Final Blog.

During my enrollment of this class i learned many things. For example, I learned that president Barrack Obama is replacing foot soldiers with more drones in the sky, That's a pretty cool thing. I also learned that in the event of a tie in the presidential election its possible to have a republican president and democratic vice president and vice versa, that's crazy. Imagine Obama and Palin? I also learned that the US has the highest gun ownership in the world. I'm against people having guns because no average person should be able to own a gun, it can only lead to bad things. Guns have taken many innocent lives and ufortunately the US won't create better gun laws.

I would say i learned a couple of new skills from taking this class. I learned how to look in to details and find important facts that can strongly support my arguments and i also learned that for every positive thing there is a negative thing. I learned not to believe everything i heard or saw on the news because media can be extremely biased, there has been cases where news stations will report false details to favor their beliefs. There's always a truth behind a lie in that situation. I also learned how my views on things can help me decide what political identity i have.

Finding out my political identity was important to me because this was the first year i was able to vote. I found myself being more democrat than republican on some topics. For example on immigration laws, I think once a person is here they should be able to stay here as long as they aren't criminals and don't cause trouble. I also believe a woman has the right to abortion in any circumstance, it's her choice. I also believe in raising taxes on the wealthy to level out the field, keep people out of poverty and have those who are more fortunate contribute more. They need to understand that people need food more than they need five houses and a yacht.

If i could change anything about this class it would have to be the fact that it was 100% web based. It would be awesome if it was half and half, occasionally meeting once a week to let people know more that they aren't learning from a computer and that the teacher is truly interested as well as the student. That really makes the student look more into topics rather than feeling like they have to do something just because. I also wish there was a second smester for this class, I really enjoyed learning about modern issues and not just historical fact.

This class taught me to look deeper into things and not just accept things for what they are. There's always a reason to what's going on and if you can learn what it is you might be able to help out.

My favorite topic to write about was the presidential election of 2012. Ir really interested me because this would be one of the most important elections of my life and being able to have a say in it just made it that much better. I liked having the facts there and whatever wasn't there i liked looking into to find the answerss. Both candidates had some good ideas and some bad ideas but in the end i think the better chocie won. I enjoyed listening to what they both had to say but i liked even more when they had to answer back, it really shows what plans they had already set up and what they had to make up as they went along. It was also funny to catch a candidate lie, we as a country elect the best liar to lead us and thats pretty funny.

Drones erywhere.

As modern technology advances, home appliances, cell phones and cars begin to become more futuristic. Just like the things you would see around your house are advancing, so are military weapons. We have had predator drones in the U.S. since the Bush administration and as time went by we began to use them more an more. President Bush had used around 35 drone strikes up until 2008. In President Obama's first year there were 117 drone strikes. That's because President Obama believes the use of drones is safer than having troops on foot in foreign countries and he may be right. The predator drone is a precision strike that is used to target a specific area and do some real damage, it can go unnoticed for a while too. There are also survailance drones that can track people as well, these are used to trace dangerous people or even an important person of interest. But with the many positive things about drones, there are also negative sides to everything. Many people believe that predato drones are unjust and inhumane. People also think its foolish to take troops of the ground and put more drones in the air.

There are several positive facts that make these drones extremely useful and great resources. One example is the fact that these drones can replace several soldiers with one soldier in America who is safely controlly it and out of harms way. That can reduce deaths in our military and introduce technology as a better way of warfare. The drones also very effective even from 10,000 feet in the air, the drones can follow a group or person and when given the order drop a bomb and eliminate the target, although it makes a big mess with an explosion it keeps troops out of harms way. The drones can also be used to keep major events in order such as sport event and concerts, the drones can fly around and watch over crowds to make sure everything is safe.

There are also some down sides to using the drones. An example of a negative down side is that people will find these drones as an invasion of privacy, the drones could be follwing anyone around and that person could never notice. The drones replacing foot soldiers can be seen as a down side because as Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales says " Virtually every president since World War II has cut the Army to buy more ships and planes, and from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq, all those cuts backfired" "we cannot pick our enemies; our enemies will pick us." And, as they have for 70 years, our foes will wage ground wars, because we already dominate the sea and air and space. We'll regret these troop cuts." That is a good point but with an enemy using several ground forces one man controling a drone can attack that large group from a safe distance.

