Obama to UK Parliament: 'The time for our leadership is now'

In an address to British Parliament on Wednesday, President Barack Obama sought to counter critics who assert that U.S. and British influence in world affairs is waning as rising powers like China and India assert themselves. Obama believes that we need to continue our fight for freedom against those like Gadafi who would take it away. Obama spoke of the affinity between the United States and England which has only grown stronger over many years.

I think it is good that Obama endorses a strong alliance with the British. It is certainly true that we have been through very hard times as leading powers for democracy and individual rights. I think that despite our sizes compared to that of China and India, we have the greatest experience and have had a record of setting the greatest example on ares of freedom and democracy. Obama further supported learning and science as important areas of focus here at home so that we can better set an example as people who put an emphasis on educating people and who succeed through doing so. These values have been important through all time and I think they should and will continue being important to the people of the world.

Original Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43164852/ns/world_news-europe/

Rumor: iPhone 5 to have curved screen

Iphone 5 is coming out soon and is rumored to have a new fancy curved screen. This along with the rumor that they are to be an 8 megapixel camera are only rumors. However Apple has bought 150 glass cutting machines which would be just right for this purpose. There is much speculation about this new product and it is greatly anticipated.

I do not see why this is such a big deal. The technologies we have are developing quickly into new things but there are not that many huge leaps and I definitely do not thing this is worthy of being called a groundbreaking leap and will not actually make that big of a difference. I have had the phone I have for a very long time and do not mind that it is outdated and not as good. It really doesn't make that big of a difference, there are more important things in the world to be focusing and I think that we are too hyperfocused on our techological advances and ignoring the rest of the human condition which is greatly in want of improvement.

Original Article:
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/23/6699865-rumor-iphone-5-to-have-curved-screen

Starting HIV meds quickly helps protect partner

The U.S. National Institutes of Health conducted a study which is the first to rigorously prove that the spread of HIV can be effectively stopped by medication. The numbers show that of 882 that started medication at the time that had previously been prescribed, when the immune system was compromised, 27 spread the infection to their partners. Of the 881 that started it immediately there was only one instance. This is a further impetus for brining medical help to poorer countires.

This study had startling implications for the world at large. With the imformation from this study, we know that we can prevent HIV and to a huge degree prevent the spread of it in developed countries. If we could find a way to bring this to developing countries the impact could be overpowering. It would be possible to, within the next few generations, eliminate HIV and perhaps AIDS entirely so that it is no longer a burden to humanity. AIDS is a huge problem especially in more remote communities where there is little knowledge nor ability to fight AIDS because of rudimentary medical technology. I hope that this discovery is used as a reason to work even harder to eradicate and treat cases of HIV and AIDS where there is currently little help.

Original Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43006725/ns/health-aids/

Protesters condemn 'brutal killing' of bin Laden

Muslims in the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan protested Friday over the killing of Osama bin Laden. They proclaimed that the war against the U.S. which is ultimately a holy war will not end with the death of Osama Bin Laden. They believe that Osama was a martyr in their fight for holiness and justice. There are demonstations now going on by Muslim groups to attack U.S. embassies. The reason they believe that Bin Laden was a martyr, even the ones that were not close followers, is that he fought against the oppression of the Americans.

I think it would be wise of us to recognize this belief in the righteousness of the cause of Al Quida and the enemy terrorists. It may be an attack on us and be counter to what we believe in, but I don't think that by fighting this idea we can create any greater peace. We need to use our cultural relativism to understand the muslim point of view if we ever want them to understand our point of view. If we cannot approach the Muslims with some sort of understanding then we cannot do anything but attack them and further isolate them from ourselves. If we want to have an integrated world then we need an integrated view of the world that takes into account opposing view and finds a way to make them work together.

Original Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42927020/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/

Issue #2 Boosting The Minimum

Boosting the minimum wage means moving the mimimum amount a worker can be paid up from its current amount to a larger amount. As opposed to the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) the wage increase interferes more directly in the economy as opposed to what it does which is to cut taxes for low paying wages. Increasing the minimum wage would hopefully help to decrease poverty and as an added effect reduce the need for government programs like the food stamp program.

I believe that boosting the minimum wage would be a wise decision by the federal government. Because we have let the rich become so much richer than the poor there is a great imbalance of power which gives all the power right back to those who already have it. In order for a democracy to work we all have to have not just equal voting power but also somewhat close monetary wealth which is at least above the poverty line and adequate for comfortable survival. In order to get more involved with this viewpoint it would be wise to seek out a group that is taking action to make a difference such as the Americans for Democratic Action Organization.


