Semester Duex, blog twelve

Dear President Obama,

Right now I think you need help on how you are treating the situation in Libya. Right now the United States is not taking that much action in Libya besides admitting that we are against there dictator government and support the rebels. We need to do a better job of supporting the protests and revolts in Libya.

There are a lot of messed up things going in Libya right now, including the fact that the Libyan government is trying to brutally kill the rebels with things like mines in the ocean, not even watching out for the fact that innocent civilians might get killed. Thats because Gaddafi doesn't care about his people.

I believe that we need to go into Libya and try to do what we did in Iraq. Iraq didn't work out like we had planned, because nobody else was fighting on our side. There is half of a country in Libya that is fighting and if we help them we can overtake there country and help them set up a democratic government.

Once a democratic government is set up in Libya and Gaddafi is gone, we can do something like the Marshall plan to re stimulate their economy, and country, in order to have Libya on our side. We need to get as many people as possible on our side in the middle east so hopefully on day we can all live in harmony together.

Mr. President I hope you deeply consider my ideas, good luck to you n the rest of your term(s).

Sincerely,
Neil Joseph Baffert.


http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/21/what_intervention_in_libya_tells_us_about_the_neocon_liberal_alliance

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703655404576292963579554284.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html

Semester Dos, Honors Blog

Dear Mother,

It is March 23rd, 1945. Three days ago I landed on the small Japanese island of Iwo Jima. I was the last of 70,000 Marines in 880 ships to land on Iwo Jima, it took us about 40 days to get here from the shore of Hawaii. Rumors are circulating that we are part of the biggest armada invasion ever in the Pacific War. I feel as we are, we have men everywhere. It should seem like this is an unfair fight because we have so many more men, but its not.

The gunfire never stops here. It goes on for hours on end and when it finally lets up, the whole battlefield is covered in smoke and looks as if it is on fire.

Of course sometimes it is on fire. Some men have flamethrowers that they use to burn men in trenches. Others drive M4A3 flamethrower tanks. These spray down men quicker than everything I have ever seen. I don't understand how they made something so deadly, and who the type of person that drives one is.

We can’t stop firing though, the Japanese are all underground, and we rarely see them. They can see us however, that is why it is so dangerous here. They were prepared, we are constantly under gunfire, however we are so many men strong it is looking good for us.

Every day I get up ready to fight. I go outside and the gunfire is still on. Men die to my left, and men die to my right. I have my gun loaded, and have my hand grenades on my side. These have been proven more helpful to kill the Japanese in there underground fortresses.

On a normal day I am sitting behind a 37mm trench gun trying to fire into Japanese caves to blow out all of there soldiers. The high class marines come by every day telling us about how important this battle is. They say that if Japan has this base we will have to fly our bombers twice the distance to the mainland and they would be able to pick them off when we flew over Iwo Jima. However if we take this base then we could easily fly our B-29's to the mainland with no interruption. We would also have a great base for our P-51 Mustang fighter planes on the island.

Speaking of planes, soon as I landed there were tons of planes above trying to drop missiles on all of the Japanese’s underground fortresses. The air raid was the most explosions I have ever seen. It was sure a sight to see.

Although I have only been here for 3 days, some have been year for about a month. We are close to victory. Although near 6,000 of our men have died i hear nearly 3 times that amount of theres have died.

I hope that this battle is done soon. Although im sure it will just lead to more. I want to get off this island and back home. There are too many casualties and I know that soon I will be gone if we don't finish quickly. Although I fear if we go to fast we will end up losing, and if we lose I know I will die. So i guess I just have to wait to win. It will happen, I know it will.



Resources:
http://www.iwojima.com/battle/battlec.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

Semester Dos, Blog Ten

I talked to my mom about World War Two. I talked for a good 10 minutes trying to sneak out any bit of information about how World War Two effected her. However she claims that World War Two never affected any part of her life(aside from the obvious ones). I even asked if she knew whether or not my grandpa was affected by World War Two. She said he wasn't, and that she remembers him telling her a story of when he was a young teenager in the mid 40's and had a paper route. However later in his life, after he graduated high school, he did throw away a college scholarship to join the military. Although my mom said he was just a jock(played for the military baseball team) and military police somewhere. He was the first generation of my family to be born in America so i guess some families just don't have much to do with World War 2, but im sure if i could talk to my grandfather he would have more to say.

WW2 Imagery

This was propaganda for World War 2. I am not sure of the photographer or specific information, however it is propaganda against the Japanese. It is pretending the japanese are asking the Americans to take a day off of work, however it appears that if the Americans take a day of the Japanese will attack us. I took this as obviously trying to get americans to work hard, since we were in total war there work efforts were most likely benefiting the war.

This was a photograph of a B-24 assembly hall. This World War 2 photograph really shows just how large the war was. How we really were in a total war and there was a lot of fighting and death going on. It made me feel recognize how large World War 2 was and how serious the United States citizens took the war. We obviously pumped a lot of money into this war.

