Reflections

This class definitely opened my eyes to politics. To be honest, at the start of this semester I barely knew the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Even worse, I barely cared. Now, thanks to this class and the conveniently timed election, I am actively following politics on a national and global scale. I'm excited for the changes Obama may bring to this country, but more importantly I'm aware of what he's doing to enact those changes. Our political system was a mystery to me before this class. Of course I knew about congress, and the president, and the three branches of government, and bills and laws, and all that stuff. But, I never had the desire or the means to fill in the gaps and connect it all together. Now it all makes sense, and things aren't nearly as mysterious. The news headlines mean more to me now, and I think it's largely due to this class.

As far as skills that I can take with me... this class has definitely taught me to question the media and common opinion. For instance, I think much better of Bush now than I did at the start of the semester because now I know that he can't be entirely blamed for our current economic state. I know that the media blames the president for anything that goes wrong, and I can now see how it affected me and everyone else. So, this class has given me that ability to look past the opinions in the news and make my own decisions.



(Sorry, but that's the best political cartoon I could find at the moment...)

The Humanitarianist Party

Humanitarian Party

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Humanitarian Party

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Election Reflection

The Nader Page made it quite clear that Ralph Nader does not support Barack Obama at all. Through a harsh post formatted as a letter to Obama from Nader, Nader criticizes everything about Obama's campaign and plans for the future. Among his favorite targets were Obama's economic plan and his stance on Israel in regards to Palestine. Just because of my personal background and education, I am able to speak somewhat knowledgably on the subject of Israel. Based on what I do know, a lot of what Nader is saying is true, but a lot of it is exaggerated as well. This post is very well written and can be very convincing to many readers. However, based on this one section, I believe that it can not be trusted. I can disprove much of what Nader is saying about Israel and Palestine, but I simply do not know enough about the other topics discussed to have an educated comment/argument.

On a more broad note, the Republican party suffered a huge loss on election day this year. Losing control in the House, Senate, and the White House, the Republican party finds itself in a very precarious position. What Republicans remain will be forced to change. Since they are now surrounded by Democratic leaders, Republicans must be willing to compromise more than before. Should they decide to stubbornly and unyieldingly stick to their beliefs, they will simply be outnumbered and overruled. This interesting situation could lead to more progress in the next four years than in prior administrations. Since the Democratic party is now in full control, there will be less opposition to movements that are Democratic in nature and belief.

Blog Post #4

The Nader Page has had two new updates since I last blogged: "Closing the Courthouse Door" and "Rolling the Dice on Derivatives" Each of these blogs has entirely different focuses.

"Rolling the Dice on Derivatives" discusses financial derivatives and their ability to greatly affect our economy. At first, I had absolutely no idea what derivatives were (I was stuck thinking about calculus). Then, I found this blog which explains very well what derivatives are. I can't tell who the blog is written by (they go by the name of George Washington on the blog), but it matched the information I was finding in other places almost perfectly and said it in a much clearer way. Basically speaking, derivatives (at least the ones making the news now) are loans that have been broken up and sold off to multiple institutions. For example, one mortgage could be divided between multiple banks/companies with one company getting the interest payments and the other getting the primary payment. Derivatives recently took a downward dive as a result of the mortgage crisis. The magnitude of these derivatives is undiscussed by the media and unknown to most of America. Basically, if the derivatives go sour, we end up in an instant depression. The Nader Page discusses how deregulation led to this plummet. Honestly, I can't say either way whether this is right or wrong. Our economy is very complicated, and derivatives are no exception. After reading the blog, I would tend to agree that deregulation played a large role in the derivative fall. However, this blog was not exactly un-biased, so I wouldn't bank too much on my opinions as of now.