Issue 1 All things being unequal:
http://http//katieb123456.blogspot.com/
Issue 3 Putting welfare to work:
http://dparkinblogs.blogspot.com/

College students: Try less beer, more networking

Recent surveys have shown that college graduates regrest not having looked for a job sooner, having had a job in college and not having done more networking. Some reasons are that about a third are currently living with their parents and could not find a job right out of college and about ten percent did not need the 4 year degree which they went to college in the first place to obtain (which they would know if they had looked more at jobs)

I think this is an interesting conundrum. With the economy the way that it is I would expect nothing less since jobs are so scarce. In addition, because technology is changing so rapidly and at an increasing rate, you have to expect that jobs will change and you may need alot of on the job training or different training than you originally went into college expecting you would need. This has given me some perspective to see that I need to pay more attention to my career after college while in college than I may realize. I have to look out for what will happen to me when I leave college because there is such uncertainty as to what jobs will be available and what my job will require after I am done with college.

Original article: http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/04/27/6544524-college-students-try-less-beer-more-networking

Headscarves slam brakes on women's careers

In Istanbul there is a great controversy as to whether or not women should be allowed to wear headscarves. This is partly due to that fact that many of Istanbul's occupants believe that allowing women to wear them will ecncourage the government to become more ruled by Islam and cause women to be more subdued. There is an argument that it is not religious but simply secular, yet there continues to be discimination against women who attempt to wear headscarves while in positions of power or importance especially.

I think this is a terrible mistake, as I have concluded in previous blogs, to associate Islam with terrorism and to discriminate agains the Islamic tradition. On top of that, it is simply a matter of preference and of comfort and we ought to treat all religious and secular traditions with respect. I can understand why people might be concerned with an Islamic government, peacfully or unpeacefully taking over. It is natural to want to stay the way you are, but there must be some sort of balance between tolerance and tradition so that those in Istanbul can both allow others to be as they are (without hurting anybody) and still be how they want to be (without oppressing anybody). I propose that there be a distincion between license and freedom, or as you might think of it, abuse of freedom and freedom used properly. As long as nobody is infringing on anybody else's freedom, everybody should be free to do as they like.

Original Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42226074/ns/world_news-europe/

Water wars? Thirsty, energy-short China stirs fear

Basically, the problem this article focuses on is the fact that China is disturbing bordering countries, especially India, with all its ambitions to divert water with damming and create a greater water supply for themselves along with more convenient access to water. This has created shortages for other countries by taking essential water supplies, and all the stream diversion has even created several natural disasters. This blind destruction that the Chinse are causing could potentially lead to war if it goes unchecked.

I think that the Chinese are being incredibly short sighted and stupidly stubborn. If the continue to keep the information from anybody who wants to see it (information concerning exactly what they are really trying to do) then there will be no help for them. We may support China because we need them but if they get into a war with India, there is no way we will support them through that if the main cause is them simply stealing water from an already poor and starving people. In the world we live in it is dangerous to start such conflict in a time when every country seems to have a surplus of weapons. If I am correct, China is one of the most prestigious and wealthy nations and they don't even have an excuse for there ruthless and backhanded attacks on the water-supply of a relatively poor and impoverished country like India. India is not a good country to pick a fight with also because of their massive size. The results of it all could be disastrous.

Nation marks 150th anniversary of Civil War

The article desribed the wonrous ceremonies we created to deal with the Civil War and our regret for it ever having happened. Unfortunately the ceremonies, even for the huge 150th anniversary were smaller that one might anticipate and do not appear to be that big of news, and there is no one to disprove this sad fallacy.

I must disagree with the article and state that there is no reason to be sad that such a ceremony was "not big enough" just because it was on a somewhat small scale. There is no atrosity greater than slavery, and so there is no bigger benchmark in the evolution of man then slaves being finally freed and released from their life long imprisonment. It is no wonder that there is would be a small ceremony to commemerate such a major event, even after all the tragedies that the war instilled. Do play up such an awful event would really mean that we are looking at it as something painful and not beautiful, not simply something to be happy about and content with. So clearly there is a reason to celebrate, but why make such a big deal out of the freedom that is supposedly a "natural right" to begin with.

