RE: Abusing Medicaid

In Kenna's blog post titled "Abusing Medicaid", she discusses that the system in which the government is using to financially assist mother's with babies needs to be better improved so that it is not being abused. I absolutely agree with Kenna in her argument. It seems as if everyone and their mom's are on medicaid today. It's great that the government is supporting families who are less fortunate and are in need of help financially, but now, more and more mother's are on medicaid. It's absolutely self-fish on mother's who are abusing the aid because yes, the money if free, but Americans are paying more and more tax dollars to keep the system running. The government should definitely cut down on who they are giving medicaid to. And also the government should lay down stricter rules on who's eligible and who is not.

Kenna states, "I feel that the easiest way to help these girls is to better educate them." I agree with her statement because these girls obviously have screwed up on getting pregnant knowing they can not support a baby. Girls who are having more babies obviously have not learned their lesson the first time. In order to prevent these girls from digging themselves into a deeper whole, the government should mandate a policy in which they are required to get some kind of education. Those who are getting assistance should prove they deserve the aid, instead of having more and more kids so that they are receiving more and more money. It's just plain self-fish on their part.

Education is IMPORTANT!

    I read an article titled $100 billion in education spending was not the way to stimulate the economy from the Dallas Morning News. It's no secret that many districts in Texas are suffering from major debts and cut backs, it's amazing though that it's also happening outside "The Great State" of Texas. In fact, last year the ISD I attended had major budget cuts and many of my teachers were laid off.

   The editor makes a great point about how $100 billion was giving towards many projects including a heavy chuck towards education. I agree how some of the projects that received money were a bad decision, like the program that eliminated the weaker teachers whose effectiveness on students was lower than the stronger teachers. I think there could have been other ways on how to distinguish if teachers were not doing their required job, for example- look and compare the students test grades on the TAKS test.
  The article also mentioned how some of the money went to repair weaker districts. I don't believe that is a great decision on the education board because education is open to all, but it is the choices of parents and students on whether or not they attend. If the kid does not want an education, it's time to get out and get a job. There are plenty of others, who want a successful life, and they should have the opportunity to transfer to somewhere else. There is no need to cut budgets to spend on other districts. Not only will the students suffer but also current and future teachers will suffer including their families.

RE: Pot is evil, but alcohol is accepted?!

In qmai21's blog she brought up the fact that the consumption and sale of alcohol is legal, but marijuana is not. I absolutely agree with Mai. It makes absolutely no sense that at the age of 18 in America, you are automatically registered to the military in case of a draft. Not only are you able to fight for your country, you are allowed to buy cigarettes, which is known to cause lung cancer. At 21, one is able to buy alcohol. With all the studies that have been conducted, alcohol consumption, fighting for your country, and smoking cigarettes are all possible causes of death. With all the studies that have been conducted on marijuana, not one study has shown marijuana to affect one's body. In fact, the effects of marijuana tends to lighten up one's mood, and relaxes one's body. In a documentary that I watched, it said that the only way marijuana could affect a human body in the wrong way is if one were to smoke 15,000 joints within 20 minutes. Even though there are thousands of cases of drunk driving casualties each year ranging from teens to adults, alcohol is still legal.

Mai states, "When it all boils down to it, all they want is our money. If it's really about health and wellness, then ban BOTH substances." I don't believe that what government wants is our money because if marijuana were to be legalized, I'm sure the government would tax marijuana, which would definitely stimulate our economy. What i do agree from Mai's statement is that if the government is so "worried" with the health and wellness of Americans, then they should definitely ban both substances. All in all, why is alcohol legal and marijuana is not when there are no cases of death caused by marijuana usage, but alcohol have.

No more cigarettes!

Smoking is extremely common amongst teenagers.They tend to use it as a relaxant for the short amount of time, but don't realize that it has an affect on the body in the long run.  Most smokers tend to start at a young age because of their surroundings. Some may might think that it's “cool”. Some think it relaxes the body, but is it worth it? There are also many other reasons why people smoke cigarettes. Social gatherings, traumatic experiences in life and the sheer desire of relaxation are just a few reasons. Cigarettes helps most situations because they lower a person’s inhibitions and acts as a relaxant. Smoking relaxing the body is just another excuse to starting. There are many ways to relax the body, but why start an addiction that can harm the body and possibly end one's life over time? 

