The Sequester

The sequester is an arbitrary date picked by the conservatives that allocates that if we do not hit a compromise on government spending, we will have spending cuts across the board of the U.S. What these government spending cuts will do is cut government jobs for teachers, air traffic control, jobs allocated to government personnel across the U.S. This is bad because Hundreds of thousands of people could be out of work, or be mandated to take more days off, ergo making less money, ergo funneling less money into an already dwindling economy that is trying to recover. Now in this article, the author trys to paint the concept that the entire problem lies on Congress and Republicans. I can contend that both of these partys are at fault, but even if the majority of Congress is in control of the Republicans, Democrats need to grow a backbone. There needs to be more meeting across the isles and better communciation outside of congress. These days the senators just fly in for a joint session, then fly back home next week. There is no longer a sense of respect between the partys. These tax cuts will have a dentrimental effect on the economy, and the only people who are going to be influenced are the American people. Congress is not getting pay cuts or layoffs. By not having a stake in the big picture, again, they are showing how little they care for the country as a whole.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcamp/2013/03/07/the-sequester-congressional-negotiation-shows-its-greedy-side/

NASA funds attempt at 3D food printer for pizza

In all honesty, when I read this article, I was a bit mystified. I can't believe were in the future where future could potentially be printed for human consumption! Granted it’s just a 125k grant to a mechanical engineer named Anjan Contractor. Granted the whole concept behind it is that it would allow astronauts to print food that would have a shelf life of 30 years. But the creator behind it is thinking long term. The commercial use of this product has no bounds! Granted at its current state you wouldn't be able to print real food in the since that we categorize real food, it would be like cubes or tubes of hard stuff that doesn't look like food, but has all the nutrients that your body needs to survive. That's another amazing thing about it! You could program the machine whether you were sick or fat, or whatever, and with the right calculations, you could make the food contain enough nutrients necessary for your survival. That is amazing. Too bad I hate math with a conviction stronger then newton’s laws of motion. Regardless, I can’t wait for the future!

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57585502-1/nasa-funds-attempt-at-3d-food-printer-for-pizza/

Drama as Alarm Sirens Wailed

Just a bunch of bad news as of late. So this tornado on Monday whipped through Oklahoma City and it could have caused maybe over 2 billion dollars in damage. That is a lot of money, and unlike human damage, the government can't sue anyone to pay for it because you can't sue Mother Nature. So in the aftermath, at least 24 people have died, and at least 200 injured. The tornado took over 50 minutes, wrecking havoc over a school, as well as a medical facility. Also the co-owner of the daily show made a joke in poor taste about the situation, and I have to say it was in poor taste, and that it was too soon. Budget cuts could pose a problem in the future for preventing the government from successfully notifying people that a catastrophe such as a tsunami or a tornado would be coming their way. This is unacceptable, and if we are to believe that we live in a democracy that doesn't even have standardized healthcare, we should at least be able to give ample time to people in concern with warning them about natural disasters. 

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/us/oklahoma-tornado.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Man killed in deadly terror attack in London street

Now this one was very disturbing. The U.K. government is calling it a terrorist attack, because a man was killed. Two men slashed at, killed, and beheaded a soldier near London in Woolwich. They started saying Allah Akbar. One of the men while brandishing a knife said that he wanted to known so he asked people to take photographs. If there were an emotion or word that could best summarize this article as well as the whole endeavor, I would pick melancholy. This wasn't necessary, there was no point in killing this man, and he didn't deserve to die in this cruel, violent, and vindictive manner. The two men were shot and taken to the hospital. Honestly I can't argue for their survival. This is a result of fanaticism at its best, and no amount of words can make this better. People will use this as a way to express a viewpoint against Muslims with BS media propaganda, and I really hope it doesn't come to that. If it does I hope the people watching have enough common sense to realize the two crazy people who acted were just crazy, and they shouldn't be allowed to carry out violence against another human being ever again. 

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/may/22/police-respond-serious-incident-woolwich

Europe - GMO's - Prop 37

Owen Paterson is an Environment Secretary in Europe, and he believes that GMO's should be made available in the UK. Frankenstein foods have always had a bad sentiment attached them, but this man believes that farmers could benefit from the biotech. In relation to this article I did some digging and I found something relevant.  Last year in our good old state of California, we had a proposition on the 2012 ballot called prop 37. It would have mandated the labeling of genetically modified organisms or GMO's but lost from a campaign led by Monsanto. They grow genetically modified organisms. If you look at the donations list against the proposition you may be surprised. Monsanto donated over 8 million dollars to the opposition of this proposition. That's not all if you go further down the list you might see some brand names that you recognize. Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, Campbell's, E.I. Dupont, Hershey, and Heinz Foods all donated funds against this proposition. Using basic critical thinking skills and deduction we can assume all of these labels use GMO's in their food, and why wouldn't they? It is a cheaper alternative to regular crops, and they grow faster. But we still don't know the full effects of what they do on the human body, but that hasn't the stopped the EU from banning it. Until now. These companies may have won on prop 37, but the idea that we have a right to know what we are putting in our bodies still stands. At what point do we let corporations dictate our knowledge of food. This rationale is barbaric and I expect more from America.

Works Cited:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291334/Time-Europe-let-British-farmers-grow-GM-food-says-environment-minister.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/prop-37-defeated-californ_n_2088402.html

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_37,_Mandatory_Labeling_of_Genetically_Engineered_Food_(2012)

Homemade Alcohol Kills - In Libya

There have been five hundred and fifty one people poisoned by homemade alcohol. Fifty-one of these people have died. This was allowed to take place because alcohol is illegal in Libya. Because of the laws of Islam, these people who choose to partake in what we as Americans can acknowledge as an accepted freedom in western culture, ultimately died. The problems were caused by an amount of methanol in the alcohol. It caused blindness, and several different types of organ failure in some patients. This is a modern day tragedy. It is my personal opinion that religion can do much good in this world. Unfortunately it also has had a dark history, such as the Crusades (in concern with the Catholic Church). I do not simply think we should do away with religion. It has allowed us to (within moderation) control the masses and stop the spread of anarchy. But I do believe we should be able to be righteous human beings, without the forethought that a deity will be pissed off if we get drunk on a Friday night. Religion's repression of humanity's basic wants and needs such as sexuality, societal standards standards of living, and repression of cognitive thinking are not only archaic, they also disillusion ourselves into thinking we can be perfect. We as humans are flawed, and only by accepting this simple fact can we move on.

Works Cited:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-03/12/c_132228490.htm

Government Politics at its best: Debt Ceiling

Federal Debt Ceiling (National Debt)

I did some research on this topic, so I decided to pick a current event related to it. The debt ceiling is basically something created by Congress to keep the U.S. from amassing too much debt. Now the president does not have full control of the government’s ability to spend taxes. The president collects all the taxes and submits them to Congress. Congress makes a budget in concern with what it wants built and puts a cap on how much the president can borrow. But unfortunately for the president, Congress most of the time dictates that he must spend more then the taxes pay for. So congress has the scapegoat to blame the President for not being frugal when it is Congress’s fault that he has to borrow so close to the debt ceiling. Now the reason the debt ceiling is such a big deal is that if we hit that amount of U.S. debt, we could have a government shutdown. People working for the government would not get income or be forced to take days off. Any companies hired by the government would not get income for work they had done and it would cause a loss of faith in the U.S. dollar. In my next blog post I think I will cover the Sequester.

 Article: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/national_debt_us/index.html

Sources: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/12/135314575/the-debt-ceiling-explained