Follow the money!

In a recent article I read titled "Education Funding: Follow the Money", I learned some interesting facts.  As we all know, home owners and businesses pay taxes.  Much of these taxes go to our public schools.  Well, if you are a tax payer as a home owner, you will know that your taxes have probably never dropped, but very well may have increased.  But apparently businesses and corporations often are able to get their taxes "reduced".  They do this to stimulate economic development.  But in reality, this is NOT happening.  All that is happening is we are "shortbillioning" our schools, where we once or currently are attending.  Why is it that these businesses are able to pull off paying roughly 50% less in taxes for something that has been proven to do nothing in the last 20 years?  Well that's a question to ask our government!

Returning to school after a stabbing

 A week ago today a stabbing at a Pennsylvania school took place where 21 students and a security officer was hurt.  Students are not required to return to the school.  Although I understand you cant stay out of school forever because of a freak incident, but at the same time is a week long enough?  Kids, and their friends were harmed in a bloody crisis, and with only a week "lay-off", I just don't see this being long enough to sit in a class that was recently covered in your or your friends blood.
Not to mention, updates to school security.  If a kid was able to affect 21 students, the school should be re-thinking its security and how to prevent a similar incident from happening, or at least not getting so out of control that it affects 21 students, and 1 week is just not enough time to implement a new security plan, whether it be metal detectors or just hiring extra security officers.


http://www.aol.com/article/2014/04/16/classes-to-resume-at-pennsylvania-stabbing-school/20870198/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl6|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D465359

Florida Darwinian Interlude

When reading a passage titles Florida's Darwinian Interlude, it caught my attention when they ask:
How did the universe start?
Where did matter come from?
Where did energy come from?
Where did gravity come from?
And a few other questions similar to these.  The reason these caught my attention is because nobody TRULY knows where such things came from.  As Ben Stein states, Darwin and Warwinism have absolutely no verified answers, meaning no proof as to how they believe these things came to be.
Makes you wonder how with all of the technology we currently have, how we are unable to know how this "technology" began.  We live on a place that we call our universe, yet have absolutely no clue how this universe started.  Makes myself wonder was it an accident?  Did something physically make it?  And since we have no clue how it started, do we actually have any idea of when it will end?
We always hear people saying the world will end in (blah blah), yet it never happens and scientists believe it wont end any time soon, but who is to say that they truly have any idea since they can't tell us how it came to be in the first place?

School shooting prank

 With all of the recent mass shootings that have been occurring in schools, why would anyone find it a joking matter, or a topic to play an April fools prank about.  Well apparently, one lady thought it would be a good one.
A Virginia college mom texted her daughter saying "shots had been fired at the campus and that she was hiding".  When her daughter sent a reply to her mother and never received a reply, she dialed 911 to report the "shooting".  The mother was arrested, but this is not a joking manner and although it was meant to be a prank, some action should be taken against her when in court.
I really hope that people will learn from this and learn that joking about a shooting is simply not funny, and quite ignorant at that.


http://www.aol.com/article/2014/04/02/april-fools-prank-lands-woman-in-jail/20861636/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl2|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D460322

Schools are destroying freedom of speech

In a recent article I read titled "The Schools Are Destroying Freedom of Speech" talks about how schools do not spend enough time teaching about out government and its constitution and bill of rights.  They also tell of multiple stories how schools "take" away these rights from its students.
My thoughts on this is nothing but true.  Being a recent high school graduate, I first hand know how schools react to students bashing the school or administration.  In the article a student refers to the school as a "prison" during a commencement address in front of 1000 people, and the administration unplugged the microphone before he could finish.  Talk about breaking the right to free speech.  With the government agreeing to this type of activity, whats next?  Will our government begin to "pull the cord" on a microphone when a citizen says something they disagree with?  This is just crazy!  Especially considering that the first amendment, right to free speech, is said to apply to everyone, no matter their beliefs.  So why are we allowing schools to sensor the voice of its students?

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

I am in no way means a professional on the way airplanes work, but when a plane is up in the air, talking to traffic control like any normal day, and then suddenly, the plane "disappears", I get left with many questions.
How does a plane just disappear?  This just doesn't seem to be something that just happens.  Was the plane damaged?  Or was it in some way attacked?  Being the plane is still lost, it is safe to say the plane went down.  But how does nobody have any answers?  You would think any pilot would be requesting help before hitting the ground, or give some type of hints that the plane is having issues.  Which is why I feel somebody, is hiding something, because a plane just does not disappear.  If the plane went off radar, why are we not searching the area of where it was lost?  Something in this story just does not add up, but I guess time will tell.