This is a picture of the big 3. The allied powers. Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill are all sitting down discussing war efforts in World War 2. This image shows me the strong connection we made with other people in order to win this war. It backs up the idea of how far in this war we were in order to win.

Semester Dos, Blog Eight

In A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole writes a story that takes place in New Orleans during the early 1960’s. This novel is quite well known and made famous for its vivid description or New Orleans. Unfortunately for me, I am quite unfamiliar with the city of New Orleans; so I might not have picked up on it as strongly as somebody that was. Although quite a lot of interesting political and international things were happening in the time period the book was based it, near nothing was actually described in the book. It would seem hard to write a whole entire book without once mentioning the presidential election, the peace corps, the Cuban missile crisis, or even the Vietnam war. Personally, I believe that Toole was using this to back the fact that Ignatius Riley was quite afraid of leaving New Orleans and didn’t seem to know much about the rest of the world through his regular life of writing, watching cartoons and movies, and “working”. I also see it as a symbol to prove that Ignatius was in fact a genius, and that you don’t need to know a lot of current events in order to be smart.

While all of this is great I have one personal favorite that really helps work the time period that this book was written in. Toole was incredible at describing exactly the way people talk. It starts with the beginning of the book when a man is talking about communists, however what he says is: “I’m telling you, the city was never like this. It’s the communiss” Well obviously that is the first sign of Toole be a great writer when it comes to dialogue. However as the book continues my all time favorite character started to develop. Jones, a black man and recent convict that got a job as a janitor at a bar working 5 days a week and only making $20 a week. Jones talks just about every single chapter of the book, and is quite a large character; and he sounds just a great as any black man in a Mark Twain novel. With great quotes lie "Whoa! If I'm gonna be a doorman, I gonna be the mos sabotagin doorman ever guarded a plantation. Ooo-wee. The cotton fiel be burn to the groun before I'm through." I would say that Toole does his best work when he writes dialogue, and that is a huge reason the read this book alone.

Semester Deux, Blog Seven

Newspaper writer in my parents generation:
TV has just come out, but my dad doesn't have one because he is poor, near homeless, and lives in Australia. So a newspaper is probably what he reads to have a good time, and what his dad reads to look for jobs to support his family.

As a newspaper writer you are giving the people probably around 90% of the news they know of. You are constantly looking for new storys, breaking news, but at the same time you could relax and just find any news—because people probably havent heard of it yet. What is in the news you ask? Well whatever you want it to be, but you're really just looking for anything to spark peoples attention. As for a concern, you would maybe be concerned of televisions being created because they will have news on them and people will stop needing to read your newspaper, but that worry might not come until much later—i'm not totally sure.

Newspaper writer in my grandparents generation:
My grandfather is a teenage boy growing up in Brooklyn, he is #1 in his class, but education isn't interesting to him and he is looking for something else to do. As a newspaper writer in the 1930's, you're probably trying to write about things that will interest poor people, and people interested in war, I am assuming. Because the great depression happened not to long ago, and things were still antsy after the win of The Great War.

My grandfather probably looked at an advertisement in a newspaper when he decided not to go to college and join the Marines. Only to become one of the best Center fielders the Marines baseball team has ever seen. Journalists are still looking for storys, or really anything interesting because all people have for current events are newpapers, and the radio as well, but what dad in the 30's didn't watch his wife make him a cup of coffee and breakfast while he read the morning paper—oh thats right, none of them!

Honors:

In my opinion, racism was born in 1498, when Christopher Columbus landed the Santa Maria in North America and discovered Native Americans—also known as “Indians”. Possibly the first racial word ever uttered was when Native Americans were wrongly call Indians, and the term has stuck. Since then racism has grown up quite a bit. In the year 1790 the slave trade, a large part of racism, had started. The British were shipping one slave vessel every other day from Africa to Europe. This started African American racism. Blacks in American were stated as lesser than white and forced to drink out of different water fountains, use different restrooms, and act like they were not on the same level. In the early 1960’s something called the civil rights movement, which some consider the death to slavery, in America at least. A man named Martin Luther King Junior protested against slavery, and with the backing of a whole nation, slavery was nearly abolished. It still lives on in some areas, in some forms, but it is something we will hopefully never see again.

Semester Deux, Blog Six

1...This is the link the Megan's blog about ampersand pitches. I really like her pitches because they don't necessarily have anything to do with her internship, but about the world in general and other things she learned through being at internship. I think I need to put more things like this in my ampersand pitches. Specifically, I like this post: "All over the world there are living things dying because of what humans and their creations do." She worked for a dentist office and as you can see her prompt didn't really have anything to do with working at a dentists office.
http://malsh7712.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-5-semester-2.html

2...Honestly, the main thing I like about Malia's pitches are how in depth they are. Mine aren't that in depth and I think they should be more like hers. Other than that, I really enjoy her third idea "My final idea that I propose that I could do for Ampersand would be to write my article about how my internship allowed me to see how it felt to actually be part of the career world and how it felt to be part of the machine that is constantly at work in order for our world and our way of life to fully function at all times." I like how she describes the workplace as a machine, I think writing about how we we're parts in the machine would be great.
http://malias11thgradehumanities.blogspot.com/

3...The third I am posting is Ally Moder's blog. I really enjoyed the first pitch she had because it was about something she doesn't like at school, and how it changed when she went to the workplace: "For my ampersand article one of my ideas is to write about what the dress code was like and why it was that way. The dress code for the hospital was different than I thought it would be but for good reasons." I think it would be in my best interest to write about things that changed for the better or worse from school to the workplace.
http://iamallysonmoder64.blogspot.com/

Semester Dos, Blog Five

1...Writing an article about how my internship wasn't so "normal". Odd schedules and whatnot

2...How did my work, and the work of my internship site, help the world/community.

