Korean War

In the article, "Korean War Part 2?" written by Choe Sang-Hun, he writes about how many years after the war the tensions is going up in the Korean peninsula. North Korea is a very isolated place; it only really communicates with China while S. Korea is associated with the U.S. and is protected by our troops. Both Nations aren't in war with each other but they sure aren't at peace with each other.

The leader of N. Korea, Kim Jong-Un, is considered as "unpredictable" because of his actions. He recently canceled the armistice that has kept peace for the past 60 years and "pre-emptive nuclear strike" threats have been sent toward S. Korea and the United States.

The U.S. has given S. Korea B-2 Stealth bombers to show that they are ready with force. The U.S is going to be spending $1 billion on missile defenses in Alaska and California. The missile defense device will see the missile coming and shoot it while it's still in the air instead of hitting people on the ground...

Former U.S. ambassador, Donald Gregg said "The Korean peninsula is heading into a difficult and very dangerous period." In 1945 when WW2 ended, the Soviet Union installed a Communist regime while occupying the North, as the U.S. and others were controlling what is now S. Korea.

N. Korea's economy collapsed as the Soviet Union did in 1991. Today there is a one-million man army and nuclear-weapons program that N. Korea spent all of their money on, but there are many, many people there who are starving because of no money.

N. Korea said that they had exploded a nuclear bomb in 2006 and shortly after in 2010, tested missiles and expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors. Most recently in February, N. Korea did a third test for their nuclear weapons towards China and China is N. Korea’s only ally.

S. Korea has about 28,000 American troops and the testing of nuclear weapons and the threats that have been made have the people of S. Korea want the government to have their own nuclear arsenal. Instead of them having to be supported by the U.S. military.

Han Yong-sup, a professor at Korea National Defense University says, "The third nuclear test was for South Korea what the Cuban Missile Crisis was for the U.S., it has made the North Korean threat seem very close."

If American doesn't hurry to try and prevent the nuclear attacks from the inside, there could be some damage. Many people think that the missiles will not reach all the way over to the U.S. but may hit S. Korea because of how close they are.

N. Korea's economy is very bad; most of the factories there have failed and are not being used. Droughts and floods led to crop failures in the 1990's causing 2 million people to die.

The people in N. Korea are very isolated, like their leader. Only very few people can get on the internet and there is no regular TV's or radios, they all have channels about the government. The people there are scared to go to labor camps if they try and go against the government.

American needs to try and get into N. Korea and try to prevent anything that will harm people to happen, before it is too late to try and do anything.

The only American who got into N. Korea and to hang out with the leader is Dennis Rodman, former NBA star. Kim Jong- UN is a major basketball fan. Obama even wants Rodman to call him.
According to Rodman Kim says that "I don't

Raising Minimum Wage

In the article "Time for a Raise?" the author, Patricia Smith, writes about how Barack Obama is proposing to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9.00 per hour. The pay raise is striking many different problems to people and their businesses.

If Barack Obama is successful with his plans, many families will be helped out. Many people who are 25 years and older create the majority of people who earn minimum wage. But also many businesses will have to

10th grader Catrina Crable who attends Martin County High School works in a restaurant 20-25 hours a week making $7.79 a hour which pays for her gas, car insurance and her phone said "Even working so many house, I don't get paid that much, it's stressful."

People like Crable would support the change of her pay to pay for all of the things she has to and have money left over for herself.

During his State of the Union address in February Obama said "This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families, it could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank, rent or eviction, scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets."

A counterargument that many store owners have is that they will not be able to hire many more new workers or give other employees raises. The unemployment rate would go up because of businesses that cannot hire.

U.S Chamber of Commerce Randy Johnson who represents businesses said "Small employers often have to operate under very slim profit margins; an increase has to be shouldered by that employer."

All though the minimum wage rise is hurting some businesses, there are 19 states that have put there minimum waging higher than 7.25 per hour. The only state that set there minimum wage at $9.00 per hour is Washington.

