Give it a shot.

I got 44 out of 50 correct. Post your score below.

Also, to my surprise, one of my friends, Krissi Trumeter, criticized my old college friend, Sofia Resnick’s, recent article in the Austin Chronicle. What’s surprising is that they don’t know one another. Austin is a small town.

To see Krissi’s critique of the article, click here and scroll down to “Only State Facts . . . Not Romantic Illusions.”

[musings: test]

Abigail Noel Fisher, 18, a white senior at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land is suing the University of Texas System, accusing the university of illegally using race in determining admissions.

Fisher is in the top 12 percent of her graduating class, not enough to gain her automatic admission under the state’s top 10 percent law.

How is this girl being discriminated against on a racial basis when the standard to be automatically admitted to a state university is being in the top ten percent of her high-school class; not the top 12 percent?

It’s an African-American’s, Asian-American’s, Native American’s fault that she couldn’t make decent enough grades to be in the top ten percent of her class?

I. Don’t. Think. So.

I don’t agree with the fact that the Top Ten Percent rule is based on geographic segregation, but I also don’t agree with frivolous lawsuits merely based on selfishness. If you wanted to get into UT automatically, maybe you should have studied harder. Loser.

Texas sickens me more and more.

P.S. Being from Sugar Land just proves that you’re a selfish bitch looking for special treatment. Two words: Fuck. Off.

The first is Bill Moyers’ interview with The Yes Men, a group that gives the most absurd presentations at official functions — and get taken seriously — proving the gullibility and out-right stupidity of major government and industry leaders.

The second is a YouTube video from the Texas College Democrats about Senator John Cornyn, Texas’ own Grinch.

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that

More than 750,000 Texas drivers haven’t paid mandatory annual surcharges on their traffic violations, forcing them to drive without valid licenses and depriving the state treasury of nearly $620 million – much of which was supposed to be used for trauma care.

Figures compiled by the Texas Department of Public Safety and provided to The Dallas Morning News indicate that the state has collected only 32 percent of the surcharges assessed against drivers for offenses such as driving while intoxicated, failure to have insurance and driving without a valid license.

Good for the dodgers! Those surcharges are complete and utter bullshit. We have a penal code that determines the fines people pay for violating the law. We don’t need the state tacking on ridiculously high surcharges — on top of the court-determined fine/jail time and increased insurance rates — for crimes. If the state wants to fund trauma care (or, say, education or CHIP), they should allocate money for the damn programs and stop “cutting” taxes.

DWI offenses carry the biggest surcharges – $1,000 a year for three years on the first conviction and $1,500 a year for a second conviction. Any DWI conviction in which the blood alcohol content is twice the legal limit draws a $2,000-a-year surcharge.

. . .

“There are a number of reasons why people don’t comply with the law, but personal finances is probably the main reason,” said Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman. “Many drivers just don’t have the money. Paying $1,000 a year for three years is a lot of money for some people.”

Ya think? And that $3,000 isn’t including the court sentence.

Under the Texas Penal Code (Title 3, Sec. 12.22), the maximum penalty for a DWI conviction is a $2,000 fine and 180 days in jail. So, the Legislature’s lovely under-the-radar taxing scheme (and that’s what this is — they “lower taxes” but raise fees and fines) is nothing but a moneymaker.
But, of course, there’s always a Republican out there who’ll say we can cut taxes even more in a state that’s already bottomed out on pretty much every social program:

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, who sponsored the legislation, said the massive noncompliance with the surcharges exemplifies a “big problem” for state government.

“If we could only collect all the fines and fees the state is owed, we could cut taxes because we would have a lot more money than we have now,” he said.

You mean aside from all that money we left in the budget last session to fund future tax cuts, right?

Mr. Ogden and other lawmakers have questioned whether the financial penalties are so high that they provide an incentive for people not to pay.

DUH! Are you people fucking stupid? Don’t question it, know it.

And there’s so much money they’re worried about missing out on that, lo and behold!, they’re considering contracting with collection agencies — because they don’t take a share, do they? Oh, wait:

Besides allowing the department to use collection agencies – which could be paid up to 30 percent of what they collect – and such carrots as installment payments and partial amnesty programs, DPS officials also can consider increased consequences.

Ugh. There aren’t installments plans in place already? You have to fork over $1,000 a year in a lump-sum? Jesus H. Christ. I hate these people. Best interests of Texans in mind, my ass.

• In a story detailing problems with the Bush administration push for Medicare enrollees to utilize private plans for the new drug benefit comes this nugget:

In March, Sierra Health Services ended drug coverage for more than 2,300 Medicare beneficiaries with H.I.V./AIDS, saying they had not paid their premiums. In many cases, the premiums had been paid, and beneficiaries had canceled checks to prove it. Sierra initially refused to reinstate them, but eventually agreed to do so after repeated requests from federal officials. Peter O’Neill, a vice president of Sierra, said this particular drug plan, which attracted people with very high drug costs, would not be offered in 2008

Um, duh? Whoda thunk that people with HIV/AIDS would need expensive drugs?

• Another story, discussing Syria’s ties to Iraqi Baathists and attempts to increase its influence among Sunnis in Iraq, it’s noted that, “In July, former Baathists opposed to the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki scheduled a conference for insurgent groups — including two of the most prominent, the 1920s Revolution Brigades and Ansar al Sunna — at the Sahara Resort outside Damascus.”

Sounds to me like a good target for a JDAM.

• And the growing number of rapes in Congo? Not only is that awful, but so is the name and style of one insurgent group: “According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way.”

• The Japanese government takes a page from the Texas state board of education: “In new high school textbooks, the Japanese government is now denying that Okinawans had been coerced by troops into committing mass suicide during World War II.”

• And, of course, your daily fix of Christian virtual violence: Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church.

Opinions are one thing. Actually paying close attention and then voicing an opinion is another. Stick to state politics, Mickey B.

Abu Muqawama has always been a big fan of the late French intellectual Raymond Aron. Aron, writing in his newspaper column for Le Figaro, believed it was the responsibility of the public intellectual to make a careful study of the issues at hand — economics, military strategy, etc. — before putting pen to paper and presuming anyone should read what you have written.

Then he takes Maureen Dowd to task for her latest column on the Petraeus/Crocker reports:

Shut up. Shut up now. There is nothing in your cleverer-than-thou repertoire of pop culture references and mildly amusing 8th-grade literary devices that prepares you to even open your mouth to say anything about the war in Iraq. Just be quiet. Transport yourself back to the 1990s when the biggest issue facing the country was the president’s extramarital sex life, because for those times you were perfect. Now, you’re worthless. As a matter of fact, you’re worse than worthless. Because you, writing on the allegedly-serious op-ed page of the New York Times, give everyone else an excuse to treat this war and the debate surrounding it as flippantly as you do. If you want to be taken seriously, take the issue seriously. Study it. Learn about it. Talk to people who might know something.

And if you still don’t have anything of substance to say, keep quiet. This is why you don’t see Abu Muqawama writing anything about Manolo Blahniks. That’s your territory.

This goes for MoveOn and any number of other op-ed writers and bloggers.

Inform yourselves before you start talking shit. Otherwise, you’re no different from the ideology-driven folks marching in lock-step behind Bush.