Final Post/Project: Environmental Policy-Carbon Emissions

It's time to make some drastic changes. Now, if you know me I am pretty much a conservative, but the topic of carbon emissions and the need to reduce them is where both conservatives and liberals need to come together. There is no debate here, or any stance of who is right or wrong. The fact is that our excessive use of modern day technologies like airplanes and cars, release large amounts of emissions that damage our one and only home. Greenhouse gases rise due to these emissions, global warming is as much of an issue than ever, and the most simple of the problems of emissions are that it simply is not good for humans to be around. Have you ever stood at the top of the mountain and seen the smog that lays over Downtown L.A. Simply put, it's disgusting.
My stance and position is this: not only do we as a country need to implement policies to, by law, require some type of plan to convert people to a less harmful form of transportation, but more time and money needs to be put towards the research for an alternative fuel source.
I was watching the news the other day and the story being discussed was how price for airline tickets were going to rise drastically due to the price and the supply of oil. I then asked my dad, "Hey, what are we going to do after fuel gets so scarce in the decades to come, and then what after it runs out?" What will power jets and other types of vehicles? This is my first policy point to be made. Resources, time, and energy need to be put towards research on a national scale. The clock is ticking and it is up to our generation to do something. O.K., now is where I break through my conservative side and look a little more liberal... What we need to do is to stop all the oil companies from buying the patent on a large part of the hybrid and energy concepts that businesses are coming up with. If they continue to dot this, it will inhibit, or at the least, hold back the country from trying to advance itself.
The next point, aside from trying to find alternative forms of energy, is start by passing some type of legislation that continues to encourage the purchase of hybrids and the discouraging of larger vehicles.
It is not to late to reduce these carbon emissions. If America takes the measures to require more research and to encourage more purchases of hybrid type vehicles, then that is a great start.
In conclusion, the basic policy's of carbon emissions that I am suggesting are that, 1) it is a major issue that needs to be addressed through legislation that encourages research, and 2) the government should offer some type of, "token," that would encourage the purchase of hybrids.
NOW, I digress and my conservative side emerges. With this whole carbon emissions thing, comes not only the affect on the environment, but also the price of gas. At the rate that we are using gas, we might require a longer period of time to use this limited resource in order to find the next type of energy that is needed. Individuals complain about gas prices, but last time I checked, we had A TON of it in Alaska. Why are we becoming the slaves of foreign nations through our dependence on gas instead of doing independent research on fuel, and if need be, drill a little in Alaska to hold us off until we find the next best thing. Thank you.

Post 16: Rudy Giuliani

So, in the beginning of this race for the Republican candidate, I was in support of Rudy. But, now I find myself loosing support for him because of his strategy. Rudy Giuliani's strategy to win the Republican candidacy for president is to basically sweep clean many of the larger states that he has more support in. These states include states with large amounts of delegates, such as New Jersey, New York, Florida, and California.

Now, as more and more primaries are taking place though in other states, Giuliani has not won even one of them. From my understanding he has not received enough candidates at this point to even be considered in the fun. Back to one of my main points. So, since the case is that Giuliani just is not pulling in the votes, I figure that it is not worth me investing my time in supporting him when he is pretty much loosing. I would still like for him to pull himself back up into the lead, but as of now, it is not looking good.

Since the Republican race is so tight between more than two candidates, I predict that Giuliani will not see the results that he wants in some of those larger states that I mentioned in my first paragraph. The support for these other candidates is going to take away the sweep affect that Giuliani is hoping for. Instead of him completely destroying the other candidates, I see the races in these states ending up to be a lot closer. Therefore, I predict that at the end of the primaries, more than two of the candidates will be very close in their votes.

As of now I have switched over to supporting McCain and I probably won't go back to Giuliani even if he gains some delegates. The momentum from other primary victories is really helping out the other candidates and I see a loss for Giuliani in the future.

Post 15: Disrespectful Editorials

I was reading an editorial in the LA times about President Bush a few days ago. It was really sarcastic and made fun of the President in a lot of ways. It sarcastically referred to his intelligence and was simply inappropriate since it was addressed to the president. I understand that this is the reason why they are called the editorials, but it bothers me that there are bias news papers like the LA times which even allow these kind of articles to be placed in the paper. I thought NEWS papers were supposed to report the news, not insult the president.

This article discussed the issues regarding the President and a remark that was made to him at a conference a few weeks back. The person there said that they could read his body language and he told the person that the psychology was not. In response, the author of this editorial sarcastically and arrogantly teases President Bush.

The article truly made me despise the person writing it. I am an American and when someone insults my President it really makes me angry. No matter what, he should at least be respected. It puzzles me how the people who question why parts of the world despise us and our president, are the same people that insult him.

How can we expect others to show us respect and respect our leadership when we are most disrespectful of them all? It is OK to critique the president and voice how you disagree with what is being done, but there is a fine line between doing that, and showing no respect, whatsoever for you countries leader.

Let me know what you think and if you honestly think it is OK for news papers to publish pieces that do not critique the president, but rather "bash" him.

