My Fiance Found my Old Porn Pictures

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage."
2 Peter 2:19

Tragic story from Donny Pauling:

Our society seems to think pornography is harmless. Surprisingly enough, I've heard numerous Christians say the same thing. But having produced porn for nine years and having recruited more than 500 people into the business, and having watched what it did in the lives of so many, I can tell you otherwise.

Pornography ruins lives, period. It doesn't even need to be hardcore in nature. Softcore porn is just as destructive.

When I talk about "softcore" porn, I simply mean porn in which the model is posing alone. She isn’t touching anyone else. For those who think porn doesn’t hurt anyone, it couldn’t get less harmful than softcore porn, right?

....

I’ve received many emails and phone calls from models over the years, asking that their content be removed from the Internet. The problem is that porn companies will not remove it. If they removed the content of every model who regretted her decision, very little would be left to sell.

The young lady who sent this email modeled for me for a very short time in 2005. But because of the release she signed, and the photographer’s agreements I signed when I was doing business with the companies who purchased her content, I can’t do anything to get her photos off the Internet. They will be online, or on other people’s computers, somewhere, until long after her grandchildren have grandchildren.

The personal costs were very large in numerous ways, one of which is the fact that her fiancé decided not to marry her. The realization that his buddies, neighbors and any random person could find his wife showing so much of herself online was more than he was willing to bear.

Read the whole thing here.

Liberty on the Rocks DOMINATES Local Media!!!

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."
Galatians 5:1

Last night, Liberty on the Rocks hosted "Austin Ridesharing: Drinks Debate, and Lots of Designated Drivers;" we were going to do a write up, but the local media coverage speaks for itself.

From Fox 7:

MyFoxAustin.com | KTBC Fox 7 | News, Weather, Sports

KEYE:



From the Statesman:

The Lyft and Uber ride-sharing debate continued Wednesday night with several members of the pro-free market mindset casting stones at what some called the “taxi cartel.”

The setting was cocktail hour at the upstairs barroom of Chicago House, where conservative foundations hosted a representative of the ride-sharing company Lyft. The company has faced some push-back as city officials continue to debate if and how companies like Lyft and Uber should be allowed to use cellphone apps to pair drivers looking to make an extra buck with willing passengers.

The chief speaker was attorney Larry Salzman with the libertarian law firm Institute for Justice. The firm has been involved with lawsuits involving drivers for companies like Lyft and Uber in Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and Milwaukee, Wis.

Lyft representative Scott Dunaway said ride-sharing companies empower willing drivers to earn a little extra cash on the side. That pursuit of prosperity, Salzman said, is a constitutional right.

Prior to speaking, Salzman said he could see litigation filed against the city of Austin if it works to limit or prohibit ride-sharing companies.

“There are good things happening in courts, there are good things happening in city councils, and in some cases in state legislatures,” he said.

 Read the whole thing here.

The Biggest Tax Increase in Austin's History

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

When all else fails, read the report:

Rail Bond Vote Would Bring Historic Tax Increase

By Bill Oakey – July 30, 2014

If anyone thinks the property tax impact of an annual City Council budget battle is something to worry about, please consider this. For the last two years, the budget discussions have centered around changing the City’s tax rate by a tiny fraction of one penny. That’s because our tax appraisals have skyrocketed, meaning that even a zero change in the tax rate would yield a considerable tax increase.

Well, make sure you are sitting down when you read this. If voters approve the $1 billion urban rail and road bond package in November, they can say hello to a 6 cent increase in the property tax rate over the next five years. The sobering details are contained in a City document called “General Obligation Bond Capacity Analysis.” You can read it here.

What Would Happen to Our Bond Debt If the Rail Bonds Pass?

That’s an easy question to answer. It would flat out double! Our current general obligation debt, made up of previous bond votes for roads, parks, libraries, open space, and housing stands at about $1 billion. So, in one fell swoop we would double our debt by voting for the rail and road package. And the worse part is that it would do essentially nothing to relieve traffic congestion for most existing residents.

....

What the City Report Says About Taxes, the Debt and Our Bond Rating

Here is a snapshot of some of the report’s most significant facts and conclusions:

1. Our current general obligation debt is about $1 billion.

2. We still have an additional $425 million in 2006-2013 bonds left to issue.

3. The City estimates that another $425 million will be needed in a separate bond election in 2018, on top of the $1 billion in rail and road bonds to be voted on this November.

4. In order to preserve our AAA bond rating, we would need to raise property taxes by 6 cents between 2015 and 2020 if all of the bonds pass.

5. Not only would the property tax rate increase by 6 cents, but the City estimates that property tax appraisals will jump by over 25%! Their example shows a $200,000 home being assessed at $255,000 by 2020. So, the tax impact would multiply exponentially.

And that's just one of the five taxing entities in town!!!

Read the whole thing here.

-----

Update: Here's a chart to explain the above....

Austin Urban Rail Tax Impact

Texas Homeschoolers resist Joe Straus' Speech Police

"Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
Galatians 6:8

[Note: The full text of the WSJ piece is behind the paywall; we received it this morning via e-mail.]

From today's Wall St. Journal [Reprinted in full]:

Texas Speech Shootout
Home schoolers sue the regulators who want to shut them up.

One of the few remaining subjects of bipartisan comity in U.S. politics is the abuse of campaign-finance laws to protect incumbents from criticism. Well, now Texas Republicans will have to defend in federal court one such bid to shut down political speech and intimidate donors—and explain why the First Amendment supposedly stops at the steps of state legislatures.

On Friday the Texas Home School Coalition Association sued the state over an attempt to ensnare virtually all civics organizations under government control and regulate their activities. The gambit emerged from a panic in Austin over the rise of outside scrutiny and was meant to prevent the barbarians from participating in politics.