3...What did I do?

Semester Two, Blog Four

1...The first article I chose when this came to mind is one of my friends articles from last years edition of ampersand. I liked this article because I feel as if it is first person in a way, she describes herself as a "human lab rat" going through one of the testing machines she worked with. I like the whole first person writing style and I think I might want to do that for my ampersand article.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0By0BP1hDLB5ENTFjNzkxZDItZGY4My00YmRjLTkxNGUtNmFhNmQxNTg1NWYw&hl=en

2...I really like this Tina Fey article that she wrote for the New Yorker. My favorite part about it is how personal she got with her own life. However, with that personal touch to it; it also seemed fairly general. Almost like she picked something very personal to herself, but tons of other people have the same personal things going on. This is definitely a great article to base mine off of.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_fey

3...This Homeless Person of the Week article seems like a decent article to base mine off of as well. I really like the flow of it, how it can connect so many key points so fluently. I also love how personal it really gets with Greg Sullivan, I want to be able to be that personal with my ampersand article.

http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-3694-greg-sullivan.html

Semester Two, Blog Three

1...In this article I think it semi-combines the classic interview vs. paragraph interview. It is all in paragraph form, but it has a lot of quotes throughout the whole thing so it does not leave the reader with a lack of actually interviewee quotes. There isn't a huge introduction in this, just because its an excerpt, but an intro could easily be made for it and it kind of uses one. I really enjoyed this article, I think it is a great example:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beck-the-rolling-stone-interview-19970417

2...I think that this Lil' Wayne jailhouse interview is really interesting. Not just because of the story but because of how much pure content there is. I enjoy interviews much more when they have less commentary and not raw interview. This article is nearly all interview and it really makes the reader more in touch with the article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lil-wayne-gives-first-jailhouse-interview-20100804

Semester Two, Blog Two

There are two things I have read since last semester that have really caught my interest.

One was a book that a close friend of mine gave to me; it had me rethinking my whole life—in a way. It was called Looking For Alaska. It was the story of three kids living at a boarding school and the crazy things they did. However the whole story is building up to one point, and as soon as it happens the entire story flips—everything changes. It just made me really reconsider every point made in the story and that life is so flexible, anything can happen at anytime. Crazy Stuff, I know!

The second thing was a New Yorker article that my friends dad showed me, in fact I emailed it to you(Randell Scherer). It was called HEAD CASE, Can psychiatry be a science?

I did not end up reading the whole entire article, because I started it at internship and had to keep doing other things. However I read most of it and the authors opinion on depression really stuck to me. I have always believed that the word "depressed" is kind of BS. I always thought it was just somebody slapping a word—and a medical condition—onto a normally feeling that I personally call "sad". Well the author semi-agreed, using many great quotes such as these:

"In most cases, their depression is not a mental illness. It’s a sane response to a crazy world."

"Greenberg basically regards the pathologizing of melancholy and despair, and the invention of pills designed to relieve people of those feelings, as a vast capitalist conspiracy to paste a big smiley face over a world that we have good reason to feel sick about."

These made me really think about depressing and what it means, and what doctors in America are doing to people. I think its all wrong. I've had many great discussions about this subject since I read that article and it seemed to help a lot. So much that after this, I will post the link to it.

New Yorker Article—HEAD CASE

Semester Two, Blog Number One!

The biggest ideas I am taking from internship and bringing into my life(mainly school) are the following:

1...I need to have my own mind and need to create things through my own genius.

2...It is important to believe in ones self and never give up.

The reason for my first one is that during my time at San Diego CityBeat I had to come up with all of my own work. It was all writing and photography so I would have to personally suggest things that I had to write about or photography otherwise I would risk being fired. This really taught me that in order to get far ahead at school and in life I can't wait for parents or teachers to tell me what to do, I need to be done with it before they have to ask. My second idea is because throughout my internship I had many times when I thought my writing was terrible and I would feel like giving up. My mentor would always come in and tell me that it was great and I just needed to believe in myself more and work a little harder and it would be ready to be published. This really helped a lot.

This semester I am just going to stick it through and get every single one of my assignments done. I figure if I do that there is no way I could end up with anything less that an A seeing as I would know the material and do well on tests because of that fact.

internship blogs

are being posted on my internship blog:

http://neilbaffertinternship.blogspot.com/

Honors History Blog #4

1...As an honors student this semester, I really feel like I gained a lot of extra knowledge, and really felt what it is like to have to work hard. I worked very hard this whole semester, harder than i ever have at school before, and it really gave me a good idea about the real world. I don't know if i necessarily learned a lot more than a regular student, except the honors books, but i really worked a lot harder.

