This is a blog for Mrs. Ballew's Civics and Economics classes.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
4th Period Current Event 3/19
Please post your current event below. As always, include the topic of your article, a link to it, and a 5-6 sentence summary. You may use a podcast or video clip instead of an article.
On Tuesday two people were arrested in Waterford, Ireland: Ali Charaf Damache and Abdul Salem Monsour Khalil al Jahani. Damache was charged for making a menacing phone call to an individual, and Jahani was charged for having an invalid passport/document that verified his identity. These men were two of seven people who are allegedly in a worldwide plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist. Lars Vilks has been receiving death threats as early as 2005 over a cartoon in which he depicted the prophet Mohammed as a dog (considered unclean in Islam). He says he drew it purposely to insult the Islamic religion. That's not the first time he's insulted a religion - An earlier drawing of his depicted Christ as a pedophile. Obviously this angers many Muslims, hence the plot to kill Vilks. An American citizen involved in the plot is Colleen LaRose. LaRose converted to Islam in the past six months and had a child with an Islamic man. She has also enrolled her four/five year son in some type of Al Qaeda training; the boy called his grandmother and said he was being taught to shoot guns. Lars Vilks said he created this work to insult the religion, and views the insult as artistic expression and that he has every right to continue drawing these religious "parodies". Personally, I have one foot in each camp on this one. I think everyone has a right to their own thought process and opinion, but I think if you have an opinion only for the sake of insulting people it's best you keep it to yourself or you're not a pain in the neck about it.
A woman by the name of Donna Simpson is attempting to acquire fame by become the "world's fattest woman." She currently weighs in at 600 pounds but her goal is 1000. She eats 12,000 calories a day in pursuit of this goal. The video got off topic quite quickly but the main idea was that Donna is either doing this for the fame or to attempt suicide (albeit slowly). In my opinion she is doing it for the fame. I personally think that this is a terrible idea because it's instilling into the minds of young people that eating all day and becoming morbidly obese will get you famous and is perfectly ok to do. What makes me the most angry about Donna is that she is doing immense physical harm to herself, harm that could easily be avoided, that eventually I will have to pay for. With America's expanding waist line will lead to increased health care costs. If everyone was health-conscious many of our expenses would go down. Not to mention the money one would save. Donna spends $750 a week on groceries, money that could go towards much more important things. It seems to me that Donna is just looking for an easy way out; all she wants is to be famous and since she's already 600 lbs she's well on her way to 1000.
The article I just read explains how many census forms are coming to the wrong addresses and even to parking spots, somehow. In fact, some think it has become so ridiculous, that they are even wondering if the government can handle the responsibility. To those members of the population I ask, “Don’t you think you are overreacting?” I mean, I understand the frustration but the census has to send out over one hundred million forms, they are going to slip up sometimes. I mean, the government does not have the time to make sure everyone’s address is exactly the same before mailing the forms, it would just take too much time, and thus I don’t feel you should wonder whether they can handle it. Everyone makes mistakes! It is not the census’s fault that people continue to move to different areas and it’s definitely not their job to keep track of it.
The house made its reforms to the senates health care bill and it is believed that there could be a floor vote as early as sunday. The bill is estimated to cost about $940 billion over the next decade; thats $65 billion more than the ridiculous $875 billion dollar bill that the senate proposed. Just in case congress hasn't noticed, we are in a recession and are $1 trillion in debt to other countries, so spending more money that we don't have isn't going to help our economic situation. That added to the fact that we are going to end up paying more money for less health coverage makes this entire situation for lack of a better term stupid. There are currently 212 congress members in favor of the bill and 216 that say they are against it. Hopefully those numbers don't change before congress votes on it.
Victoria Arter and many other shoppers at Wal-Mart were in shock when they heard a voice over the loudspeaker saying "all blacks need to leave the store." Many of them didn't know what to do and were outraged but others started to call the manager. They aren't sure who made the comment because there are about 700 employees and many telephones some of which can be used by customers. It doesn't make sense to me why someone would ever make that kind of comment, especially in a public place over a loudspeaker. Whoever did this must have known that they would be causing many problems and probably face many consequences once they were caught, so why would they still do this? This also causes a problem for Wal-Mart because many shoppers who were actually in the store stopped what they were doing and went to Target instead and I am sure that many others will do the same.