A seat in the Texas legislature was once a lifetime sinecure, but after the Supreme Court's 2010 free-speech decision in Citizens United, what liberals and some Republicans call "dark money" started to pour into the fray. Lawmakers started to lose primaries as their positions and records were exposed to voters, so in 2013 they struck back with legislation that imposed onerous reporting and disclosure requirements on groups engaged in issue advocacy as if they were a regular political committee stumping for a candidate.

Governor Rick Perry rightly vetoed the bill, citing its "chilling effect" on speech that would undermine "our democratic political process." So the Ethics Commission, the state's campaign-finance regulator, decided to restrict speech on its own with no legal basis.

At the request of legislators, the Ethics Commission is reinterpreting the existing state election code to target issue-oriented groups that also take part in elections in any way, even if such campaign advocacy is a sideline to their primary mission. Under the proposed new rules, these groups must register with the state, hire campaign accountants and attorneys, and file and disclose detailed reports on contributors, spending and their beneficiaries. Violations are a criminal offense.

The Texas Home School Coalition Association argues that this attempt to burden speech is unconstitutional. The nonprofit mainly supports non-state education through parental seminars, legal aid and the like. But the association devotes about 9% of its budget in election years to producing a voter guide, promoting endorsements of candidates who support its values, and advertising its policy positions on matters of public concern at the ballot box.

Even the Supreme Court's original campaign-finance sins, 1976's Buckley v. Valeo and a follow-on 1986 case, explicitly protected the First Amendment rights of "organizations whose major purpose is not campaign advocacy, but who occasionally make independent expenditures on behalf of candidates." These precedents say the government can only restrict core political speech to avoid corruption, but how can advocating for home schooling create a corrupt quid pro quo?

The real goal of the Ethics Commission and its legislator accessories is to reduce the influence of critics and expose donors to political intimidation. Here's an opportunity to vindicate citizen participation and accountability in government, which is what politicians fear the most.

 -----

Update: THSC has more here.

Steve Toth being outspent 20:1

Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.”
Judges 7:7

Astonishing numbers out of SD-4:

Underwhelming fundraising numbers and an unwillingness to directly attack his opponent would appear to have handicapped state Rep. Steve Toth in his bid to defeat fellow Republican state Rep. Brandon Creighton in an Aug. 5 special state senate election.

Since last July, Creighton, R-Conroe, has out-raised his statehouse colleague nearly six-to-one and spent more than $1.6 million on the campaign to replace state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, who resigned last October after more than a decade representing Senate District 4.

Toth, R-The Woodlands, who placed a distant second against Creighton in a four-way race on May 10, spent just under $280,000 total on the election and raised even less in the last year.

Nonetheless, Toth, who toppled five-term incumbent state Rep. Rob Eissler in a 2012 Republican primary despite having a much smaller war chest, said he is confident history will repeat itself.

"Special interest groups in Austin have poured a ton of money into this campaign. They want politicians that want to maintain the hierarchy of the political establishment and I don't fall into that category," Toth said. "It wasn't an issue (two years ago). It won't be an issue this time, either."

Early voting for the Aug. 5 runoff begins Monday and runs through Friday.

The senate district, a rambling, Republican-leaning stronghold with nearly 816,000 residents, stretches from The Woodlands east down through Montgomery County to the Gulf Coast and spans portions of northern Harris County.

Read the whole thing here.

Laundering "road" money into rail

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

[Standard Statesman Disclosure: This article is behind the paywall, text is transcribed by hand from a paper copy.]

Obviously, they think we're stupid:

As I truly hope you've heard, the Austin City Council on Aug. 7 probably will vote to call a $1 billion transportation bond election, to be held November 4, asing us simultaneously (which is an issue all by itself) for $600 million for a light rail line and $400 million for "roads."

Why put roads in quotation marks?!?

Because at least $50 million of the so-called road money would be spend to benefit light rail. [Emphasis added]

....

Start with what the city, in its "2014 Austin Strategic Mobility Plan," calls the "U.S. 183/Riverside interchange." Wait, some of you might be saying, Riverside Drive intersects with U.S. 183?!?

Yes, it does. Riverside continues east from its major confluence with Texas 71, cutting a gentle curve through the smallish MetroCenter development of hotels and restaurants. It empties out onto U.S. 183 at a decidedly quite spont on the road not far south of where Texas 71 passes over U.S. 183....

Nonetheless, the city proposes spending $34 million...on a "grade separated overpass and interchange" at this pastoral little place. Why? The overpass, the city plan says, "would remove turn conflicts at the existing intersection...and provide structure for a future Urban Rail expansion to ABIA.

Summing up: a wider-than-normal overpass to solve a nonexistent traffic problem while providing a way to get a notional light rail line up and over U.S. 183.

The remainder of the article details other road projects that will do nothing to relieve congestion while laying the foundation for future rail expansion.

Travis County Proposing Higher Taxes

"But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God."
Nehemiah 5:15

Ahem?!?

Rising property values mean that even with a lower tax rate — 47.72 cents per $100 in taxable value, down from the current rate of 49.46 cents — homeowners would see the largest lump-sum increase in their county taxes since 2009.

Compared to this year’s budget, next year’s $901 million preliminary budget would increase spending by $44.6 million.

The Travis County Commissioners Court will begin discussing the budget after an Aug. 11 presentation, and plans to adopt the budget and tax rate on Sept. 23.

Read the whole thing here.

Planned Parenthood, Sex "Education," and underage girls

"It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."
Luke 17:2

Live Action has released their next video in the SEXED sting, this YouTube video contains the parts that can be discussed in public:



Highlights:

• Different people have different Fetishes.

• Receiving funding through Obamacare.

• Some guys like feet.

• Bondage: Make sure you have a safe word.

• "Some people like to play the baby thing"... with diapers.