2...If I could have changed anything over this semester it would have been my procrastination on reading the honors books. I should have been reading every night, but in the end i would just leave it all to the last minute and have to read a whole book in a short period of time and try to interpret it, which didnt end up working as well as i had planned.

3...My goal for honors next semester is just to keep trying my hardest and read my honors book every single night so that it is easier to understand it and i can write better book reports. If i just continue to get A's and feel like i am learning(which i am) I think i have done well in honors, and school in general.

4...I actually wouldn't use anything from this semester because I am very much looking forward to the books next year. I am a huge Vonnegut fan and can't wait to start our many projects on his great literature next year. LETS GO VONNEGUT!

Honors History Blog #3

The specific program I would want to bring back from the New Deal is the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC public work relief program for unemployed men between the ages of 18-25. The program would give them unskilled manual labor jobs to help build parks and conserve natural resources in the rural areas of the United States of America. Not only did the CCC generate over 3 million new jobs for unemployed people, but also it constructed nearly 800 parks around the USA, many of which became state parks.

I think we should implement a great program like the CCC in our current recession. I don’t think we really need anymore parks though, so maybe just other forms of unskilled manual labor. Also for the more powerful, college educated, smarter people, we could have some sort of management position for the CCC. I think we should start to find other manual labor jobs for the poverty ridden unemployed, even simple things like cleaning up urban areas would be helpful. Obviously there is no urban area in our country that is perfect, which means there is always work to be done and always jobs to be done. We just need to create those jobs through the CCC and supply more jobs, stimulate the economy, and make our urban areas with the largest populations happier through better living conditions.

I think this would be the best possible plan to bring back from the New Deal because it was very effective in job stimulus and will really brighten up the lives of all of our citizens. I personally think we need some sort of urban cleaning or perfecting in our cities just to make things tip top for living conditions. Hopefully this will help, if not there are always 4 other plans created!

Honors History Blog #2

Dear President Obama,

A great man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the President of the United States of America during the Great Depression, and he had to go through the same process as you in getting out of a recession. I think you need to look at what he did during that time and try to use his influence to get out of our current recession. He presented a lot of legislation to Congress to boost the economy and bring much needed relief to the poverty ridden.

He first started by creating the Brain Trust. During this he listened to a lot of non-government people like lawyers and college professors to help him make decisions on economic problems. This would help him see different viewpoints than this own and come up with better ideas to stimulate our crumbling economy.

After that Franklin did his Fireside talks. FDR would do radio speeches to explain to the public exactly what was going on and what the government was doing to help. I think with new technological advances you could be doing this a lot more often through television, Facebook, and Twitter.

After all of this was the New Deal. The New Deal is by far one of the greatest government ideas in history. It created 5 new programs to help stimulate the economy. These were the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation (FDIC), the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Overall all of these programs would end up making the government give out a lot of money to improve the condition of our great country and in turn re-stimulate our economy and make our citizens happier.

Fixing this problem will not be an easy road for you, or any citizens. However we need to invest a lot of money into fixing our country in order to gain the money back. Unfortunately the longest you could be in office is 8 years, so we as citizens need to make sure the next president will continue some of the great work you will hopefully do. All I am asking is that instead of masking the whole problem for your term, you go for the long term fix. Even if you look bad now for spending money, I guarantee that in the long run we will all thank you.

- Neil Baffert

Coll, Steve. "The Test : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. .

Parker, George. "Obama, the Economic Crisis, and the Democrats : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. .

Honors History Blog #1

The most significant element of health care legislation in American history is undeniably Social Security. Social Security has brought a new level to protecting those citizens of the United States of America that have not been able to protect themselves. Social Security has greatly increased in the amount of population using it, and reaping its benefits since the 73 years it has been around. Although some might not believe in Social Security, it is a great program that keeps a lot of this country alive and running, and takes care of those who don’t know how to take care of themselves.

Social Security was invented in the year 1937 and had just over 220 thousand people on the program and just 66 years later in the year 2003 it has over 47 million people, says the most updated United States Government spreadsheet (see resources). That is on average of 709 thousand people joining a year, and it hasn’t yet peaked. It looks as if it will continue at this pace until every single person in the United States of America is on the Social Security plan, and there is a great chance it will never fail.

Yes people recently have been complaining that social security will be obsolete by the time this young generation is ready to reap the benefits, but it has been that way ever since it was created, 73 years ago! Even though the “ it will be gone soon” rumor has always been around, it hasn’t stopped the 709 thousand people a year joining on average. It is really just proving itself as a great program because even though it is doubted, it hasn’t failed us yet. Of course there will always be problems with Social Security(just like everything else in this fine country) but I think we should all trust our government to get us out of those problems, because they haven’t failed us yet, and I don’t think they will.