Omar Ramos Lopez was pissed because he just got laid off. He worked at a car dealership in Austin, Texas. This dealership puts gps in their cars that can shut off the cars from customers not paying their dues and car alarms to go off just incase customers hide their car from the dealership. So, from Omar's anger he logged on to the dealership and was able to set off over 100 car alarms and deactivate them. He also changed the names of the people who bought the cars. Such as the dead rapper Tupac.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/18/report-n-korea-executes-official-over-currency-reform/?hpt=T2 This is a yet another sad example of how far gone North Korea is. It is totally absurd to execute someone because of a failed idea, and is exactly the kind of thing that Stalin or Hitler would have done. The man in question did not even qualify for execution according to North Korea's law. The rest of the world needs to do something about this before Kim Jong-Il does something even worse.
This article describes how a man, Paul Powell, thought he was exempt from execution for his crimes and then proceeded to be put on death row again. The man thought he was free to go so he wrote a long letter to his prosecutor admitting to his crime and taunting him on how stupid everybody was for acquitting him of the crime. In reality, Powell's detailed account of his actual crime was enough to get him retried in court. He tried to argue that this was double jeopardy, but nevertheless he was still put on death row for murdering one girl and raping another. I think it was really stupid of Powell to try and brag about his crime. If he had kept his mouth shut, people probably wouldn't have found out the truth. However, I'm glad that his dumb action was enough to get him the death sentence. He deserves it for showing no remorse, only pride, in his past crimes.
I think that the airlines need to hire better pilots, because some people that are on these flights can't afford to have the flight delayed because they have a meeting or something like that. The pilots were using laptops on the flight even though it was against company policy, so that means that pilots aren't even screened very well if at all. This isn't fair because a pilot is just as likely to be a terrorist as any other person in an airport getting on a flight.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/education/19suspend.html?hp Students who got in a fight at school were suspended and are being forbidden to attend the alternative school and were denied aid to study at home.
I think this is completely ridiculous. True, we should be fighting violence in schools (an ironic phrase if there ever was one); however, this is completely the wrong way to go about doing so. Prevention should be emphasized, with students learning techniques to avoid fights, among other things. All this attitude will do is worsen the problem. Most of the students who were in this case suspended ended up much worse for it, one of them even going on to be arrested. The attitude towards these students should be one of encouraging change for the better--not making it hard for them to move on with their lives and attain degrees. This case is going to be argued by the NC Supreme Court, and I sincerely hope that the students triumph.
When I first read this story, the first thing that came into my mind was disgust, more than anything else. The priest is question is 82-years old, and the boy that he is accused of abusing is only 19-years old, and this is apparently not his first offense. I really do not understand what drives people to do these kinds of things to young boys/men, and why of all people it is a priest. Not only in this case, but I hear stories all of the time about priests (usually catholic for whatever reason), abusing their church members. There is anger in my mind as to why they would do something like this, but the biggest emotion that I feel is confusion.
This article talks about an inappropriate racist comment that was made over the loud speaker at a Wal-Mart in New Jersey. Someone made an announcement in the store for "all black people to leave the store now". Although the store management doesn't know who made the announcement, it offended a LOT of costumers that probably won't return to the store for a while. This incident cost Wal-Mart tons of business. Whoever made this comment is extremely immature and ignorant. It's shocking that this kind of racism is still going on today.
After Swedish cartoonist, Vilks, depicted Mohammed with the body of a dog, he recieved death threats from outraged Muslims. A group of these enraged Muslims were recently arrested for conspiring in a plot to kill the cartoonist. I am of the opinion that both parties are at fault for the ruckuss in this matter. While I find it distinctly distasteful to blindly lash out at another's beliefs, neither is is acceptable to respond to such provocation with death threats. The best way to retaliate to with witty, poignant, and perhaps humerous remarks. Attempting to kill someone for such a thing as a drawing merely futhers the public's awarness of the matter and creates sympathy for the offender. I am quite disgusted that anyone could concieve of insulting another's religion as a means of attacking the person, but I am equally appalled by the response of the victims of this attack. The cartoonist's actions were ignorant, insensitive, and further intolerance. However, the response of those offended did nothing for their reputation or cause.
This article talks about the wayward flight in October, where the plane had overflew their destination by 100 miles. The pilots had been distracted by laptops (which are not allowed by Northwest Airlines policy) and did not fully load radio frequency. The pilots lost their license but can reapply for them. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the pilots had been using laptops on a flight where policy clearly states that they are not allowed, and furthermore, they let their conversation monopolize their attention. The laptops blocked the view of multiple text messages sent by airline dispatchers. There needs to be higher standards for pilots, or at least better training for pilots.
