You've most likely heard of it by now, unless you get all your news from Dora the Explorer. I don't think she's been covering foreign policy much lately, unless you include
the immigration reform.
The US use of drones seems to be a strictly B-List political issue. It's not as prominent as gun control, but it's also not off to the wayside like education, for instance. Drones are unmanned aircraft used by the Air Force. Surveillance drones are used for taking photos and videos and aiding in reconnaissance. Predator drones are the ones frequently shown in pictures, like the one above. They can see people from the sky while people can't see them. They are equipped with missiles to remotely take out targets. The political issue of drones is about predator drones and specifically the use of drone against US citizens, and civilian deaths and the "double tap" policy. It's likely that you remember the thirteen-hour filibuster by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Rand was trying to prevent the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA director and, more importantly, call attention to the president's ability to use drone strikes against US citizens on US territory. After thirteen straight hours of talking by Rand, the administration gave its answer. While it is clearly against the Fifth Amendment for a president to just go out and declare the death penalty on someone, Eric Holder answered in typical lawyer fashion.
"It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance I which it would be necessary and appropriate u der the constitution and applicable laws of the US for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the US." Holder said, though, that such a circumstance is unlikely. All this use of the words "US territory" is an effect of one terrible incident that happened in 2011. Anwar al Awlaki was a radical Muslim Imam and clearly linked to Al Qaeda. His son, however, was not. Abdulrahman al Awlaki was a 16 year old US citizen. Without any charges or trial, or anything that would cause anyone to think he had done anything wrong, this 16 year old Boy from Denver was killed by a drone strike in Yemen. The circumstances around the death are unclear, but surely they were "unlikely".
Another thing talked about in the drone debate is civilian deaths. Under the Obama administration, 22 terrorists have been killed by drones. For that 22 terrorists, 800 civilians have been killed. What's worse is that sometimes, the children deaths aren't a mistake. Army Lt. Col. Marion Carrington, quoted in a Marine Times article, said that “It kind of opens our aperture” that children are being used in the conflict. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent."
On December 3rd, it was reported that three children were targeted for a drone strike for digging a hole in the ground. That is absolutely disgusting to anyone with the smallest sense of morality. A full list of children killed ideone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen can be found at http://www.policymic.com/articles/24164/a-list-of-children-killed-by-drone-strikes-in-Pakistan-and-yemen
However, what may be even more disgusting is the "double tap" policy. In a double tap, a drone strike happens on a target, and then soon after, after first responders and other people have come to help, a second strike happens on the same target. Can you imagine if this happened in America? Can you imagine if an enemy bombed a target in the United States and ten bombed the same place soon afterward? We would be livid, and rightfully so.
Lastly, even if you don't have a heart or soul, you still must be against drone strikes. They are, in the end, counterproductive. Recent polls show that 74% of Pakistanis consider the United States an enemy. All that a lot of Pakistanis know about the United States is this: they are the country that sent a missile at the house next to mine to kill a terrorist, it he process they hit my house and killed my family. We wonder why they don't like us so much.
It's no secret that the Republican Party needs a face-lift. If they go on just like 2012 without changing, they will be the perpetual minority party, ironically. I say that because it is the demographics that are the Republicans' real problem. They've lost Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Women, Jewish people, young people, religions other than Christianity, and white people in cities. People are just tired of the sly, filthy-stinking-rich Republican party of Mitt Romney, too.
(People are tired of the party because it's as rich and white as a cheesecake.)
Is Rand Paul the answer? For those of you who have been living in the Sahara desert for the past year, Rand Paul is a Republican senator from Kentucky. While the mainstream republicans are fiscally conservative, socially conservative (but changing), and generally work toward a larger government, Rand Paul is socially conservative, fiscally conservative, and works toward a smaller government. That small-government, libertarian streak in him makes him appealing to more demographics than the establishment Republicans like Romney. Rand Paul made national noise a few weeks ago when he spoke for 13 hours to filibuster Obama's CIA director nomination and drone policy. He's been making what seem to be pre-election work lately, and many are whispering of a 2016 Paul-Clinton showdown. I can confirm that Rand Paul will make a presidential bid in 2016, because since his filibuster, he has been to South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Iowa. What would Rand run on?