Obama wants to make the minimum wage $9 because he wants to tie the federal minimum to inflation so that it can rise with the cost of living.

15 million minimum wage workers will make an extra $3,500 a year with the minimum wage increase. That extra money will help many family’s help get themselves out of many situations.

If the minimum wage is raised, many, many families will be helped and businesses will just have to make their way out of firing people and raising other workers pay. It's something that will change the world.

Slaughter of African Elephants

In the article "Slaughter of the African Elephants" written by Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels, they also talk about how poachers and hunters are making elephants become almost extinct in southern Africa.

Mother elephants are very protective over their babies but if somebody (hunter, poacher ext.) comes to them with a gun they cannot fight the bullets that can kill them. Elephants are being killed for their tusks which are used to make very popular jewelry in China.

62% of elephants have basically disappeared from central African from 2002 and 2011 from being hunted and killed. The tusks they are being hunted for is made out of ivory, and people use ivory for trinkets that have no sole purpose but just to wear.

People don’t really think about what it takes to get these small pieces of jewelry or accessories, they only care about the design. No animal should be killed for something that can’t even be used for good or be killed for design purposes. Making a whole species endangered because of the rising demand of what people want is not okay.

Elephants are more than just animals that walk around all day. They travel around a whole lot and carry seeds out through forest for many miles and leaving trails that other animals use, the droppings that they leave behind help keep the forest healthy.

The animals are living in fear because of this. And because they are living in fear, the animals are scared to walk around and garden the forest and the younger elephants are also affected because they cannot have a social connection to the outside world.

When elephants are mourning they don’t walk around, and with the danger of being killed and any living moment by a poacher they don’t do much. Seeing any animal loose its life is a very sad thing to know about and that is why this needs to be stopped now.

Elephants mourn over loved ones who have died and young elephant’s mothers who die and they are living off their mother’s milk also die because of starvation. No mother means no milk and no milk mean hunger and when the babies are always hungry cannot live.

Wild life guards are doing their best to try and protect the animals from danger but are usually out gunned and are helpless to the animals.

It isn't too late to help the animals, but when it is we won’t be able to do anything. People don't know the danger and harm they are causing for a small accessories that has no use. If more people are warned about the elephant’s importance to the forest and savanna, that killing them is making the Earth a worse place, the demand will slowly but surely decrease.

blog 22: north korea

In the article "North Korea Calls Hawaii and U.S. Mainland Targets", the author Choe Sang-Hun, writes about the recent nuclear bomb warning on America. North Korea's military have threatened to bomb bases of the United States imperialist aggressor troops.

North Korea command says “They should be mindful that everything will be reduced to ashes and flames the moment the first attack is unleashed,” speaking about America.

North Korea has made many threats to America. Such as turning Washington into a "sea of fire" the leader Kim Jong-un has visited many military units within the last week. Kim Jong-un has ordered the military to send the enemies of America “to the bottom of the sea as they run wild like wolves threatened with fire,”

This war will have people panicking all over and to know that people such as Ms. Park who was one of the first woman to serve as South America's president is saying differently about the whole situation. “I strongly urge North Korea to change, North Korea must immediately abandon its thought that nuclear weapons will protect its regime.” states Ms. Park.

North Korea should realize that bombing America and going into war will not resolve any problems it will only cause more.

Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's conservative daily said that if North Korea launched a bomb similar to the Cheonan sinking, which South Korea's government blames on North Korea, the South Korean military would strike back by launching missiles at the huge statues of Kim Jong-un's grandfather and father, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il. The two statues are symbols of worship in North Korea.

North Korea's plans to attack back from that would be "thousand fold ten-thousand fold retaliation."

North Korea believes that if they go on with their plan of bombing South Korea and the America’s that the tension would make Washington and Seoul go back to the “negotiating table with concessions”.

Recently there were computer hacking reports from North Korean defectors and anti-Pyongyang activists saying that the attacks disrupted websites such as the Daily NK that carries articles that criticize North Korea.

The U.S. and S. Korea believe that there are computer hackers in North Korea that are trained for cyber warfare.

