We Have the Technology!

Original Article by My Govt 2305 Blog

Obama proposes another stimulus plan, surprise surprise! However, it's about time that the government take global warming seriously. They have been ignoring for far too long. We knew we strongly depended on different countries for the insane amount of oil we use. We produce more pollution than any other country, excluding China which is at least three times the size of the U.S. Biologists are making huge advancements in technology and are constantly proposing new ideas. One that I found very interesting was Craig Venter. In 2005, Venter founded Synthetic Genomics, a private company with a provocative mission: to engineer new life forms. Its goal is to design, synthesize and assemble synthetic microorganisms that will produce alternative fuels, such as ethanol or hydrogen. He was one of the leading scientists that discovered how to read the entire genome of organisms. That successful research gave Venter and his team the knowledge to make computer software to create organisms. He also traveled and did research on small sea organisms like algae and bacteria. Now Venter is working on developing new bacterial strains capable of eating CO2 and producing fuels. His ultimate goal is to convert things like sugar or sunlight or carbon dioxide into fuels that people are very familiar with, like diesel fuel and gasoline. His work is ground breaking and absolutely amazing! It could very well save our planet! In the next thirty years our population will increase from 6 billion to 9 billion and we are rapidly using up the earth's resources. They have also applied this research to vaccinations. Of course, there are skeptics that believe that this research is very dangerous and there are Christians that are strongly opposed claiming that Venter is "playing God". But I bet if one of their lives or the life of their child could be saved by this break through science they would change their mind. For protection Venter has created a suicide gene that can be activated in any lab creation to kill it immediately, which would prevent someone from bio-hacking or trying to spread a "killer bug". This technology has the capability to save not only our earth but our lives.

This is the link to one of his more famous lectures!

Limbaugh/Coulter 2012

Recent comments made by Rush Limbaugh have created a stir among the Republican Party. Eric Cantor, the house minority whip, has proposed a listening tour so the Republican Party can get back in the good graces of their supporters. However, Rush Limbaugh strongly disagreed with this idea stating that rather than a "listening tour," what the party needed was "a teaching tour." Rather than simply admitting defeat, the Republican Party wants to blame the alleged ignorance of Americans. But it seems after a joke of an eight year presidency and an economic nightmare Americans are obviously ready for a change, Republican or not. Even still Rush Limbaugh proposes that instead of changing with the American political climate which is becoming progressively more liberal, the Republican should stand firm in it's dated conservative values. What is incredible to me is that the GOP has even acknowledged his biased comments and publicly changed their agenda from a "listening tour" to an "informative tour". At this rate the 2012 GOP ticket might read Limbaugh/Coulter. This terrifies me! General Colin Powell, a highly respected Republican, responded to Limbaugh's rant by saying, "Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh?...Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"
I couldn't agree more. The Republican Party needs to face reality which is that politics have to appeal to an entirely new generation. By having spokespersons such as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reily, and Ann Coulter who may indeed appeal to anyone born before 1950, the Republican Party is becoming a joke. Then add George Bush to the equation and you have a full on comedy show. Rush Limbaugh may truly believe that Americans needs to be "re-educated", but the only thing America needs to be taught is to not listen to Rush Limbaugh.

Banks Get Preferential Treatment. Coincidence? I Think NOT!

I couldn’t agree with you more about our preferential treatment toward our banks. It is truly amazing how much our banking system has changed in the past year and a half. I took out a loan a year ago and paid it back on time. A year later, when my credit had not changed, I tried to take out another loan and was denied! In order to get a loan now your credit has to be damn near perfect with a steady income to even be considered. I completely agree that credit cards are like drugs to some people! Banks send out credit cards to everyone, no matter there age or financial status, constantly! This should be illegal. It gives younger and more irresponsible spenders another way to get themselves into debt. On top of that there are people who are “shopaholics” and actually suffer from this like an addiction. By giving these people free access to credit cards it’s basically like giving them drugs and encouraging their addictions. There should definitely be more regulations about the requirements to have a credit card because unfortunately everyone is not responsible. And those people definitely suffer the consequences. They lose their homes, cars, and dignity. I also believe that the bank should be more careful about letting people take out loans against their assets, especially their homes. I know that it is beneficial to them, but it is perpetuating a cruel cycle and again leaving people homeless. Oddly, we do not blame the banks. We blame the people for being irresponsible. Which I find particularly odd because there are documents that suggest that $84 billion of the taxpayer money AIG has received is unaccounted for! Why is AIG not being closely monitored? Why are they getting preferential treatment? Perhaps we should look at Obama’s new Tax Force on Tax Reform. One of its members is Martin Feldstein, a current board member of AIG. Coincidence? I think not!