The Issues
Abortion
Rand has historically been against all abortion, everywhere at any time, but now he has revised his stance to permitting it when the mother's life is threatened and things of that nature.
Drones
Of course Rand is against droning of US citizens, he has said that droning is sometimes necessary.
The Economy
Rand is most upset about the debt. He repeatedly states that borrowing $50,000 per second is not sustainable. He advocates rolling spending back to 2008 levels. Rand wants to lower taxes and end the Federal Reserve.
Marriage Equality
Rand supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. This goes against his "liberty" mantra, obviously.
Energy/Environment
In 2010, Rand said that the EPA should not regulate carbon emissions.
Foreign Policy
Rand thinks that the US should exit the UN and stay out of wars.
Gun Control
For Rand Paul, gun control is not an option.
"Come at me, Chris. Come at me."
In my opinion, Rand Paul is not electable as it stands. His positions are just too extreme for the moderates and liberals to even ponder.He has already started to appear on news networks and reel himself in, though. Recently, he changed his positions on drones and abortion from absolute to more reasonable.
At eighty-seven years old, the former prime minister of the UK died on Monday after a series of strokes. She was the UK's longest serving prime minister in the last 100 years, serving more than twelve years. She revitalized a sickly economy for her country and forged a strong partnership and friendship with Ronald Reagan, especially when standing strong against the Soviet Union.
There will be a funeral ceremony, with full military honors, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral, following a procession from Westminster.
The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the service, Buckingham Palace said.
Ah, the American South. You never know what they'll do next down there. The state of Georgia has been making quite a fool of itself in the past week or so. I wrote an article a couple days ago about a town in Georgia mandating gun ownership, and now, another town in Georgia is making national noise because it still has segregated dances. Yes, that's right. Their dances are s-e-g-r-e-g-a-t-e-d.
Wilcox County's (which coincidentally, was where Jefferson Davis was captured after the Civil War) public High School has had segregated proms and homecomings for the last 30 years. Every year they have two proms, one for white students, and one for everybody else. Last year, a mixed-race student showed up at the white prom, and they were actually apprehended by the police. Last year was te first year the Wilcox County High School actually had only one homecoming dance. The homecoming king and queen were of different races, one black and one white, so they weren't allowed to take a picture together for the year book. Some students at the school, invluding the ones pictured abovehave been pushing for one, integrated prom. They put posters up around the school trying to gain support, and the posters were torn down.
Some paces never cease to amaze me. Many a time, the rest of the United States has had to pull the South, kicking and screaming, into whatever century it happened to be. We obviously saw this with slavery. These states broke away from the country, and fought a war over the right to keep slaves. That wasn't the end of it though. Mississippi didn't ratify the 13th amenendment, which abolished slavery, until 1995. It took 130 years for the Hospitality State to accept abolition. And still, all over the region, there are still fights going on when elected officials want to fly the Confederate battle flag, the symbol of their treachery, in their courthouses and Capitol buildings.
Then there was Women's Suffrage. The South, of course, was lagging behind on this issue of fundamental rights.
And forget same-sex marriage. It took the South until 1967 to legalize interacial marriage. It just wasn't traditional!
(Interracial marriage legalized: Before 1887, 1948-1967, 12 June 1967)
But wait; there's more! The North Carolina legislature was working earlier this week on legislation that said that the 1st amendment, the most crucial law in American history, did not apply to North Carolina. The bill said each state "is sovereign" and courts cannot block a state "from making laws respecting an establishment of religion."
But back to prom. I have confidence that next year, Wilcox County High school will hold a non-bigoted prom. The press they've gotten over this is just too bad. But like I said, you never know what they'll do next down there.