Iran to the store for some nuclear power...

As you may have heard Iran is slowly making its way to having nuclear power but the U.S. and western civilization don't want this. Iran claims they want they nuclear power because they want to use it for new energy and electricty. So what's wrong with that? Iran is a more modern country and has many young people in school that appreciate western culture and listen and watch the same stuff we do. The U.S and Israel believe Iran is attempting to creating nuclear weapons rather than power sources (the U.S. and Israel have nuclear weapons) so why not Iran? Iran is an unstable country in the Middle East which makes many Americans believe they want to use these "weapons" to attack western civilization. The U.S. fears anoher act of terrorism but with the ideas and tactics they would like to use wouldn't that make the U.S a terrorist country as well?

It's unsafe to be a part of Iran's nuclear faculty as you can learn or read about, recently an Iranian scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a bomber on a motorcycle that attatched a magnetic bomb to the car he was in. No one knows who planned this assassination, The U.S, Israel or Iran's own people. Its puzzling why people don't think Iran has the right to nuclear power. Neighboring countries have it so why not Iran? I think they have the same rights other countries have and its unfair that the U.S. believes it has the power to oppress and country which seems to just want to create new energy sources. The U.S. should support and help out if anything and show alliance, that would remove tensions between the countries and make there be less fear in the American people. I think people would feel safer knowing the U.S. is helping and not just aggitating a country trying to attain nuclear power.

The West shouldn't try and control the world, that's what this is all going to come down to. The West doesn't want anyone they can't control to have and upperhand or even be on the same level that they are on. That's the reason most of these countries get pissed for, places like the U.S. come into a country, take what they want, get the benefits and attempt to make the rest of the world just as they are. That's why I could say the U.S. is a terrorist to other countries. They invade, take power or attempt to then leave when "the job is done." All in all I believe we should let Iran get their nuclear power and once we actually find out they are making weapons pointed at us then we should intervene.

Presidential Election

Welcome to the year 2012! We have an NHL lockout, the Los Angeles Lakers are 2-3 and oh yeah there's a presidential election... This year we have President Barack Obama representing the Democratic party and Governor Mitt Romney representing the Republicans. Both candidates have strong supporters and millions of dollars to back up there views and chances to become our nations leader. Barack Obama is looking to extend his presidency and go for another four years of "Obama-care" an attempt to increase tax on the wealthy, decrease the financial pressure on the middle class, and begin working on new forms of energy. Governor Mitt Romney would like to cut taxes on everyone and somehow decrease the national debt, prohibit abortion, be against gay marriage and privatize socal security. This election was considered the most important election of this millenium so far. We would see if we were going to continue on going into a new democratic future or drop our change and began going back to how things used to be.

Unfortunately for Governor Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican party their candidate lost an extremely close debate. The difference of the popular vote was less than 5 million votes! But Romney had only gotten 206 Electoral  votes, thats 33 less than half of the electoral votes. There are several reasons that people are saying why Romney lost. One reason is his views on abortion rights, conservatives tend to be against the womens right to abort her child. Without a strong femal vote its going to be hard to win key swing states and get the necesary amount of electoral votes. Romney was also against the right for gay people to get married and he opposed raising taxes on the wealthy but keep the tax systems the way they are, getting the middle class harder. With many American citizens supporting abortion rights, gay rights and not being upperclass and being for tax increased on the wealthy it almost seemed impossible for Romney to win these people over. He also didn't really have a clear plan on how to achieve his goals, whatever they may have been.

As for our winner, President Barack Obama won the election with 332 electoral votes putting hime above the 270 victory mark. Obama won this debate because he had the popular vote, the young vote, the middle class vote, the minority vote and the womens vote. He also won key swing states such as Ohio, Florida and California. The reason these votes are important because with many issues such as immigration, student loans, abortion, gay rights and financial decisions people want to vote for someone who is going to work for them and help them benefit. Obama supported womens right and the right for gays to marry. He also opposed a tax cut and pushed for a tax increase in the upper class, this made many middle class citizens vote in Obama's favor because in times of financial struggle people need a government that can help them. He had the young vote because Romney wantes to cut student loans and with many young people going into college they need government assistance to be able to attend schools and further their education for the future, isn't that what counts? The future? Those are major reason I believe Barack Obama is now in his second term as the President of the United States.

