Never make an absolute

Obama recently made a comment saying that he was all right with "enhanced interogation methods" in certain circumstances. This goes back to one of the oldest politician trick in the book; never make an absolute gesture. When politicians say they are going to do something, they usually end up no doing it. For instance, Bush sr promised no new taxes so when he did raise taxes, people were furious.

Now Obama, once saying that this type of interogation is a terrible thing, is saying that he will leave it open becuase now that he has gotten in the drivers seat, it is not as clear as it once looked.

This goes back to the real question in my opinion, can we trust politicians "promises"? I feel that if we dont trust our government then what is the point of having a government in the first place. I am not mad at Obama for switching because I agree with what he has just done.

What do you think should be done about "Enhanced interogation"? Would you go back on what you said even if it meant going against your morals?

North Koreans have lost their minds

Yesterday, North Korea, against the will of the rest of the world, tested a nuclear bomb. This is the second time in three years that NK has gone against the UN and tested a nuclear weapon. Even China, their biggest ally said, "The Chinese government expresses firm opposition to this". They seem to think that the international world will just sit back and wait until they have the technology to launch intercontinental missiles. For right now though, i agree with them, not with what they did, but how the UN is doing nothing. They can sanction them, send them mean letters, and condemn them, but it doesnt change anything. They will still do it. It reminds me in a sense of Hitler, Europe got mad and said don't do it, but he just laughed.

In April NK sent out a statement saying that if any nation attempts to sanction their attempts at a nuke, they will consider it a declaration of war and respond in such. But what NK doesnt seem to realize is that they are alone in their crazy rants, they dont have an ally that will back them in the event of a war.

The scary thing about this is that NK is getting closer to perfecting their nukes/missles. In 2006 their nuke exploded with less than 1 kiliton of force. This one though exploded in the range of 10-20 kilitons, about the size of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their missiles are also getting better, their recent missile made it half way across the pacific before failing.

What do you think needs to be done about NK? Is war inevitable?

The things the media refuses to cover

Why is it that when a person, specifically a white person, gets murdered in the north side the news is all over it like a vulter on a carcass, but when an african american gang member is gunned down in broad day light on the south side, it doesn't even make the nightly news? Is it because it happens so regualarly that the media has just stopped paying attention? Is it because the news is not "Spectacular", and the news is trying to cut spending? Or is it simply becuase the news is racist and doesn't want to cover that "type" of story?

Another thing to think about is the amount of attention the murder gets if it is a black man killing a white man, or vice versa. It seems that when you hear "another gang murder" it just skips your mind. But when you hear white man murders black man, a light goes off in your head and it says "Hate crime". I believe that the reason this gets so much attention is because people still haven't gotten over the civil rights movement and constantly seeing white police officers beat black men and women. Just like in the soiling of old glory, one small clip like the rodney king beating can spark a huge uprising.

The Darkness of America

My next door neighbor to me is the stereotypical American. He works a 9-5 job, goes hunting occasionally, and loves American sports. Then only 2 months after 9/11 he bought an enourmous flagpole that is still outside his house. Every night, rain or shine, it is waving there with a spot light on it. But tonight when I took the photo, there was no rain and barely any light. This somehow made me think of the flag as America and how we are in a dark time in our history and how we do stand alone in the world. In the picture, you can barely make out the flag let alone the background. The only part of the flag that really sticks out is the stripes; the origional 13 states in all of their glory. It makes a person think that if our country went through a revolution where a bunch of farmers with rifles and pitchforks could beat the most powerful army in the world, then we can get through a war against a far weaker military and an economic crisis. Finally this photo reminds me that the light will always shine on the American flag and that there will be brighter times in the American future.
P.S sorry no photo yet, can't load onto comp

300 years later and there still here

When I hear the word pirate I think of Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. But now there is a new term to go along with pirates; Somalia. In the past few years there has been more and more activity involving these "pirates". They sneak up on big vessels and attempt to hijack then ship and then they try to sell the hostages back to their country for millions of dollars. This has become an extremely profitable business making over and estimates 200 million this year. With most somalians not making over 600$, this is a huge step up. The problem is the countries that have their ships being hijacked can't go to the country to stop this because as of right now, Somalia has no central government. There are tribal regions and the leaders are payed off by the pirates to tell the FBI and CIA that they don't know where they are. In my opinion we should begin to arm the ships with weapons of their own. We need to get rid of old maritime laws and start looking at the 21st century. People are going to commit mutiny anymore, we can trust them.

Take me!

Recently the university of Conneticut was involved in a scandal in which they illegally recruited a player from High School. Supposedly they had a prior personal relationship with the player and therefore, it is illegal. This is not the first time there has been a scandal on recruiting, Maya Moore a girls player from UConn was claimed to have been illegally recruited. And at Florida state there were also a few players who were claimed to have, "To much face time" with the coach. I feel that for a highschooler, there are just to many rules and regulations. It is not their fault that the coach is breaking rules and I feel bad for all that falls on their shoulders (not that I wouldn't love to be recruited). I feel that coaches need to be trustworthy when it comes to this because if they are not, they dont deserve to be coaching.

Our growing violence

In the past 50 years the USA has fought in more wars than we did in our first 150 years of founding. We went from being an isolationist country that barely had a standing army, to a nation that prides itself on a nation that spends twice as much money per soldier than any other country. We stick our nose into everything, our reasoning: Spread democracy. What I think is the real reason is that we are becoming more and more nervous around other countries. We think that we are always under constant threat of attack and therefore we want to attack the problem before it attacks us. We have become so cocky with our military that we believe that whoever we attack, we will win. And I honestly believe this is a good thing, with out a little swagger we would succumb to pressure and would not be a powerful nation.