We've all heard them, those crazy people who desperately try to tie a grand, secret, all-encompassing reason in random noise. Conspiracy theorists will always come up with some ridiculous nonsense whenever anything happens, and even when nothing happens. There would be no problem if some guy wanted to sit in his basement all day long, drawing out how the Illuminati are taking over the world, and somehow, he's the only person to figure it out, but that's not all that happens. People actually believe these nutcases even in the face of massive amounts of evidence that points otherwise. A polling organization in North Carolina recently did a poll on conspiracy theory beliefs in the US. The results are embarrassing, especially since the poll focuses on people who are voters. 37% believe global warming is a hoax. 28% believe that there is a secret power elite that is making a New World Order with one, authoritarian government. 28% believe Saddam Hussein had to do with the 9/11 attacks. 20% believe there is a link between vaccines and autism. 7% believe humans have never been to the moon. 13%, including 1 in 5 republicans, believe Barack Obama is the Biblical anti-Christ. 14% believe in Bigfoot. An astounding 4% believe that there exist lizard-people who are gaining control of America by being elected to public office. 1 in 25 people believe this! Find the full poll results here.
I am writing this post today to show how ludicrous these beliefs are.
Global Warming
As we can see using this chart from the Stanford University Solar Center, especially since the 1970's, there has been a significant rise in average global temperature, and at the same time, there has been a significant spike in CO2 emissions. This gas has a greenhouse effect on our environment, causing our climate to rise in temperature. Stanford University also said:
"Global Warming -- a gradual increase in planet-wide temperatures -- is now well documented and accepted by scientists as fact. A panel convened by the U.S National Research Council, the nation's premier science policy body, in June 2006 voiced a "high level of confidence" that Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, and possibly even the last 2,000 years. Studies indicate that the average global surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.5-1.0°F (0.3-0.6°C) over the last century. This is the largest increase in surface temperature in the last 1,000 years and scientists are predicting an even greater increase over this century. This warming is largely attributed to the increase of greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide and methane) in the Earth's upper atmosphere caused by human burning of fossil fuels, industrial, farming, and deforestation activities.
Average global temperatures may increase by 1.4-5.8ºC (that's 2.5 - 10.4º F) by the end of the 21st century. Although the numbers sound small, they can trigger significant changes in climate. (The difference between global temperatures during an Ice Age and an ice-free period is only about 5ºC.) Besides resulting in more hot days, many scientists believe an increase in temperatures may lead to changes in precipitation and weather patterns. Warmer ocean water may result in more intense and frequent tropical storms and hurricanes. Sea levels are also expected to increase by 0.09 - 0.88 m. in the next century, mainly from melting glaciers and expanding seawater . Global Warming may also affect wildlife and species that cannot survive in warmer environments may become extinct. Finally, human health is also at stake, as global Climate Change may result in the spreading of certain diseases such as malaria, the flooding of major cities, a greater risk of heat stroke for individuals, and poor air quality."
The New World Order
This is one of the more mysterious conspiracies out there. It is the idea that some secret organization, most commonly the Illuminati, is conspiring to take over the world, and that they are doing it as we speak by influencing and gaining control of powerful families, religious institutions, and governments. Another version of this same conspiracy is that the Free Mason organization is gaining control of the world in the same way.
As far as the Illuminati go, the name "Illuminati" refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment -era society founded on May 1, 1776 to oppose superstition, prejudice, religious influence over public life, abuses of state power, and to support women's education and gender equality. The Illuminati were outlawed along with other secret societies by the Bavarian Government with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, and permanently disbanded in 1785.[1] In the several years following, the group was vilified by conservative and religious critics who claimed they had regrouped and were responsible for the French Revolution.
The real Illuminati were formed to fight state power, not increase it; and to fight religious influence, not to influence it themselves.
