Economy

Some thing needs to be done about the gas prices, and the losing house value. In 2002 75% of all in come gains were in the top. the country needs to focus on the middle class. The economy is a big issue in the election. Most belive that the top has to many cuts and not the middle class. It is late i am going to bed I fell asleep wacthing TV. Thats why it is so late.

Hizballahstan

There is more fighting in the middle east. i dont think it will ever stop. The US is stuck again. Do we give support to the countries or not. Just like in Iraq.

Can't Refuse

UN thinks that there could be up to 100,000 dead in Burma. The US is trying to help bring relife but the Burmese junta wont allow it. More will die if there is not help. It is the UN Job to Help countries in need but could be problems since the country dose not want it.

China

China has had a bad streak of problems the train wreck the problems with the Tibetans and now a big quake. The country is not looking good. The 7.9 quake had destroyed ton of buildings. Some Chinese think that there leader will die now cause that Mao Zedong die after the tangshan quake.

Michael Kinsley Essay

Last week the House of Representatives voted 414 to 1 to outlaw genetic discrimination. Employers and insurance companies cannot choose their customers and employees after learning the results of genetic testing. For example, companies cannot discriminate because they learn that one of their employees or customers has the gene which may lead to cancer. This sounds like a fairly normal and fair way of doing things, but the author brings up a few controversial points. Why do we hire certain employees who have talent in a particular area? That is unfair. But then again, talent is discrimination and we wouldn't have talent if we hired someone less-talented over someone more-talented.
The article also states that really there is not much difference in inheriting a lot of money or in inheriting great genes. There is not much difference in what you can do in life; you have advantages either way.

Isral

"The Long View" is an article that is very interesting to me. I grew up reading Bible stories about the promised land and this article is about Israel and that land. It is amazing for how long there has been war and fighting in this area. It was fascinating to learn that for 60 years now Israel has survivied as a democracy. The language of Hebrew has been revived. Technology has advanced during this time...but still there are problems.
Israel suffers an identity crisis. There are black-hatted ultra-Orthodox who don't go along with the young people there. Jews from Europe don't like the Jews from North Africa. There is a mixture of culture and race in Israel which is causing problems ....not growth as a country.
Israel also always lives in fear that another country or group will invade or that they will be attacked in some way. The continued disagreements with Palestine also cause Israel not to be united. Will there ever be peace there??

food

Why the World Can't Afford Food...

There is a great demand for cereals and with all the drought and bad weather throughout the world, farmers have not been able to grow enough crops. The article then states that some countries put export restrictions on the food so they could protect their own supplies. They weren't going to send out as much food as they had in the past. This also helped to increase food prices. Some small countries who import most all their food have been hurt badly.

Another problem...Oil prices continue to grow. It's hard to have all the fertilizer needed to run a farm when petroleum prices continue to go up. Petroleum is a main ingredient in fertilizer. Also, farm machinery must use gas in order to run.

Since we have such expensive oil prices now farmers have turned to producing biofuels. This has hurt the production of much needed food. Farmers are using their crops to make ethanol. I think this needs to be minimized. Food needs to come first.

Burma

Burma has recently been hit by a cyclone. The country already needed help. Burma is ruled by a military Hunta. There were about 53 million desperately poor before the cyclone and now everyone needs help. Bush pledged a $3.25 million emergency aid to help. Burma is ruled by strong military force of 450,000. The cyclone miss the capital Rangoon. People think that there will be more unrest in Burma. The country really needs help.

Top 100

The most influential person in the world would have to be a religious leader because a religious leader can effect the hole group of people that fellow him or her. That’s why in the time 100 most influential people in the world the number one pick would be the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the leader of the Buddhist religion. Which has a lot of support in south central Asia. With the big following he has the ability to make change. Since he is a peaceful man he is liked all over the world that why when China started to persecute him the world started to protest against China. There was Protest all over, from France to San Diego. People even messed with the Olympic torch carrying around the world. Now the Dalai Lama did not say go protest. He likes the Chinese he just dose not like what they do. But to have people all around the world protest because you and your followers were being persecuted is huge and Influential.