• Advice on handcuffs: You have to go to the porno store, but you're 15 so you're underage.

• "There are actually educational pornos out there."
• Look online for Kama Sutra, the Joy of Sex.

That's the part they released to the public.  For those over 18, they can view the full graphic video here.  But we warn you it is very, VERY graphic (there's a reason they didn't release it to the public).

"Fee" Increases: Austin Energy thinks you're stupid

"nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
1 Corinthians 6:10 [Emphasis added]

Via Austin Affordability:

When Austin gets embroiled in a formal Austin Energy rate case, it brings on tons of media attention and large crowds of customers at public meetings. The rate hearings can last for several months. What you may not realize though is that about 35% of your electric bill comes from the fuel charge. The bureaucratic name for it on your bill is the “power supply adjustment charge.”

Well, that charge is set to go up in a few months by 4.4%, which is on top of the 4.6% increase that we got last year. So, we’re talking about a 9% increase over a two-year period. Like so many City regulations and policies these days, the Austin Energy fuel charge needs a good thorough public review and much better transparency. It’s like one of those Facebook relationship status deals, where somebody says “It’s complicated.”

Supposedly, the fuel charges are passed through to the customer at no more than what it costs the utility. But when we hear that natural gas prices have fallen like a rock over the last several years, why would Austin Energy be jacking up the cost? And why would the increases compound themselves instead of leveling off? This is where I think Austin Energy has a lot of explaining to do.

Read the whole thing here.

Austin Building Codes Strangle "Tiny House" Community

"[T]hat you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you"
1 Thessalonians 4:11

People coming up with creative ways to dramatically lower their housing costs and simply life?!?

Can't have that in Lee Leffingwell's Austin....



Highlights:

• 10 x 16 house.

• Forced by red tape to locate outside Austin.

• Starts at $38,000

Who cares about housing costs when your real estate cronies have competitors they need eliminated?!?

How Decentralization will undermine Cartels

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Patrick Byrne follows up on his visit last week with Glenn Beck:



Highlights:

• "Government shouldn't be involved in marriage anymore than it should be involved in first communion."

• I get my value in marriage from God, not some stupid piece of paper from the government.

• The point is to take decision making from the centralized institutions to households.

Replacing Guillotines with Planned Parenthood

"For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb."
Psalm 139:13

Chilling observations about the culture and history of abortion in America:

Did you know that John F. Kennedy had more than four children? That writers Christopher and Peter Hitchens had two other siblings? That Marilyn Monroe actually had a large number of children?

I’m not particularly fond of the argument that I’ve heard many pro-lifers use: “Abortion is wrong because of all the amazing people we’ve aborted. One of them could have had the cure to cancer!” Abortion is fundamentally wrong because it ends the life of a developing human being, whether that human being would turn out to be a drug addict or the president of the United States. However, it is an interesting thought experiment—not least of all because so many people considered heroes by the Left have aborted their children or had their children aborted. [Emphasis added]

....

[S]tories abound of JFK’s affairs ending in abortions. Mimi Alford, a White House intern that JFK had a relationship with for over a year, reported that when she told the president she believed she was pregnant, he “took the news in his stride.” Shortly afterward, she was contacted by a White House staffer named Dave Powers, often assigned to protect the president’s reputation.

“An hour later,” Alford recalls, “Dave called the dorm and told me to call a woman who could put me in touch with a doctor in New Jersey. The intermediary was a necessary precaution, because abortion was illegal. That was pure Dave Powers: he handled the problem immediately, and with brute practicality. There was no talk about what I wanted, or how I felt, or what the medical risks might be.”

Another of JFK’s famous mistresses, Judith Campbell Exner, reported having an abortion in 1963 after becoming pregnant by the president. Not all Kennedys, it seems, end up in Washington, D.C. Some of them end up in trash cans behind seedy clinics, victims of their parents’ sexual ideology.

....

Christopher [Hitchens] noted further that at least two children of his own had their lives ended by abortion, recalling sombrely that, “at least once I found myself in a clinic while ‘products of conception’ were efficiently vacuumed away. I can distinctly remember thinking, on the last such occasion, that under no persuasion of any kind would I ever allow myself to be present at such a moment again.”

Perhaps this was because Christopher Hitchens allowed himself no illusion, writing that, “Anyone who has ever seen a sonogram or spent even an hour with a textbook on embryology knows that emotions are not the deciding factor. In order to terminate a pregnancy, you have to still a heartbeat, switch off a developing brain, and, whatever the method, break some bones and rupture some organs.” [Author's note: But he went ahead with it anyway.]

....

The list of politicians, writers, and cultural figures who have discarded their own children are myriad. Comedian Chelsea Handler has talked openly about having an abortion. Sharon Osbourne calls having an abortion at seventeen the mistake of her life. According to author Norman Mailer, the tragic Marilyn Monroe had twelve abortions by her late-twenties. Whoopi Goldberg of The View, Lucille Ball of I Love Lucy, Judy Garland of The Wizard of Oz all aborted children. Ava Gardner reportedly aborted two of Frank Sinatra’s children, while the smut-peddling rapper ‘Lil Kim aborted the Notorious B.I.G’s child, which they conceived during an affair. Famed singer Sinead O’Connor had an abortion while on tour in Minneapolis.

It’s especially bizarre, I think, when those on the Left turn out to enthusiastically celebrate any new revelation of a cultural figure having an abortion. The more they admire the person, it seems the happier they are at the “courage” of said person having had an abortion. A bit unintentionally insulting, don’t you think? I admire you so much! I’m so glad you terminated a child that might have had your talent or been a lot like you!

