22. April 2009 by student.

Did you know that 80% to 90% of criminal offenders released from confinement are rearrested for new lawbreaking activity within five years of being set free.  Why do these people keep committing crime after crime.  Is it because punishments for criminal are rarely applied to the majority of offenders.  Statistics show that few lawbreakers are ever arrested and that of those who are, fewer still are convicted of the crimes with which they have been charged.  Most offenders are just released, fined, or placed on probation.  Only a few are sent to prison, which besides capital punishment, is the most severe type of punishment we have today.  Sources from the Bureau of Justice Statistics have shown that fewer than 1% of criminal law violators in America can be expected to spend time in prison as punishment for their crimes.  The few people who do go to prison most likely ever serve anything close to the sentences that have been given them.  Many inmates serve only a small fraction of their sentences due to early release made possible by time off for good behavior, mandated reentry training, and prison overcrowding.  So what is this telling us?  If we are not handing out proper punishments and have criminals not serve their whole puishment then what are criminals going to be afraid of.  If all we do is give them a slap in the wrist then they are just going to keep on doing it over and over.

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22. April 2009 by student.

Not too long ago, I heard on the news that there was a proposal to ban spanking in California. After I heard that I had to stop and think. Do we want to take away physical disciplinary actions from the parents in this nation? If my son or daughter does something wrong and if I feel he/she needs a spanking to make him/her think twice before that action is done again, then so be it.

I grew up in a family that was very tight knit. Both my parents worked and were very involved in my life, school, activities. I wasn’t always the best child to take care of and I did get into trouble every once in a while. Out of the countless times that I’ve gotten in trouble with my parents, I could count the times that I’ve actually been spanked on one hand. For what ever reason it was that I got spanked, I made sure that I never did it again.

I believe that there is a balance between physical discipline and taking away privileges. I believe that if my child comes home with poor grades, I’m going to cut back recreational time and focus more on studying. If he intentionally hurts a person with no valid cause, than I am going to spank him and make him apologize to who ever he hurt. If he is old enough to drive and he gets a traffic ticket, then he loses his privilege to drive and he has to pay the ticket.

Discipline is not wrong, but discipline should fit the cause for it.

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22. April 2009 by student.

Many people and governments around the world consider graffiti as a social problem. Graffiti is not a new phenomenon. The term ‘graffiti’ refers to an activity which has a long history and which has taken various forms. The word ‘graffiti’ derives from the ancientGreek (yrafo, meaning ‘to write’) and from Latin (graffito, meaning to ‘scratch’). It is commonly understood to mean writing on walls. Graffiti was practiced in both ancient Greece and Rome (examples have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum), and wasalso common in the early modern, medieval and Elizabethan periods. The reason graffiti is a problem is because in recent times the extent of graffiti in the public domain has increased dramatically. The impact on the streetscape is significant and deleterious to local amenity, although a minority would consider some forms of graffiti as public art. Scientific analysis of social impacts associated with graffiti have identified that a social problem exists as a result of community perception with graffiti and its linkage to the fear of crime. These investigations have also identified that in locations where there is significance incidence of graffiti there is community concern over the general indifference of local authorities towards community well being and the presentation of safe public places.As a consequence to these community concerns all states and territories within Australia have introduced graffiti legislation in an attempt to control the problem.

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22. April 2009 by student.