The next entry, "Closing the Courthouse Door", discusses Bush's "attacks" on consumer safety. Again, I am relatively uninformed on this topic. However, I found this video to be a great example of an area where greater consumer safety laws could be implemented. The Nader Page clearly has very strong opinions when it comes to the Bush administration's policies. The blog accuses the administration of "damage(ing) Americans’ cherished constitutional right to trial by jury." Apparently, the Bush administration has been siding with corporate lobbyists and insurance companies in passing legislation that keeps the companies from being laiable for dangerous products. If this is true, I would agree with everything the blog says. This is a fundamental infringement on our right to fair trial and equality and justice. However, it is difficult to tell if these allegations are entirely true with just this one biased source to consider.

The Nader Blog

1. The Nader Blog is a blog representing Ralph Nader's perspective on current political issues. The blog discusses topics such as the bailout, congressional policies, and government policies.

2. This blog differs from the ones I have looked at so far in a few ways. First, it is not written directly by the person whose views are being represented. These entries are not necessarily written by Ralph Nader himself, but by his representatives instead.

3. This particular entry is about the recent government bailout. The blog discusses how Congress needs to be more firm in its action and impose more control on those controlling the money. It discusses many idealistic views that all basically say the government should be more responsible for the goings on within our country. For example, the blog says "The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, separating traditional banks from investment banks, helped pave the way for the current disaster. It is time to re-regulate the financial sector." This type of opinion is expressed throughout the entire blog, and I quite honestly do not believe in some of what it stands for. I do believe that our economy could benefit from some government action, however I do not believe that such drastic actions as are suggested here need to be undertaken.

Blog Reflections

The Ethics of Defense:
This blog (http://aikido.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=136899) is written by a relatively accomplished aikido practitioner. (Aikido is a Japanese martial art somewhat similar to Jiu Jitsu, but different in a few ways.) This particular entry discusses the ethics of defense. The ethics of defense can basically be summed up as a person's right to defend him/herself and injure an attacker in the process.

The blog discusses three types of martial situations: An attacker attacks unprovoked and the defendant injures the attacker, a person provokes an attack on themselves and injures the attacker in defense, and an attacker attacks unprovoked and the defendant subdues but does not injure the attacker. In his opinion, aikido is all about the third situation.

From my experience in aikido, I have to agree with this blogger. Aikido is the most peaceful martial art I have ever seen. Every technique has the potential to be lethal or at least very painful, but is taught in a way such that a skilled practitioner can just as easily subdue an opponent with no injury as they could break a bone. I think that this is what makes aikido unique and personally it is what draws me to the art.



Guitar Hero: A Research Blog...
This blog (http://guitarheroresearch.blogspot.com/) is written by someone who is conducting research on the recently popular games Rock Band and Guitar Hero. This particular entry discusses the results of his survey completed by slightly more than 400 people (most likely gamers). The results are not very surprising. They show that the majority of the players are males under the age of 21, and the games opened the ears of many players to new types of music. One result that was surprising, however, was the fact that 73% reported having experience with an actual musical instrument. This comes as a shock to me since most of the people that I know that play these games have no musical experience whatsoever. If this statistic proves itself to be true, then that could suggest that games like rock band and guitar hero have a much narrower fan base than previously expected.

Our Generation Does NOT Lack Intelligence... We Are Simply Redefining the Word

Our generation lives in a revolutionary time. We are among the last that can remember living without a computer, and those memories are very small and quickly fading. Since the computer has become so prevalent in our lives in nearly every way, it is understandable that people such as Mark Bauerlein have come to the decision that we are "dumb." After all, the computer has changed the way we live. It has taken out of our lives tasks that were once considered essential and common ability, such as paper banking for example. However, we have also built upon what the computer can do for us.

We are redefining intelligence. Before computers, it took a good amount of thought and planning to drive outside of your home territory. Now, it's simply a matter of plugging in an address to a GPS unit. Folks such as Bauerlein may say that we are losing the ability to read maps, and that may be true. HOWEVER, reading a map is no longer an essential skill to master in our world. Maps have become obsolete.

I personally take offense to being named a member of the "Dumbest Generation." I know that very few people over the age of 30 can do what many High School students can on a computer. And, when our generation ages, we will be changing what the computer and technology in general is capable of. We ARE intelligent, and we WILL advance the world when our time comes... but it will not be in the way Bauerlein and his generation did.