Blog stage 7

When I started this class I didn’t really know that much about government or what to think about our system. But now I have realized that I don’t really like our system. There are a few points that I would like to touch on the first being is how we elect our president and how we are represented. I can’t believe that our votes doesn’t count when we elect our President. Presidential elections are the highest percentage of voters actually voting and it doesn’t count. We are the people who are truly affected by the president’s decision and yet we have no say so no the matter at all according to Steven E. Landsburg who explains that it’s all up to the Electoral College and our vote will only count if there is a tie breaker which is the chance of winning the Powerball jackpot 128 times in a row. http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2004/09/dont_vote.html

How do you get to actually vote for your president? Well the answer is easy, you have to be a die hard republican or democrat! So, instead of doing what right for the Nation you just have to go by the party representatives that you are committed too. 

 

The next thing that I’ll complain about in non-factions, we need more factions!! We build this county primarily on the basis of crusty old rich white men who didn’t want to share their powers with anyone else. And when I look at congress it’s still like that. They make decision based off what’s best for them and what will get them reelected for the next term.   Not to mention that the senate and House of Representatives can be brought and bribed by other members and lobbyist.  Why we follow the constitution when it was writing back in the 1700 and yet we still obeyed it. Back then people were trying to build a county and we are trying to fix their mistakes. If we still listen to them we would have to follow their suggestion that when we lost our teeth to simple replace them with wooden teeth. My point is that what was good for us back then it right for America now. So it’s time to adapt and change for the better.

 

Blog Stage 5

I’m auguring for same sex marriage. I chose this topic when I read an article on same sex unions.
  http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html
The question is, do we really believe that we are just following the guidelines of the constitution or is congress just a bunch of old white homophobes?   I believe that it is every person right to choice who they marry and fall in love with. When the government tells us who we can and can’t marry it’s time to take a look at our governments system. You have to ask yourself how serious do American takes marriage. We all know that most marriages end with 50 percent in divorce, yet most gay couples have been together longer then I’ve been alive. Medical News Today did a study comparing gay and heterosexual couples and found that gay couples were more satisfied with their relationships compared to married heterosexual couples.   So we let them get married then our divorce rate would drop. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/94695.php The next question you have to ask yourself is do American upholds marriage so persistently that they will obey all laws that were put in place decades ago? The answer should be, I hope not! Because these laws are outdated and wouldn’t work in today’s society. Here are some examples of outdated laws ; in Rhode Island you can have your marriage annulled just by declaring that the other person is an idiot or a lunatic. Or how about that First cousins may marry in Utah, but only after they’re 65 years old or in Michigan, a woman’s hair belongs to her husband. But this one truly up-holds the sanguinity of marriage, the law that states in South Carolina a husband is allowed to beat his wife on the courthouse steps on a Sunday. Or In Arizona, a man may legally beat his wife once a month, but no more. The only law that makes sense is in Colorado law states that a man cannot marry his wife’s grandmother. Good job Colorado at least you got one right. http://facts.randomhistory.com/crazy-laws.html obviously we do use the crazy laws anymore and it’s time to revise our laws on same-sex marriage. “Justice Samuel Alito described gay marriage as newer than such rapidly changing technological advances as cellphones and the Internet, and appeared to advocate a more cautious approach to the issue.”  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/03/court-could-avoid-ruling-on-gay-marriage-ban.html An example of this is Proposition 8 was a California ballot proposition from 2008, the proposition didn’t pass and California is only recognizes a marriage between a man and a woman.  This is a violation of  the 14^th amendment by  discriminates against homosexual couples , they argue by The “Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause applies only to state governments, but the requirement of equal protection. Also the last time that we regulated marriage was back in 1967 with Loving v. Virginia, was a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The two lovers married but it was recognized in a court of law and they were convicted and even served jail time because it was consider a crime. Now, of days most of us think of how close minded that we were to let color stand in the way of love. Yet we are doing it again but with gender this time.  Love is love and a piece of paper writing way back in 1787 when we didn’t have equal rights shouldn’t matter in today society.