Revolutions, however, famously do not discriminate in their grim reaping of human life. The Sexual Revolution is no different, even though we’ve replaced guillotines with Planned Parenthood clinics. The crowds cheered both, and the similarity between a howling mob and a pro-choice rally is striking to say the least. Perhaps it is Peter Hitchens who has the best explanation: “I think that abortion is much beloved by revolutionaries,” he noted gravely, “because they always like the mob to get their hands in blood and commit some sort of crime of their own.”

 Read the whole thing here.

The Texas Model Begets Prosperity

"As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God."
Ecclesiastes 5:19

Great catch from TPPF on some national economic data released last week:

AUSTIN – Today the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary for June 2014. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Economist Dr. Vance Ginn released this statement on another month of job growth in Texas.

“Today’s state employment report further demonstrates that the Texas model of limited government and individual opportunity works to create abundant jobs for people across the income spectrum. This is a model other states and Washington, D.C., would be wise to adopt.

“Over the last twelve months, Texas added 371,000 net nonfarm jobs across all eleven major industries. This total was the highest in the nation and the associated annualized job growth rate of 3.3 percent surpasses most states and is almost double the national average’s rate of 1.8 percent. Robust job growth in Texas has led to a decline in the state’s unemployment rate over the last year from 6.4 percent to the current rate of 5.1 percent. This rate is a full percentage point below the national average and more than two full percentage points below the rate in California.

Read the whole thing here.

Governor Perry's National Guard Announcement Press Conference

"You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess."
Deuteronomy 19:14

Earlier this afternoon, Governor Perry held a press conference to announce the next step in addressing the border crisis:



Highlights:

• Governor Perry -- The plight of these unaccompanied alien children has captured the national attention
• Still only 20%.
• "I will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault and little children from Central America are detained in squalor; we are too good a country for that to occur."

• Steve McCraw, Texas DPS -- Troops will be 'seamlessly integrated' into DPS plan
• Designed to deter criminal entry between ports of entry.

• Major Gen. John Nichlols -- Over the next 30 days will mobilize the national guard.
• Force Multiplier for DPS.
• Already helping border patrol.

• Dewhurst -- Who cares what he said?!?

• General Abbott -- This is BOTH a humanitarian and a public safety crisis.
• More that a dozen AG staff already assisting.
• Texans are willing to put the boots on the ground, but we expect Washington to pay the bill.

-----

Update: Breitbart Texas has more here.

Glenn Beck, Patrick Byrne, and Radical Innovation

Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
Amos 8:4-6

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne stopped by Glenn's studio last week to discuss what's coming in the next decade:



Highlights:

• "Wall St. doesn't like you at all."
• In recent decades, Wall St. has gotten Washington "under it's thumb."
• "That's where republics go to die."

• The S.E.C. has no teeth and should be moved into the Department of Justice.

• Orange jumpsuits are the only thing that scares Wall St.

• "BITCOIN presents a real opportunity because you get to check out of the whole Federal Reserve system."

• The next disruptive technology is a BITCOIN version of the stock market.

$10,000 degrees move forward despite Bill Powers

"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,"
2 Timothy 3:2

The corrupt UT establishment can't stop Higher Education reform:

In Rick Perry’s 2011 state of the state address, Perry challenged Texas’s public universities to craft four-year degrees costing no more than $10,000 in tuition, fees, and books, and to achieve the necessary cost reductions by teaching students online and awarding degrees based on competency.

....

If these reactions suggested Perry was out of step with the higher-education establishment, the public’s reaction suggested that defenders of the status quo had fallen out of step with students, their parents, and taxpayers. Baselice and Associates conducted a public-opinion survey commissioned by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, finding that 81 percent of Texas voters believed public universities could be run more efficiently. Nationally, a 2011 Pew study found that 57 percent of prospective students believed a college degree no longer carries a value worth the cost. Seventy-five percent of respondents declared college simply unaffordable.

But would Perry’s plan meet the public’s need? One year after the governor’s challenge, Texas A&M-San Antonio became the first school to answer the call, announcing a bachelor’s degree in information technology costing students just under $10,000 in tuition and fees. Today, eleven other Texas schools have announced $10,000 degree initiatives.

....

Three higher-education partners — Texas A&M University-Commerce, South Texas College, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) — just launched the “Affordable Baccalaureate Program,” the state’s first public university bachelor’s degree combining online learning and competency-based standards. Developed by community-college and university faculty, with an eye to meeting the needs identified by community and business leaders, a new degree in organizational leadership can cost as little as $750 per term and allows students to receive credit for as many competencies and courses as they can master each term. According to THECB’s website, students arriving “with no prior college credits should be able to complete the degree program in three years at a total cost of $13,000 to $15,000.” Students who enter having already satisfied their general-education requirements can complete the degree in two years, while those entering with “90 credit hours and no credential” can complete the degree “in one year for $4,500 to $6,000.”

....

Finally, the ground is beginning to shift. The impossible may be starting to look inevitable.

 Read the whole thing here.

Planned Parenthood: Teaching "Asphyxiation" to teenage girl

"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea."
Mark 9:42

Live Action's latest Planned Parenthood sting has received a fair amount of press, but the full video has to be seen to be believed:



Highlights:

• Advice on safe word.

• Some whipping...some asphyxiation.

• "Do some internet research."

• "Some guys like women to urinate on them, or...pooping."

• "Have you guys ever been to a sex shop together?!?"

• Could my parents see what I'm looking at on the internet?!?
• "You might wanna do it elsewhere."
• "If you have internet on your phone, you can use your phone."

• "I think you'll have fun...doing some research and finding out some new stuff."

• "You're young -- you have, you know, this time to explore."

• "You're lucky to be so young and have a relationship with a partner you trust.  That's rare.  So take advantage of that."