This article is about how Obama wants to "quietly" resolve issues with Israel. Evidently, we have a disagreement (a "spat") when the interior ministry (of Israel) approved 1600 housing units in east Jerusalem while Biden was there. The prime minister of Israel apologized, but Hillary Clinton called him to "register American displeasure". Seeing as the call was near 45 minutes long and she publicly called it an insult, the prime minister's apology didn't help much. Because of this, there's more tension before the AIPAC meeting.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/senate.health.care.ahead/index.html?hpt=T1 This article talks more about the healthcare bill. They still need the senators to sign off on the changes made to it. The republicans are trying to stop it. They are expecting it to be difficult to pass it through. I think we should hurry up with healthcare and fix something else too instead of only fixing one thing. Its taking too long and we have alot to fix. This is a major step though.
I'm glad that Obama wants to have some kind of health care plan. I think that every American citizen should have some form of health care. I think it's really sad and horrible that some people can't afford it or are refused by health care companies because of previous health conditions. Many people disagree with this plan but I think that it's a good idea. Yes, it will be very expensive, but it will be completely worth it. It's a scary thought to me that you need to have car insurance, but you don't need to have health insurance. I think health insurance is so important to have because you never know when something might happen to you and although a lot of people live in denial and think nothing bad will ever happen to them, you never know.
This is an incredibley short article relation to the healthcare reform that will be signed into law today. The article states that several states are suing in regard to the new law, saying that it violate's the states' constitutional rights. The White House has responded in saying that these suits are sure to fail. I am of the opinion that it is quite a stretch to find any constitutional fault with these laws. It seens a silly waste of time to pursue suing them.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/16/sweden.ireland.cartoonist/index.html?iref=allsearch
ReplyDeletePlot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist
On Tuesday two people were arrested in Waterford, Ireland: Ali Charaf Damache and Abdul Salem Monsour Khalil al Jahani. Damache was charged for making a menacing phone call to an individual, and Jahani was charged for having an invalid passport/document that verified his identity. These men were two of seven people who are allegedly in a worldwide plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist. Lars Vilks has been receiving death threats as early as 2005 over a cartoon in which he depicted the prophet Mohammed as a dog (considered unclean in Islam). He says he drew it purposely to insult the Islamic religion. That's not the first time he's insulted a religion - An earlier drawing of his depicted Christ as a pedophile. Obviously this angers many Muslims, hence the plot to kill Vilks. An American citizen involved in the plot is Colleen LaRose. LaRose converted to Islam in the past six months and had a child with an Islamic man. She has also enrolled her four/five year son in some type of Al Qaeda training; the boy called his grandmother and said he was being taught to shoot guns. Lars Vilks said he created this work to insult the religion, and views the insult as artistic expression and that he has every right to continue drawing these religious "parodies". Personally, I have one foot in each camp on this one. I think everyone has a right to their own thought process and opinion, but I think if you have an opinion only for the sake of insulting people it's best you keep it to yourself or you're not a pain in the neck about it.
Michael Brews
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2010/03/17/behar.donna.simpson.intv.cnn&hpt=P1
A woman by the name of Donna Simpson is attempting to acquire fame by become the "world's fattest woman." She currently weighs in at 600 pounds but her goal is 1000. She eats 12,000 calories a day in pursuit of this goal. The video got off topic quite quickly but the main idea was that Donna is either doing this for the fame or to attempt suicide (albeit slowly). In my opinion she is doing it for the fame. I personally think that this is a terrible idea because it's instilling into the minds of young people that eating all day and becoming morbidly obese will get you famous and is perfectly ok to do. What makes me the most angry about Donna is that she is doing immense physical harm to herself, harm that could easily be avoided, that eventually I will have to pay for. With America's expanding waist line will lead to increased health care costs. If everyone was health-conscious many of our expenses would go down. Not to mention the money one would save. Donna spends $750 a week on groceries, money that could go towards much more important things. It seems to me that Donna is just looking for an easy way out; all she wants is to be famous and since she's already 600 lbs she's well on her way to 1000.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-census-glitches-20100317,0,1254494.story