Rules

The article entitled “Rules of Disengagement” is a difficult one to understand. I think the article is saying that money which is currently put away to help in the future as a pension fund may change how this money is invested. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut plans to introduce legislation to give all Thrift Savings Plan participants more of a say in how their money is invested. Those involved would be able to disinvest in companies that currently do business with terrorists. Countries that are currently labeled as sponsors of terrorism are: Iran, North Korea, Syria and Sudan. All three presidential candidates have endorsed a terror-free concept for pension plans.

Ready

Even though I want our troops in Iraq home as soon as possible I believe (just like the author of the article) “When Will They Be Ready?” that it will be years before Iraq can have full control by themselves of their country. Currently only two-thirds of Iraqi troops actually show up for their military duty. Iraq also has a shortage of officers and they have to rely mainly on coalition forces for support. Here recently the Iraqi military had to call for help during an offensive in Basra against Shiite militias loyal to the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Both the British and the American forces came to Iraq’s aid at this time. Iraqi forces are often incompetent and have poor discipline. I can’t even imagine what will happen when we totally pull out of Iraq and we leave this Iraqi military in charge. It sounds like they will be overrun and any progress that has been made will be undone.

Money

Show Us Our Money” proposes that employers show all their employees the salaries of all the workers. The reason this whole topic came about is because a lady named Lilly Ledbetter sued the company she worked for after learning (twenty years later) that she had been making less money than a man. Lilly was doing the very same job a man would do but still make less money. In 1998 after learning the exact salaries of her co-workers Lilly took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed with her but did not give her any reward. Since the end of that court case Lilly has been campaigning for the knowledge of workers’ salaries to be made-known. Currently women make 77 cents to every dollar. This does not seem right especially when they are performing the same jobs at work. Lilly Ledbetter has proposed a bill called the “Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” but it failed to gain a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

GEMS

I liked the article “Gem of an Idea”. It was nice to read about the small country of Botswana and its success in helping its people get out of poverty. Most countries in Africa are not like this. Most are at war, have poor leaders and much governmental corruption. Botswana is different. First, it is the world’s biggest producer of diamonds. This small country has brought 1.9 million people out of poverty. The leaders there think to the future and to the development of their country. The country and the world’s largest mining company of DeBeers have worked together for decades as 50-50 partners. This partnership is called Debswana. Now also DeBeers has moved its diamond-sorting and valuing operation from London to the capital of Botswana, Gaborone. This will help create 3,000 more jobs in Botswana. The author insists that the reason this small nation is doing so well is because they have good leadership and are good role models for other nations. Botswana believes in itself and not in foreign aid. Foreign aid causes more problems than it helps.

Color

“The Color of Loyalty” is a viewpoint written by Michael Eric Dyson. The journalist is questioning whether black leaders are unpatriotic. Some perhaps are more unpatriotic than others. That seems normal to me. Not all people feel as strongly in their nationalistic views as others do. This is not based on color but on one’s upbringing and life experiences.
Barack Obama mentioned in one of his press conferences that he loves this country because even though we have had our ups and downs dealing with race and color we still are always moving toward perfection. By perfection he means that many Americans have risked their lives to bring the nation closer to the promise started by our founding-fathers.
Even though blacks have actively served in our armed forces and have fought in every war the U.S. has ever entered there are still those who think that Black-Americans are not as patriotic as they should be.

Eat

Something needs to be done about the food shortage. Some countries are really running out of food. Poor countries can not produce as much cause they can not afford to by seeds or the right equipment to do the job. Another reason why the world is running out of food is that some countries are pursuing biofuels. By turning our food into fuel there is less to eat in the world. The third is the climate change with droughts killing more crops there is less food. The last is the population is growing that means more mouths to feed. There are three major things that need to be done the first is there needs to be a international fund to help farmers buy the supplies they need to farm. This would only cost each person $10 annually. I would do that. The next step is to stop pushing for the use of biofuels. Biofuels make no sense why would you use food to make your car go. It takes a lot food just to make one gallon of fuel. The last step is we need to weather proof our crops. Have irrigation in case of a dry spell. Even a farm pond can help. Farm ponds are great put some fish in them that would be the greatest. The world needs to move rapidly to help secure the globe.