America the Booty-full

America has done it again. Not only are we in debt, breathing in unhealthy air, wasting an immense amount of resources to support our overzealous lifestyles, unhappy, underpaid, overworked, we are now also FAT. Well, we have been for about the last ten years or so but now obesity rates are tipping the scales, mainly in children. This has become such a global epidemic that parents in Great Britian are now being charged with child abuse if their children are over a certain body mass index. But in America it’s worse. Studies show that an average of 70% of the population is overweight and 30% obese. That means that healthy Americans are a huge minority. In fact, the amount of obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A third grade teacher recently reported that a number of her third grade students could barely fit in their desks. The line between a few Doritos and an entire package of twinkies has gotten very blurry. This is mainly due to a steady increase in consumption of fast food along with increasing size of food portions. In Houston you can get a free 72 oz. steak if you manage to eat the entire thing along with three sides. Similar food “contests” are all over America. Which begs the question, should America adopt a similar policy? Is allowing a three year old to reach a staggering weight of seventy pounds (the average weight of a twelve year old) abuse?

While physical abuse may have permeating mental effects, the physical and health effects of obesity are equally, if not more, dangerous. Not to mention the social effects of obesity in our overly image conscious society. We are encouraged to be a size zero in the media but then are bombarded with a plethora of commercials advertising overly processed food with huge amounts of calories and sodium. The result is fat, unhappy, self conscious and extremely unhealthy Americans. But are parents the only one to blame? I grew up going to an affluent school and our school cafeteria options consisted of “chicken rings”, tater tots, corn dogs, hamburgers and a number of unhealthy food options. On top of that, we were given free access to sodas, candy, chips and chocolate. There was also a small fruit bowl that was refilled weekly when the fruit went bad.

While regulations should be placed on what we eat since we clearly have lost the ability to know what to eat and how much of it, putting a child in state custody is not the answer. Changes are due everywhere, between the portions that restaurants serve, the meals that families eat and the food that schools serve. This is just another way for the government to deflect blame off of themselves for not limiting corporate advertising and blame the American people. We are encouraged to live an unhealthy lifestyle and in many cases not given a choice. Most of what a child consumes is at school. Some children reporting having up to three soft drinks a day and at least one candy bar. Changes are being made but on a very small scale. Recently, a school in Colorado adopted a food program which implemented salad bars, fresh vegetables and lean proteins. Vending machines were removed and soft drinks were also replaced with water, tea and fruit juice. The results were staggering. Test scores went up, students were more alert and focused, more active and overall much healthier.

While it may be easy to blame a parent, there is clearly no overt form of abuse or negligence. Americans are simply following the pattern which we have unfortunately fallen into due to a decrease in knowledge of healthy eating and in increase in food advertising, mainly for cheap, processed and high calorie foods. In 2005, the reported advertising budget for health food was two million dollars. The advertising budget for Pepsi was two billion. There needs to be a fundamental change in the way we live and eat. Surely this will not be accomplished by putting obese children in foster care facilities, it will only create a whole other set of problems.

The Truthiness Behind $11 Mayo

While the author may express some legitimate points in his blog (rant), he does not offer any opposing points of view nor does he offer much evidence behind his claims. Not only that, he has joined the millions of people in molding Obama’s name to make some kind of trite political statement, which I personally think is getting very old. And he’s only been in office for three months.

It seems in this entry the author is targeting the liberal, almost anarchical, government non supporters. He seems to support neither the left nor the right but offers no alternative solutions or sources of power. Is no Government the answer or a different one? The author doesn’t seem to have clear ideas on this, only that he is not happy with the current administration or the previous.

In his dissatisfaction with our presence overseas he mentions that we should pull out of all countries outside our borders, yet in his introduction he talks about the billions- or trillions- of useless spending. How does the author propose we finance abandoning all of our foreign bases at once? And then he goes on to talk about price inflation, which unless you are buying some type of organic mayonnaise made from truffle oil, just doesn’t seem logical. I personally have never seen mayonnaise of ANY kind over seven dollars and even that is extremely high. It seems the author is shopping at the wrong grocery store. And one could argue that the increased price of mayonnaise may be inadvertently meant to boost our economy as a decrease in consumption of pure fat (mayonnaise), will almost certainly lead to lower health care costs.

And then of course, he uses the argument that he will leave our country for one that practices sovereignty. However, the author fails to acknowledge, or realize, that the few places that do practice sovereignty don’t want Americans on their turf (at least not over 90 days) because they are afraid we will spread the disease of globalization or the countries are only sovereign because they don’t have the resources for it to be any other way.

Finally, the author argues that capitalism and war and politics remove the beauty from the world, but it can be argued that oppression is often a catalyst for art, music, literature and other forms of beauty. Just look at the 1960’s. Yes, the media generally offers generous portions of smut but the Internet and Independent thinkers of society have ensured that the feeling of being a GOOD person is never too far away. We may even be closer than we have in the past.