Resources:

The United States Government. "Social Security History Frequently Asked Questions." The United States Social Security Administration. The United States Government. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. .

Blog #20: Fed vs AntiFed Interview!

The issue from American History I have chosen for my blog today is Social Security. Now I can't find much sourced online information about it however i know there is an Anti-Federalist vs. Federalist argument over it through personal experience. I know that a lot of Anti-Federalist people recently(and lets be honest, every second since it has been created) have doubted the effects of social security and whether the deficit we are in as a country will be able to provide the "promised" money. Anti-Federalist in this topic (such as my dad) believe that the near 12% tax A lot of Federalist people pay shouldn't not be paid and they should be allowed to do with there money what they want, whether they will save that for the future themselves, put it in the stock market, or just waste it all and be totally screwed when they retire.

However among talking musician Steve Poltz, who is currently a democrat and Federalist on the topic, he believes in social security. He believes that "we could run the Social Security program better, however we need it no matter what for the people that cannot handle there money well". Continuing on to say that "there will always be people left to the wayside, so it just comes down the the age-old theory of, do we look out for them or do we not look out for them"? He continued on the relate the topic to the Tea-Party saying "the ethics of the tea party which is: i can't be bothered by you, i'm trying to look out for myself". Finally ending on "its a big distrust of government, which i completely understand, but without control and government what do we end up with? anarchy?" I though a lot of great points were made about the fact that without the Federalist control over the people, we would have a lot of people doing whatever they wanted, which maybe they think is the best for themselves, but is it really?

Blog #19: Life The Book

1. What are you most proud of in your Life: The Book writing? Try to describe this is detail!

I think the thing I am most proud of in my Life: The Book writing is the amount of humanities and biology content i have and how integrated it is. If you highlighted my article for both it would be very mixed up and look exactly how it should. I also love the fact that i really got to know my research topic before i wrote about it.

2. What are some changes or new ideas that you have developed in your writing through the course of this semester?

The main thing i have changed throughout my writing this semester is the way it flows all the way through. My articles no longer are good and then die down at the end. They are strong all the way through and end on something that leaves the reader looking forward.

3. If you had a little more time to work on your writing for LifE: The Book, what would you do differently? What would you change about your writing?

I don't know if i would have done anything differently. My article wasn't one that could be continuously packed with more information because its so new and unheard of and there isn't a ton of information about it. Maybe i would have reorganized the way the information was laid out and see if i liked it better.

4. How has the additional element of publication in a book affected the way you approach writing?

Knowing that my work would be published in a book really made my writing more sophisticated in my opinion. I tried a lot harder to write to a college level person because i knew many would be reading it.

Blog#18: Senate Health Care Hearings

What are your character's main goals for the Senate Health Care Hearings?

My characters main goals for the Senates Health Care Hearings are to make sure that the bills that get passed are all in favor of private health care insurance. Also to make sure that everybody i have dealt with in this trial is happy with everything that happened.

What do you want to accomplish?

What i want to accomplish is getting Blue Cross/Blue Shield a lot of money. I want to make sure that every bill that gets passed is great for me and makes me money.

How do you plan to accomplish it?

I plan to accomplish this by changing the bills before they get voted on by making some deals with people. Also making deals with people so that they will change them for me.

Who are you working with to get this done?

Blog #17: More opposing viewpoints!

Health Care is too Expensive:

Health Care being to expensive is a big worry for me because i think having a universal health care is very important and i would like it to be cheap and affordable. This fact really frightens me "Medicare and Medicaid, will go from 23 percent to 41 percent of average household income." wether this is true or not, I'm not sure because he does not list his source for it. However it is a fact that i hope is untrue. "When Medicare was created in 1965, America's median age was 28.4; now it is 36.6." This just shows how medicare really raised life in America and a universal health care policy would help America prosper. With all of the preventable deaths being so high, and all the vaccines that could be created through synthetic cells, an affordable universal health care plan would be incredible.

Health Care is not too Expensive:

I love the way Randell Hoven lays out information on the fact that health care is going to be affordable. Especially when she says "we pay more for health carein taxes than countries that provide universal coverage. Then we pay more than that amountagain in private coverage." That is purely unacceptable. We pay nearly twice as much as some countries that have universal health care, so why can't we continue to pay what we are paying and have the best health care in the universe? This just makes me wonder who is in charge of all of this? Somebody needs to work things out for us, BARRACK. I feel like Craig Venter would actually love to start developing vaccines out of synthetic cells and using them to get a universal health care sooner. Almost blackmailing the US government to start a universal health care so we can start up the vaccine operation.

Blog #16: Opposing viewpoints & your topic for Life: The Book

Well personally i don't think that health care is the hugest issue in my subject right now since the creation of the first synthetic cell is so new and unpopular, but possibly in the future health care will have a huge impact on it. If we have a Universal health care we could possibly be able to generate new cells and vaccines through my topic and get them for cheap. After all, would it be great "to have life-saving surgeries and not worry that you might have to sell your car or go late on your rent?" I really loved when Helen Redmond said "We are not free." This is very true right now with health care and if we had a universal health care we would be free. If we got sick and had a vaccine developed through creating cells, universal health care would cover it. That'd be great. The biggest thing that the creation of cells could do is mass produce vaccines, and since "more than 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses..." a lot of vaccines would be great to have. With universal health care nobody would be afraid to ask for them and that means 18,000 people a year would get to enjoy life.