 

The government has already made an attempt to reduce the number of smokers by raising taxes on all cigarettes, but making them more expensive still does not reduce the numbers of smokers. Cigarettes are not economical, but even in today's recession, people will still go out and buy packs of cigarettes for $14-$15.Completely banning cigarette smoking may seem a bit over-the-top, but smoking is affecting every person that is exposed to the smoke. Taxes have been raised, but the turnout of how many people are buying, still, doesn't seem to be affected. The only way to stop smokers from contracting lung cancer and spreading the smoke is to completely ban cigarette smoking. Marijuana, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine are all illegal, why not cigarettes? Cigarettes are considered a drug because they have the same affects as cocaine. When smokers quit, they tend to have a relapse and their body will drive them back to the addiction. Behind smoking, there is no real reason or benefit. It can only hurt ones body and potentially kill it.

Should Cigarettes Be Outlawed?

I read a post written by Tony Newman from The Huffington Post called "Will Cigarettes Be Illegal In The Future?" In the post, Tony Newman talks about the effects of cigarette smoking, and how cigarettes have affected smokers and non-smokers. He does support the ban on smoking in public places, but doesn't believe banning cigarettes overall will make anything better. He states, "We should celebrate our success curbing cigarette smoking and continue to encourage people to cut back or give up cigarettes, but let's not get carried away and think that criminalizing smoking or making cigarettes illegal is the answer." Newman also believes that outlawing cigarette smoking would not only cost more taxpayer dollars, but also more lives to be taken. Just like any other drugs, he thinks crime rates will go up because "Instead of buying your cigarettes in a legally sanctioned place, you would have to hit the streets to pick up your fix. The cigarette trade would provide big revenue to "drug dealers," just as illegal drugs do today. There would be shootouts in the streets and killings over the right to sell the illicit substance."

Although Newman makes a great and powerful statement about the ban on cigarettes, I still believe it should be outlawed. Yes, cigarettes is a well-established drug, but he needs to realize that cigarettes kill more Americans each year than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined according to the American Cancer Society. I agree that crime rates will go up because addicted smokers will go and seek for them illegally, but I don't believe the crime will cause as many deaths as cancer does. Cigarettes are not only affecting smokers themselves, but when in public, it affects all the people around them due to second-hand smoke. Smokers have no rights to release carcinogenic toxins into the air that is for everyone to breathe. I still believe cigarettes should be outlawed, it has been proven to cause cancer and also it affects not only the smoker, but everyone that is around that cigarette being smoked.

The Middle East

The article I read was 'Their Victory, Not Ours' written by Aaron Ross, who talks about an article in Slate written by Eliot Spitzer entitled "America is Freedom, and Freedom is Winning." Like Ross and Spitzer, I am optimistic for the people of the Middle East in their efforts towards freedom and like Ross, I agree that their drive may come from American's but it isn't the only driving force. Because they don't want to emulate the same government of other countries not does mean that they want to completely emulate ours. Sure there are certain aspects of our government that are great and then there are aspects that could be changed. Isn't that what the founding fathers did whenever they began writing the 'sacred documents' of our country? Why is it that many politicians think that American government is god's gift to the world? Maybe it's pride, or ignorance of the times. 

With each generation, the youth can hold the wheel and we can steer it either way. The revolutionaries of the Middle East are comparable to the American youth. They're both fresh with new ideas on modern issues, whether the current administration agrees or not. Ross states that Spitzer views American's aid in the current situation as an apology for past mistakes to the Middle East for feeding money and such to certain autocrats isn't going to cut. I feel as though America may be backtracking to right a wrong but to boast about it and claim it as another American history is disgusting, but that's what America does. Because Spitzer was once a senator, of course he is going to believe that our country has done a job well done. But in reality, we should be helping now because it we kept freedom from them for so long. America had its' time of revolutions and now it's time to let others do the same.

Unemployement still on the run...

The article I read was about unemployment. For the second straight month the nations unemployment rate is still at 9.1%. Although the rate has not changed for the past two months, 26 of the 50 states' unemployment rate rose, 12 stayed the same, and 12 states fell. For Nevada, they're use to the unemployment, they've had the highest unemployment rate of 13.4% for the past 15 months. 39,500 jobs were added between July and August, but compared to an average of 178,500 jobs added per month in the first four months of the year is pretty shocking. Even New York, the "huge" city is suffering, New York lost 22,700 jobs recently leading the nation in most jobs lost.

I decided to choose this article to discuss because employment in our nation today is very important. I believe this article is very important to read because everyone today in our society is affected by the recession.
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/unemployment-rates-rose-in-majority-of-states-1862048.html