The Latest Casino Gambling Backdoor

"Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished,
But he who gathers by labor will increase."
Proverbs 13:11

John H. Reagan office building -- Earlier today, the Texas Racing Commission held a hearing to discuss permitting 'historical racing' terminal, a euphemism for slot machines, at horse racing tracks.  This is the latest backdoor attempt to expand casino gambling in Texas.  The hearing was a scene straight from Ayn Rand.

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

[Author's note: The hearing doesn't start until the five minute mark of the video.]

During the 1980's, when Kohmeni's Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq went to war, Henry Kissinger is rumored to have said "I hope they both lose."  That would be an accurate way to describe this hearing.  All sides in this dispute were looking to use government to shut down their competition.  Nobody was interested in a free market.  Sadly, it was a contest to see whose cronies won.

There are no good guys in this fight.  That being said, the proposed rule change is worse than the status quo.  Concerned Texans can contact the Texas Racing Commission at 512-833-6699.

----

Tony McDonald has more:

Today the Texas Racing Commission will take testimony from citizens concerned with the agency’s impending constitutional overreach. The Commission is considering enacting a rule that would allow Texas horse and dog tracks to implement devices called “instant racing” or “historical racing” terminals which critics have said are nothing more than thinly veiled slot machines.

Public outcry has prompted the commission to move its meeting to a new location in the Reagan Building to accommodate larger than usual crowds. Many Texans are furious that the commission would consider an end-run around the legislature and the state constitution’s general prohibition on gambling.

....

But there is an even bigger problem with the machines than their slot machine-like appearance and operation. The machines are billed by track owners as an extension of “pari-mutuel wagering,” where gamblers bet against each other in a pool with the house taking a share of that pool, rather than putting up money of its own for players to win. This is the process through which betting is allowed currently for live and simulcast racing and is a very narrow exception to the state’s general prohibition on gambling.

Running such a scheme on single-player machines obviously presents a problem, however. If the players were truly betting against each other, then the first person up to the machine would have nothing possible to win.

That is why the rules being contemplated by the Racing Commission propose that the machines be funded with gambling interest dollars to form “seed pools.” This house money means that the machines are not “pari-mutuel” and thus, even ignoring their seedy appearance, are illegal under Texas law.

Read the whole thing here.

Austin City Council, District 8: Ellen Troxclair's GANGBUSTERS fundraising report!!!

"But he said, “Peace be with you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks...."
Genesis 43:23 (a)

Way to go:

After entering the race for Austin City Council, District 8, just a few weeks ago, our campaign has received over $18,500 - well beyond the goal we had set - and according to the campaign finance reports filed yesterday, one of the highest totals in District 8! In fact, despite being in the race the shortest period of time out of all of the candidates in our district, we have out-raised almost all of the city council candidates in ANY district across the city. Between June 12th and June 30th, we raised nearly $1,000 a day! [Emphasis in original]

Read the whole thing here.

Straus to Voters: Drop Dead (Part 2)

"He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck,
Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
Proverbs 29:1

SIGH:

Late Tuesday, in an exercise of political tone-deafness, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus appointed Representatives Drew Darby, John Otto, and John Zerwas to vacancies on the Legislative Budget Board, a powerful department which oversees the budget writing process each interim. The three replace outgoing Representatives Dan Branch, Harvey Hilderbran, and Jim Pitts.

Branch and Hilderbran were soundly defeated by Texas voters when they sought higher offices earlier this year, running for Attorney General and Comptroller, respectively. Pitts elected to retire from the House last year after revelations that he may have abused his office to get his adult son into the University of Texas School of Law.

Darby, Otto, and Zerwas, voters may be amazed to learn, represent a step leftward from the men they rejected in the primaries this spring. Zerwas, who infamously fought against Republicans last session to help Democrats expand Medicaid under ObamaCare, earned the lowest score of any Republican on the Fiscal Responsibility Index, with a 25.3. That score is lower than three Democrats. Darby and Otto did not fare much better, earning scores of 35.5 and 35.3 on the index, respectively. All three men were ranked in the bottom ten for Republicans in the House.

....

There are two major observations from the appointments that are worth noting.

First, the move is a demonstration of Straus’s weakness as a leader. It has been well-reported for nearly a year now that Straus intends to appoint either Darby, Otto, or Zerwas to Chair House Appropriations once Pitts exits the west wing of the Capitol. By appointing all three to the LBB, he is able to hedge his bets and buy time before he is forced to disappoint two of his three key supporters.

Second, Speaker Straus is putting Republican members of the House on a collision course with political reality by appointing the most liberal Republicans available to the LBB. It is undoubted that presumptive Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who will appoint the Senate’s members of LBB come January, will push to bring fiscal discipline to the Board. Straus appears poised to make members of the House fight against Patrick’s reforms. Many of those profess conservatism but plead that they must go-along with Straus in order to “get things done” are about to have a rude awakening to the political consequences of electing a Speaker who doesn’t share their (or their voters’) principles.

If Republican primary voters and the members they elect need any more evidence that Speaker Straus despises their values and, if reelected, plans to fight against conservative reforms, this is it. Straus will never give real power to conservatives and all promises he has made to that end over the past five years have proven to be illusory. If conservatives want reform, we are going to have to fight and take it.

 Amen, read the whole thing here.

Meet BITCOIN Girl!!!

"Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
saying,

“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat."
Amos 8:4-6

A-MA-ZING:



Highlights:

• "She kissed the Federal Reserve Goodbye!!!"

• "All her currency is peer to peer, no regulation can interfere!"

• "She's over paper money, which has no value intrinsically!"

Texas Border Crisis Press Conference

"You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess."
Deuteronomy 19:14

[Author's Note: This website does NOT agree with every sentiment voiced in this conference (especially the crap about the North American Union), but more voices, not fewer.]