Global warming is a major concern by many scientist all over the world.One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other sources include methane released from landfills and agriculture, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.  Different greenhouse gases have very different heat-trapping abilities. Some of them can even trap more heat than CO2. A molecule of methane produces more than 20 times the warming of a molecule of CO2. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than CO2. Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, have heat-trapping potential thousands of times greater than CO2. But because their concentrations are much lower than CO2, none of these gases adds as much warmth to the atmosphere as CO2 does. In order to understand the effects of all the gases together, scientists tend to talk about all greenhouse gases in terms of the equivalent amount of CO2. Since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by about 6 billion metric tons of “carbon dioxide equivalent” worldwide, more than a 20% increase.     There are many ways to lower the amounts of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, including improvements to energy efficiency and vehicle fuel economy (so less energy has to be produced), and increases in wind and solar power, hydrogen produced from renewable sources, biofuels (produced from crops), natural gas, and nuclear power.  There is also the potential to capture the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels and store it underground,a process called “carbon sequestration.” Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the Earth would still warm by another degree Fahrenheit or more. But what we do from today forward makes a big difference.  Depending on our choices, scientists predict that the Earth could eventually warm by as little as 2.5 degrees or as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. A common goal amongst scientists is to stabilize GHG concentrations around 450-550 parts per million (ppm), or about twice pre-industrial levels. This is the point at which many believe the most damaging impacts of climate change can be avoided.  Current concentrations are about 380 ppm, which means there isn’t much time to lose.  According to the IPCC, we’d have to reduce GHG emissions by 50% to 80% of what they’re on track to be in the next century to reach this level. 

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22. April 2009 by student.

I hear so many different points of views when it comes to immigration (legal or not), that I truly believe that people don’t realize what they’re saying. Let’s ‘put up walls’? infest the waters surrounding our borders with alligators? or even deporting first time offenders? What has America come to that as a whole nation, we decide ‘we don’t want you’, ‘you don’t pay taxes’, ‘you’re just going to free load off  of us’. The sad truth is that the vast majority of immigrants (legal or not) come here to better improve their lives. They want to come to the land of the free and home of the brave. To a place where women can wear pants and put on make up, where a family can practice their religion with out being stoned to death, and where everyone is different and a CHANCE to better their life.

The illegal immigrants that DO occupy our home land have made a great journey to get here.  The majority of Americans think that Mexicans are the only illegal immigrants to make it here, so I’ll start with them. The journey they take to get here is long and dangerous, more so than say being an American soldier in Iraq. Many of these desperate people make the travel with no clothing besides what they’re wearing on their back and the shoes on there feet, they have no vehicles to travel in only their feet to carry them, if a coyote (someone who helps immigrants to cross the borders) is willing to take them, they could use most of their life savings to pay them and often times only to be given up to authorities. If they decide to walk, they have to go through the desert to TRY and avoid border control, if they are lucky enough to make it past that hurdle then they have to avoid the dangerous wild life they might meet in that desert and worry about dehydration and the cold nights. After all the walking it takes from even the closest Mexican city to the closest city in the U.S., theses brave men (and some women and children) can arrive emaciated, dehydrated, and sores, blisters, and infection on their feet from all the walking they’ve done and conditions that they’ve had to endure. Once they get here they’re already homeless with no life here.

 If they can go through all that trouble just for a CHANCE to establish a better life for themselves and their family, let them stay. Let them stay, because they already have something that most of us ‘Americans’ have. An appreciation and understanding of WHAT AMERICA IS and WHAT AMERICA STANDS FOR, the right to PURSUE happiness.

They start paying taxes the moment they arrive, they just have no way of claiming them. The moment they arrive, they start learning english. The moment they arrive, they start to work, and they usually work the jobs that we ‘Americans’ are too good for. They’ll clean the bathrooms that we wouldn’t think of touching. They’ll cut the grass we don’t have time to cut. They’ll take that laborious journey to establish a hope for their future and the future of their kids, when we won’t even WALK to the 7-eleven to get a gallon of milk; we have to drive ourselves.

 Instead of trying to push them away and have nothing to do with them, let’s learn from them. Let’s learn to appreciate what we AMERICANS have built upon. Let’s take pride in ourselves. I read a previous post on immigration here, it said “3 out every 100 people in America are immigrants” that’s 3% of America. 3%! Are we really fussing over 3%? Stop being selfish.

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22. April 2009 by student.

The Earth is not ours to do with whatever we please. Today is Earth Day and I think that it should be Earth Day every day. After our assignment on the Earth Footprint I really realized what I was doing to our Earth… Yes some people try and can’t be 100% eco-friendly, but if we all did something small we would see a huge change.