The real Scandal of AIG

Did you know that you have contributed to a 170 billion dollar bailout to AIG as a bailout?  Well neither have most other Americans.  Out government is one to collect out tax dollars, and spend it where they deem necessary, with out any vote for the people paying in this money to choose where it will go.  AIG's bailout was the largest single bailout our government has ever done.  The worst part about all of this?  The company is still failing.  The company executives are planning to give themselves a 100 million dollar bonus.  Remind you, this company just collected 170 billion as a bailout, and is continuing to fail, yet they want to give themselves a bonus? 
This is why I feel that if our government gives out a bailout using our tax dollars, it should be a vote that all tax payers are able to decide if they want our tax dollars going to a specific company.  If this company continues to fail, that is 170 billion dollars wasted, that could have been spent on something more worthy, such as schooling, or even given to states for roads, ECT.

Blaming company for own problems

After recently scrolling through aol reading the current top headlines, I seen an article titled "Boy's death from infected rat spurs suit vs. Petco".  The article talks about a boy who's parents adopted him a rat as a pet.  After having the rat, the boy must have been bit, causing him to get the "rat-bite fever", which is caused by an infected rat.  The boy died June 12, 2013, hours after he was rushed to the hospital with severe stomach pains.  Although this is saddening, I do not see how Petco is to blame.  I feel if you adopt a pet, you should have it inspected, just like anything else you go to purchase.  People do not buy a used car, and not test drive to make sure it runs do they? No.  If you were to do this, and the car was broken, at the end of the day its a done-deal, and a lesson learned.  This is why I feel that Petco is not to blame.  Now if Petco were to advertise that all pets have been tested, and then this happened, I could see where you would have a case to file a lawsuit, but if you yourself did not take matters into your own hands and get the pet inspected, then I can only see that individual person is to blame.





http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/26/boys-death-from-infected-rat-spurs-suit-vs-petco/20838509/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D447738

California's Rights

Recently reading an article tiled "Gay Rights in California", I seen some known, but interesting things.  In 2008, they passed a vote with 52% - 48% banning gay marriage.  I see reasons as why to ban this, but way more reasons as to why not to.  One being, its not you.  If who you find to be attractive a same-sex person, so be it.  It is none of my business, nor it any business of the government.  They then go into blame Obama for not "talking" about the topic during his presidential race to help keep the ban from going into effect.  Although I feel that it would not have killed him in his race to tell his reasons as to why it should not be banned, it may have.  But now that he is president, why is he not taking the steps to lift this ban.  I feel as though these couples are not hurting anyone, and it should be their choice who they talk to.
On the bright side for these couples in California, it is said that the same demographic trends that doomed gay marriage this year also guarantee its eventual victory, so maybe in a couple of years people voting "no", will realize its not a big deal, and surely none of their business.

Why we need to give up on second chances.

 In a recent news article I read where a woman driving under the influence crashed, killing six others.  To begin, I agree that people make bad mistakes one time, but maybe if we gave up on second chances, we would no longer have issues like these because people would actually think before doing something dumb if they know something, such as driving in this case will be taken away for life.
This girl is currently 21, but in 2010, she got a DUI, and in only 1 year in 2011, her license was reinstated.  Now only two years later, this same girl once again, was under the influence, and possibly drinking and driving as alcohol was found at the scene, and she killed six innocent others.  If our government did not believe in giving these "second chances" to everybody, these issues would be on a decline and innocent lives would not be lost.  We all know drinking and driving is dangerous, and if you do it once, you will do it again.  So if in 2010 we would have taken this girls license for good, the six deaths that occurred because of her could have been prevented.
Of course, you have those that say, people will still drive without a license, so why not give it back to them?  Well, we need more laws in effect.  If you loose you license due to something as harmful as driving under the influence where you are risking lives, even if no lives are hurt and you are caught, we need to treat this the same as though lives were hurt, and possibly, just lock these people up for good!

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/02/11/olivia-culbreath-driver-arrested-in-deadly-crash-had-dui/20827718/?icid=maing-grid7|maing15|dl13|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D441562

What Obamas Election Means to Black America

When reading an article in our textbook titled "What Obamas Election Means to Black America", written by Steven Gray, I really began to think.  I began to think how only a few short decades ago, blacks were shamed and hated by many, but today, one is our president.  This was a huge stepping stone for us as Americans to all be apart of.  Something to think about how quickly our country took a change for the better is how only 10 years before the election, Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin stated "it is inconceivable to any of us that we would see an African American win a national party's ticket and then compete effectively.  This is just mind boggling how quickly a change, and a large one at that, can truely take place.