The Free Masons only meet as a fraternity to do charitable acts, and they aren't really a "secret" society, anyway. Any person can walk up to their local Masonic lodge and check the next meeting time. Either they're not secret, or they are terrible at it.
Vaccines and Autism
This one is a more recent invention, but it has still been completely discredited. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that even when multiple inoculations are given on the same day, children are at no higher risk of developing autism, according to the report published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
“This study looked into the concern that receiving too many vaccines at one doctor’s visit or too many vaccines during the first two years of life may be linked to the development of autism,” the report’s lead author, Dr. Frank DeStefano told NBC chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman in and interview. “We found they’re not related.”
“We did not find any relationship between the number of antigens and the risk of autism,” said DeStafano, Director of the Immunization Safety Office at the CDC.The CDC researchers conducted the study by reviewing the vaccination histories collected between 1994 and 1999 of 256 children with autism and 752 children who did not have the disorder. They calculated the number of antigens – the substances in a vaccine that stimulate disease-fighting antibodies – that infants are exposed to either on one doctor’s visit or overall during the first two years.
The CDC study comes amidst reports that increasing numbers of parents are delaying or skipping childhood inoculations, fearing side effects or the risk of autism and other learning disabilities.
A 2012 study, which examined medical records for 97,711 Portland, Oregon children, found an almost four-fold increase between 2006 and 2009 in the percentage of parents who delayed or skipped vaccinations, researches reported in the journal "Pediatrics". Experts say that by delaying certain vaccinations, parents may be putting their children -- and those of others -- at a far greater risk of contracting deadly diseases, such as pneumonia and whooping cough, also known as pertussis. In 2012, the US experienced the worst epidemic of whooping cough in 50 years.
The Moon Landing
The Mythbusters did a pretty good job of dealing with this.
Obama Anti-Christ
This makes absolutely no sense. I don't really know what to say about it. I mean, the devil is not a brown-skinned, anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare, that's Jesus.
Bigfoot
The sheer elusiveness of the creature makes it illogical to believe in. With technology today scientists can take a single strand of hair and pinpoint the source of the hair using DNA analysis. Never has there been found a hair, bone, nor stool sample to prove its existence. Probably because Bigfoot hunters (and yes there really are Bigfoot hunters) are not looking for this sort of controversial evidence. They prefer to tease their retarded followers with grainy images and here-say.
Lizard People
I'm going to have to concede this one. The photographic evidence of Lizard People trying to gain powerful positions is just too good.
Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Brat of North Korea, has been making a lot of fuss about war in recent weeks. It all started back in early March, when the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed new sanctions on the reclusive state. The ruler of this starving, bankrupted nation was deeply offended and angered when these sanctions on luxury yachts and jewelry were approved. Kim Jong was Unamused North Korea responded to the sanctions by cutting of contact with South Korea across the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. After a little while, the North started up a new line of rhetoric, saying that it reserved the right of a preemptive strike on the United States, and that it would turn Seoul, the capital of South Korea, into a "sea of fire". North Korea continued acting out, having military drills and reopening nuclear plants. On March 11, the North Korean army declared that the armistice treaty that put a pause on the Korean War, to be "invalid," and that the North had entered a "state of war" with the South. Recently, Little Kim, as he is known to the news media, had missiles moved to the east coast of the country, pointed toward the United States. This week, North Korea reported that the "moment of explosion" was soon approaching. Russian officials have been in close contact with South Korea, Japan, the US, and the UK, after the North Korean government told them that the Russian and other foreign embassies will not be able to be protected after April 10th. North Korean missiles are not expected by anyone to reach the United States, but South Korea and Japan are a much different story. I, personally, don't find it likely that the North would carry out any military action, because China has condemned the idea. You see, on the international stage, North Korea is like a spoiled toddler, and China is its mom. If, however, Kim Jong Unafraid decides to fully embrace the Juche idea of self-reliance that North Korea is founded on, and carry out a strike on any of its neighbors, it will be the end of the Kim dynasty, and the Koreas will most likely be reunified. The joint US-South Korean forces located in South Korea will gain control of the country, and China will probably be too overwhelmed with refugees to stop it. We Americans would then be able to retry what we planned for the Iraq war: take out the evil dictator, put the good guys in charge, and get out.
