Is it right for the Government to track our phones?

"The National Security Agency is tracking the location and movements of hundreds of millions of cellphones outside the United States in an effort to find suspicious travel patterns or coordinated activities by intelligence targets, according to secret documents leaked by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden." what happened to the fourth Amendment? Yes, I get that we are trying to do everything we can to prevent something like 9/11 to happening again, but this is just crazy. We have the right to have our own privacy just like everyone els does in this world. The fourth Amendment was made for a reason. What if I went traveling all over the world just because i wanted to, and when i came back to the United States I was then accused of being a terrorist?

In October, The New York Times reported that the agency carried out a secret test project in 2010 and 2011 to collect large amounts of data on the location of Americans’ cellphones inside the United States. James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, confirmed the existence of the test program but said that it was never put into practice. We should have the right to know these types of situations that are going on in this world, especially when we are basically being stocked without even knowing it. 

Click Here

Argument On Where I Stand And Believe

I disagree  with Dylan Reeves article Where i stand and what i believe. In my opinion i think that America is not as strong as it used to be 10 years ago. We have changed so much in ways that some people are scared to whats going to happen next in todays world. For example, the government shut down, that is not something to is supposed to ever happen. Another example of how America is going down hill is Obama is trying to take away gun regulation. Most people have guns to defend themselves from the criminals we have. I would want to defend myself if i was in any sorts of danger. These are some examples as to why i believe America is going down.

Should Gay Couples Have Benifits

It first started on September 3, 2013, when the Pentagon gave permission to Alicia Butler and her wife,  Judith Chedville to have federal marriage benefits for couples who are married in the service. This couple is so excited to be felt for the first time  just as equal as everyone else in the world should.  The couple headed to Austin,TX where they were automatically treated horrible by being called "one of those." Not only were they just classified as "one of those" but they were told they had to drive another 70 miles to Fort Hood to get their benefit situation taken care of. The reason: Texas is one of six states refusing to comply with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's order that gay spouses of National Guard members be given the same federal marriage benefits as heterosexual spouses. Mr. Hagel’s decree, which applies to all branches of the military, followed the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act that had prohibited the federal government from recognizing same- sex marriages". 

What Kind of Insurance Do You Want?

On October 22, 2013, Cathleen Decker wrote a story about how Colorado is advertising Obama care insurance differently than we normally would see on ads or TV. The ad comes off as young, careless frat guys just trying to have fun in life. “My girlfriend broke my heart, so me and the bros went golfing. Then my buddy broke my head. Good thing Mom made sure I got insurance." By creating this ad, we can already tell that the insurance is wanting to make this humors but i don't believe this is necessary to adversities in the first place. 


The Obama care also has another line referring to you adults by saying“Keg stands are crazy, not having health insurance is crazier. Don’t tap into your beer money to cover those medical bills. We got it covered, now you can too.” I get that they are trying to strive for younger audience, but i personally wouldn't take this insurance seriously just because of the words they are using when trying to pursed people into buying this insurance. The director that came up with this ad said “We wanted to inject a little bit of humor and have it be fun and have it catch some attention — and sometimes you have to push the envelope a little bit to do that. The idea is really to help those populations realize they have some options.” I get that Obama Care is trying to help out us young adults because don't make a lot of income at the moment and we are trying to finish school, but once again i just cant really take this ad seriously. 


The author Cathleen Decker was wanting to go for a younger audience. Her argument was that she agreed this was funny and that she thinks it as well would help the Obama Care out. I completely disagree with her because not all college students are going to think this is funny. I hope some see like me that if i did get Obama Care that it wouldn't be as "cool" as they are making it seem like.

Click Here

Yes or No To Military Death Benefits

The Government shutdown has caused a few minor issues since the republicans decided to make this a major issue.  One of the many effect's that has occurred since the Government shutdown, is the Military families do not receive death benefits while the government is shut down. There has been a total of five deaths since October 1st, 2013 and none of those families will be receiving any compensation because of the shutdown. These benefits include "$100,000 to families of those killed; a 12-month basic allowance for housing, usually given in a lump sum to survivors commensurate with the rank of the service member; and burial benefits" said Carol Woog. 

A couple of days later, Congress passed the "Pay Our Military Act after the shutdown. It ensured that active duty soldiers and civilian support staff members were paid for their work." This is honestly the right thing to do. These men and woman are fighting for our country. The least we can do for their families is give them all the original benefits they should have received before the Government shut down. 

The Author, Jennifer Steinhauer did a really good job reaching out to the audience of active and retired Military by bringing attention to the world on how the Government is treating its Militaries families. Jennifer's clearly states that she is against not paying military benefits. One of the main reasons citizens join the Military is the amazing benefits they offer. I completely agree that even though the government is shut down, we still need to give the Military benefits. Hopefully the Government will be back up and running soon, but until then we just have to keep crossing our fingers that we maintain order. The longer the Government stays down, the more issues and concerns we may have in our future

Click Here

Pressure For Success!

Just when we thought all Harvard kids were all Einstein's, we were all wrong. More than 42% of
freshman admitted to cheating on a test, and 10% of the students admitted to cheating off of homework. In March 2012, Harvard Quiz Bowl team won not just one but four championships had vacated because of cheating scandals involving a student.  "At the end of this process, we hope that Harvard will not only continue to beat national averages in reports of cheating, but also strengthen Harvard's culture of integrity, in which cheating is the rare exception."]- Jeff Neal 

If Harvard has this much cheating going on, then obviously the teachers are really not doing a good job looking around to make sure thats not happening.  Since Harvard is already so hard to get into, you would think they would take cheating very seriously, especially while taking a test. But if we brake this down even more, students go to school to be successful in life. Us students already have so much pressure to get that 4.0 G.P.A at the end of the semester. What if these Harvard students honestly really do study their brains out? What if their just so stressed that they forget an answer because all they are thinking about is the pressure to pass this test. Now I'm not saying its okay to cheat at all. What I'm saying is maybe teachers need to understand what we go through when were taking a test. I know not everyone is not the same but the pressure during a test has a huge impact on students grades.

Click Here