It is expensive going green but small simple things do not cost that much. Pick up a canvas bag at any local grocery store and at the most it will be a dollar. Stop using plastic bags especially if you are not going to recycle them and take them back to your grocery store. Car pool, this is so easy especially when you know people at work or school who go to the same place every day and maybe leave at the same time, car pooling will help with the pollution. California has laws that are helping to make our Earth better and more of our states should follow.

On the Ellen Show she had a special for Earth Day and how to become green or move towards being green. Some things are expensive but if you think about it overtime it is worth it, it will end up costing you less and be better for our earth. Turn off lights when you leave the room, don’t bush your teeth with the water running- there is NOT a unlimited amount of water for us to use, I don’t get why people think this,  close your door if the AC is on, use energy saving light bulbs, they even last longer.

It is not hard to be green, and even if what we do doesn’t affect us right now, our kids will see it and their grandchildren. We need to start taking care of the earth. They even have 15 steps to going green for the lazy– http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30330043/

Start off small, it’s very easy, and if you just don’t care…karma

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22. April 2009 by student.

Just recently I decided that I am going to get a dog. I decided that looking at the humane society and shelters would be a good idea because they need good homes.

So many animals are being euthanized everyday because of the overpopulation in these and No Kill groups are trying the best they can to help them. There needs to be more action from everyday people. The simplest thing you can do is get your dogs and cats spayed and neutered. When I see these poor animals in these shelters and rescues with no home to go to hurts so badly. Socially we need to change this. Somehow we should regulate how many breeders we have and make sure that they have a license to breed. Many of these animals come from puppy mills where puppies are left in hot crates usually outside in such bad conditions with little food and water. Animals have rights, and even watching one episode of animal cops opens your eyes to how horrible and inhumane people can be to animals.

Pet stores abuse their rights to sell pets when they keep them in unsafe conditions and abuse them. So many animals are sick and even fish should not be kept in bad conditions. People are meant to be these animals’ guardians…

·         Animals Are Not Ours to Eat ·         Animals Are Not Ours to Wear ·         Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On ·         Animals Are Not Ours to Use for Entertainment ·         Animals Are Not Ours to Abuse in Any Way I found and article and video on PETA’s website that was so hurting…

PetSmart may be smart about making money, but it’s clueless when it comes to taking proper care of the animals it buys and sells by the millions. The company’s trade in live animals supports a mass-breeding industry just as cruel as—and less regulated than—the puppy mill industry; results in abysmal treatment of tiny, vulnerable beings; and ultimately leads to their overpopulation, homelessness, neglect, and suffering.

This is the viedo, it is graphic so if you are not okay with seeing these things, do not look at it….

<embed src=”http://www.peta.org/swf/RWE_web_edit_01_2008.swf” quality=”high” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”335″ height=”255″ allowScriptAccess=”always”></embed><br />Investigation Reveals Horrors at<br />PetSmart Supplier.<br />Watch more videos at <a target=”_blank” href=”http://www.peta.org?c=pmtv1″>PETA.org</a>.

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22. April 2009 by student.

In my closet I have a Free Tibet shirt that I got for my birthday last year because my parents thought I’d like something about
Tibet since I was reading so much about them. The whole Free Tibet isn’t as black and white as many people see it.
China bad,
Tibet good, FREE TIBET!! That’s what most peoples view on Tibet is and many people seem to be jumping in the Free Tibet bandwagon cause they think it’s the right thing to do and its being supported by so many.

            Well it’s not that simple. True,
China has done some pretty bad things in
Tibet including taking over them in 1959, the whole human rights thing being violated in
Tibet, and religious and cultural genocide has been mentioned a few times as well. All of these are good reasons to Free Tibet but many people don’t look at other sides of the argument. Since the 13^th century
Tibet has been mostly a protectorate of
China, actually
Tibet belonged to
China till almost the early 1900s meaning they were free for about 50 years. Tibetans have a much better life under Chinese rule than when they were an Independent country “In Tibet, we paid much too little attention to technological and economic development, and today we realize that this was a mistake.”–Dalai Lama

            The life expectancy of Tibetans has almost doubled since the 1950s, Tibetans have the 2^nd highest wages in all of
China, and Tibetans also don’t have to follow the 1-child rule policy most Chinese are forced to follow. Overall Tibetans seemed to be pretty happy with how they’re doing and the ones that aren’t happy are the monks who had almost totalitarian power before
China jumped in. In case you haven’t noticed, most of the riots in
Tibet are from monks and very rarely from the public.

