Number Five

Well a good semester must come to an end and I luckily get to end on a good note due to my procrastination. For this blog we get the great and exciting task of blogging about the national government. So for this one I am choosing a topic near and dear to my heart; Animal cruelty.

Laws protecting animals in America are minimal at best. This is ridiculous when we have laws protecting or preventing virtually everything else. Now when I say everything, I mean just that, there is a law in Gary Indiana that on the second tuesday of march it is illegal to wear yellow while walking near the courthouse. So they have laws like that but not a general set of laws set forth to protect the majority of wild and domestic animals alike. I feel that there need to be national laws preventing the harm and causeless killing of animals. I understand that there is such things as overpopulation and exotic invasive species, but as a whole animals are becoming endangered as humans find them less and less useful. So let America be the first to give animals rights as a whole and not just the endangered and protected ones. So give mites and animals that bite the right.... to live.

Post Four

I know I know so late, but in the great words of Theodore Roosevelt, "Better late than never...". Now on with the main attraction, so this is long past due but for this blog we were instructed to write a critique about a suggested blog and I found Michael Steele. Wow is all I can say, politicians are supposed to be smart, intellectual, and well educated role models. First of all Michael Steele makes comments he knows absolutely nothing about and is also what appears to me a pretty bad racist. While addressing the issue on global warming he just throws out his own theory with no scientific backing. Then to defend it he uses the basis that not only he has no proof but also that no one has no proof. He then goes straight into the topic of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize and instead of asserting to a winner who won for similar reasons as Obama, he jumps straight to Martin Luther King Jr.; another African American recipient. After reading the article and watching to the video of the interview it just made me really sad that this is what American politics has come to.

Reply

Very nicely done blog, I agree with the point that you brought up about how eight years years ago there was quite a large number of countries on board to fight the war on terror. After that though we differ in opinion about the reasons why. First of all looking back this was never really a war on terror to begin with, it was America trying to look strong after a moment of weakness. Yes we initially had a whole lot of support from various acquaintances and allies alike, mostly because of their respect for the USA. Then as the years moved on respect only could take us so far so what started as a favor to a friend became a commitment they were not prepared to take. Pretty much like when a friend asks to stay at your place for the night and then is still there eight years later, living rent free. So we are that friend and we have definitely overstayed our welcome.

Obama Crashers

Ok so by now everyone who is anyone should have heard about the way over the top blown out of proportion incident with the couple crashing a dinner that our dear President Obama was attending. So to make a long story short a few days ago a couple had supposedly crashed a state dinner, and the nation is in an uproar. Everyone is concerned with how and why this happened, but like always before they even have the facts in. Apparently according to a today show interview they not only were invited they had the emails to prove it. Even with this they were not on the guest list and should have been barred from entering with the party, so now many people are concerned with the safety of the president. Another slanderous issue floating around the web is that the couple was looking for bids for their interviews and getting some as high as a hundred thousand dollars, this obviously has not been verified but since they are trying to get on the real housewives of D.C. many feel it was an intentional breech. So now that the focus of a nation is on this unlucky couple and as of yesterday have many different civil suits brought against them even though as of now it does no seem like they will be charged. This is just sad that such a scandal makes headlines when there are so many issues that are much more important, like what has happened with tiger woods the whole world is waiting to know.

Gay Is The Way

The author of this blog brings up a lot of good points about homosexual marriage and how it should be made legal throughout the US. However I do not think that the main argument is being head up by men, from my experience those opposing gay marriage are more evenly dispersed between men and women then the blog said. Most arguments I have heard for the opposition of homosexual marriage is more on the religious and morality basis like that according to the bible marriage is a union between a man and woman under God, and that God does not approve of homosexuality. Now onto my argument I feel it is time to give homosexuals the right to be as happy or as unhappily wed as any heterosexual couple. Allow all Americans to have equal rights, very well done Blog.

Putting the 'I' in Aid

Peter Bergen and Sameer Lalwani write an opinion column for the New York Times, and recently they co wrote an article titled “Putting the ‘I’ in Aid”. This article addresses how even though a lot of financial and physical aid in Afghanistan, they are no further along to being self-sustained now then they were when they were liberated eight years ago. This article is addressed to the American public in general and it is mostly a plea for a more sane approach to how to handle Afghanistan. Currently we are over helping, by providing both financial and physical help at the same time. Now what on the surface appears to be a great and generous thing, actually cancels each other out. This happens by the simple fact that everyone needs to get paid. So first financial support arrives and then the skilled workers sent over there to rebuild their roads, buildings and way of life all need to get paid. So after this happens the money then comes full circle right back to those that had given it in the first place. Normally this would not be an issue because of that relief nearly one to two billion dollars goes to tax but in this case it usually travels back to those countries of those providing relief so then leaves those who need it once again. Both the authors bring up the great point that over helping is just as bad as not as helping at all. I completely agree with this article and by easily switching the taxes from being paid to their native governments it should be paid to the government of Afghanistan. This would both allow those laborers doing the work to get paid, and Afghanistan the government in need would get that much needed help, in an everyone wins situation. These writers should be considered credible because Peter Bergen is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. Sameer Lalwani is a research fellow there.

Blog Stage Two

While browsing through CNN.com I stumbled across a nifty little link, The National Report Card: Second Hundred Days upon reading this little tidbit, it became apparent that we as Americans like to complain, and complain we do. There were ten questions asked on this test and no national average on any of the questions above a C+ grade of satisfaction. It seems no matter who is in office or what the issue is, there will always be more people bashing those who lead our country than those supporting them. To me this is quite comical, because we spend a lot of time and money into deciding who will lead, and the moment they start to take control we flip and start to complain. Personally I support Obama, and even though I do not agree with everyone of his ideals of decisions, as a whole I support him. Because of this reason I therefor voted for him and now either back him or at least give him a fighting chance. It is a lot easier to say you dislike something and that be the end of it than offer an alternate option and that is what this report card proves. Hopefully next year we will attempt to more openly fill out this report card. This is a great read, they break the scores down into each state and you can also see the national standings. Definitely worth your time if you have an interest on where you stand in the "class" of America.