The whole situation is something that is very dangerous and if Kim Jong-un goes on with the plan of destroying parts of America and South Korea many lives will be lost and there will be many damages. We do not need to just wait for it to happen or when it's on the way and we are too late, something needs to be done now to stop these terrorist threats.

Blog 21 : Sisters in arms

      In the article "Sisters in Arms" the author James Dao writes about the long ban of not letting women fight in combat and how it is now being lifted. Women are now allowed to go in and fight for America. But will this help?
     Women have helped in the war before. In the article Stacy Persall who is the Staff Sargent helped a fallen soldier in the war. He base was attacked and everybody who was there went out to go and fight. Stacy didnt sit around waiting for help, she got up and got on a machine gun and started firing.
     As she was shooting she realized a man near by her. He was 6'2 and over 200 pounds the man is much bigger than her but she still dragged him to safety.
     It's women like this that make more people realize the importance of women today. She isn't the only woman that did something great in the war that a man could do. About 300,000 women have been in Iraq doing jobs such as medical assistance, military police officers, and many more. So now it's about time women can go inside and fight.
      It's not only the war that is allowing women to fight in wars, in the Navy, The Army and the Air Force Mariens are letting women serve. On May 15th they make their final decison. There will be 200,000 jobs open with this ban of women now being lifted.
     The article reads "The pentagon has vowed that standards will not be lowered to make it easier for women to join combat." Women have to take on the full course of the war. Unlike the army that allows women to pass tests by giving them less push-ups and allowing the to run slower than the men.
     Letting these women fight is a great thing because there are only so many men that can do the job or pass the test. Before women were not allowed to fight, they can do the same thing as men and thats what many people don't understand but now people will realize the greatnesss of the woman.
     The people who final made the choice to allow women to fight in combat were afraid that Americans would react to it horribly. They believed that people would be protesting talking about how these are women and that they are mothers and they are not strong enough. But people are not taking it that far. They treat the women's injuries such as they treat the men's.
     Infact, people are happily appluding women and agree that it is good to have the ban finally lifted.
     Former U.S. Marine Corps officer, Greg Jacob supports the change, he states "When military goes to full intergration, it allows commanders to put the best person in the job, not just the man. If the best shot in the platoon is a woman, I can make her a sniper. But until now, I couldn't do that."
     People question the physical strenght of women because of the challanging things they have to carry daily such ass packs weighing up to 100 pounds.
     Women can do the same things as men because women have been doing it since 1861 in the Civil War. Were many women have been dressing as men to fight in combat when the thought of letting women fight in wars was not even a consideration.
     People are though wondering if the war is going to be helped. Sergeant Pearshall says that his answer is simple "Yes, women can do it, and she already has."
      And he is right women can. The war is going to have lots of help with womenn in thier and having women is going to prove how dominate we as women can be.

Cyber- War

In the article "Cyber War" written by Patricia Smith she talks about how invaders from Saudi Arabia and America go back and forth sending viruses to each other to affect each other’s government systems.
She shows that there isn't much a war with guns and weapons, that normal people can send you virus's in computer's and mess things up for America. In the future there won’t be more fighting, the people hacking America can hurt more American's in different ways.
On August 15 an attack happened by hackers going into Saudi Arabia's computers. On that day, about 55,000 people were home preparing for a Muslim holiday when hackers sent out a virus. The virus erased 75% of Aramco's factory data.
This practically started the whole cyber war between America and other top countries.
Richard Clarke who was a White House counterterrorism official said "It proved you don’t have to be sophisticated to do a lot of damage; there are lots of targets in the U.S. where they could do the same thing. The attacks were intended to say: 'If you mess with us, you can expect retaliation.' "
Richard is right. Almost anybody can create a virus and send it in an email or something you don’t have to be a top scientist to affect somebody's computer system. The viruses sent to Saudi Arabia and other places are more high tech than an ordinary person's virus. But a virus can be made by anybody is the point.
The U.S. becomes more vulnerable to these viruses with so much social network and kids doing so many things on computers now days. This has Washington worried about more cyber wars.
Leon Panetta, a Defense Secretary, states that the U.S. "might be facing a possibility of 'cyber war'."
Computers aren't just infected with viruses on a holiday and Saudi Arabia isn’t the only place that sends attacks. China and Iran are also two of America's biggest sources of cyberwaring.
China sends attacks daily to America. Trying to steal Pentagon and corporate secrets, not trying to harm anybody. Iran is trying to hurt America though.
America thinks that Iran is after the attack sent to Saudi Aramco and is behind taking off line internet banks. Such as Wells Fargo, and PNC. Other online banks such as Capitol One and BB&T were interrupted.
One day something really bad is going to happen. Technology is only getting better and the situation will only get worse.
If we are getting so many attacks daily, sending them back is not always going to help. It's only going to make things worse. Maybe the government should try to talk it out with these countries and settle things down. If that doesn't work there are other ways.
War is not the only answer.