'♥,' 'OMG,' and 'LOL' added to the dictionary

The Oxford dictionary recently added a list of words to their dictionary added several words that they called "noteworthy" additions. These words are what have previously been called "text talk" but it is claimed that they are being used more and more even outside of texting. Initialisms such as LOL and OMG are abbreviations that have the first letter of each word. This is the first instance where T-shirts have actually inspired the creation of a new word-- ♥

I am somewhat supprised by this. People like Mr. Fleming are very opposed to using "text talk" and letting it flow into any of our writing because of its notorious informality. I wonder if it will in fact become accectable in the future and normal to use abbreviated language. Of course I realize that there has continually throughout time been additions of slang to language and that is largely how language changes over time. That is the reason that we have difficulty understanding Shakespeare, who actually wrote very informally for his time. And that is just middle english, if you go back to old english it can harly even be understood by present day english speakers. I am glad that our language is being reinovated in new and interesting ways.

Original Article: http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/24/6335138-omg-and-lol-added-to-the-dictionary

Japan braces for economic aftershocks

After the 8.9 eath quake that hit near Japan, there is not yet a verdict on the human toll but its range is in the hundreds. Tens of thousands have evacuated their homes and the 23 foot tsunami swept away people, cars, houses, boats and planes. With many factoris shut down and widespread damages to multiple facilities, there is an anticapted aftershock for specific companies and industries. However, for Japan's overall economy there will no be a very big effect.

This horendous disaster frightened me as I thought of what it would be like to have my hope destroyed or even the possiblity of having family members or close friend killed by a tsunami. There is no telling what personal losses have been inflicted upon the general popualtion and some of the industries at large by the wrath of this natural disaster, even if the earthquake will not have a large effect on Japan and therefore the worlds economy. We must think of this disaster in those turns beyond the effects on the economy and realize that this must have been a scarring and traumatic event for many Japanese citizens, as well as something to consider for future time when a similar catastrophe can be hopefully avoided, or at least cushioned with more preparation.

Original article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42029262/ns/business-world_business/

Death row inmate gets Supreme Court help

Hank Skinner, a death row inmate, was sentanced to death on the account of murdering 3 people in the first degree. However, after a plea that went all the way to the suprem cout, he has bought himself more time by saying that DNA has been withheld by the state and not propperly tested. The argument against letting the DNA be tested was that it could really just be used as a way to buy time.

I think that it is good that the court ruled on the side of the defendent. We must be as lenient as possible when dealing with the matters of life and death. The laws say that one cannot only be convicted and punished when the defendent has been proven guilty beyon a reasonable doubt, and the right to live must be protected as carefully as possible by those who make and interpret the law. The amount of time that might be gained according to the opposition by the delay created in administering the penalty is negligble compared to the chances that an innocent man may be executed. All that being said, it would have made more sense if the DNA had been tested earlier and this could have saved a lot of time and trouble.

original article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41949275/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Hiring may begin to pick up soon, data suggest

In the article I read, there is a reported decrease in unemployment and unemployment (the amount of people seeking jobs) is the lowest that it has been in 3 years. This is believed to be the result of the economy improving. During the recession companies have cut pay and decreased employment but if the economy continues to improve they may be able to start hiring again. Increased jobs would also mena a probable increase in consumer spending.

I believe that this is in a way good news and in a way bad news. It is true that a decrease in unemployment means people will be better able to support themselves because of the increase in income. It helps the government because it no logner has to help out the jobless by givin them unemployment benefits. So the economy will be more stable and thus America will also better be able to compete with the rest of the world. However, I do believe that we can increase our production and our industies to a formidable level and yet not get caught up in it. When we are encouraging spending so much we keep on thinking about how we can increase the economy but we are not able to enjoy what we already have. I believe that we need to keep moving forward but not push forward so hard that we become rigid and too competitive.

Original article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41885150/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

Demystifying Islam in a strained Britain

Britain relationships with Muslims, including their own Muslim population is strained since "the deadly July 7, 2005, bombings on subway trains and buses in London and the bungled attack targeting Glasgow Airport in 2007" and the Muslim population is only continuing to grow. An organization called Quilliam is aiming to calm tensions and stop descrimination toward Muslims and shift the attention to the extremist Islamists who are the ones perpetrating attacks.

I think that the organizations should fight harder to get recognition of the truth about Islam. I personally know about Islam and its some of its foremost figues suchd as poets Hafiz and Rumi. Surely these are the farthest from the kind of people that would want to harm anyone as is shown through their poems which talk only about Love and unending devotion to God. It is difficult to say how we can deal with the extremist Islamists, but I think that their ideas are only strenthened when we demonize them and make them into ememies. Perhaps there is some way that we can further understanding of how we can pecefully appease them or come to terms somehow.

