Re: Put it on the banned list

I found Linda's new blog about banning cigarettes very interesting. It is true that the United States have made it illegal for possession of Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine, Ecstasy, and many more drugs.  Most people think of these drugs as a way for relaxation and to relieve stress. However, they are unaware of the devastating aftereffects that come from an addiction of smoking cigarettes as well. These drugs could cause some serious damages to one’s body. The same consequences apply to cigarettes.  The effects of smoking cigarettes are serious and in many cases, deadly. There are approximately 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes.  Hundreds of them are known to be toxic, such as carbon monoxide and nicotine. This is not a joking matter to be taken lightly.  It kills people slowly, day by day.  A large percentage of those who fell victim to lung cancer were also found to be cigarette smokers. Linda made a good point on how dangerous cigarettes could do to one’s health. However, she stated that the government has done nothing drastic, except raised the prices of cigarettes. I do feel that the government has not done all they could in their power to lower the smoking rate, but let us not forget about the cigarettes tax.  The government did put a special tax on cigarettes in order to reduce the smoking rate. It did lower the rate at one point, but it was not much of a significant number.

Regardless, people are going to do what they want to do. Like I stated earlier, smoking cigarettes quickly become highly addictive. Even a cigarettes tax did refrain people from purchasing them. I do agree with Linda that people are losing more of their income buying cigarettes. Not only does it negatively affect people's health, it hurts their wallets as well.  That is why I strongly agree with Linda that our government should completely ban these cancer sticks. In the past, the cigarette tax did not make an extreme impact in lowering sales. Likewise, it will not change now, so why bother having it at all? We might as well ban cigarettes overall. It is obvious that these cigarettes are not good for our health, and they have a large number of negative side effects.  As long as the cigarettes are still available to the public, there will always be consumers.  Therefore, the best way to protect and promote our country’s health is to completely ban cigarettes. After reading Linda’s blog, I took a lot of thoughts into consideration. As informed individuals, we should encourage people to quit smoking, protesting against cigarettes, and educate others about the negative side of cigarettes. We need to save our country. By doing little things like this, it could greatly affect the government into taking further actions to ban cigarettes. 

Should teenager be tried as adults?

            At the age of 18, a person is considered to be an adult.  As an adult, a person must act as one and take on more responsibilities at that golden age.  Punishments also grow harsher as a teenager transitions into adulthood.  Consequences are more strict and unyielding to those individuals.  However, the majority of adult criminals started off as juvenile criminals in their teenage years.  Despite how awful a teenager’s crime may be, they do not face the same penalties they would receive if they were an adult.  Should a person get an easier sentence merely because of their age?  They most certainly should not! Teenagers and minors in general, should always be tried as adults for their committed crimes.  A number of minors who commit crimes such as rape, robbery, assault, murder and attempted murder are exempt from being tried in a criminal trial purely because of their age.  As a result, many do not fear getting caught in the act of breaking the law.  This would eventually create an uncontrollable habit of committing crimes.  The government needs to enforce laws which would be beneficial towards those individuals.  If minors know they would not get off easy, then they would be discouraged and be more cautious to abide by the law. 

Many may argue that teenagers are too naïve to know right from wrong.  They argue that pure rehabilitation and temporary confinement would do the trick.  On the contrary, a lack of moral standards cannot be treated or cured in rehabilitation centers.  Since birth, people learn to acknowledge right from wrong.  Morals give people an unchangeable foundation in which they lead their lives.  People either have morals or they don’t: there is no gray area.  One may argue that morals are evident in one situation but not the other.  Does this mean that one can pick and choose when they follow their moral compass?  The law is not lenient to any offenders and it will never be.  A devastating case was of Barry Loukaitis on February 2, 1996.  He was dressed with 2 pistols, 78 rounds of ammunition and a rifle. His 1st victim was 14-year-old Manuel Vela who died. Another classmate fell with a bullet to his chest and then Loukaitis shot his teacher in the back as she was writing a problem on the blackboard. A 13-year-old girl took the 4th bullet in her arm. He took hostages, but a teacher put an end to it. Three people died total, and Loukaitis blamed mood swings.  Loukaitis had thought it would be "fun" to go on a killing spree.   Would it be justified if people like Barry Loukaitis get off with only minor fines because he was only 14 years old at the time?