However i do understand how some people 'deserve' health care and others do not. "If health care is a fundamental right, equality under the law would seem to require that everyone have the same level of care, regardless of their resources." This really does show how richer people that try so much harder do really deserve more that people that do not try as hard, i completely agree with this. To be honest, with all of the articles saying that health care is not a fundamental right do not stick out or touch me as much as the others. I really just feel like health care is a right and people do deserve to get proper health care. However they do make me feel like people that try a lot harder should receive better health care so i think that we need to work that in. Maybe if you work more hours or have a certain pay you receive better coverage than if you don't, but every one does have very good coverage for at least things like vaccines.

Blog #15: Life: The Book & American History

1...Describe how Americans pay for health care and the government's role in this process:

Well to start, with our economic recession lately, 17.4% of Americans have been delaying or putting off health care payments. On top of that over 46 million Americans do not have health insurance, so not that many people are paying for health care because they can't, or just don't have it. However the people that do have health care in the USA are paying for it out of their own pockets. Whether they have health care through work, or purchased it by themselves, they are paying for it. Contrary to popular belief, even when health care is bought through work, it still costs the individual a lot of money, its just a little cheaper because it is bought as a group. However, in that case the individual has no choice on what health care provider they would like. So really there are 3 choices when it comes to having health care in the USA, Pay a lot and have choice of your health care plan, pay a little less and have no choice of health care plan, or don't have it(and don't get hurt).

1...Using the New Yorker articles we've read in class, this is what i think makes a compelling character:

-Has to have a good background

-Have to be relatable to the reader

-Constantly be doing something new

-Needs to have goals

2...Using the science stories we read in class as an example, this is what i believe makes an interesting plot:

-Having multiple characters with different perspectives

-Having challenges to overcome

-Having solutions to the challenges

-Having the plot connect to the reader and their lives

3...

- Authors use parenthesis to explain more jargon-like words

- They have to give up some of the science so that the reader can grasp a better understanding of what they do include

-Act as a "filter" with the jargon

-Authors know what they are talking about well enough to explain it in a simple matter

4...

-The Authors write while thinking of their audience

-They write semi-broad things in their writing so that at least one subject in their writing can stick and relate to somebody

-They include heart-wrenching parts that you have to feel bad for, engaging you deeper

Sources:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55L0C120090622

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

Blog #14: Life: The Book & Humanities

1...The stage of life i will write about is the Beyond, to incorporate genetic engineering into this i will be talking about the creation of the first synthetic cell. We have already advanced so much in life technology wise( computers, phones, robots), that to evolve as humans by creating synthetic cells blows my mind.

2...I couldn't find any government 'agencies' throughout my research, however President Barrack Obama himself got very intrigued by the cresting of the first synthetic cell. The current news is that Obama has appointed his new team, the "Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues" to "examine the possible benefits and risks of the new development", this is his first order of business. The article i will put it does take a christian point of view from the end which i personally think is a load of crap, however the begining is very helpful and worth reading. (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=32990)

3...The main culture concept in the creation of the first synthetic cell is whether is it 'right' or 'wrong'. It is the same exact thing that "arose with the advent of cloning, stem-cell technology and genetic engineering." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559004575256470152341984.html). Another big scare that I don't believe in personally is that if bad things can come out of this. Some people believe that this expirement "could result in the production of hazardous life forms or biological weapons." (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=32990). There is also a large economical debate because the process cost $40 millon and everybody wants to try it now, however that is just not possible.

4a...The stage of life i will write about would be Birth, the genetic technology within that interests me would be cord blood banking. I think that cord blood banking is a very controversial topic concerning money, storage, use, and ethics.

4b...The government has a lot to do with chord blood banking, mainly with the House and Senate still in the works to approve the Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005. An act that would make a "National Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank Network to prepare, store, and distribute human umbilical cord blood stem cells for them treatment of patients and to support peer-reviewed research using such cells." (http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesandstages/i/cord_blood_bank_2.htm)

4c...The big issue with Cord Blood Banking is the economical issue. It costs a lot of money to do with a private banking company and no large public banks have been established that aren't donation banks. It is also a very simple procedure that could be a lot cheaper and more normal if more people did it, but people aren't being asked to do it a lot. In fact, the AAP stated that "private storage of Cord Blood as biological insurance should be discouraged." (http://pediatrics.about.com/od/agesandstages/i/cord_blood_bank_2.htm). However a lot of the Pros of Cord Blood Banking are curing many diseases including "include certain kinds of leukemia orlymphoma, aplastic anemia, severe sickle cell anemia, and severe combined immune deficiency." (http://kidshealth.org/parent/_cancer_center/treatment/cord_blood.html#)

Blog #13: Life—The Book!