If you were to ask me for my opinion I'd say that this election went in the right direction to keep America on the right path to cutting our national debt and excelling as a country once again. I was happy to hear that Barack Obama won because I can continue my college career and not worry about having to pay full which many people can't afford to do. These results are good for America because we can continue researching new energy sources and cut the national debt by using our own materials and resourcees. I believe that if American can continue doing our research we can inspire other countries to do the same. Its also good because democrats are more against war, if we can focus on our own pronblems in our country then  we can do more for ourselves. That's why I'm happy Obama won this election and recieved a second term.

Gun Control

Did you know that for every 100 people in the United States there are almost 90 guns making the U.S. have the highest gun onwership rate in the world? That's 40% higher than Yemen's ownership rate, Yemen has the second highest rate. To make things worse, 62% of the gun owners have more than one! So you might be wondering why? Why do we need to have these guns laying around our houses and in our cities? 67% percent of gun owners say they have the guns for  protection against crime. That's a higher percentage of people using guns to hunt... But if we have police who are here to protect us from crime why do people need to protect themselves any further than the police do? If Americans can just go and get a gun then that is just adding on to the possible threat of gun related "incidents". I believe it is a person's right to own a gun but I think a handgun would suffice. There is no need for high powered assult rifles to be in the hands of regular citizens.

Many people would disagree with me they might need to have their high powered assult rifles or multiple guns"in case of emergency". A majority of gun owners claim they need these weapons for protection. "Police cannot protect citizens, and even if they could, they do not have an obligation to do so. One must accept responsibility for one's own security" I took that quote from a hunting website. Its pretty obvious what its saying, people should protect themselves because they don't think the police can truly protect them. That's a valid argument seeing as most people won't have an officer with a gun waiting at home for any problems but still, do you think that everyone should own more than one gun? Isn't one enough?  People say that they keep multiple guns around the house incase one breaks or just to have them in multiple rooms. "I obviously have one of my guns in my bedroom in case there’s a home intruder during the night. But there’s also a gun in my basement. If someone were to break into my house while I was in my basement watching a movie, it would be a long haul up to my bedroom if that were the only gun I had." That is a quote from someone a gun post defending why they need multiple guns. That's also a valid argument but if you were to have a house intruder wouldn't you're presence scare them off once you arrive. A gun being in basement isn't going to be a lot of help when you aren't even home. (I'm not saying to carry a gun on you at all times)

As you can see throughout my blog post that I think people should be able to guns but only one. It's everyone's right to "protect" themselves even if we have a police department. People need to truly understand the power of these guns though. I believe that people aren't buying guns to go out and kill eachother, I'd like to think we're more civilized than that but what about the people that abuse the right to own a gun? From 2005-2010 there were almost 60,000 gun related deaths... "In 2010 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms." This is a quote from the world news data blog. That's a high number of deaths from fire arms, those were murders. Lives taken and families destroyed because someone took advantage of the right to own a gun. I think guns should be left at home, the protection should be for their family. Honestly where are you going that you need to carry a gun on you? Think about how safe that place would be if you had to leave guns at home. In the case of Trayvon Martin, imagine Zimmerman wasn't carrying a pistol? A young man was killed because someone found it nesecary to carry around a pistol to be the neighborhood watch. Beautiful families ruined because one person had a piece of metal and obiously didn't take time to learn what a gun is truly used for,DEATH. Using self defense as an excuse doesn't and shouldn't cut it. You don't need a gun to fight a person off. Imagine if  Seung-Hui Cho didn't have easy access to weapons or it was illegal to take them out of the home? There would be 32 innocent people still living and breathing today.