  The government is responsible for letting those individuals walk without even a scratch.  It is no question that the government should take control to make laws charging teenagers who commit unforgivable felonies.  It is then when our society would become more alert to abide by the law which in turn decreases crime rates.  

Re: History will soon repeat itself, let's hope not!

As I was scanning through some of my classmates’ blogs, I found a great article Phi Tran wrote about our government’s unnecessary and excessive spending.  Despite America already being in debt, the careless government still continues to spend our tax dollars unreasonably.  Our country is ahead in technological advancements; however, it is more in debt than ever before.  Instead of bringing the economy up, the nation will always be held back and unable to move on to progress. 

Tran provides an excellent example of how irrational the spending has gotten.  For instance, the government spent a total of 1.3 trillion dollars on the F-35 aircraft fleet which is still on-going.  As a result, other productive programs like universal healthcare could not be made possible.  Our government constantly pays for products and services it never gets, wildly overpays companies to do things it could do itself, loses money due to lax accounting and oversight, and fails to collect what it’s owed.  The federal government just fritters away all of our hard-earned tax dollars. Furthermore, Tran makes an obvious point that we have to think ahead for the future of our society.  As of our nation’s current financial standings, a depression would most likely be in our cards. In turn, taxes would tremendously rise and the lives of the U.S. citizens would no longer be the same anymore.

The main reason why I find this article very compelling is through the strong tone of the author.  Tran gives a very adamant and outspoken point of view which I wholeheartedly agree with.  

Universal Health Care...Why not?!

Healthcare has always been one of the biggest concerns in American lives. Millions of Americans, who lost of their jobs in the economic downturns, have lost their health insurance as well. Costs for medical insurance have escalated dramatically. With the worsening economy, many companies and individuals cannot afford insurance. It is a burden to pay for health insurance that one cannot afford. A lot of people were sick but could not pay a visit to the doctor, or fill a prescription, due to the high costs. Therefore, it is crucial for the government to adopt universal healthcare.

There would be numerous benefits if universal healthcare is adopted. First, the number of the uninsured would decrease to zero. Thousands would finally be able to afford treatments and live a longer, more efficient life. To have good health is blessing. Good health care is a right and it’s vital to ensure that right for every American. Imagine if a person had to pay for police service, but could not pay the bill. They could face danger due to not being financially stable. Also, the government could eliminate wasteful inefficiencies such as duplicate paper work and insurance submission which would also positively enhance the Earth.  Furthermore, medical professionals could pay more focus on healing the patient rather than dealing with insurance procedures.  Another benefit would be the possibility of developing a centralized national database which would in turn make diagnosis and treatment a whole lot easier for doctors.  Moreover, a universal system would help the crumbling economy of the high administrative costs associated with private insurance companies; the United States spends a staggering 40 percent more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care.

On the contrary, many may argue that universal health care would cause taxes to increase, and how not everyone is in need of health care.  It is true that health care is expensive and not easy to come by. However, a universal health care system will switch the burden away from all American businesses and allow them to grow in the United States and will compete globally.

Universal health care is now expanding in a lot of countries. Why do so many other countries have universal healthcare? They do it because it saves more lives and solves greater issues than how much they will be paying for their taxes. Universal health care will benefit everyone, our collapsing economy and the government's minimal budget. So what are we still waiting for? We must take care of our health for without good health, anything else would be meaningless. We must have universal health care. According to President Barack Obama, universal health care is a must:” Universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how. We have the ideas, we have the resources, and we will have universal health care in this country by the end of the next president’s first term.”

Voter fraud...is a BIG deal!!

John Hinderaker wrote on his blog Powerline an excellent article named "How rare is voter fraud?".  The article brought up a great point about voting fraud issues. He first started off by stating that conservatives are generally more concerned about voter fraud than liberals. Liberals argue that law enforcement of election laws is not a problem because voter fraud hardly exists.

Secondly, the article states that with this easy assurance, we have no clear way to know how prevalent voter fraud is.  By meaning, those who perform it seek to go unnoticed, and it is a circular argument to say that there is no need for better law enforcement because our current enforcement hasn’t caught many violators.