In all, as mentioned above, the author discusses some good points, i.e. the China problem, unchecked spending, the continuation of War in the Middle East, but does it in such a bitter way that his arguments lose validity. Any good political argument, in my opinion, should offer solutions, evidence and a certain amount of objectivity. It seems all this author wants to do is perpetuate the glass half empty mentality. Pessimism and bitterness surely will not solve the precarious situation in which we have found ourselves.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/20978

War on Truth?

In this article from the Christian Science Monitor, the author James L. Cavallaro, is persuading his readers to take a closer look at the importance of accountability for the alleged wrongdoings of the Bush Administration.  This article strongly appeals to Bush-hating liberals and possibly non-partisans who feel misinformed.  These are people who’ve had good faith in their elected leaders, but now feel the need to discern the sincerity of public information. The article incites the readers to find the truth.  But, when will they know they’ve come to the truth?  What degree of the truth is accessible to Americans?  How would the truth commission go about conducting plausible investigations? Will the findings help or hinder the current administrations spirit and goals? Information from people is normally based on their opinion so, it would be difficult to decipher and interpret the truth.  

Instead, we as country should focus on correcting future mistakes. Not to minimize the situation, but it is futile to backtrack. Hypothetically, it would open a can of worms and dissection is messy. Dissent so strong could lead to civil unrest, especially in economic depression.   Exploiting the truth would be detrimental to what little sense of patriotism we have left.  This is one of the government’s greatest fears and the people's greatest objectives.  So, to believe thatBush-era wrongdoings and political exploitations will never happen again is quite naïve.  Watergate is just one of the many examples of this.  If President Nixon had had the power and technology that the Bush Administration had he might not have been caught.  One would also be naïve to believe that there aren’t any injustices committed by our government, but technology has made it tremendously easier for governments to cover their tracks, making it increasingly hard to punish them.  The media has shown that there have been illegal actions taken that should be investigated and punished, and some have been.  However, our country is in no financial state to be conducting some big witch hunt to pick apart the Bush Administration.  It is reminiscent of the Red Scare which only created greater tension and unnecessary widespread violence.  It is obvious that the author feels that truth is an everlasting crusade for knowledge, which is spelled out in our natural rights. 

Cavallaro is a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School. He worked in human rights in Pinochet's Chile (1988-1990) and in post-transition Brazil (1994-2002).  In the least, he is trying to encourage his readers to speculate and question the misguided information instead of accepting the injustices.  Although, I do not support the investigation/inquisition of facts because the officials that want to put this together don't even know what form the investigation will take, it would be justified to have groups or individuals punished for the wrongful deaths and “lost” information, but, sadly, the American citizens will probably never see this information. I believe we should understand that putting facts on paper or pointing the finger will do little to positively effect our future.  However, Cavallaro is right about one thing: we can learn from our past.  We should take our knowledge from America’s past failures and take better care in holding our elected officials responsible.  As Americans we must be optimistic for our future, but not blind to oppression and depravity.

Austin's Stimulus Plan

The Obama administration is trying desperately to resuscitate America's declining economy. They have proposed an $819 billion dollar stimulus package. Many economists, including the ones that drafted the proposal, have made it clear that the outcome of the package is very uncertain. Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein are two economists that are credited for drafting the plan have said, "There is considerable uncertainty in our estimates." Economists largely use the past to predict our future, but the crisis we are in now is unlike any other. So, Obama is eagerly pushing to pass this plan. About two weeks ago several large cities were asked to quickly provide a list of "shovel ready" projects the stimulus money would be used for. The Wall Street Journal ran a story which mocked several cities proposed uses for their money. Austin was on that list. Apparently, our parks and recreation board proposed an $866,000 frisbee golf course. Austin city council officials have been on damage control for the last couple of weeks.

John Hrncir, the city's governmental relations officer, said,"Austin, Capital Metro and the Austin school district had more than a billion dollars on its list of ready-to-go projects, and most were for general public works, infrastructure, improvements at the airport and the like. There are millions of dollars in energy conservation projects on the list."

There were several other cities on the Wall Street Journals list of friviolous spenders. "The Journal reported that Boynton Beach, Fla., listed an "eco park" with butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises for $4.5 million. Chula Vista, Calif., listed $500,000 to create a leash-free area for dogs. And Lincoln, Neb., proposed $3 million for an "environmentally friendly clubhouse for a municipal golf course."

I believe that this should raise peoples awareness of how their tax dollars are being spent. If this stimulus package is passed I think the citizens of Austin should make their voices heard. We elected these officials and we need to make sure they do their jobs properly. If the resources are allocated correctly it will greatly benefit all of us.

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/editorial/stories/02/05/0205frisbee_edit.html
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/02/05/0205discgolf.html
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/US_Congress/Fact_Check_Stimulus_Jobs.html