 

blog stage 4

he author Mark Gongloff  from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/08/february-jobs-report-jobs-unemployment-rate_n_2836174.html  has one main point, that we create as many jobs as we cut jobs. Mark Gongloff wants us to know the job unemployment has dropped 0.2 percent in the last four years. This is from the 236,000 jobs that were added in February for non-farming payroll incomes reported from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm,  job have gone up from 119,000 in January. However there are still 12 million people looking for jobs. Sadly, this statistic does not include college students who are about to graduate or high school students that will be looking for jobs and not attending college. I found out that according http://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm  From April to July 2012, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old rose 2.1 million to 19.5 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Mark wants us to know that the government is trying to make it look like they are helping out the nation but really the job market is about the same, but they just added more jobs but didn’t include all age brackets. All though the author did point out that in “January job growth was revised down sharply, from 157,000 to 119,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate fell in large part because the labor force shrank by 130,000 workers. Labor-force participation has never recovered from the recession, suggesting either that large numbers of workers have retired early -- or have simply given up trying to find jobs.” I agree with mark that the economy is on a seesaw every time that we tipped the scale on added more jobs it’s because layoffs happened or people retired.  Mark is clearly speaking to speaking job seekers and the unemployed by using a republican approach. They believe that the answers do not lay with the government generally who keeps adding and cutting jobs, but rather with the people who should make a stand to have less government interference in the job market.

Blog Stage 3

The article that I read was "army-to-congress-thanks-but-no-tanks" The author Drew Griffin has been an experienced reporter for more than 20 years and in 2007 was the recipient of the prestigious Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting. The Drew’s main point is that congress is bullying the taxpayers into wasting our money while congresses pockets increase. The Author is speaking to conservatives saying that we need less government involvement. It urges congress to stop buying and repairing tanks that we don't need and get out of our tax dollars. He especially addresses the general population of taxpayers, by starting off the story saying that the “Army's chief of staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told Congress earlier this year to hold off with these repairs, so congress can save taxpayers as much as $3 billion. “Odierno explained to the committee that it would be cheaper to shut down the tank plant and then restart it in 2017.” But his plea was ignored and Congress set aside $181 million dollars to refurbish and make new tanks even though our Army's chief of staff Gen says that our tanks are fine.” The reason these tanks have been in production non-stop since World War 2 is that the tanks provide 16,000 jobs and involve 882 suppliers. But the Army says that they have enough tanks to keep our country safe. The real argument is that congress says if we stop the tank production it will hurt the country’s economy. If the economy is the problem why can’t we relocate the tank employees to another reform that would help our country instead of making tanks that we don’t need. It’s because General Dynamics is the main manufacturing of the tanks and has a lot to lose if we stop the production of tanks and they are making sure their investments are protected. General Dynamics contributed $120,000 to congress in campaign contributions since 2001 to vote for tank production. It’s pretty apparent that until congress starts thinking about someone besides themselves we are going to be in an expensive and sticky situation.

BLog stage 2

The article that I read was “Being American Is Bad for Your Health” by Marty Kaplan. This article explains how our health-care is declining, even though we spend more on our health care than any other country, we are still one of the worst countries in the world due to our poor health care. Too show how bad our health care system is, Kaplan even goes so far as to say “if you are born in the US then it’s detrimental to your health” However, according to the Guinness World Records there are five Americans out of the top ten people worldwide to hold the record for living the longest. The article uses a study from"U.S. health disadvantage" recently issued by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine, which was conducted over 18 months by experts in medicine and public health, demography, social science, political science, economics, behavioral science and epidemiology. Based on all of these studies Kaplan concludes how bad American are but this study uses issue outside the realm of health-care. The article also states the problems about how we are dying so young such as, horrible diseases, car accidents and homicides, which health care handles once it happened but what about prevention for these problems. I enjoyed that Kaplan tells you what Americans are doing wrong such as drinking and smoking too much, plus, having very bad food habits and not exercising enough. The main problem that can be seen with this article is that it doesn’t offer us any solutions, to our health care crisis. It great that it makes you feel something and you get all excited to go out and change the world but he doesn’t offer a solution on how do to it. Another problem is that it’s a one sided argument t by not showing the other sides of Americans who are choosing to make good decision with their lives, and what there statistics are on longevity, happiness and life fulfillment are, it shows that this is a very bias argument and I would have like to see more solution and an example of people in or out of America who are making better life choices.

Kaplan, marty. Being American Is Bad for Your Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2013 http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/marty-kaplan/47940/being-american-is-bad-for-your-health