My favorite part of this whole series of events has been when Anonymus, the computer network hacker group, actually hacked the North Korean government. That goes to show how powerful Anonymus is. They hacked the government's network, put ridiculous pictures on the state media sites, and even recovered 1500 email addresses from state officials.
(This is a pretty awesome picture that Anonymus posted)
At the turn of the 20th century, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan's General Electric were duking it out for to see just who would bring light to the homes of America. Now, we find ourselves in the 21st century, and a similar battle is taking place. We are today in the midst of the Tech Wars.
The Backstory
The Tech Wars started in 1985, when Microsoft came out with the first Windows operating system. The Mac OS X system was born only one month earlier, and it introduced the magical technology of GUIs, or graphic user interfaces. The GUI revolutionized computer by making computers the least degree user friendly. Before GUI, the only way to operate a computer was by typing flawless lines of command prompt code. Needless to say, both Microsoft and Apple jumped on the innovation.
Then, everything changed. In 1990, the first web browser was released. The browser was originally called WorldWideWeb, but became known as Nexus. Microsoft countered by releasing Internet Explorer.
A mini-war, known as the Browser War, was short lived. Internet Explorer did, but does not continue to dominate web browsing, but there will be more on that later on. Meanwhile, the U.S. government had given up neutrality in the Tech Wars and took a stance against Microsoft. It was apparent that Bill Gates had monopolized the PC industry. The trial of United States v. Microsoft began on May 18, 1998, when the Department of Justice and the Attorneys General of twenty U.S. states sued Microsoft for disposing of competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly. In October 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice also sued Microsoft for violating a 1994 consent decree by forcing computer makers to include its Internet browser as a part of the installation of Windows software.
Bill Gates was called "evasive and nonresponsive" by a source present at a session in which Gates was questioned on his deposition. He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "concerned", "ask", and "we". Businessweek reported that "early rounds of his depostition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance have been directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of email Gates both sent and received." Intel Vice-President Steve McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz, a senior Microsoft vice president, as having stated an intention to "extinguish" and "smother" rival Netscape Communications and to "cut off Netscape's air supply" by giving away a clone of Netscape's flagship product for free.
On June 7, 2000, the court ordered a breakup of Microsoft as its "remedy". According to that judgment, Microsoft would have to be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components.
In January 1996, while the trial was in its twilight, two Stanford PhD students were beginning a research project. The project went through many names, including PageRank and BackRub, but the final name was eventually chosen: Google. The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997, and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998. The name "Google" is actually a play on on the word "googol" Googol is the number 1 followed by one hundred 0's.
Google's original homepage
Google's first production server
Google is currently in an attempt to slowly win the Tech Wars outright, but there will be more on that later on.
On November 10th, 2001, a new battlefield was burst into by Apple, when they introduced the first iPod. iTunes arrived on the seen in January, 2000. There have since been four lines of iPod: the classic, shuffle, nano, and touch.
While Windows XP, the then and still now most widely used computer operatring system was flourishing, It was a cold night at Harvard in February, 2004. Another new battleground was found when Mark Zuckerberg launched The Facebook.
Facebook was ruler of social networks, even called "The Social Network," but little did Zuckerberg know that his status was about to update. On March 21, 2006, a new social network was formed with a courageous battle cry, or more appropriately, tweet. Twitter and Google+ are simultaneously plotting a coup to overthrow Mark Zuckerberg as you read these very words.
Today
So, who exactly is ahead in the Tech Wars. We shall now break the battle down, topic by topic.
Computers
As we can see, Microsoft clearly crushes all competition when it comes to computer usage and operating systems.