Texas State Capitol -- Earlier today, grassroots leaders from across Texas held a press conference at the Capitol to urge swifter action from State Officials:

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Highlights:

• JoAnn Fleming
• We live in "a sanctuary state"
• Our state officials haven't taken care of business.
• De facto commendation of state and local assets by Feds.
• Constitution prohibits this
• Texans already understand you can believe anything out of Washington D.C.
• Growing sense of the same thing in Austin
• DPS: Texas Gang Threat Assessment
• Children are 20% of the problem
• Call up the national guard and fund it.

• Jim Gibson -- Texas Border Volunteers
• Based 70 miles north of the border.
• We've already exceeded 2013 apprehension numbers and we've still got three months to go in the fiscal year.
• Dept of Homeland Security is stonewalling Cruz's office

• Katrina Pierson 
• Tea parties warned about this the past two sessions
• Almost 50% of our budget is Federal $$$
• This has been going on for a few years.

• Margarita Graham
• We've processed MS-13 members
• TB is difficult to trace.
• "Don't be shocked if in 2 or 3 years we have an overwhelming problem with TB."

• The less said about the next three presenters, the better.

• Ray Myers
• 300,000 more on the way.
• Trains bringing illegals to the U.S. are U.S. owned and operated.
• This is by design.
• Cloward/Piven strategy in action.

• Michael Openshaw
• The legal immigrants in his family are pissed.
• Why hasn't the press investigated the detention centers?!?

• Alice Linahan
• Children are being raped and brutalized on the journey
• Perry and Abbott: "Show us how you're different from Obama."

• Ken Emmanuelson
• Perry getting "poor legal advice"
• Texas national guard reports to Perry..."put them to work."
• 
  

Glenn Beck, Ken Mercer discuss latest Common Core "end run"

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea."
Matthew 18:6

Yesterday, conservative SBOE warrior Ken Mercer appeared with Glenn Beck to discuss the latest attempt to backdoor Common Core into Texas:



Highlights:

• Building Common Core into the A.P. exams.

• Teaching "a very negative aspect about America."

• WWII: Nothing about the Holocaust, just the Atomic bomb.

• "They tell teachers you have flexibility to teach other things, but it's clear the flexibility won't be tested."

• This year, 45,000 Texas High School students will take an exam based upon a curriculum that's illegal in Texas. 

Texans Demand a Conservative Budget

"But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’  Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself."
Deuteronomy 17:16

Texas Public Policy Foundation -- This morning, the Texas Conservative Budget Coalition held a press conference to discuss TPPF's new paper The Conservative Texas Budget:

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Highlights:

• Talmadge Helflin - STAR FUND is the primary tax cut.
• Real Texas Budget was the Starting Point.
• We're two weeks away from state agencies beginning to request 2016/17 budgets.
• Expect a $1.5 billion supplemental in 2015.
• Author's note: Sigh....
• Texas' current spending limit is restricted to non-dedicated General revenue.
• The legislature will have to do this "voluntarily."
• Author's Note: Paging Dan Patrick!!!
• The economy of a state fares better "if it's a low tax, low spend state."
• "In times of plenty, we recommend the legislature keep spending at a level that's sustainable in the long-term."

• Vance Ginn - 2004-15 state spending up 62.4%
• 8% faster than inflation + spending.
• Limit state spending to 6.2% population + inflation.

• JoAnn Fleming - "The state of Texas spends much more than the legislature appropriates."
• Federal funds come from our pocket, "some magic fairy land."

• Michael Quinn Sullivan - "Texas has benefited...from the bad decisions of other states."
• "The least drunk person at the bar shouldn't be held up as a model of sobriety."

• Cathie Adams - "Texas Families have hopes and dreams, and we want to be able to afford them."
• Prioritize spending to prevent budget from growing more than 6.2%

• Jenna White - Conservative budget draws a line in the sand at 6.2%

• Chuck DeVore - "Spending restraint leads to tangible gains."
• "We can do better."
• "We can do better by allowing free enterprise to flourish."
• Eliminate the margins tax -- more than enough money.
• Prioritize infrastructure over welfare or other wasteful spending.
• Restructure spending to get more bang for the buck (Talmadge Heflin)
• Within the past couple months, TxDOT has come up with $350 million for rail (MQS) 

The full paper:

The Conservative Texas Budget

Highlights:

• "Texas has had a large increase in its labor force during those years from out-of-state migration compared to a declining labor force in many areas....Clearly, as fast as people are moving to Texas, job creation is keeping pace."

• "Texas current limitations on government spending are not sufficient."

• "These limits represent maximum amounts for the Legislature to use when determining the cumulative amount appropriated for each government agency.  The Foundation believes that the Legislature could easily spend less than this and still ensure provision of basic public necessities.  Nonetheless, if the Legislature stays within these bounds in The Conservative Texas Budget, it will have taken a substantial step towards reining in the growth of Texas government.

C.A.T.I. Ladies Disprove the Open Carry Lies

"Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me."
Nehemiah 4:18

Downtown Austin, TX -- Last Saturday, Come and Take It - Austin held their first "Gunpowder and Lace" walk.  The event was designed to illustrate the co-ed support to bring Texas' laws in line with 45 other states.  Obviously, when a police officer is 2 - 20 minutes away, firearms help empower women.

Post by Misty Witt.

The march began outside the Texas Capitol parking garage and continued to the South Gate of the Capitol where they paused to take pictures.

The most important part of the march came when the group passed by a separate group of women lined up for a purse sale. The second group of women was loud and supportive to a degree we found pleasantly surprising. Considering that they didn't have a dog in this fight, their positive reaction illustrates the lie that open carry events are somehow intimidating.

From there the group walked down east Sixth Street. Reactions were overwhelmingly positive. The CATI Ladies recieved dozens of supportive honks against one middle finger.



The second amendment protects everyone, regardless of chromosomes. Saturday's march re-enforces that point. Moms Demand Franzia doesn't speak for Texas Women.