ReplyDeleteThe article I just read explains how many census forms are coming to the wrong addresses and even to parking spots, somehow. In fact, some think it has become so ridiculous, that they are even wondering if the government can handle the responsibility. To those members of the population I ask, “Don’t you think you are overreacting?” I mean, I understand the frustration but the census has to send out over one hundred million forms, they are going to slip up sometimes. I mean, the government does not have the time to make sure everyone’s address is exactly the same before mailing the forms, it would just take too much time, and thus I don’t feel you should wonder whether they can handle it. Everyone makes mistakes! It is not the census’s fault that people continue to move to different areas and it’s definitely not their job to keep track of it.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/18/fate-health-care-rests-looming-budget-office-estimate/
ReplyDeleteThe house made its reforms to the senates health care bill and it is believed that there could be a floor vote as early as sunday. The bill is estimated to cost about $940 billion over the next decade; thats $65 billion more than the ridiculous $875 billion dollar bill that the senate proposed. Just in case congress hasn't noticed, we are in a recession and are $1 trillion in debt to other countries, so spending more money that we don't have isn't going to help our economic situation. That added to the fact that we are going to end up paying more money for less health coverage makes this entire situation for lack of a better term stupid. There are currently 212 congress members in favor of the bill and 216 that say they are against it. Hopefully those numbers don't change before congress votes on it.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/walmart.racial.customers/index.html?npt=NP1
ReplyDeleteVictoria Arter and many other shoppers at Wal-Mart were in shock when they heard a voice over the loudspeaker saying "all blacks need to leave the store." Many of them didn't know what to do and were outraged but others started to call the manager. They aren't sure who made the comment because there are about 700 employees and many telephones some of which can be used by customers. It doesn't make sense to me why someone would ever make that kind of comment, especially in a public place over a loudspeaker. Whoever did this must have known that they would be causing many problems and probably face many consequences once they were caught, so why would they still do this? This also causes a problem for Wal-Mart because many shoppers who were actually in the store stopped what they were doing and went to Target instead and I am sure that many others will do the same.
-Katelyn
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/omar-ramoslopez-car-hacke_n_503163.html
ReplyDeleteOmar Ramos Lopez was pissed because he just got laid off. He worked at a car dealership in Austin, Texas. This dealership puts gps in their cars that can shut off the cars from customers not paying their dues and car alarms to go off just incase customers hide their car from the dealership. So, from Omar's anger he logged on to the dealership and was able to set off over 100 car alarms and deactivate them. He also changed the names of the people who bought the cars. Such as the dead rapper Tupac.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/18/report-n-korea-executes-official-over-currency-reform/?hpt=T2
ReplyDeleteThis is a yet another sad example of how far gone North Korea is. It is totally absurd to execute someone because of a failed idea, and is exactly the kind of thing that Stalin or Hitler would have done. The man in question did not even qualify for execution according to North Korea's law. The rest of the world needs to do something about this before Kim Jong-Il does something even worse.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/18/virginia.killer.letter/index.html?hpt=T2
ReplyDeleteThis article describes how a man, Paul Powell, thought he was exempt from execution for his crimes and then proceeded to be put on death row again. The man thought he was free to go so he wrote a long letter to his prosecutor admitting to his crime and taunting him on how stupid everybody was for acquitting him of the crime. In reality, Powell's detailed account of his actual crime was enough to get him retried in court. He tried to argue that this was double jeopardy, but nevertheless he was still put on death row for murdering one girl and raping another. I think it was really stupid of Powell to try and brag about his crime. If he had kept his mouth shut, people probably wouldn't have found out the truth. However, I'm glad that his dumb action was enough to get him the death sentence. He deserves it for showing no remorse, only pride, in his past crimes.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/wayward.pilots.ntsb/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn
ReplyDeleteI think that the airlines need to hire better pilots, because some people that are on these flights can't afford to have the flight delayed because they have a meeting or something like that. The pilots were using laptops on the flight even though it was against company policy, so that means that pilots aren't even screened very well if at all. This isn't fair because a pilot is just as likely to be a terrorist as any other person in an airport getting on a flight.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/education/19suspend.html?hp
ReplyDeleteStudents who got in a fight at school were suspended and are being forbidden to attend the alternative school and were denied aid to study at home.
