Place as a Nation

As the news of the new president elect hits the global scale we find that it was not only our country waiting in suspense for the results. The website http://www.sorryeverybody.com/gallery/283/ was created as an opportunity for Americans who were dissatisfied with the presidency of George W. Bush to express their apologies to the rest of the world after his reelection of 2004. The site took off quickly and soon received images from hundreds of Americans holding signs or making posters expressing themselves and their regret that he once again would be our commander and chief. The most recent picture on the site is an apology accepted note from Brazil. The reason I bring this up now is because we are finally entering a new age and a new world opportunity. It is now the time for each of those people to stand up and take their place in the revolution. I don't know whether or not Barack Obama winning this election made any difference on the world scale, but I do know that we are much better off with a change. No matter the final result change in this election was inevitable, if Sen. Jon McCain had won this election the people of the united states would still have a new opportunity in the world. The United States of America are once again in the world spot light with optimism, we again could be a world power others do not fear to work with. We have our opportunity to prove ourselves and shine through our current domestic turmoil with grace and I believe that it is not only the duty of our president but the duty of the people as individuals to come through our disagreements as one nation Indivisible. The best results come from no extremes and I believe that we once again have a shot at becoming the greatest nation o this earth, because we are led by the people and for the people, a creed that is still our shining star although it seems to have grown dim, it has not and will not extinguish. This is a call to arms for the American people of all party's to embrace a new opportunity, that was given to even those who disagree, with the man that opportunity lies behind.

California Gay Marriage Banned

Despite the monumental election of the first African American president of the United States of America, this election season was a step backwards for the American acceptant of others. I was disappointed by California passing proposition 8 hereby banning gay marriage within the state. My disapproval of this proposition has very little to do with my personal feelings about gay marriage and is more planted within the ideal that we cannot take rights away from others, taking away their right to marry is not very different from taking away a woman’s right to vote or the right to marry whom we choose regardless of race. I don’t believe any of these things will occur yet I cannot help but feel remorse for our lack of progression as a people. During a school debate last year I was given the task of arguing against legalizing gay marriage and throughout all of my research found that the entirety of the issue is vocabulary and definition. I am unsure about how a simple vote can strip others of their rights. I understand that the vote was done by a majority and has passed fairly, but I have always been under the understanding that the votes passed where to better the lives of citizens. How the marriage of others had any negative repercussions is beyond me, making this vote seem to be obsolete. I would appreciate any argument made for proposition 8 beyond “gay marriage is wrong”. The argument that it is being taught within the school system is only representation that the teachers are teaching children the rights they could need to know. Banning gay marriage will not just make homosexuals go away. The bottom line is that if these rights can be stripped then there is little evidence that our country has not come as far as we would like to believe in those strong civil rights.

National Novel Writing Month

I was told about this event by one of my friends and decided to partake.

A First and Final Journey
An elderly man sat on a ragged three legged footstool near the back door of the bar. This wasn’t unlike many other evenings, many other bars, and for that matter the man himself was painfully ordinary. The dusty dimly lit bar sat in the heart of Halsion’s mercantile district. Outside a worn sign above the door read “Crack Pot Bar” but, it was still possible with some effort to make out that the scratches in the old wood once gracefully displayed the words “Cracking Pot Bar”. The owner however never found it necessary to fix the old sign on the grounds that he thought it perfectly described his cliental just as it hung. The cliental were equally fond of the sign because they had come to a consensus that it held a significant implication to the sanity of the owner. The true meaning behind the sign holds little importance and has been obscured through the years and even forgotten by all but the owner, and had named his bar for his father who was an esteemed potter within the city.

To be continued...