America Running out of water (choice blog)

In the article "Are We Running Out Of Water?" By Brian Richter he talks about how rivers are drying up, how pipes are being built and discussing the fish populations decrease due to many things.

Many people are asking the same question, "Are we running out of water?" Richter states that "Today there is just as much water on the planet as there was when the first signs of life appeared."

Rivers that provides water like the Rio Grande which recently did not flow to the Gulf of Mexico for the first time is causing the government and water companies to dig underground to get water from under Neath of the Earth.

Although this may seem like a good idea, it is not. When people do this it causes giant unfilled holes underground this will cause sinkholes. These sinkholes will pull cities underground and cars.

People believe that we cannot be running out of water because it rains 110,000 billion cubic meters of water and snow a year. But not all of that water is put into human use. About half of it falls into rivers like the Colorado River basin, Great Lakes basin and the Ogallala Aquifer.

More water goes to non-home plants like trees, and in bushes and shrubs. It goes to wild plants that people don’t water.

Water also falls heavy onto seas and rivers all around the world. Without all of this water falling, the fish in the sea would die. The water that is provided to them maintains salt water and fresh water balances.

Only 10% goes to humans use. And we humans use the water for homes, watering crops, drinking washing and more. All of the rain fall doesn’t get to use though. Water also is being evaporated back into the air and then released back onto Earth. This is the water cycle.

So no matter how much water is disappearing due to human overuse, it will never run out unless there is a worst case scenario that the Earth will have a drought.

People believe that we are running out of water so fast because the rain and snow that falls from the sky is not spread all over evenly. In places like rainforests there will be more rain than in a desert in Afghanistan.

The amount of water is not the same for everybody and is not all used on the same things. In that case, not as much water is going to places where people don’t need it as much.

Chinese people are incorporating $62 billion dollars which will be used to build a huge underground pipe from the Yangtze River to water dried out crops and cities in the North.

This will in fact help many people's cities but moving all of that water over miles and miles of land will use a huge amount of electricity. That fee for all that electricity will also cost a great vast of money.

Another problem with doing this is that it will use lots of water that fish live in causing the fish population to plummet downhill causing more problems. Building pipes underground taking the fresh water will eventually be all use up and when these rivers are drying out, the food resources will no longer be so easily available.
People all around the world do not have to complain while not doing anything. Actions speak louder than words. People everywhere need to cut down on wasting water. Every drop helps. If not as many people waste water all the rumors about how there "isn't enough rumors" will go down and there will be even more water to spare.