I think this is completely ridiculous. True, we should be fighting violence in schools (an ironic phrase if there ever was one); however, this is completely the wrong way to go about doing so. Prevention should be emphasized, with students learning techniques to avoid fights, among other things. All this attitude will do is worsen the problem. Most of the students who were in this case suspended ended up much worse for it, one of them even going on to be arrested. The attitude towards these students should be one of encouraging change for the better--not making it hard for them to move on with their lives and attain degrees. This case is going to be argued by the NC Supreme Court, and I sincerely hope that the students triumph.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/18/brazil.sexual.abuse/index.html?hpt=T2
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this story, the first thing that came into my mind was disgust, more than anything else. The priest is question is 82-years old, and the boy that he is accused of abusing is only 19-years old, and this is apparently not his first offense. I really do not understand what drives people to do these kinds of things to young boys/men, and why of all people it is a priest. Not only in this case, but I hear stories all of the time about priests (usually catholic for whatever reason), abusing their church members. There is anger in my mind as to why they would do something like this, but the biggest emotion that I feel is confusion.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Black-people-must-leave-NJ-apf-1749619349.html?x=0
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about an inappropriate racist comment that was made over the loud speaker at a Wal-Mart in New Jersey. Someone made an announcement in the store for "all black people to leave the store now". Although the store management doesn't know who made the announcement, it offended a LOT of costumers that probably won't return to the store for a while. This incident cost Wal-Mart tons of business. Whoever made this comment is extremely immature and ignorant. It's shocking that this kind of racism is still going on today.
-BAILEY ETHRIDGE
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/16/sweden.ireland.cartoonist/index.html?iref=allsearch
ReplyDeletePlot To Kill Swedish Cartoonist.
After Swedish cartoonist, Vilks, depicted Mohammed with the body of a dog, he recieved death threats from outraged Muslims. A group of these enraged Muslims were recently arrested for conspiring in a plot to kill the cartoonist. I am of the opinion that both parties are at fault for the ruckuss in this matter. While I find it distinctly distasteful to blindly lash out at another's beliefs, neither is is acceptable to respond to such provocation with death threats. The best way to retaliate to with witty, poignant, and perhaps humerous remarks. Attempting to kill someone for such a thing as a drawing merely futhers the public's awarness of the matter and creates sympathy for the offender. I am quite disgusted that anyone could concieve of insulting another's religion as a means of attacking the person, but I am equally appalled by the response of the victims of this attack. The cartoonist's actions were ignorant, insensitive, and further intolerance. However, the response of those offended did nothing for their reputation or cause.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/18/wayward.pilots.ntsb/index.html?hpt=Sbin
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about the wayward flight in October, where the plane had overflew their destination by 100 miles. The pilots had been distracted by laptops (which are not allowed by Northwest Airlines policy) and did not fully load radio frequency. The pilots lost their license but can reapply for them. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the pilots had been using laptops on a flight where policy clearly states that they are not allowed, and furthermore, they let their conversation monopolize their attention. The laptops blocked the view of multiple text messages sent by airline dispatchers. There needs to be higher standards for pilots, or at least better training for pilots.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=171418
ReplyDeleteThis article is about how Obama wants to "quietly" resolve issues with Israel. Evidently, we have a disagreement (a "spat") when the interior ministry (of Israel) approved 1600 housing units in east Jerusalem while Biden was there. The prime minister of Israel apologized, but Hillary Clinton called him to "register American displeasure". Seeing as the call was near 45 minutes long and she publicly called it an insult, the prime minister's apology didn't help much. Because of this, there's more tension before the AIPAC meeting.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/senate.health.care.ahead/index.html?hpt=T1
ReplyDeleteThis article talks more about the healthcare bill. They still need the senators to sign off on the changes made to it. The republicans are trying to stop it. They are expecting it to be difficult to pass it through. I think we should hurry up with healthcare and fix something else too instead of only fixing one thing. Its taking too long and we have alot to fix. This is a major step though.
-Glenn Floyd
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/22/health.care.main/index.html?hpt=T1
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Obama wants to have some kind of health care plan. I think that every American citizen should have some form of health care. I think it's really sad and horrible that some people can't afford it or are refused by health care companies because of previous health conditions. Many people disagree with this plan but I think that it's a good idea. Yes, it will be very expensive, but it will be completely worth it. It's a scary thought to me that you need to have car insurance, but you don't need to have health insurance. I think health insurance is so important to have because you never know when something might happen to you and although a lot of people live in denial and think nothing bad will ever happen to them, you never know.
-Sophie Szentes
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2324990420100323
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredibley short article relation to the healthcare reform that will be signed into law today. The article states that several states are suing in regard to the new law, saying that it violate's the states' constitutional rights. The White House has responded in saying that these suits are sure to fail. I am of the opinion that it is quite a stretch to find any constitutional fault with these laws. It seens a silly waste of time to pursue suing them.
--Megan Phelan