Originial Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41642329/ns/world_news-europe/

The Federal Budget- Social Security

In the issue of social security, when the article was written there were two opposing sides which were generally members of congress, and president Bush and his supporters. Those who supported bush took the point of view that the social security system needed to be radically changed. Because the amount of money it gives out is predicted to exceed the amount of money that is collected for it, like Medicare's current condition, they support dramatic changes to reduce benefits or otherwise diminish the program's output. Bush supported allowing Americans to divert their social security to private investment accounts, but Congress rejected the idea. Others wanted to reduce the program so it would only benefit those deeply in need, and claim that it was never ment to become a nation wide retirement program. Critics say that doing so would undermine the positive effects that social security is having on our econmy and would result economic growth. They say it should be changed in a minor way such as changing the earings that can be taxed for social security (currently $90,000) or gradually raising the retirement age. Both agree that something needs to be done to fix social security

I personally think that social security is an important matter. It is important to tax the wealthy end so that the middle and low wage earners will have enough to retire, since they make much less and will have difficulty paying for retirement and shortcomings, especially in an economically low time. I think we should elimante tax breaks for the high end and thus have extra money for the low end. Also, it may be mandatory to raise the retirement age, considering the fact that the economy is doing poorly and we have fallen behind somewhat in terms of technology and education. We will have to work harder if we want to catch up with the rest of the world and get out of debt. If you want to learn more about this sort of point of view and why I choose it, look up the Democratic Strategis @ Politics1.com

Issue 1, War debt:
http://alexscurrenteventsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/issue-1-war-dollars.html

Issue 2, Spending what we can afford:
http://earlyushistoryblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/spending-what-we-can-afford.html

Obama unveils $3.73 trillion budget for 2012

The article laid out the new budget that Obama made for the upcoming decade, over which he hopes to reduce the national debt by 1.1 trillion dollars in 10 years. Obama was encouarged to make further cuts to medicare and social security but did not. He was criticized by Republicans and even some Democrats for not making enough cuts. He increased spending on education, clean energy, and high speed rails.

I believe that Obama was wize to try to reduce that national debt and to try to reduce it slowly and over a long period of time. There are however a few problems with this. Obama may plan to make changes and affect our nation's long term future, but if future polititians don't uphold his plans, they won't have any affect. He should have made more changes while he was in office but that was not really possible because of the recession. I don't want him to have to make changes that might affect MY medicare and social security but I understand that there are not that many other things that can be cut. I am very glad that he is considering the future and removing tax breaks for the old energy companies while further funding other aspects of the future like education,clean energy, and high speed rails.

original article found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41575850/ns/politics-white_house/

Factories boom, but with few new workers

Article Summary:                   
         The basis of the article is the changing economy. It is improving back to a state it was in previously, but technology and automation continue moving forward. As a result, businesses are not looking to hire back alot of unskilled labor, but rather are searching for more skilled workers are a trainable as programmers. As well was being able to make more money with less labor, this will also allow America to increase its production by producing more valuable and specialized products.

My Opinion:
         I think that it is natural for Americans to move forward and try to continue becoming more powerful in the world of production. We cannot go back and wait up for unskilled workers, giving them jobs when there are more effecient ways to get work done. What we need to do is instead improbe education so that there is more oppurtunity for those trying to find work. The economy will continue to improve only if we look out for the future and make sacrifices in the present. The only other thing that could work is if we found some other job openings that would be appropriate for unskilled workers but these jobs must not slow down the mainstream economy. Americans have too much of a tendency to cater to the weak and not leave anyone behind but this is going to hurt us in the long run.

Original Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41415001/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

'Hacktivists' launch second attack on Egypt

Article Summary:

Activists in Egypt are acting out in order to try and gain democracy and overthrow the oppressive Egyptian Government. This is causing unrest in the United States. Anonymous is a group that previously led attacks on some websites including Amazon, PayPal, and MasterCard when it found out about its business deals with Wikileaks. A method called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is was used then and now again in the Egypt case. Last week the FBI carried out search warrants in connection with Anonymous-led DDoS attacks.

My Opinion:
In my opinion, the United States needs to get its priorities and values straight when dealing with this kind of issue. The problem is, they cannot remain in control and remain successful without somewhat compromising their values of freedom. If the United Staes allows Egypt to turn into a democracy, and the power shifts from its current rule to being ruled by the people, then it is very likey that Egypt would turn against Israel and in end turn against the United States because of their backing of Israel. If the U.S. tries to track down and punish Anonymous members who contributed to the attack, it will almost ensure that they remain friendly with Egypt. This will keep the U.S. supplied with oil and its economy in a more stable condition. It is a hard choice but I really believe that we must set an example and try to create democracy whan we have the chance to support it. If we do not do that, there is simply no reason that we should want power that we can not use rightly since we have it.

original article found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41407082/ns/technology_and_science-security/