Here We Go Agian

After what seems to be an endless campaign season we are about to divulge a winner. Elections have become increasingly passionate in the recent years and I believe that we will find this election the most passionate yet. It is our freedom of passion that keeps America a model country; however this election may prove our strength to be dangerous. Throughout my lifetime I have been witness to countless political debates and have come to my own conclusion as to the tension. It does not seem that in this day and age people are separated over the issues as much as they are separated by titles. The political parties where established to provide platform ideals that people can back with support, and candidates ran with those political ideals so people knew what they supported. Unfortunately it appears now that people are placing their votes in the parties without considering what may actually give them the best candidate for their needs. The party’s have also become increasingly divided and it may be our nation and its people that suffer. The generally two party systems inspire conflict and not resolve from both party’s causing competition and not cooperation. For a country built from compromise the two extremes are becoming unsettling and it may even be clear that whichever man wins this election approximately half of the people will be satisfied. Our country is in need of unity. There must again be compromise for the people and not for their titles. I do not believe that the system is in need of destruction but it is in need of revolution. It is the job of our government to provide for its people and providing compromise is the best thing that could be done now. It is wrong that no matter which man wins there are likely to be riots in the streets I was under the assumption that our country could be more mature. If our forefather were to stand today and see what turmoil is caused by this competition they would be hard pressed to recognize the ideals is such a bloodthirsty election. Ben Franklin the Compromiser would have never let this come to such extremes.

Any Drinking While Pregnant?

Recently and article was publishes on BBC health suggesting that it is not harmful to the baby to have a minimal amount of alcohol once or twice a week while pregnant. The controversy from this study is that many people have problems knowing when to set the limits for themselves, this pertains especially to those who would be tempted to drink while pregnant regardless. The study does not deny that it is a risk to drink even a moderate amount while pregnant, and merely produces the results of a study performed at a lesser extreme. "The study of 12,500 three-year-olds even found a lower risk of some problems in children of such drinkers.", because of this women may begin to form a belief that it may be better for their children if they do consume alcohol and may even take the leap to believing that If a small amount if helpful to children than perhaps a moderate or large amount will be even better. Unfortunately it is the belief of some that the scientific proof of alcohol being bad for fetuses is merely a scare tactic. "However, it may also be that light-drinking mothers tend to be more relaxed themselves and this contributes to better behavioral and cognitive outcomes in their children." There is also a statement on the article that coincides with this saying that the light drinking women were also more wealthy. Which helps the idea that it may have just been that they were more relaxed. The article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7699579.stm argues both sides of the safety and accepts that at least for the time being it is much better for women to not try to drink at all. More importantly it states that their study mostly proves that light drinking does not increase the chances of behavioral problems in children. The children from the study are only three years old and to note are completely average.

'We Must Act Then'

I am not particularly politically or economically minded however the recent economic crisis was nearly impossible to miss. Although I was personally shocked to find how many people where completely taken by surprise. Economists had been warning us of the likelihood of this exact situation for several months, even years. The implications of this disaster were noticeable in neighborhood stores, as well as global exchange. Never the less people continued to go about their daily lives, possibly hoping it would go away. Unfortunately the economy is incapable of correcting itself completely.
I was drawn to read an article: The article expresses the current situation and plans of correcting it. The government has already taken steps to control this crisis by banning companies from "short selling" 799 financial groups and companies. This moratorium may prove to be little more than speed bump for this financial slide. Also in regards to the financial bailout it seams it will anger many and have a very important sway in this years election.

p://money.cnn.com/2008/09/19/news/economy/paulson/index.htm?postversion=2008091910&eref=rss_topstories

Reading Minds?

Recently I read an article in Scientific American about how we predetermine what we are going to hear or read based on the contexts and beginning sounds of the word. After pondering over this article for a few days it occurred to me that this may also be the same mental process that allows us to read sentences even if the words themselves are scrambled in the middle. What our brains do is go through thousands of possibilities of what we will hear before we have heard the complete word and fills on the blanks, the reason I thought this may be a similar reasoning process so that when we are reading a sentence with scrambled words we subconsciously read the word only by the first and last letters and rule out all words that do not have those first and last letters or fit the context of the text. Our reasoning abilities are astounding with conscious thought but what are truly astounding are our subconscious abilities.
This article also made me wonder if we are able to rule out possibilities based on personal trends, for example if you know a person really well can you predict more closely what they are going to say. If that is true then it may be why close friends and loved ones often finish each other’s sentences unintentionally. On some occasions could it be possible to replace our need to hear the first part of the word with our knowledge of our friends speaking habits? I have noticed that with people I know closely I can finish their sentences how they are going to do so even if the context of the word does not fit which leads me to believe it is a definite possibility. Finally could our ability to preprocess sentences also be used unconsciously in situations and possibly explain the phenomenon of Déjà vu?