            In conclusion I agree that when it comes to human rights,
Tibet should be freed or at least given these basic human rights. Even the Dalai Lama doesn’t want the independence of his native country; all he wants is a greater degree of autonomy for Tibet and I agree with him, more autonomy would solve a lot of problems and still let Tibet be part of China…until then let people chant Free Tibet on the streets, let them have riots and demonstrations, let them focus on only Tibet while other less unfortunate countries are forgotten.

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22. April 2009 by student.

Philip Markoff, a 23-year-old medical student at Boston University’s School of Medicine was arrested for suspected murder of a woman he met through a Craigslist ad online.  Craigslist is a website where people can post ads featuring free advertisements for jobs, internships, housing, ect.  Markoff is accused of meeting 26-year-old Julissa Brisman on April 14th through this website at Boston’s Copley Marriott Hotel and killing her.  He is being arraigned right now without bail.  His attorney is stating that his client is “not guilty of the charges…All I have at the moment are his words–no proof of anything.”  Shock is hitting many people that know Philip Markoff.  They are stating that this is such a surprise because they always thought Philip was “kind of the all-American, good-looking guy.”  A girl that frequently rode the elevator with him in their apartment building is still dumbfounded that he could have done this.  She always saw him as a normal American guy.  He was always so nice to her and she was totally blind-sited by this incident.

This situation is a lesson that we still can not judge a book by it’s cover.  We have always been told this statement but it is hard to judge someone without knowing them.  Looking at a picture of Markoff, one could assume that he is a manly man who is well put together and probably has a lot going for him.  His professors said he was one of the best students he has probably encountered.  No one saw this coming; Markoff seemed like a totally “normal” 23 year old male student.  he never put anything in front of his work and he had great asspirations to become a doctor.  This has to make us wonder who can we actually trust these days?  No matter what we say we are always going to label and stereotype before knowing someone.  You do a quick look over of someone before you talk to them and have an idea in your head of what type of person they are.  Everyone thought they nailed it on the head when they assumed Philip was your average  student who was on his second year of medical school and engaged to get married in the future.  Just because he looked like an average male does not mean this is how he thought.  In reality everyone who knows him was missing the fact that he thought like a murder.  No one would have thought to label him a “predator” when they first looked at him.

This is not the only attack that police think Markoff committed.  There were three other crimes committed that Markoff is being questioned about.  I can not help but wonder how we are supposed to tell who the “normal people” are from the “bad guys” these days.  We all have such a idea of who is who, but we keep being reminded that we could be wrong.  Just because someone is white, or male, or wealthy does not mean that they are automatically a good person.  Why do we put these labels on people.  Another question that arises is will we ever be able to just trust people again?  I am not saying that everyone has an alliterative motive and is out to get the world;but it is scary how many creepy people there are.  It is dangerous to trust strangers these days especially online; maybe this is the first problem.  We make these profiles and assumptions of people we meet through the Internet and hope they are going to be the person we want them to be. 

My bottom line is who are we to say or know really who is that “perfect, normal” person, and who are the ones we need to watch out for.  Someone can always surprise you by being a totally different person than we thought.  I guess I will listen to poeple when they say do not judge a book by it’s cover.

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22. April 2009 by student.

Cloning can be a very hot issue at times, cloning entire humans is considered taboo and against the will of God. But cloning single organs or using stem cells could save millions of lives. Invitro Fertilization  is an expensive process used today to give infertile couples children. And there is now the ability being developed to grow animal meat in test tubes which can be produced in mass called “Shmeat”. This is just the beginning of the good things that can be done with this technology. Someday soon we may even be able to feed the entire planet and replace our entire bodies with newly grown ones.

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