-----



-----

More from Texas Firearms Freedom:

However, this walk was exceptional: it featured the ladies. The women of CATI took the lead and were the only armed participants. Men and boys were invited to join in the walk, but were asked to carry only flags and literature.

The Gunpowder and Lace walk highlighted the fact that firearms empower women. They are the great equalizer. Women do not carry firearms out of fear, but rather because they don’t have to be afraid.

This demographic may be unexpected to those who are accustomed to the concept that open carry activists consists solely or primarily of the “gun nut” redneck guys. Nothing could be further from the truth. Armed women are a growing demographic and a force to be reckoned with. And they don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. Woe to those who would try to mess with these women and their guns. Legislators of 2015: be ready to face the accountability of these moms who will demand your legislative action for their gun rights to be upheld.

Read the whole thing here.

-----

More from Fox 7 Austin:

The ladies of "Come and Take It" Austin have an announcement to make: it's not just guys who support the second amendment.

"We usually do these walks and it's male and female. But today we're trying to showcase the ladies especially. To show everyone that it's not just a bunch of men who care about their rights and they care about their own protection and their safety as well," said Amanda Andeen who organized the walk downtown which they called "Gunpowder and Lace."

"A weapon is a great equalizer for a woman. You know, if a 200 pound man was trying to attack a 120 pound 'me,' if I didn't have a means of protection, you know...I'd lose," she said.

....

Rachel Malone says a lot of shop owners and other Austinites along their usual route know them and support them when they do walks like this.

"People who are here visiting for the first time or haven't seen us before, they'll often be surprised. We get a lot of excited responses, honks and smiles and waves. We get some kind of shocked, 'What are doing? Why are you doing this?' and we try to explain. And almost always, we get a positive response when we explain. 'Hey that's really cool,'" Malone said

Read the whole thing here.

Joe Straus staffer loots Williamson County Taxpayers

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Great catch from Empower Texans:

A popular political bumper sticker reads, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” Citizens of the small, Central Texas town of Taylor now have a reason to do both: Taylor’s City Council has given away over $200,000 in tax money to build a pizza restaurant amusement center. Even worse? They were encouraged to do so by a state university.

The national pizza chain Gatti’s has a number of arcade-style pizza restaurant franchises called “Gattiland” that bill themselves as “eater-tainment” centers.

At the May 22nd Taylor City Council meeting, leaders put their taxpayers on the hook for $200,000 cash and future tax rebates to go toward the “eater-tainment” center.

The new 12,500 square foot complex will be on Taylor’s north main street, less than a half a mile away in both directions from two competing pizza restaurants. Domino’s Pizza is three-tenths of a mile to the north and Pizza Hut is two-tenths of a mile to the south. One can only guess how those franchise owners feel about their tax dollars being used to subsidize their new competition.

....

While these ridiculous incentives might seem surprising, it is probably not surprising that the leadership of Taylor has a close association with reckless spending: Jesse Ancira, Chief of Staff to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, is the Mayor of Taylor.

Read the whole thing here.

Stop Common Core U.S. History in Texas!!!

"It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."
Luke 17:2

Donna Garner sends an urgent Action Alert:

Please contact the Texas Attorney General’s office and urge him to stop the AP U. S. History Framework from being implemented this fall.

David Coleman is the lead architect of the Common Core. He then became the president of The College Board and has publicly promised that all College Board products will align with the Common Core.

The new AP U. S. History Framework is illegal according to our state law (HB 462) and the most recent opinion by the Texas Attorney General.

We Texans must alert the TAG that he needs to stop AP U. S. History Framework from being put into place in Texas because not only is it aligned with the Common Core, but it is also not aligned with the required Texas curriculum standards (TEKS).

TAG Phone No. – 512-463-2100

TAG E-mail Address - greg.abbott@texasattorneygeneral.gov

==========

[Please be sure to notice the well-sourced links further on down the page. – Donna Garner]

http://nocompromisepac.ning.com/profiles/blogs/common-core-revealed-ap-u-s-history-test-by-jane-robbins-7-12-14

From: Jane Robbins, American Principles Project

To: Georgia and states across America

Subject: Leftist, slanted version of American History ready to begin this fall in our nation’s schools – AP U. S. History

Date: 7.12.14

The College Board, now led by Common Core "architect" David Coleman, is about to implement a revised Advanced Placement U.S. History course. This course presents a slanted, leftist view of American history that (among other things) doesn't mention the Founding Fathers and barely mentions the Declaration of Independence. We've posted extensive information on this issue here:

http://georgia.stopcommoncore.com/

This AP course -- which will be taken by your best and brightest students -- almost certainly conflicts radically with your state history standards. Thus do unaccountable outsiders increase their reach and control over your students' education.

We need state boards of education to demand that the College Board retract and rewrite this new AP US History course. Time is short -- the course goes into effect this fall.

We hope the Georgia website will give you ideas about how to educate and activate on this front. Feel free to cut and paste. If you don't have time to get this before your state board, you might ask people to call congressmen (we have some national figures, such as Stanley Kurtz and Dick Morris, sounding the alarm about this, and Morris will have Rep. Virginia Fox on his radio program on Monday to discuss), to call the governor, to make it a campaign issue . . . . The College Board needs to hear from us. Especially is this true since the College Board is planning to revise all its AP courses -- and we can surmise they'll do to those courses what they've done to this one.

Here also is the most recent piece from Kurtz: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/382400/new-war-over-high-school-us-history-stanley-kurtz. This tells some of what is going on in Texas on this issue.

This is the latest, and potentially most dangerous, front in the education wars. If Coleman and Co. can usurp state standards through the AP courses, it won't really matter whether the schools -- even private schools -- have Common Core. Please sound the alarm. Thank you!