On another note, the article states that "Obama's candidacy inspired scores of blacks to vote for the first time".  When I read this line, I began to ask myself if that is the only reason why he won.  I feel as though if you are 33, like Michael Johnson, and have never voted before, but decide to just because there is a possibility for America to get its first black president, then he should not have been able to vote at all.  That is not a good reason to vote for someone who is going to be in charge of our country, and our futures.

The rich get off easy

Over the last week or so, I have seen seeing Justin Bieber on the news headlines about his recent DUI and street racing arrest.  Bieber was pulled over driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, as well as prescription medicine, all awhile being underage at that with a suspended license. Sure, just as every other American resident would get, he was arrested.  But here is what gets to me.  He has had a rough recent-past when it comes to the law, including multiple car incidents as well as run-ins with his neighbor, all resulting in police being called, but nothing being done to him.  Now that one police officer has officially had him in custody, the judge sets him free on a small bail of only $2,500.  As some would say, "it's not like he killed someone".  Well, no he didn't, but he sure could have.
I am waiting to see results of his official court hearing to see if the judge sticks it to him, or if he will ease up on him because he is able to hire a big-time lawyer.  If the judge decides to give him any type of break because he is rich and famous, what will he learn?  He needs to to given some type of punishment to let him see that his money may be able to buy a lot, but not his way out of trouble, otherwise the next time he pulls a stunt like this, he could cause harm to innocent bystanders.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/showbiz/justin-bieber-arrest/

Blind Money

In an article titled "Show Us the Money", written by Cyrys Habib, she tells us how the blind get taken advantage of when using paper cash.  The blind, are upset with the Treasury that their is no way to tell the difference between the bills, but with a $75 million dollar price tag to make bills different, I would have a hard time changing the bills when the blind has other options.  Everywhere I go, I see "Debit accepted here".  In the last few years, I never never gone somewhere where credit/debit is not accepted, even with local mom and pop stores.  So for $75 million, why should they change the way bills are made?  I feel the arguments made by the blind are totally different than others.  Such as them saying its the same difference as wheelchair ramps for the handicap.  This is a bad reasoning because someone in a wheelchair can physically not get up on the curb them self, where the blind does have other options.

Credit Cards Good?

I always hear, "credit cards are bad".  I've heard it from my friends and parents, and even hear my friends parents telling them never get into the habit of using credit cards.  I always ask myself why?  Is it that credit cards are bad, or is it that the user of the card is bad?  My vote goes for the user.  I myself got my first credit card at age 18, and I personally use it like a debit card.  Why?  They paid me 1% on all purchases to use it where my checking debit card paid me nothing.  I always limit my spending.  If I do not have the money in my checking account to spend, I don't put it on my credit card.  In under a year, on that card I accumulated over $25.00 in free money just for using the card.  Now, recently I signed up for a discover card.  Just for signing up, I received a free $50.00 bonus, on top of that, I receive 5% cash back on all online purchases up to $1,500.  Since I knew I would be spending over three thousand dollars on a new motor, why wouldn't I put it on the card, and immediately pay it off when I receive the statement?  If you are responsible, I feel you should use credit card because they reward their valued customers.  If you are told not to use them, you are more than likey being told this by someone who was not responsible and build up debt.

Boring chain stores

In a recent article that I read titled "In Praise of Chain Stores", written by Virginia Postrel, she states that America is known to be a "boring" location for foreign travelers.  She says this because no matter where in America you go, you're bound to run into a walmart, mcdonalds, starbucks, and so on.  But for those traveling from other countries, may not be used to these stores.  They arn't used to a Walmart, where they can buy food, clothing, and electronics all in one mega-store.  If you were used to shopping at a mom and pop store all your life, and you walked into a giant store like walmart, wouldn't you be amazed?  I get where the author is coming from, for myself, when I travel to other states, a lot of the things I see are very similar to my home area, but many things are different.  On a recent travel to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, just on the main drag, you will find mini golf, go cart racing, Titanic museum, bungie jumping, and more restaurants than you could imagine.  I have personally never traveled to another country, but I feel that is more exciting to most then looking at an old historic building for an hour.  And if you are one to look at old historic places, America has many to view, including the statue of liberty.  So how is it that someone could call America the most boring country to travel to just because we have chain stores?

