10. December 2009 by student.

Guess what prostitution and the porn industry have in common! Individuals working for a higher up get paid vast sums of money to have sex with other people. The only real difference? A video camera. Why is one outlawed, but the other isn’t? If prostitution was legalized, the entire industry would become a lot less “underground”. It could become potentially safer and better regulated to prevent the spread of disease. It would also generate money for the government in taxes. Both professions are considered by many to be immoral, and yet they take place in the United States every single day. I put them both in the same category, because the bottom line is that they are getting paid to have sex. Whether it’s for their customer’s pleasure, or for the viewing pleasure of others, I don’t see a difference.

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10. December 2009 by student.

One of the major problems in Washington today is that the vast majority of Congressmen and women, on both the left and the right, tend to vote with the intent getting re-elected in mind, not with the intent of doing what they came to Washington to do. To solve problems. I once admired Senator Joe Lieberman for vowing to not run for more than two terms of Senator. He is now on his third term. I believe that people should not make a career out of politics. After a certain period of time, they will begin to lose touch with their constituents and will have only their own political ambitions in mind. If we limited the number of terms a Congressman or Senator was able to serve, I believe that we could get a LOT more done in Washington, than with the current deeply flawed system.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Every year in America approximately 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are physically  assaulted by their partners.  The US Department of Justice reported that 37%  of all women who sought care in hospital’s emergency rooms for violence-related injuries were injured by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend.  Domestic violence can lead to other common emotional trauma such as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, substance abuse and PTSD.  Children exposed to domestic violence are at risk of developmental problems, psychiatric disorder, school issues, aggressive behavior and low self-esteem. 

Domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Domestic violence affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. Domestic violence occurs in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships and can happen to intimate partners who are married, living together, or dating. Domestic violence not only affects those who are abused, but also has a substantial effect on family members, friends, co-workers, other witnesses, and the community at large. Children, who grow up witnessing domestic violence, are among those seriously affected by this crime.

If you are being abused?

1- Talk with someone you trust: a friend or a relative.

2- Tell your physician, nurse or therapist.

3- Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE.

4- Call the police if you are in danger.

Every patient or victim who has a positive screening for domestic violence should know that there are resources available to them within his or her community for getting help. Victims need to have a safety plan for themselves and any children. Statistics show that a typical abuser has a pattern.  ” Safe House” are emergency shelters that provide confidential services to victims of abuse.  They provide counseling, schooling, job placement and even day care. 

 We need to stop domestic violence not only in America but around the world!!!!!!!

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10. December 2009 by student.

With so many orphan children going into foster care and looking for a permanent family, you would think the government would be open to finding as many responsible parents for these unwanted children as possible. Not gay couples. Not in Florida. Some opponents of gay adoption believe that if two gay people raise a child, that child will grow up to be gay as well. But who do you think raised those two gay parents? Straight people. I don’t see how being one gender or the other somehow influences one’s ability to be a good parent. There are way too many single mothers (and to a lesser extent, fathers) out there. What’s wrong with having TWO mothers? Or two fathers? If you gave these orphans a choice, I’ll bet they would choose to have gay parents over no parents at all. I’d like to think that my future children would be able to grow up in a world where they can be anything they want to be, without having to possibly face discrimination.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Marijuana should not only be decriminalized but legalized for both medicinal and recreational use. Why not? It is a natural plant that is as, or as most find, to be more effective than the more harmful prescribed meds while being less expensive. Prescription medications are accompanied by numerous unwanted side effects, most of the time creating more unpleasant complications/symptoms than where there to begin with. Marijuana on the other hand will at most make you hungry and relaxed, and nowadays with the recession and increased stressors in our daily lives, who doesn’t need to relax a little. I’d rather a focused pothead performs surgery on me over an unstable pill popper any day, but I can’t speak for anybody else, only for myself. Prescription medications (not all, but too many) are highly addictive ranging from pain pills to psychoactive/antidepressant mind altering drugs. While some believe marijuana is addicting or a gateway drug I must disagree. I do not believe that the marijuana itself is the gateway but yet the who, where, how : who they can get it from, where they have to go to get it, and how they have to go about acquiring it because it is currently illegal.

In fact, marijuana has been shown to be an expectorant and actually dilates the air channels it comes in contact with, a reason many asthma sufferers turn to it for relief. Doctors have postulated that marijuana may be more effective than all of the prescription drugs on the market. Studies even show that due to marijuana’s ability to clear the lungs of smog, pollutants, and cigarette smoke, it may actually reduce your risk of emphysema, bronchitis, and lung cancer. Smokers of cannabis have been shown to outlive nonsmoker in some areas by up to two years.

An ethnographic longitudinal study on Jamaican neonates who had and had not been exposed to marijuana during the prenatal period was done by Melanie Dreher in the 80’s. The study exhibits exposed babies did better in all areas of development as opposed to the non-exposed. If marijuana is as harmful as these radical extremists claim then why would it not cause harm to something so sensitive and vulnerable!? I must also mention the fact that women who have tried both morning sickness prescribed medications and smoking marijuana have found marijuana to be more effective and efficient.

Marijuana has not been legalized for many reasons; the following are just a few:

• The majority of our population is misinformed/brainwashed and uneducated enough to just accept what they hear rather than find scientific evidence/fact or studies to prove what the truth really is.

• The myth that legalization of marijuana would lead to more marijuana use

• It is not the drug of choice of those in power. They prefer the far more dangerous substance—alcohol.