1) Creation of the first synthetic cell

1. The science would be, obviously, creating the cell. The humanities would be the 'humaneness' o

f the whole thing. For it i would say birth as the stage of life because the cell is being 'birthed'.

2. Successfully transplanted genome:

3. The genetic science is taking pre-made genes and putting them all together with corresponding parts in order to make the first cell from scratch.

4. For Humanities i would talk about whether it is 'right' or 'wrong' and explain issues from both sides so that the reader could make and educated choice on what they want to believe.

Blog #12: Beginning the Internship Brainstorm

My ideal workplace is somewhere where i can make something. Wether its indoors making music at a recording booth, or outside making art, or inside making art for that matter. I love to make things, i'd love to be making art or just outside doing something. I really just want to be DOING SOMETHING! wherever it is, in an office, outside, in outerspace, i wan't to do something.

My ideal Workplace:I would love to be working on social networking actually. I think that blogger, facebook, twitter, and just having a website are all great tools for buissnesses that not many buissnesses have. I am very good with all of these things and i think a lot of people are looking for these sorts of things and I'd be great at them.

What I'd be Doing:

I want to learn how to create a website. My mother owns a salon and she just got a website that is actually really cool. I want to learn how to make websites like hers and just do really cool things graphically. I like art, and computers are huge right now, i think i should get into something with graphic art like building websites that would be something i love and would be great for me.

Blog #11: Twitter!

I read The Colbert Democrats on The Washington Post website. I thought that this article pretty well described a lot of the bad points of the Democrats. However, i do feel as if it was a pretty un-biased article. In the beginning Charles Krauthammer says "Obama succeeded with health care. Unfortunately for the Democrats, that and Obama's other signature achievement -- the stimulus -- were not exactly what the folks were clamoring for. What they wanted was economic recovery." To me this means that he did a pretty good job of succeding, but people wanted more. I think that of course people will always want more, but we need to realize Barrack has done a lot of great things and has easily done better than George Bush has. I think people should give Barrack a break and realize all the good things hes done and not the incompetent things.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/presidents/simon-schama-the-great-hope--barack-obama-1482927.html

Now the main thing i like about this article are the quotes at the bottom. If you scroll down, there are a list of Barrack Obama quotes. I think Obama is a great speaker and these quotes just show inside the mind of Obama, which i think gives him a much better view.

Blog #10—"Dying for Dixie"

I am pretty nervous heading into the final stretch. I'm not totally positive i have everything i need when i will be on the stand and once i'm up there i am up, there wont be turning back. Down the final stretch i will just be gathering all the evidence i could possibly gather so that if I get asked a question I am unsure about I will have the answer somewhere in my evidence. For last minute prep i will just be reading over things so i am used to the context and know how to pick things out of my evidence quickly. I AM READY! I CAN DO THIS! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN! I THINK I CAN!

Blog #9: The Civil War... today?

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html

This is the link i am bringing up because it is showing how even the the civil war was thought to have completely abolished slavery there are still a lot of slaves in the U.S. as well as other parts in the world. I think the civil war meant a lot more then than it does now and we need to work harder to abolish slavery.

The "Real" Blog #8: The Constitution, The News & You

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/30/police-not-violating-4th-amendment-by-placing-gps-on-your-car-wh/

1. In this article it is discussed wether or not it is okay to place a GPS tracking device on a car that is not in a driveway. The DEA placed it on a man twice who was believed to be growing marijuana illegally. They think it is okay saying"an individual going up to the house to deliver the newspaper or to visit someone would have to go through the driveway to get to the house," why couldn't the DEA?"

2. I think this completely goes against Amendment 4 because it completely goes against the search and siezure laws. They have no warrant and even though the driveway isn't blocked, it is still private property. I just believe that the things the Court was saying was complete BS and really upsets me.

3. This just really pisses me off because the government is going to far to save themselves when they are in the wrong. We have the right to not be constantly worried that the DEA or other executive branch organizations aren't always going to be poking around in our buisness.

Blog #7: What stands out so far?

In my learning what really stands out is the writing tips. I think my writing has become a lot better in these few short weeks and it is very noticeable. I love the writing tips and all they have done for me and they are something i will carry on with throughout the rest of my life. In this class I think the style you teach is working out well. You seem to plant the seed that lets out minds travel and come up with original, excellent, work. To build upon my success i can really take advantage of extra time i have to work and make that success better. I think the steps i can make would be to finish things quickly, then work in the extra time i am given. Or do things on time and they will take up the space of the deadline i am given. My goals for the next few weeks are to get a good spot in the mock trial and really do well in it.

Blog #6: American Icons!

My small seven-year-old self watched as my dad walked onto the plane to Florida. I was worried-I knew he wouldn’t be back for years and I didn’t know how to make it without him. Throughout my life the key happiness and lifting my spirits was when I would rest in his arms. He left me with three things that would have to replace him until I could rest in his arms again: good food, good morals, and damn good music.