By far, the most widely used Windows system is XP.
As far as smartphones go, the result is not as expected.
Websites
While Facebook is on the decline, it is still up toward the top of the website list. Twitter still has a long way to go, but Google has extended its tentacles and seizes control of the World Wide Web with a combined 1.35 million monthly visitors to the Google homepage and the google-owned YouTube.
Facebook comes in 2nd with 700 thousand monthly visitors, half that of Google's sites. Yahoo! is in 3rd with 500 thousand. Who still uses Yahoo!, anyway. Yahoo! is to Google as MySpace is to Facebook. Wikipedia, MSN, Amazon, and Ebay all then preeed Twitter, which receives 200 thousand monthly visitors. At number 10 is Bing. Bing gets 165 thousand views a month. Bing is an acronym for "Because It's Not Google," and because it's not Google, Microsoft's search engine has no chance in the internet game. Bing is to Google as Amazon is to iTunes. Stay in software, Billy. On the other hand, Microsoft and Google are neck-and-neck in the browser wars.
Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox
Money
The almighty dollar is the driving force in the Tech Wars. The battle for cash is a four-horse race between Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Facebook.
No one touches Bill Gates in personal fortunes.
Apple, though, leads the way in company value.
Apple: $176 Billion
Microsoft: $121 Billion
Google: $93 Billion
Facebook: N/A
Wild Card: Google
Google is the wild card in this war because it is the only competitor to have a popular search engine (Google), video site (YouTube), browser (Chrome), computer (Chromebook), and social network (Google+).
The winner of the Tech Wars will ultimately be in sole control of the most powerful thing ever created by humankind: the Internet.
(The internet as shown by site traffic Google is the brightest dot.)
Our nation of reactionary sheep has had a lot of talk about guns since that December massacre. Most people have learned who Wayne LaPierre and the NRA are, and a Marist poll has shown that more than 95% of our country has opinions on new gun control legislation. In fact, a Marist poll reports that 60% of those polled favor stricter laws in general (including 43% of gun owners); 59% are in favor of banning assault weapons; an overwhelming eighty-seven percent support universal background checks before gun sales, while only 12% oppose. It is amazing that in a democracy, the people's opinion has so little to do with legislation. What really matters is the wants of special interest groups, and what scares me is that an NRA spokesman said this week that the group advocates having more guns in schools. Historically speaking, that hasn't worked out to well. Thankfully, Connecticut's senate passed new laws yesterday banning high capacity magazines and 100 weapons that had previously been legal.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. I was struck when finding two similarly crazy stories two days in a row.
In Texas, the Armed Citizens Project has been raising money in order to give people free guns. Once people pass a background check and a safety course, the Project is just giving out guns. Here you go!
A town north of Atlanta is upping the Texans in this Second Amendment game of chicken. Nelson, Georgia's city council voted to mandate gun ownership. To be fair, the ordinance is not quite as crazy as it sounds at first. It excludes felons, and people known to be mentally ill, but applies to everyone else. That is, unless any citizen objects to gun ownership. That has to be the most useless law I've ever heard of. All citizens are required to own guns, unless they don't want to.
It'd be fun to watch if the game of chicken continued. Imagine if some state, like Kentucky for instance, set up stands on the street where people could check out guns for an hour or two. Then, maybe in Mississippi, all cars will be fitted with Gatling guns othe roof, while over in Alabama, all citizens' houses will have rocket launchers attached to them. Roll tide!
I just had to post this guy. He was protesting the gun laws in Connecticut. His sign on the right side of the picture is hilarious. First he says, "ConnecTicuT!!!" with spastic capitalization and three exclamation points. Then below a version of the USSR flag, he says, "The unconstitional STaTe!!!" First of all, he has more of his capitalized T's and three exclamation marks, but what really makes the picture what it is is the fact that he misspells "unconstitutional". How educated we Americans are!
