Gun-free Zones

In this article former governor Sarah Palin talks about why gun free zones are not a good idea. She feels that if more trusted people carry firearms in public public buildings it would reduce the number of lethal shootings. Another thing that she talks about is how the current counter terrorism efforts are lacking.  

It does not connect to what I am currently learning. However, it does go along with what I learned last semester in Civics and Economics. I learned about the different amendments which is what this article mostly is based around.

I am for trusted people carrying guns in public buildings. I think that if more people that are trusted carry firearms it would cut back the number of shootings. This would be due to the people being able to fight back if someone would happen to attempt a shooting.

The author supports his claim by directly quoting what Sarah Palin said during her speech. She said, “Maybe our kids could be defended against criminals on the spot if more Mama Grizzlies carried [guns].” This proves that Sarah Palin feels that teachers specifically should have guns to protect the students. She goes on to say, “Yeah, I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.” This shows how she doesn't only speak about it but she actually lives it by caring a gun with her.

(Aveling, Ben)

Aveling, Ben. "Palin Speaking Missouri Cropedit." Photograph. 

Wikimedia Commons. MediaWiki, 31 August 2008. 

Web. 27 April 2014.

          <http://commons.wikimedia.org/Palin_speaking.jpg>

Delmore, Erin. Gun-free Zones are Stupid on Steroids.”

MSNBC. NBC Universal, 27 April   

           2014. Web. 27 April 2014.
<http://www.msnbc.com/sarah-gun-free-zones>

Obamacare Act

This article talks about how Republicans are starting to back off about Obamacare. It said that over twenty percent of the Republicans view Obamacare differently now that 7.5 million Americans now have health care. Most Americans are against Obamacare but a poll earlier this week showed proof that it is working.

This article relates to my humanities college class which is just simply a film class . We are watching a movie named Citizen Kane and deals with things such as politics. This relates very well with the topic of this political article.

I am pretty neutral when it comes to Obamacare. I feel that people have failed to give it a chance and only look for the bad. It has done some good such as giving 7.5 million people health care in the United States. This will affect me when I go to get health care if Obamacare is still around.


The structure of this article is important. In the beginning it says, “For conservatives, Obamacare was supposed to be the worst thing “since slavery.” This shows how many people viewed Obamacare when it was first implemented. By starting out with the negative things it shows how people are starting to adjust to Obamacare. One thing that shows Obamacare may actually be working is when it says, “more than 7.5 million Americans have signed up for health insurance, conservatives are slowly starting to ease off the panic button.” This allows one to compare and contrast the good and the bad about Obamacare.

(Lesch, Susan) 

Lesch, Susan. "Obama signs health care." Photograph. Wikimedia
          Commons. MediaWiki, 24 March. 2010. Web. 13 April 2014.
          <http://commons.wikimedia.org/File:Obama.jpg>

Sakuma, Amanda. "Fewer Republicans think Obamacare will ruin
          their lives.” MSNBC. NBC Universal, 12 April 2014. Web.
          13 April 2014. <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obamacare-poll>

Ink Master

In this article it talks about the show “Ink Masters” and that two of the hosts would routinely make unwelcome sexual advances and engage in “non-consensual, unwelcome, and inappropriate touching said a former production assistant. The plaintiff is twenty-five year old Nicoletta Robinson. She said that she is not only standing up for her rights but to raise awareness of this issue.

This article doesn't really connect to anything in class due to the fact it is about sexual harassment. If I had to make a connection it would go along best with what I learned in my business class last year. In businesses you must be ethical and responsible and what happened in this case was not.

I believe that what those hosts did was wrong and that they must serve the consequences for their actions. In this case it does not affect me, however, my family works and I will be working soon as well. That means that it could happen to my family or me and in that situation it would greatly affect me.

The author uses a lot of quotations such as, “Part of the reason that our client decided to go forward with the suit was that she felt she had to stand up, not only for her rights, but to raise awareness,” The use of quotations throughout are important because this impacted not the author but the woman that worked there. This makes the article more credible and accurate because it’s what the people actually said. Another example of the importance of quotations is when Peterson said “There’s plenty of room in there to increase labor costs...” This shows what someone actually believes and isn't biased in anyway by the author.

(Thor)

Thor. "NicksGun." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MediaWiki,
          21 Feb. 2008. Web. 30 March 2014.
          <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NicksGun.jpg>

Ned Resnikoff. "Ink Master Accused of Sexual Harassment and Assault.”
          MSNBC. NBC Universal, 29 March 2014. Web. 30 March 2014.
          <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-underbelly-reality-tv>

Minimum Wage Worker Myth

In this article it talks about how minimum wage workers are not who you think they are. Most people believe that minimum wage workers are teenagers but studies have put that assumption to rest. A former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, noted recently in the New York Times Economix blog, women aged 25 and over constitute one-third of all minimum-wage workers, compared to teenagers of both sexes combined, who constitute about one-quarter. The argument that minimum wage workers should be paid more, is no longer in the shadows because some of those workers are single parents needing to feed their kids.

I think that minimum wage should be increased from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour because it would help more than twenty-seven millions of people in America. Most big business would be able to pay that increase in wage without any trouble. For the people that rely on their minimum wage to run the house it would make a huge difference. It would allow them to take care of their household with more confidence.

(Ramon, Fvelasquez)

This greatly affects me because I will be getting a job in just a few months. This would help me make insurance payments, maintenance on my car, and even allow me to have a little extra money to do what I want. That increase in minimum wage might seem like it is not much but in a forty hour full time work week it makes a substantial difference. One’s paycheck would go from $209.00 to $404.00 almost double what one would make if only making the current minimum wage.

