The current decade is now at the warmest decade that the planet has experienced since instrument recordings first began. This seems to me to show that even if you do not believe that global warming is man made, that you still would have to agree that global warming is occurring. Interestingly though, the only continent that has not been feeling a warming trend is North America, which has actually been experiencing a cooling effect. I found this interesting considering why would only one continent be experiencing a cool period, when others are experiencing a warming period?

I do not have the answer to this question, and I am not really sure if anyone really could explain this fact, but what really needs to be considered is what we can do to become more efficient. By efficient, I do not mean that we need to just find alternative fuels, but rather that we need to find ways to ameliorate all aspects of our infrastructure from our water systems to our waste systems. California is just one state that needs to improve our water systems, but one fact is certain that these systems are outdated. These systems need to be upgraded to supply the much larger populations that currently exist today. We need to keep in mind how society will grow that our future generations will not have to deal with conundrums that are worse than what already exist today.

Vocabulary: ameliorate, conundrums

The Supreme Court is about to take on a case were they will review whether Christian Groups that discriminate against gays and homosexuals in their membership will be allowed within Public Universities. This is an interesting issue considering that the the first amendment protects freedom of speech and religion. Though it is wrong that these type of groups are not allowing gays and homosexuals within their memberships, but at the same time it is these peoples right to discriminate against them. It is the same as if the KKK where to hold a parade in a city. Even though many people in the public do not wish to allow this kind of demonstration, the group still has the right to peacefully assemble.

This is a pugnacious issue taking place within our society, but I do not believe that the Supreme Court up hold this type of legislation. Currently the court is still considerable conservative, and to believe that the court will ban religious groups that discriminate against gays and homosexuals in there membership in Public Universities is extremely unlikely. Though it is wrong that these groups discriminate against gays and homosexuals, we should not try to stop these groups by discriminating against them. Rather we need to try and persuade more and more people away from these groups, so that society can finally move aways from this outlandish taking of rights away from gays.

Vocabulary Words: pugnacious, outlandish

Currently in Iran protest have once again struck in large scale, with numbers close to that of the protest in the summer after the presidential election. Though these numbers were smaller, the protests extended to many more cities than the previous protests of the summer. I find this interesting because as United States and Iran peace talks continue, it shows that maybe we in the United States do not have as much to worry about as we originally believed. If Iran does not even have the favor of its people, how are they going to be capable of causing conflicts with other nations.

Though Iran has been considered to be trying to create a nuclear weapon, I feel that Iran programs such as a nuclear power are becoming ephemeral considering that sooner or latter these protest may not be so peaceful, and the possible dissolution of the current Iranian Government could occur. Iran has always been an unstable country, with the United States even playing their part in over throwing regimes, but what is to be expected if the people once again attempt these types of action? Should we United States citizens be worried about conflicts in this region? With current military policy in the Middle East I find this to be a difficult situation. A country with possible nuclear capabilities, who people are unsatisfied with current government leaves a large range of problem to occur. Though no one can predict the future events, my main goal is to show that this region is always going to be unstable, and current military powers need to decide are we going to finish all the conflict in this region or should we pull out altogether. Obviously there is going to be many problems in the future, but all I want is for the U.S. to finally create a goal that has an end, and not circumvent these problems because without an end date who knows how much are debt could increase.

Vocabulary Words: ephemeral, circumvent

With Obama’s first year of his presidency coming close to an end, many people have begun to question his abilities. Mostly this is caused because much of the “change” that Obama promised has not yet come to pass in reality. Democrats still fail to come even close to passing a health care bill, and Afghanistan has become increasingly more jeopardous, but why are people so skeptical of Obama this early in his presidency? It seems to me that currently American are more divided than ever before, with those people that feel that we are on the right track and those that feel that we are completely off track. Why is the middle class disappearing in every aspect of American society?

In today’s United States society we find that people have split into complete polar opposites, where politics are either extremely liberal or completely conservative. Most of this is cause by today’s modern media, which instead of trying to be the least bias, has now become nothing but bias one sided media. How are people suppose to be informed about Obama’s presidency and his accomplishments, when all you find is the same thing on every channel. CNN always praises Obama, where FOX news always criticizes him, nothing ever changes in the U.S. media, so how can we really now what is true and what is false if all the news claims is an event through a single sided point of view? The answer to these problems is obvious. Americans need to move aways from these bias medias, and try to push for media that merely reports. Yes the new should be entertaining, but not so entertaining that it’s actually mendacious.