• People have the ability to grow it on their private property, in their own yards, thus avoid paying taxes.

• Most politicians have shares in the cigarette companies and legalizing marijuana would provide a safer more pleasurable smoke which would in turn take money out of their pockets and the pockets of the medication companies that mark up meds for a 3000% profit or more

• The fear of lost productivity/laziness

In our city of Andociaville, we legalized marijuana and it did our city more good than harm, even got us out of debt. My presumption would be it would do the same for our country but only if we allow it to, but first we need to get the selfish egotistical drunks out of office.

“The $800 million pill” Goozner, Merrill April 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9WorIM0RhA
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtml
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/on-the-legalization-or-not-of-marijuana/

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10. December 2009 by student.

For a candidate who campaigned on promises of governing in a bipartisan manner, President Obama has supported and signed some pretty liberal policies. Promising to close Guantanamo Bay, spending nearly a trillion dollars on a stimulus package, and the current fight for health care reform and universal health care are just some examples. However, his recent decision to add an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, while beginning to set a timeline for withdrawal can’t be spun to be anything but bipartisan. He resisted the anti-war radical left wing of the Democratic Party and decided to add a significant amount of troops to Afghanistan to counter any gains the Taliban has made in the last year. Still, it is important to have a timeline for beginning to withdraw troops. As President Obama pointed out when he set a Christmas deadline for the health care bill (which now seems unlikely to be met), if you don’t put a deadline on something, it will never get done. A recent Gallup survey found that immediately after his speech on Afghanistan, a majority of Democrats AND Republicans, as well as a plurality of Independents, support the Commander in Chief’s decision.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Conservatives pride themselves on being opposed to the government intruding on their personal lives. It’s not their place, right? Wrong! The government has the power to tell you who you can and cannot marry. This country was founded on the basis of separation of church and state. Marriage is supposed to be a sacred, religious institution, right? Wrong! Look at the astonishingly high divorce rates, and things like Vegas style weddings. These are the real threats to the ’sacredness’ of marriage. Not same sex marriages.The government offers over a thousand benefits for married couples, such as being taxed as a couple, to being able to see your loved one in the hospital if they are ill. Marriage is a legal contract, and as long as it offers even a single legal or economical benefit, no one should be excluded from that.Proponents of Proposition 8 in California argued that if California legalized same sex marriage, we would teach it in schools. Wrong! We don’t teach divorce in schools, do we?Whether you agree with same sex marriage or not isn’t the issue. Don’t like same sex marriage? Don’t get one! Problem solved. It boggles my mind that people like Britney Spears can legally get married Vegas-style for 55 hours and then get a divorce, yet two people who are in a committed, loving relationship that happen to be of the same gender can’t.

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10. December 2009 by student.

I think American society is bipolar when it comes to public sexuality. When you see scandal on TV, half the time they damn the person, and the other half they praise it. There are also times where we have a “guilty pleasure”. Something we know is wrong but we celebrate it anyway. I think a perfect example of this would be Paris Hilton. In 2003, her private sex tape was released publicly; it was frowned upon and she was deemed “slutty”. Consequently, her fame earned her a TV show, a few movies roles, a fashion line, a record deal, and autobiography deal which sold 8.9 million copies worldwide as of July 2009. This is proof that while sexuality is deemed “immoral”, it also sells.

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10. December 2009 by student.

In the recent years in the United States, I hear a lot on the news about ‘outraged’ parents protesting violence and sex on television, in video games, and in movies. I have a theory for those people. If you don’t want your kid to be exposed to sexual content, violence or mature language, don’t let them watch that television show late at night! Don’t let them into that PG13 movie! Don’t buy them the latest Grand Theft Auto video game!There are simple ways to do this. One: block certain television channels on your TV, such as HBO and Comedy Central. Two: Set a curfew for what time your children are allowed to be watching TV. If you’ve ever watched TV late at night, you know that it is largely uncensored and explicit, when compared to daytime TV. Three: Preview M rated video games or CD’s with explicit content marked on the cover before you buy them! If you educate yourself on what you’re exposing your kid to before you do so, then you won’t have to worry about exposing them to the wrong things.The bottom line is that these genres are not going away, so you might as well learn how to monitor your child. The world is not going to babysit your kid for you. It’s not their responsibility. Boo hoo.

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10. December 2009 by student.

Not that I’m a huge pothead or anything, but I definitely support the legalization of marijuana in the United States. In some instances, medical marijuana is an essential form of treatment. One such instance is chemotherapy. I have a friend who’s grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing that treatment, but from what I understand it can be very hard and painful to go through. One form of medication to cope with the chemotherapy that her physician wanted to prescribe her but couldn’t was medical marijuana. In the end, he basically advised her to find a way to get it anyway, because it was the best form of treatment for her. My friend’s grandmother isn’t a criminal. She’s a victim of cancer. Medical marijuana can also be used to counter anxiety or increase appetite.As far as recreational use goes, a recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that a majority of Americans believe that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. I don’t believe marijuana should be included in the same group of dangerous, life threatening drugs such as crystal meth, heroine, cocaine, etc. Yes, there are side effects and health risks for marijuana, but the same is true for any medication or over the counter drug.Another reason for legalizing pot is the current state of the economy. It would undoubtedly generate billions of dollars in revenue if it was legalized and taxed in the U.S. For all the problems Republicans have with the increasing deficit under the Obama administration, you’d think they would be more open to ideas such as this. Oh, well.

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