The author uses language to advance his point of view by saying, “The myth that the typical minimum-wage worker is a teenager flipping burgers after school has been pretty well put to rest”(Noah). This simply means that fast food workers are not always teens trying to make a few extra bucks but struggling parents trying to put the food on the table for their family. Another example that really shows the point of view of the author is when he says, “Time to give them a little more”(Noah). This is pretty much self explanatory that the author of this article is clearly for an increase in minimum wage.



Fvelasquez, Ramon. "Santo Tomas Bantangas." Photograph. Wikimedia
            Commons. MediaWiki, 24 July 2013. Web. 15 March 2014.
            <http://commons.wikimedia.org/File:SantoTomasChurch.JPG>

Noah, Timothy. "The Average Minimum Wage Worker Today Is Not
             Who You Think.” MSNBC. NBC Universal, 14 March 2014. Web.
             15 March 2014.
             <http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/average-minimum-wage-myth>

Government Aid for Veterans

(Harris, Paul)     

In the article that I read it talked about food stamps and how they could be helping and even hurting Americans. One argument was that food stamps are good for Veterans and their families because more than 900,000 use some type of government aid, such as food stamps or SNAPS. On the other hand supplying the United States with more food stamps, Barack Obama must cut back on the military budget for a stronger military.                                                                                                                                  

This article can in a way be connected to what I am currently studying in English which is the period of the holocaust. It has to do with military forces and in some ways so does the article that I chose. Even back then the United States war veterans would go without because of the lack of money after leaving the military.

I am more on the side of having food stamps and SNAPS for veterans back home. Most of the veterans served for ten plus years for our freedom. The least we could do is give them food because again they gave us our freedom. On the other hand I believe we should have a strong military to keep the United States troops safe. This event does not affect me know but if I decide to join the military or someone else in my family decides to join the military it will greatly affect me because this is dealing with food for veterans and the safety of our troops overseas.

The purpose for using statistics in this article is to show the huge impact of government benefits on veterans. The numbers the author put were enormous.“Military families spend $100 million dollars in SNAP benefits on site at military bases every year”(Melber)! This shows what a huge impact government benefits are for veterans and their families. Another thing that I mentioned before was how many veterans use those types of government aid which is 900,000 of them. This shows how many people in the United States would be devastated if government aid was reduced or stopped.

Harris, Paul. "Abu-Hishma US Troops." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MediaWiki, 12 July
                2006. Web. 3 March 2014.
                <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abu-Hishma_US_Troops.jpg>

Melber, Ari. "A letter to Dick Cheney about the military and food stamps.” MSNBC. NBC Universal,

                1 March 2014. Web. 2 March 2014.
               <http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/dick-cheney-vets-food-stamps>

Nazi Medical Experiments

During World War II many Nazi physicians experimented on prisoners in the concentration camps. These experiments were often painful and sometimes even deadly. This was extremely unethical but the Nazis simply did not care. Some experiments were aimed at the survival of the German troops. These experiments consisted of finding ways to cure hypothermia and make sea water drinkable for the troops. This, however, wasn't the only thing that they did. They experimented on curing illnesses and injuries that the troops might have. For example, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, infectious hepatitis etc. Most prisoners fought against such experiments so they would be given phosgene or mustard gas to experiment on them. Some physicians would even introduce certain diseases to different races to see how they would withstand them. The main purpose of this was to "Jewish racial inferiority". The most chilling experiment was the development of an inexpensive way to whip out Jews, Roma, and any others that the Nazis deemed less superior.


United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Nazi Medical Experiments". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United                    States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 10 June 2013. Web. 20 Feb 2014.
                 <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005168>

 

Current Event #4

A pharmacy in Missouri that agreed to supply the state with the drugs for lethal injections have backed out of their agreement. A lawyer that is fighting against Taylor’s death penalty is now suing saying that, “the state [can] not guarantee the quality of the drugs [being] used and that the drugs could cause cruel and unusual punishment during the execution”(Clark). In a few cases of execution by lethal injection the inmate would feel an intense amount of pain. However, some people might think who cares, it’s just an inmate but it is against the law to give cruel and unusual punishment.

This article “Pharmacy agrees not to provide execution drugs” does not exactly align with the subjects in my classes right now. There is, however, one class that it could in some ways correspond with and that is First Aid. These drugs affect bodily functions by causing extreme burning sensation, suffocation, and skin discoloration.

I take the side of the lawyer fighting against the death penalty in this case. I believe that inmates should pay for what they have done. I do not believe that they should be killed in a painful way such as suffocating and having a burning sensation throughout the body for upwards of twenty minutes. In this article it says, “an Ohio inmate thrashed and gasped for air and took nearly 25 minutes to die after being given a new lethal drug cocktail that had never been used before”(Clark). This is no way for anybody to die including inmates. If the prisons painfully kill people then what makes them any better than the inmates. They should not mix lethal drugs when it comes to a human life.

I feel that the author of this article was more on the side of the cruel and unusual punishment. It doesn't clearly state that the author is against the death penalty but one can infer this due to her only going into detail on the negative side. This impacts the article because one can only see one side of the argument not both sides. One thing that shows her side on this article is how she uses words like “extremely painful” to describe what the inmates have to go through when serving their death penalty.

                                                                   (CaCorrections)

CaCorrections. "Lethal Injection Room." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. MediaWiki, 3 Aug. 2010.
            Web. 18 Feb. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SQ_Lethal_Injection_Room.jpg>
Clark, Meredith. "Pharmacy agrees not to provide execution drugs.” MSNBC. NBC Universal,
18 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/pharmacy-wont-provide-execution-drugs>