John Hinderaker provided solid proof about voter fraud issue in Minnesota. There is a group in Minnesota called Minnesota Majority that has been doing an wonderful job of digging into the voter fraud issue. Recently, the Minnesota Majority sent out an email announcing its report on criminal convictions. It showed a significant number of voter fraud convictions arising from single election in the past 75 years.

In the article, “The report finds that 113 individuals who voted illegally in the 2008 election have been convicted of the crime, “ineligible voter knowingly votes” under Minnesota statute 201.014….The research identified upwards of 2,800 ineligible felons believed to have unlawfully voted in Minnesota’s 2008 general election.”

These convictions are just getting out of hand. The actual number of illegal votes cast was in the thousands.  I completely agree with this article. We have evidence of these people casting illegal ballots, yet no law seems to be strictly enforced.  According to the group, nearly 200 additional cases are still pending trial.

Minnesota Majority is doing a great job not only of uncovering the crime of voter fraud, but of preventing its future commission. I firmly believe that a photo ID should be required to vote in any election. Not to mention a valid voter's registration card. It isn’t too much to ask. If you don't have a driver's license or other state ID, you should be able to get a voter's ID card for little or no cost.  

Rest uninsured, America!

Recently, I was scanning through the New York Times and happened to find an excellent article "No job, no insurance, no health care" about America's health care and how the society is struggling to deal with it. It is time for Congress to step up and help the citizens until major health reforms take effect.

The editorial gave out disheartening facts about America’s healthcare. Millions of Americans, who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn, have lost their health insurance as well. According to the article, nine million working-age adults who lost their jobs between 2008 and 2010 became uninsured.  The majority of those laid off workers are forced to go for medical care that they cannot pay for. This article has a point when it comes to healthcare expenses. Nearly three-quarters had to use up all their savings, took out loans when they could, or even declared bankruptcy because they were struggling to pay for medical bills. I strongly agreed when the article stated that Congress should extend unemployment benefits to help to jobless pay for healthcare. However, as Congress negotiates healthcare reform, Democratic leaders have put the interests of insurance companies ahead of the needs of its citizen. Due to a major factor that the large campaign contributions made most by insurance companies, Democrats have decided to protect those companies instead. While the lack of health insurance is estimated to kill 18,000 Americans annually, for-profit insurance companies kill far more with their unreasonable denial and delay in approving treatment as they seek to maximize their profits.

It is true that America does not need to spend more money on health care. Our health care expenditures amount to more than one-sixth of our economy. Just the amount of tax dollars we already spend per capita on Medicare and Medicaid is greater than the health care expenditures of other industrial countries, yet they manage to cover everyone. Health industry defenders argue that we spend more money because we are a “rich” country and have the discretion to invest in health care and to live longer. But many other industrial countries spend less than we do, yet live longer and have better health care systems. According to the article, the substantial help will not arrive until 2014; therefore, we need Congress to take action now and aid millions of Americans buy insurance on new exchanges as well as expand Medicaid coverage for the poor.

Quality or Quantity?

Most of the time, people get lost in the idea of finding a job; however, they do not pay attention to what kind of job they wish to obtain. Low-wage economy can cause such tragic consequences on the society. It is time for the government to step in and help improve the quality of jobs.

According to the article Yes, we need jobs. But what kind?, the median wage for adults in Rio Grande Valley in Texas is only $8.14 an hour. One in four employed adults earned less than $6.19 an hour. Economic stress strains people’s life. Not only do they fear of paying several bills, but also of unexpected costs such as illness, broken car, and challenge of basic needs. Parents have to labor days and nights, they can't afford to miss a day of work to take their kids to doctor's appointments or to school conferences. Teenagers have no motivation in education and question why they should stay in school if all they can get are low wages.

Several researches have shown that if employees are paid better and given more opportunities, the gains outweigh the expenses. It’s time for the federal government to take the lead in creating not just more jobs, but more beneficial jobs. For example, many low-wage jobs in the private sector are financed by taxpayers. The government can set and enforce wage standards for contractors. Labor standards have to be upgraded and enforced now in order to make our society more efficient.