Vocabulary Words: jeopardous, mendacious

Many people feel that Christmas is a time of year of giving, but is this really true anymore or has Christmas merely become a ploy by corporations to extort those foolish people into buying things that they do not need. With the economy becoming increasingly difficult for many individuals to handle, the trend began to move away from frivolous spending, where people no longer were buying items that did not have any use value, but with the holidays now approaching we begin to see that people really do forget quickly. It has not even been a year since the economy began to depreciate, and enter into what many now call a depression, but like every Christmas or holiday season corporations are once again entering into their usual trend.

This trend that I have mentioned is the trend that corporations use the holiday season to boost profits and the economy. Normally this would be considered a good act by corporations, but with the current economy many have hoped that the economy would shift away from the selling of useless items. This of course is completely untrue. This year all that has changed is that people are still buying the useless products that they do not need, but instead of just buying them at anytime or any store, they now are looking for the best sales and prices. Normally I would consider this a good thing for consumers, but with holiday commercials and advertising people are force to buy multiple items to get discounts, where instead of buy the one thing they want at a low price they are being tricked into buying multiple items to receive their discount. This seems to be the new trend of the holiday season shopping, and from my point of view seems to make the shopping people are doing more ridiculous.

Though I am sure this tradition will never change in the United States, what I am really looking to accomplish is to improve the masses ability to understand what the corporations goals are in our country. Their goal is to get us to buy their products when they are new at the highest price, while at the same time they sell the older model to another country at a much lower price. This is the trend in corporate America, buy the newest and best even though in a few months your product will be out dated. This seems to be the problem in the U.S. buyer are constantly trying to stay ahead of a curve by buying the newest technology, but what they soon realize is that technology is never constant for long. Rather it is always changing, where products are improved slowly instead of instantly.

Vocabulary: frivolous, depreciate

With Obama receiving the Nobel Prize many are starting to discuss the issues that are starting to emanate in the United States. Some people, mostly those who watch Fox News and actually believe the stories, say that of course Obama has not done anything yet to deserve this honor. This is to be expected from that side,  who obviously do not support President Obama, but how should the United States be acting? For one I feel that this should honestly be a moment for the United States to be proud and honored to have a President that is so widely accepted world wide.

President Obama may not have done anything that can quite be called a success at this point, only time can tell for his policies, but one thing that can be noticed is how much differently he is acting compared to President Bush in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, which Diplomacy is mainly what he is receiving the Nobel Prize for. In this case what we really can ascertain is that what the United States should really take away from this honor for our President is the recent change in the world’s view of our politics. No more do we have to worry about a president and a foreign policy that works on tactics that do not try to work with countries on issues, but rather tries to force them to agree with us. Whether you don’t feel that Obama deserves the Nobel Prize or you do, the number one thing that we can take from this honor is that finally after eight years the world finally respects our president.

Vocabulary Words:  emanate, ascertain

With the dollar beginning to lose value in the United States many countries, mostly countries like China and OPEC countries, want to stop using the dollar for trade. This could be a huge problem for the United States considering countries switching from dollar to the Euro or in some suggestions the Yen could seriously affect this already struggling economy. If China or the OPEC countries were to stop trading in the dollar, this with no questions would seriously hurt this economy, and would definitely at the least leave the American people with much more skepticism that this economy is actually recovering, and leave us with less faith in our government to solve these issues.

This is an interesting issue to consider because with the Euro gaining so much value in the world’s eyes that it makes me wonder if this is only leading to the creation of a so called Amero or some kind of Currency that connects all the countries in North America together. If this is the case it makes me wonder whether this is actually been the government’s plan all along consider George W. Bush in his terms of office managed to start the building of a super highway, which was suppose to go from Mexico to Canada.

With this continuing deterioration of the United states dollar, what we need to ask ourselves now is what is really best for the American economy. Should we try to create an economy that coalesces North America much like Europe or should the United States try some kind of action that we use to use in the past, isolationism. The United States has always worked well as a countries that merely stayed out of the problems of the world. Maybe it is time to stop worrying about other countries problem and playing world police, and rather start worrying about how to become an America that every citizen can apotheosize and be proud of their country.