history of Valentines Day

     In the article "Historically Incorrect Canoodling" by Stephanie Coontz they talk about the way the original was created and the history behind the name Valentine.
     if so many people knew the real meaning of Valentine's Day, not as much romance would be shown. Americans believe that sex is becoming more popular without the couple loving each other and the thought of getting married is less often brought up.
     A Roman catholic church created Valentines day thousands of years ago. people in that time believed that two people in love was good for the lovers to get married or for the lovers to even have sex that pleasures them.
     the name Valentines Day was originally named after a man. Valentine was a Christan priest in the 3rd century. he gave marriage to the Roman soldiers behind the emperors back which was illegal. the emperor thought it would be easier for the soldiers to fight in the battles without having to worry about anyone or anything at home.
     Valentine soon got sent to jail because of disobeying the law. he then feel in love with of the men's daughters who inaccurate him. Valentine was so in love that he sent his lover a emotionally changing letter stating goodbye. the trend from your Valentine on cards today comes from this error too, Valentine signed the goodbye letter, "from your Valentine."
     the date of Valentines day was originally meant to be celebrated as a huge feast honoring the Roman goddess of love and marriage Juno. not originally meant for love and romance.
     Other people Incorporated with the church hoped that the new holiday would take over place in February 15th, Lupercalia. Which was the night of February 14th, boys would choose a woman's name out of a jar and that woman would be the person they would make love for the entire years until the next Lupercalia.
     Girls didn't have a real choice then which was not fair. in today's society women are offered more choices and more people to choose from. the church people also did not like what they were doing.
     after years marriage was taken into a different turn. churches forbidden divorce of a couple, religious leaders thought that marriage was a step higher from sexual license. now in the 6th century Gregory the great (the pope) wrote that "marriage wasn't sinful the carnal pleasure cannot under any circumstances be without blame." which means that a married couple having sex for marriage wasn't wrong.
     the meaning of Valentines day is so different form how people express it now. the thought of sex without the people loving each other was the reason for valentines day in the first place without any romance. The change today was probably for the best. romance on valentines day is good for a couple.

Lance Armstrong Cheats

     In the article "Give Lance Another Chance?" written by CNN, they discuss the recent finding out of how Lance Armstrong cheated in the professional cycling. Armstrong raised money for many different cancer charity's and was a big hero and inspiration to many kids all over the world. Armstrong admitted to using performance enhancer drugs while he was doing the races.
     Many people are disgusted by this but there are also people who believes that he should be given another chance.
     Editor of the ESPN Magazine, Roxanne Jones, says that "He is not Trustworthy. She says this because he has been cheating for years now and filling so many peoples head with hope and she believed that he wasn't cheating after all the rumors so she feels betrayed.
     Many people feel led on by Armstrong and his lies. He has been cheating for about 10 years now. that's 10 years of lies and deceived winning.
    Author of "Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and The Ghost of Dr. King: Blogs and Essays.", Kevin Powell states that "We all have our flaws." He believe that if Lance really apologizes and is very sorry that more people will forgive him. He says that everybody makes mistakes because we are all human and humans make all types of mistakes.
     There are people like Powell who make other people maybe want to look at Lance Armstrong as another human who just makes mistakes. i believe that Armstrong should be forgiven because he did raise so much money for all those kids with cancer. He was a hero for many kids and should still be, he should use this as an example to teach other children not to lie.
     Shawn Klein, teacher at the Department of Philosophy and Center for Ethics and Enterenurship at Rockford College in Illinois say that "If he cooperates, maybe the lifetime ban could be reduced." Armstrong was banned from professional cycling since the incident, for life. what he did really hurt a lot of people.
     Lance did a lot for many others but also messed his entire life up in the process. he owes apologizes, money and much more. he will most likely never see his fame up rise like this again. i think being humiliated in front of the whole world and for years to come is enough punishment. he should be left alone, not given any attention. Forgive and forget.

kids becoming depressed without outside time

     In the article, "All Work and No Play: Why Your Kids Are More Anxious, Depressed" written by Esther Entin, she talks about how kids in our generation today, do not get out as much as their parents did as they were children. She talks about how the lack of free time outside is causing students to be more anxious about things or even depressed.

     Adults and parents today might all have memories of playing a numerous amount of outside activities growing up. But when you compare those rates of being outside then, to being outside today, there is a dramatic number decrease.

     A big reason of why the kid play time is being pushed back is because of an over protective or self-conscious parent. Parents may be scared to allow their children outside as much is because all of the dangers and accidents involving children that have increased over the past several years. I'm sure any parent would have these concerns.

