what was to become one of the finest times of our life. I was the brand new high school principal reporting for work to legendary superintendent Marvin C. Schnelle.
Read moreAs a subscriber and reader of the Bandera Bulletin Opinion page, I note that the Democratic column and the Republican response seemed to have gone away for a while but it appears to have returned, without the warning labels and it is now slipping off into the “news pages”. It’s been written that the best place to hide a lie is in between two truths. Recent examples would be editorials by Jodie Sinclair, Gary Moore and the “special” about Bill Sinclair, I have to ask, “Do award winning writers take courses in straining credulity in their schools of journalism? It’s a pity that Ms. J Sinclair who recites her Texas history well, missed the salient points. In contrast to the Texas Democratic caucus, the defenders of the Alamo STAYED to fight until they perished in defense of a cause. While I’m familiar with the left’s post-modernist penchant for re-defining the language; in what parallel universe can legislators who leave the state to avoid their duty be an analogy to the heroes of the Alamo? I can just imagine the additions to the Cenotaph on Alamo Plaza...with their limp arms and uncalloused hands, not on a musket, but a sixpack of Miller Lite. Not being included in a writers’ mutual admiration society, I tend to look for actual truth in what I read, counting it as an unfair shortening of my life-span not unlike prison, when I realize I have spent time deliberately twisted self-serving propaganda. The proposed HB 3 and SB 1 are nothing about “voter suppression”. Texas had more voter participation in the last election than ever before. Even the supposedly unbiased Texas Tribune, founded and run by Democrat activists, reports that Texas had 66% voter participation...highest in 28 years. It is extremely easy for legitimate voters to cast one vote each in Texas. The rules in place serve to convince most of us that it is still worth the trouble. Honest people with the gift of logic can all understand that the Democrat foot-stamping initiatives to keep polls open all night and to allow for mobile voting vans to roam about invites fraud by eliminating the ability for poll-watchers to scrutinize the proceedings or any other “trust but verify” system in which people can have confidence. These support ballot-harvesting in selected districts and avoiding others, which would obviously skew the vote. Anyone who criticizes gerrymandering, which to be honest, both parties have used, while supporting ballot-harvesting and pushing subsidized housing projects into conservative voting neighborhoods should check their hypocrisy. Someone who learned their Texas history in the 50’s should have learned “honesty is the best policy” and personal responsibility from her parents. A proper analogy would be to see elections as a contest, not unlike a game of baseball or football. There are rules to be followed and enforced by referees if the results are to have credibility and meaning. Destroying people’s confidence in the proceedings is by far the largest element in real, not imagined voter suppression. Passing measures that legitimately allow the counting of only legal votes is the responsible practice and should be practiced only by voters who understand their duty, excluding those who are simply takers. A healthy economy requires a mutual confidence that trading partners will deal honestly with one another. Furthermore, one of the primary foundations Western Civilization was built upon was the right to own one’s personal private property. When a large group of wards of the state are given the right to vote for confiscating the assets of others to support themselves, that way of life can be considered in its death throes. The NY Times has already begun lobbying for voting privileges for non-citizen illegal border jumpers.
Read moreThis is in response to Contests and Decency by Gary Moore.
Read moreI tried a little social media experiment on Bandera County Chat on the Fourth of July, and I’d like to share the results. (For those not familiar, BCC is a group on Facebook known for the often outspoken nature of the opinions expressed.)
Read moreOn May 26, 2021, I read in your newspaper, the article entitled, “Mental Health and the Pandemic” written by Donna Carrasco, an Integrated Behavioral Health Counselor.
Read moreThe month of May is National Neurofibromatosis (NF) Awareness Month.
Read moreShe is correct that few Republicans in Texas own assault rifles. Or few in the USA for that matter. It’s been illegal to manufacture new automatic weapons for civilian use since May 19,1986. Now, it is not illegal to own one. That is if you have $15 to over $70 thousand to buy one from an already licensed owner willing to sell, plus paying another $200 for a Federal Transfer Stamp (that has to stay with the firearm at all times) plus a background check and investigation by a National Agency with 10-point finger printing. Then wait 8 months. By the way, this only happens when your State does prohibit ownership. Under very limited circumstances can you legality own an automatic weapon in the USA. You just can’t walk into Walmart or Bass Pro Shop and buy a fully automatic weapon, AK-47 or assault rifle-whatever you want to call them. They are a short compact selective fire weapon that fires a cartridge of intermediate power between submachine gun and rifle. They are capable of delivering effective full-automatic fire. What you can buy that is designed to look like an AK-47 is a semiautomatic. Deady, Yes, but not an assault rifle, an AK- 47 or an automatic. Law-abiding Texans already don’t have assault weapons under Law. I repeat, that ban has been in place since 1986. What is needed is for the agencies involved is to their jobs on the background check laws already in place.
Read moreMs Hull writes to inform us as to what she “believes” concerning the possession and use of an ill-defined object she refers to as an “assault rifle”. In doing so, she is either remarkably uninformed or willfully repeating a common propaganda theme of Democrat agenda to disarm the citizens of the US. Many readers will recognize that as her term for some variant of an AR15 .
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