Donna Garner

Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

=========

7.12.14 – “Common Core David Coleman’s Next Deception: The New AP U. S. History Exam” -- By Dr. Susan Berry --

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/11/David-Coleman-s-Second-Deception-After-Common-Core-The-New-AP-U-S-History-Exam

7.11.14 -- “Texans, Stop AP U. S. History Tests from Being Implemented – Illegal in Texas”

By Donna Garner -- http://www.educationviews.org/texans-stop-ap-u-s-history-tests-implemented-illegal-texas/

7.10.14 – “New War Over High School U.S. History” – by Stanley Kurtz – National Review --

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/382400/new-war-over-high-school-us-history-stanley-kurtz

7.7.14 –“Dinesh D’Souza’s America and Our Schools” – by Stanley Kurtz – National Review --

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/382097/dsouzas-america-and-our-schools-stanley-kurtz

6.24.14 -- “David Coleman Attacks Students’ Love of America” -- by Donna Garner --

http://www.educationviews.org/david-coleman-attacks-students-love-america/

6.22.14 – “Urgent: AP US History Framework Tied to Common Core – Illegal in Texas” – by Donna Garner -- http://www.educationviews.org/ap-history-framework-tied-common-core-illegal-texas/

Our KVUE Appearence

"Do not remove the ancient landmark
Which your fathers have set."
Proverbs 22:28

During President Obama's visit the other day, we were interviewed on KVUE, full segment below:



Highlights:

• "He thinks it's O.K. to come down to Texas to fundraise with some rich fat-cat donors and Hollywood types, yet he doesn't have time to seek out answers or learn first hand about what's going on in terms of the humanitarian and national security crisis on our border."

• "I would like to see him personally remove a lot of the bureaucratic restrictions on our border patrol agents, get them out there so they're not just doing this gigantic catch and release program,"

Cigarroa's Real Play

"Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace."
Luke 14:31-32

The good news is that Bill Powers' reign of terror will soon end:

AUSTIN, Texas--After three years of deteriorating relations with his employers on the University of Texas Board of Regents and a growing scandal involving legislators allegedly using their clout to get friends and family admitted without proper qualifications, UT president Bill Powers on Wednesday offered his resignation effective June 2015.

 The bad news is that Powers gets another year to entrench the culture of mediocrity at UT.

When this website first saw Kay Bailout's spin we almost bought it:

Post by Texas Exes.

But here's the thing: prior to Michael's article last week, the conventional wisdom was that Powers would remain indefinitely.  Five days later, with a deadline for public humiliation in place, Powers 'voluntarily' resigned.  This website has a funny feeling the original leak to Michael was Cigarroa's gambit to 'lead' Powers to the result UT-Reformers wanted.

'Rejection then retreat' appears frequently in sales:

This technique is often applied. You request something greater to get a smaller thing done. Let’s imagine that you sell dining tables. You could take your customer to the cheapest table in the hope that he will buy that, at least. Or you could take him to the most expensive, which he will probably reject and then move to cheaper ones. Not really surprisingly the second approach works far better. However, it is surprising that your customer will also be more satisfied because you retreated. [Emphasis Added]

Of course, BOR took the bait:

In the end, Bill Powers' resignation effective June 2, 2015 -- submitted and accepted by lame-duck UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa in advance of today's meeting -- was the least-bad option possible in the situation. [Emphasis Added]

Texas Monthly also drank the kool-aid:

Powers was the winner, and Rick Perry was the loser.

Whatever the ex post facto spin, the business as usual crowd cannot deny that ten days ago it was widely assumed Powers was safe.

Bottom Line: Powers is leaving.  Instead of Rick Perry, Dan Patrick gets to influence the hiring of the next U.T. President.  That's not a bad place for U.T. reformers to sit.

#HookEm!!!

Steve Toth Defends Homeschooling from Local Tyrants

"And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."
Ephesians 6:4

"Daytime curfews" are a common tactic local fascists use to threaten homeschooling, Steve Toth isn't having it:

While that meeting was going on, the city council of Magnolia was also meeting. Home schoolers and other concerned parents came to this meeting in response to a THSC e-blast about the city’s effort to adopt or readopt a daytime curfew. In addition to the e-blast, we also wrote a letter and delivered it to Magnolia city officials prior to that city council meeting. The room was filled to overflowing with citizens who, according to the city attorney, were the largest and most well-behaved opposition to any ordinance that he had ever seen in his practice of representing multiple cities. He also commended the well-reasoned arguments against the ordinance.

Just before both meetings started I got a call from State Representative Steve Toth, who is a home school dad and a candidate in a runoff for the State Senate District 4 seat—the district that includes Magnolia. Steve told me he was going to the meeting and asked me for details and talking points. He went as a state legislator and gave testimony against the ordinance about why this curfew was a bad idea for the community and families. It became clear that there was overwhelming opposition to the daytime curfew, and when he and others pointed out that the same problems existed with the city’s nighttime curfew, the council decided to kill both.

Representative Toth also explained to the council that Montgomery County commissioners have the same kind of ordinance in effect and that THSC will work with him and other leaders to address this issue to the commissioners and seek to have that ordinance removed as well.

While this was a great victory for freedom and parental rights, it is also instructive in terms of what voters should look for in elected officials. THSC Association has endorsed Steve Toth in his election bid for the State Senate because he has proven, in this situation and in many others, that he is willing and able to be an advocate for home schooling and parental rights, which is what we need in the Texas Legislature. While his opponent is a conservative and says he supports home schooling and parental rights, he did not get involved in this matter and has not been an advocate for home schooling and parental rights in the Texas Legislature.

We will be working on this issue as it moves forward in Montgomery County, but I hope all liberty-loving supporters of parental rights in Senate District 4 will support Steve Toth in the August 5 special election, because this situation proved again that Steve is the right man for the job.