     When children are in charge of their own outside freedom, experts say that the child will grow up to have a better mind with controlling things when they are adults. Experts also say that when children are in charge of their play/free time, they discover who they are or what they want to do on their own.

     Children are usually directed around and told what to do, that’s when they automatically get their future life choices from other peoples decisions.

Kids learn to make their own choices, solve their problems, show self-control, and how to listen to directions. All of these opportunities will be given to the child if kids go out more and make their own free time choices.

     When children feel freer while they are playing outside they can learn to do and control many more things. Rather than a parents bossing them around telling them what to do, children have the option to go off and make their own decisions that will build them up for a better adult life.

     Children not only make more friends while they go outside, they learn how to have friendship connections with other children, learn to handle their expressions/emotions. Also their fears about things will soon overcome because they will be more used to the atmospheric display given to them.

     By letting your child miss out on more free time is like letting them miss out on school time. If a child is becoming more depressed or sad, maybe going outside and letting them have control of that time will make them happier and not so stressful.

     More children need to get out and breathe the fresh air provided to so many other kids, and they will learn and accommodate many more new traits and qualities.

the sandy hook elementary shooting

In the article "Do We Have the Courage to stop this?" the writer Nicholas D. Kristof writes about the most recent shooting massacre since the movie theatre. One question still remains on his mind "Why can't we regulate guns as seriously as we do cars?"

A public health specialist from Harvard sates that kids from the ages of 5 to 14 have a higher chance of being killed with guns than other kids from other countries like the U.S.

Many things in school are checked for safety and are okay to be around children. But people don’t take the time to safe proof and make sure the deadly and things that might kill more students are 100% not able to get in schools.

People are taking many precautions on things that do not kill students. The school Safety and Health Administration has a big rule about the safety of ladders in school which kills in the average year 300 people in America. But not even close to as much about guns which kill annually 30,000 Americans a year.

Toy guns have even more safety regulations with the flashy orange strip across the front. The National Rifle Association has the lawmakers scared to confront them about regulating guns like they do the toy ones.

If toy guns are being taken more seriously than regular guns more and more people are going to be killed. There is a simple fact that more people won't be taking it seriously. The gun law needs to be changed. And they need to be changed fast before we see another tragic accident like this happen again.

schools closing down

In this article "Philadelphia superintendent identifies schools he intends to close" written by Kristen A. Graham she talks about all of the schools shutting down and the reasons why. Also how money would be saved and schools would be bettered.

Many students, staff members and many other people that work or have a job with the schools will be affected badly. There will be 37 schools shut down and $28 million dollars would be saved in the results.

William R. Hite Jr. the School District of Philadelphia Superintendent stated that in June he would like for the schools to be shut down and relocated. "This is a historic moment for us." stated Hite a news conference. 

Many jobs would be lost due to the school closings. 17,000 students and 2,000 people who work there would be affected. Students would have to move to schools and neighborhoods that they are maybe not used to. All the people who would be lost from the schools would have a hard time finding new jobs. This will just be a tragedy.

The $28 million dollars that will be saved from the schools shutting down and relocating would be used to pay bills or pay back money they owe. $300 million dollars was just borrowed not too long ago by the School District to pay off bills and pay teachers.
 
There are many reasons why the school district thinks that shutting different schools down is a good idea. One reason they say it is a good idea is because there are schools that are very big and can hold lots of people and only takes up a little bit of space.

One school that is an example of this is Shaw Middle School in Southwest. This school can hold up to 1,071 students but there is only about 193 enrolled. The school can be used for a different high school with more students.

The school district is going to be at major heat with angry parents. Protesting rates are going to be sky rocketed about many things having to do with the schools shutting down. Other money would be used because students might need more trans passes to get back and forth to their new schools. This will raise people's tax dollars also. Some parents just won’t have it.

Administrators and the superintendent just need to sit back and think of all the problems that this will cause. Also they need to create other ways to save money and not have to shut so many schools down. Many students’ futures will be affected badly; this does not need to be done.