I started out confused, unsure, and unable to remember a time without my dad. How did I make it all work without him? What were the things we did together? I looked through some of the CD’s he left me. One dusty CD crammed under all of the others stuck out to me. I lifted up the others and pushed the dust off. It was Ramones, the debut album of The Ramones, punk rock legends. One thing stuck out, Johnny Ramone, the power chord legend and guitarist of The Ramones. His guitar sounded just like how my dad played in his old college garage bands. It reminded me of all the VHS tapes of my dad playing I had watched. He still played that type of raw punk for fun and hearing it again made me smile. I had found this happiness, a resting place, and a sense of security again, in Johnny Ramone’s music.

The Ramones replaced my dad in the time he was gone. I became a worshiper of Johnny Ramone, but not just because he can play guitar, but what his guitar has done to my life. He brought me back to a time with my dad that I thought I lost, he made the joy I had with my dad possible again. I could sit for hours just listening to him play for hours to the point where Johnny would fade away. It wasn’t his guitar making me remember my dad anymore and bringing me into that world of sublime, happiness. It was my own thoughts-they had taken over without me even knowing, and they were making me happier that I could’ve ever imagined. I now realized I didn’t need my dad anymore, and the few times I would see him again would be plenty.

My dad watched as I walked onto the plane back to San Diego. Seeing him has been great, but I knew I was ready to go home. He knew that I wouldn’t be back for a while, but he wasn’t worried, and neither was I. The experience I had with him over the course of my life taught me something. I had learned the only real key to happiness, in my personal opinion. People are so focused in this world on the tangible: Money, cars, huge houses, trophy wife’s are just a few of the things people need to feel happy. You’d be surprised what the thoughts in our minds can do; it can be a lot more that the tangible if you give them a chance. Have you ever tried to let yourself make you happy?

Blog #5: Questions about our writing...

I think the "big idea" portion of the American Icons Statement was the most helpful for me. My big idea was intending to help people out and i think i accomplished that. It feels good to be able to tell the world how i feel about happiness and that we don't need things like icons, to make us happy. For me, the most helpful writing tip has been the loop. It really made me realize how conclusions were just a bunch of BS that is just repetitive and boring. I really like the idea of the outro making the reader think a lot.

For me, fitting everything into one page is challenging. I am the kind of person that likes to write a lot when i really get into it, which i did for this project. It is hard to talk about so much and fit it into such a small place. The Watch Those Adverbs tip was in a way a challenge to me, but in a way very easy. I don't use adverbs that often because i realize they dont add much to the writing. But this tought me that adverbs can be helpful when used right which i am now trying to do.

Outro:

My dad watched as I walked onto the plane back to San Diego. Seeing him has been great, but I knew I was ready to go home. He knew that I wouldn’t be back for a while, but he wasn’t worried, and neither was I. The experience I had with him over the course of my life taught me something. I had learned the only real key to happiness, in my personal opinion. People are so focused in this world on the tangible: Money, cars, and huge houses, are just a few of the things people need to feel happy. You’d be surprised what the thoughts in our minds can do; it can be a lot more that the tangible if you give them a chance. Have you ever tried to let yourself make you happy?

1. What is the difference between the plane your dad was on during the intro, and the one you are getting on?

2. How does your, "big idea", relate to your icon?

3. How did you come to feel this way about happiness?

Blog #4: Icons Loop

Intro:

My seven-year-old self watched as my dad walked onto the plane to Florida. I was worried-I knew he wouldn’t be back for years and I didn’t know how to make it without him. Throughout my life the key happiness and lifting my spirits was when I would rest in his arms. He left me with three things that would have to replace him until I could rest in his arms again: good food, good morals, and damn good music.

Outro:

My dad watched as I walked onto the plane back to San Diego. Seeing him has been great, but I knew I was ready to go home. He knew that I wouldn’t be back for a while, but he wasn’t worried, and neither was I. The experience I had with him over the course of my life taught me something. I had learned the only real key to happiness, in my personal opinion. People are so focused in this world on the tangible: Money, cars, and huge houses, are just a few of the things people need to feel happy. You’d be surprised what the thoughts in our minds can do; it can be a lot more that the tangible if you give them a chance. Have you ever tried to let yourself make you happy?

I chose this opening and closing because they relate to each other a lot so it brings the reader somewhere familiar in the end, but then it pops a question that they have to think about. The close ties together with my big ideas by asking specifically, can you make yourself happy? That was the big idea i wanted to get out of this writing. I hope the reader realizes that they don't need tangible things to make them happy, they just need themselves.

Blog #3: American Icons & Resources

I chose to do Johnny Ramone for the majority of my artist statement because he is an incredible guitarist and relates a lot to my father and how they both influenced my childhood which is the other subject id like to touch on in my statement. Johnny was and incredible guitarist that showed me a way to control my feelings and emotions through guitar. While my dad showed me how to do that through music in general.

Wikipedia Page on Johnny Ramone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Ramone

This page will have all of the information i should need about johnny ramone for my artist statement

Wiki page on punk rock:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock

this page will really help me explain how punk rock as a whole changed the world.