Vocabulary words:  coalesces, apotheosize

For me after the election ended in November and Obama came out victorious, I for one thought that Sarah Palin would never be able to try at something like this again, but I guess I for one never could have been more wrong. You would never think that a person who claimed being governor was to stressful for her, which led to here having to resign, but everyone new what she was really up to. Of course she is testing the waters to see if she can run for president. With this new recent development of her publishing her memiors only a few months after her resignation show that the last thing she was ever doing as governor was governing. No way a women of her stature wrote a how autobiography in a matter of months.

I know its foolish to even talk about this type of mere gossip, but I just can not help, but laugh at this because honestly who in their right mind vote for this woman for president. Yeah I know their are some nuts out there, but are there really enough callow people to allow this woman to become president. I sincerely hope not, but I guess the true test will come in three years. It should be a funny election to watch considering Republicans are desperate this time around, which should get nice and messy, and should be exuberant to watch from the third party point of view. Honestly though what was John McCain thinking teaming up with this loony woman. Definitely should have dodged that bullet. Oh well work in obama’s favor to win.

Vocabulary words: Callow, exuberant

With Iran’s government finally gaining control of its country, Iran is beginning to push it nuclear program by possibly test and developing short range missiles. The question that the United States and United Nation now have to decide is whether further sanctions are actually going to slow this nuclear program down. Constantly, the United Nations has tried to sanction these countries trying to gain their hold on these emerging new nuclear powers. North Korea has been sanctioned repeatedly, and still all summer they launch and test their new long range missiles.

The question now becomes where do we go from here with such a whimsical government as Iran? Are NATO, the UN, and the United States merely doomed to have to fight another war, which this world economy seems will not be able to afford?Now is the time for decision in situations such as Iran. The United States cannot afford to wait in this situation. We do not necessarily have to rush to start a war, but we do need to do something to either suspend or halt this project because its becoming obvious what countries like Iran and North Korea are trying to do. Iran is not trying to create nuclear energy for its country. Maybe it will be a by product someday in Iran, but currently all that government wants is power, and having nuclear capabilities is one way to gain that power.

So, now the question remains, what should we do in this situation? I do not have the answer right now, but there has to be a way to stop this program without war. The last thing we need is for more soldiers to die in wars that could have been avoided. So, now is the time for solutions. Sanction obviously do not work, so maybe its time to be creative. One thing I know is that when one solution fails, you do not continue to pursue that same solution, instead you adapt, modify, or even revise the solution to fabricate a new and hopefully better solution to this emerging problem.

Vocabulary Words: Whimsical, Fabricate.

With this recent push by Obama in these last few months on health care reform in this country, I have started to realize that there is a large group of people that would rather the health care system stay the same than to change on the plan that Obama is proposing. Though I can understand why people are disgruntled with this constant debate over this bill, and with the lack of cooperation between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to find a way to negotiate some bill that can improve the health care system in this country, I can not support the idea that we in the United States are better off without reform.

The idea that health care reform should either be put on hold or stopped completely I feel is a huge mistake for people to believe because indubitably there needs to be some kind of reform. That is the one thing Democrats and Republicans actually agree on right now. At this point in the United States life as a country, with us looking at an economy that is become increasingly more unstable, and where companies are starting to cut health insurance for employees just to save money that we as a country need some kind of reform in health care to put us back on track. In many cases in this country there are people that are unable to even obtain a health insurance policy, and of course the biggest problem with health care in this system is that because the doctor’s have sworn a oath to never turn away a patient, those who need life saving surgeries always have to be done. Which currently means that if someone uninsured needs one of these surgeries, we as the tax payers alread end up paying for them.

Which is why, at this point I have to say to those people who think health care does not need to be reformed, wake up. No matter how bad you don’t want a Democrat’s Health Care bill, wake up try to bring your worries to the attention of those around you, but don’t give up on the solving this issue althogether. Obviously we need some kind of reform, so its time to just sit down and work it out, even if it does end up taking longer than expected.

Vocabulary Words: indubitably, disgruntled