Being Watched

Recently, I have been in progress of building a motor for a Camaro which its original motor spun a bearing.  Throughout this build process, I have been taking extra time to clean, paint, and polish parts of the motor to have it show-car condition.  One night last week I was working on polishing the ends of the heads when I realized I forgot to buy aluminum polish, so I decided to make a trip to walmart.
When I arrived at walmart at roughly 10 p.m., I noticed I was one of probably only 10 customers.  I walked in and headed to the car section.  As walmart sells multiple different waxes, I was in the isle for some time doing research on my phone about what the best polish available to purchase is.  I then begin to notice this man, standing in the same isle as I was, only feet from me, well this is a store so I thought nothing much of it.  After picking out a polish, I went to look at paint gun accessories as I needed a new regulator.  Once again, I seen a man, looking in the same isle as me, but facing the other direction.  I decided to pass on the walmart regulator and headed for the check-out with my polish.  After paying, the lady at the exit door told me to have a good night.  As I was walking out the second line of doors, I heard "Excuse me", from the woman why just told me have a good night.  I turned around and heading around the corner was the same man I had seen multiple times, following me around walmart.  The woman asked to see a receipt!  Apparently, walmart has undercover security, that are not very sneaky, and he must of thought I was up to something because he had told the woman to call me back and check to see if I purchased the polish, and to check to make sure I didnt stuff anything else in my bag.  I feel as though walmart could tell there employees to watch closer, and not just assume a kid in the store is trying to steal something!.

Preparing for college?

All throughout high school I was told "the more words the better" when writing an essay for a class.  Although this never made since to me because I felt that my papers as well as my peers, drug on and on, just to meet the couple of thousand word quota for the assigned paper, of course I listened to receive a good grade.  With that being said, high school is to prepare you for college, correct?  Wrong!  Now that I get to college, fewer words arn't "better" to say, but less is more in a since in chapter ninteen that I read titled "writing with style".  Apparently the "filler" words I used in high school such as: at all times, in order to, should now be simplified to always and to.
I do understand where my high school was going when they wanted more words, which would of been to make sure we are capable to writing a lengthy paper to grade us on grammer and other aspects of a paper, why do they consider it "preparing for college" if the day I get here, writing styles change..

Overweight

As I logged onto my computer today to do my usual morning aol.com look-around, I seen a news article where a school, upset a childs mother.  At first, I thought to myself, oh great!  Another angry mother over nothing kind of story, but I figured why not read more into it.  To my surprise, she had every right to be furious at the school!  The Flordia school sent a letter home with an 11 year old girl, stating that she is "overweight".  Since when are schools health physicians?  They should be focused on learning, and only learning.  Allowing an 11 year old girl to read a note the school wrote stating she is overweight could cause the girl to have self-esteem issues.

I do not fully disagree with schools doing health check-ups on students (if the parents are fully aware), but until a certain age, results to any health related problems should be given directly to parents, not to an 11 year old girl that is able to read that the school is calling her over-weight. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/kristin-grasso-florida-school-letter-overweight_n_4058460.html?1381260343&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl7|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D388540

Race

In an article I read, "Race and the White Coat" by Rahul K. Parikh, he states that minorities, specifically African Americans, are not as healthy as whites.  He say's they are known for higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV, cancer, asthma, and other chronic illnesses.  He then tell's us that doctors do stereotype other minorities, which I think is fair!  Some people are upset by this, but it is not racism.  Minorities are known to not take medical treatments as serious as whites.  They are more likely to ignore what the doctor tells them, such as not taking the prescribed medicine.  If I were a doctor, and I had a patient continuously coming in for the same issues, just to find out he is not taking his medicine, I would begin to stop prescribing him.  In the same sense, I would also be less likely to give him a kidney transplant over someone else, who has been cooperative with me.  So being biased against minorities is not a problem, as these show in studies to be true in many cases.

Iphone 5s

As a big Apple fan, the release of the new Iphone 5s was a big excitement to me.  To go back a few years, my first Iphone was the 4, and overall, it was a great phone.  Always in a case, it was dropped multiple times a week, and owning the phone for 2 years, no screen was cracked, nor did any other problems arise.  When I was due for an upgrade, I got the Iphone 5, which has been a decent phone, with multiple problems.  The phone won't charge 70% of the time!  It also liked to freeze up "under load", such as listening to music and surfing the web for a long period of time.  Now back to today, as I have been debating on just upgrading to the 5s, I get on AOL.com and in the news headlines I read "
Iphone 5s More Fragile Than iphone 5, Tests Find".  My only words are "What is wrong with this company"  It seems as though every iphone has done nothing but get cheaper and cheaper as the years go on.  If I am paying $200.00 for a new iphone, I expect it to last, not stop charging, freeze up, and with one light drop, shatter a screen.  I feel as though apple will begin to loose business over time from those who also realize their products seem to be made cheaper then before.