Monday, December 7, 2009

China Vows to Become a Low Carbon Country


China has vowed to keep their carbon levels down. How are they going to accomplish this feat when they are the one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters? The chinese people are taking their dried food waste products such as corn husks and peanut shells to use as a replacement for coal. This is like a similar procedure in the U.S. where we exchange aluminum for a few cents. The chinese who bring their food waste receive a small return on it.
After all the waste is collected it is then ground and re-purposed creating a substitute for coal.

I think that if China wants to make a step towards a more green country then the future might not be in same peril as it was before. However, I would also like to know what effects the dried food waste lumps have on the atmosphere. If they turn out to emit less carbon than coal, and still as a fuel then by all means, the U.S. could adapt to the food waste recycling. But I also wonder if the alternative fuel China has come up with really makes a difference. It is certainly something to keep track of either way.

America's Debt and the Affect on Black Friday


As we all know, the United States financial status hasn't been this dangerous since the depression due to several events. First of all the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq paired with the lower taxes really set us into the mode. Then the giant Google stock market crash and the trade agreements that we signed caused massive job losses and stagnant wages. Although fighting major revenue loss the cost operations continued to sore due to energy cost. The real estate market was booming on unstable loans counting on significant wage increases. When wage increases didn't not reach the expectations the real estate market collapsed therefore leaving the United States at a crucial pass. We then bailed out the financial institutions, putting further financial strain on the economy and government. When Bush took over the presidential office, the Clintons had the country in the black; by the end of Bush's term we were so far in the red it was incredible that just one man could destroy such a stable, prosperous country.

The friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday; its a day when passionate consumers wake up at ungodly hours and wait in line for those great sales on items such as a Williams-Sonoma salad spinner they don't even need but can get at the lowest price of the season. Even though our economy is in terrible condition with a multi-trillion, growing, dollar debt the expectations were that the country would still find a way to spend 2.5 percent more on Black Friday than last year($41.2 billion). On an average in 2008 people spent in the mid to high three hundreds per person. This year could have been classified at disappointing because our country spent about the same amount as we did last year. I think that its surprising that we even spent that much due to the economic status.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

I'm a Fan of These Illusions

5:1 Child is Doused in Alcohol then Lit on Fire


Young Mister Michael Brewer was surrounded by five of his peers; they then taunted him and finally proceeded with their torture. They poured alcohol on the young boy and then lit him on fire. Brewer did end up surviving the torture but is in the ICU and his life is on the line. His bandages have to be changed daily and the length process takes 4 hours total. Not only is his body in terrible shape, the doctors have him on so much medication for the pain, he's unconscious.
It was shocking to hear that a little boy was lit on fire; what kind of role models did the purpentrators grow up with? Who was there to watch them grow into sick humans beings who set people on fire and just watch?
Something needs to be done about the new generations.

DC Sniper Executed


Although John Allen Muhammad drove around randomly shooting people out of a small hole in his car, is it right that he should pay the highest price. Many people think that putting such a sick person like this to death is the perfect punishment; and it very well may be. But there are other options. Did we kill this man because he was too dangerous to live or did we kill him in vengeance for all the lives he took. If he were to spend the rest of his life in a high security prison, wouldn't he be safe and paying a heavy price? Death seems like such an easy way out for a human who kills people most likely for sport.
It just seems like the United States looks as death as the ultimate punishment, but what if we gave this sick criminal exactly what he wanted. Obviously he had severe mental problems, even if we could have hospitalized him; maybe we could have found out what went wrong inside.

Monday, November 9, 2009

When Do We Know What to Believe?


A texas man was charged and executed with the murder of his children by arson. When he was questioned about the deaths of his children he came up with multiple stories all differing from one another. This could easily be due to shock. Then the police started coming up with more and more evidence against him such as: gas stains on the wall, and no electrical damage (as he claimed). Things started looking worse and worse for him but he still held his innocent claim. He claimed he didn't murder his children right up until they injected him with toxins.
The real controversy here is his innocence. Even though there was no hard evidence proving that he committed the murders, he was still charged with murder. The lawyers begged him to plea guilty with a life-sentence, but he stuck to his innocence and paid the highest price. Did he give up his life to prove his innocence or was it simply a con to force people to stop thinking of him as a murderer. Did we execute a human being without knowing for sure what happened?

Criticism Against a Powerful Woman Manages to Offend the Entire Female Gender


Brooksley Born was the one person to say that America was heading into an economic disaster; her colleagues completely shut her and her opinions down. They wanted to keep her quite and that is exactly what they did. But the real problem was even after the economy started failing the people responsible for the failure still didn't fully acknowledge Born. They still criticized her; but this time she was criticized for petty things such as her sex and her attitude. She was called cold and hard to work with by many people, but the real insult was when she was criticized for her gender. To think how far the United States has come in the prejudice against women, it's hard to hear insults passed against a brilliant woman trying to help the country. Even though Born graduated top of her class from Stanford Law School, her sex is still a topic that comes up.
Others find a whiff of sexism in the pushback.“The messenger wore a skirt,” says Marna Tucker, a Washington lawyer and a longtime friend of Born. “Could Alan Greenspan take that?”
It's hard to believe that gown men would drop to such low blows as to insult a women when they were so clearly wrong and she was so clearly right.