N uR Gee

It's currently
 2012 and the planet is hurt. We as humans have been abusing our natural resources and we may be getting close to the bottom of it. The United States is one of the biggest energy consumer of them all with our need for gasoline and electricity. The fossil fuels we use for energy may be the cause to this global warming/climate change. As we learn more and experiment in new sciences we have began finding new sources of energy to replace the original gasoline and coal fueled energy. It's believed that the new forms of energy we are discovering could be the way to stop harming the environment and begin restarting our economy for a more eco friendly world. When Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was released the public was introduced to a theory that global warming is a man-made issue. By being man-made this was reffering to industry as a major contributer, The conservatives didn't like that... I think natural gas is the way to go to slow down global warming. It's less messy and could be a little safer.

Some people would oppose the change from fossil fuels to natural gas. They might say something like "it's bad for business." They wouldn't want to change a system that we have used for a little more than a hundred years. These would be the Republicans of the United States. I can agree that it will be a tough thing to do but over time this will truly pay off. Republicans are pro-business and once business is brought up in a negative way they get defensive claiming its not their fault and everything will be okay. Some Republican states are big oil states and this change would be bad for their economy which is true. Its going to cost money to make money. We will have a few cut backs as we slowly switch energy, few jobs will be lost but right away create new jobs for new projects involving the new energy. They change will cost big businesses money right now and it would take a little while for them to get their money back. That's not good for business now and we are in a tough economy, that could be an strong opposing argument but if we as a country can tough it out the natural gas may very well make us a stronger independent nation with our own source of energy.

If you were to ask me I would say that natural gas is the way to go. We don't have an unlimited amount of fossil fuels and we have been using them for more than 100 years. If we don't begin using a new source then once we run out of fossil fuels what happens? Is that it for us? No way, we're a strong powerful country that just needs to be sent in a new, "green" direction. The natural gases would lower the need for foreign fuels creating a new form of nationalism that America needs and a sense of new independence. No more paying $4.00 for gas probably, that would be pretty nice. The natural gas job sites would create work decreasing unemployment which is a great thing, hopefully we can get to lower percent soon. Of course everything has a few down sides right? The fracking used to get to the natural gas releases toxins and chemicals into near by water sources which is harmful to the surrounding areas but that may be a somewhat small price to pay in order to obtain this new source of energy. The United States is currently the largest producer of natural gas and I believe it should continue to be.

War on Terror

The War on Terror 9/11

On September 11th, 2001 the United States had one of the most tragic days in its history. A terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda hi-jacked four jets in an attempt to crash into buildings. Unfortunately three were successful, two had hit the twin towers in New York and one had hit The Pentagon in Virginia. Nearly 3,000 people died on this sad day in American history. Many people had their own ideas on how to deal with the terrorist group but know one could directly link them to a country until President George W. Bush said the group were Iraq extremist. This was an attempt to keep America safe but I believe it was a big mistake on our part. Espesially invading Afghanistan... Now we have strict airway security which is good for us but as we grow as a country racially profiling people of the Muslim faith as terrorist is happening more and thats wrong.

People might say we did the right thing going to war with Iraq and invadind Afghanistan just because the feel comfortable knowing the "enemy".  The people of the Muslim faith are being mistreated by ignorant people since the terrorist had been of that religion but to judge an entire religion by one extreme groups choices and decisions is wrong. After 9/11 people became more nervous being around muslims on plane or in airports but that's because they had be told that they had been in charge of the attacks. Folling the attacks America needed a sense of security so the war seemed right but as the time went by they started to see that this was a pointless unwinnable war. Neither side was going to win, it was just a hopeless effort. Oil companies would say otherwise, I believe we invaded these countries for cheap oil and by doing that it gave a false purpoes to the war, build up the fire in other words.

If you were to ask me I owuld say that neither side is truly winning this war on terror. It's just on big mistake that was made by America. Thousands of innocent people and soldiers have been killed since this war has started and we've seen no results exept for the deaths of Suddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. After the mistaks we have made I think America is a little safer but we have made many enemies by sticking our nose where it doesn't belong, that's just adding on the danger of invasion or future attacks by other extremist groups. This war on terror has added to our national debt, cost many lives and hurt military families from around the country which is bad. Its one of the longest running wars in U.S. history and continues to be a topic for the current presidential election and political events today.