Post 14: Talk Radio

I was trying to figure out what to blog about this week. So, I watched some more news and listened to some talk radio. All I was hearing was more stuff about the elections and more stuff about the different candidates. I have already blogged about some of that in the past and have read too many other blogs that relate to the election, so then it occurred to me to simply blog about talk radio.

I watch the news a lot, but mostly listen to talk radio. Specifically I listen to AM 790 KABC (http://www.kabc.com/home.asp). If you are ever driving and want to listen to a little political discussion, this is the channel to be listening to. If anyone is interested in listening a little through you computer, all you have to do is go to the link I gave above, make a login name, and listen to the live broadcast. Some of the people that are on throughout the day include Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Larry Elder.

Anyways, the reason why I decided to blog about talk radio, is because I really feel that it is AWESOME. I have heard some of the best points made on a variety of politically heated topics and radio also offers a lot that TV news lacks. Since the host of the show gets to determine a lot of what they talk about, there are tons of times where you can listen in and hear about something really important or absolutely baffling, that the TV news has decided not to present, for that exact reason. I guess that this all comes back to the point that it is important for all of us to make sure to get the "facts" from a variety of sources and different places. Talk Radio, especially, offers the chance for listeners to learn about things sometimes not discussed on TV and also to call in and give their input. This is a great chance to hear different sides of the argument and form your own opinion about the topic being discussed. It is not only really interesting to be listening to these topics, but also important to form those opinions.

Post 13: Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony

I was listening to talk radio on Wednesday trying to find a topic to discuss on my blog for this week. This is one of the topics that came up, and I am really glad that it did because too many people in the religious community play it down. So, the story goes that awhile back Cardinal Mahony admitted to helping out priests that were getting caught molesting people. What would happen is that people would get suspicious or catch them, and then he would simply transfer them to a different area so they could continue to practice.

This past Monday, according to the radio, Cardinal Mahony announced that this past summer, he was badly beaten by someone that was upset with him for all the priests that he was letting get away with molesting. The reason why no one knew is because he decided not to press charges because he wanted to just, "forgive them." Let’s be honest. He did not want the publicity and for the whole priest thing to come back up.

This is basically why they were talking about this on the radio (Larry Elder, 790 KABC, 3-6 pm Weekdays---GREATEST radio show). I had forgotten about this whole priest ordeal so I was really upset by it. What made me even angrier was when some poor man called in and said that he had been molested as a kid.

He said that this was the first time that he had talked about it and that not even his family knew. What made it even worse was that the priest that had done it to him 20 years ago was still practicing. I am a Christian, but this is horrible. What are we supposed to do when the holy people we are supposed to look for guidance, are being found to be molesters?

Post 12: Middle East Teacher

So here is the story: A British lady was teaching English to some little kids over in Sudan. The class had a teddy bear which was kind of the classes mascot. So, because the class is a bunch of little children and to make it fun, the teacher decided to have the class take a vote on what to name the bear. Sounds innocent, right? Apparently not. Because Mohammad is a really common name for Muslims, the bear was named after a little boy in the class named Mohammad. Now, considering the religion of this region, it would be reasonable to suggest that they might be offended...

In the United States, if parents are offended they go to the school board. In Sudan for this teachers case, if parents are offended, they go to the authorities, apparently, and demand that the teacher be executed. This is exactly what happened. Over a TEDDY BEAR being named Mohammad they demanded that the teacher be executed. Now, I can understand some being offended because Mohammad is something like the most honored prophet in their religion. This is just taking it to a whole new level though.

The teacher WAS found guilty and sentenced not to time in jail, but to be executed. Since then the sentencing has changed. Some officials first thought that it would be appropriate to take the teacher and give her 40 lashes to the back. I do not know what you readers are thinking by now, but I see 40 lashes as just a more painful death sentence. If you actually live though that then your just suffering for a really long time.

Now the sentence has been reduced to 15 days in jail and to exile the teacher from the country. This is still pretty rough but it sure beats having to take 40 lashes to the back. So, thats the story and just think its ridiculous. Now do not misunderstand what I am about to say and I am not trying to generalize here...but this is an example of when extremists such as the people in Sudan take religion to a whole new level. In today's modern world where most of the world is NOT like this, this is prime example of when they two cultures clash and it seems to never work.

So let me know what you think. Thanks.

Post 11: Pakistan Aid

I recently have heard others talking about this and on the news. Apparently the United States gives Pakistan 150 million dollars a month to "aid" them on the war against terrorism. So, considering the years that this aid has been going on we have given the Pakistan a ton of money. I personally think this is totally wrong.

What have they done to aid us or help us in the fight? They lost Osama when they were sent in to get him so I guess the big question is "what do they have to show for all the money that we have invested in them." I see nothing and this upsets me. Especially with all the controversy surrounding President Musharraf of Pakistan, I am really just sick of Pakistan.

They are made out to be an ally of the United States and of the war on terror, but has their help been significant and are they really that trustworthy. I think not. I see Musharraf as someone that is holding out his hand for money while saying that he will aid us in all the ways he can, but he is completely insincere and really just focused on using the money to benefit his own country.

The United States uses Pakistan as a place for us to mark off as non-threatening but I really think that they are just as untrustworthy as many other countries in today’s world.