Felons with non-violent crimes shouldn’t lose their right to bare arms. I have a felony for receiving stolen property. The property that I received was a book of compact discs.

As a result of this felony, I’m not allowed to possess a weapon of any sort. I can’t have a handgun, a knife longer than six inches, or a bow and arrow.

I’m not allowed to hunt, which I could care less about, but I’m not allowed to protect myself either.

How am I supposed to protect myself if I’m not allowed to have a gun, a crossbow, or even a knife?

If I’m home alone and someone breaks into my house with the intention to kill me, I have to throw an ashtray at him or her and hope for a kill shot.

Not only am I not allowed to possess firearms; I’m not allowed to even be around them.

I can’t even live in a house that has weapons in it. If I were to follow the law as it reads, I wouldn’t even be able to possess the utensils needed to eat a steak dinner.

There should be some criteria for felons and their right to possess firearms especially since the crimes that constitute a felony are steadily increasing.

If you get pulled over on the way home from picking up your grandmother’s medication at the pharmacy, you get charged with a felony for having a prescription that’s not in your name.

If you get caught driving without a license three times, that’s a felony.

If you get caught driving under the influence three times, that’s a felony.

If you are charged with any of these crimes, you are labeled as a felon and you lose your right to bare arms.
Murderers and other violent offenders should not be able to possess firearms because they have the potential to endanger lives but they should be placed in a separate category than non-violent offenders.

I’ve never had a violent crime of any sort in my life but because someone left a couple of Jay-Z CD’s in my car, I’m not allowed to protect my family.

These laws vary in different states but the government still doesn’t have a permanent standard set for felons and their right to bare arms, not one that’s fair anyways.

A lot of the people that fall into the category of convicted felons served our country in the past.

They shot killed and died for our freedom, and now they can’t even own a gun because of some petty crime that our government deems a felony.

These gun laws were created for a reason, to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.

People with felony convictions claim these laws are unfair taking into consideration the nature of their crime. A person with a felony stealing charge doesn’t deserve a gun anymore than a person convicted of murder.

Allowing felons of white collar crimes to own guns would only create loop holes for the violent criminals to crawl through and legally obtain a firearm. There’s no way to balance the laws equally and be fair about it.

Enforcing these laws is hard enough as it is and criminals will always be able to buy a gun where supply meets demand, but there’s no sense in making it easier for them. Most felons who have a gun illegally are more likely to carry and conceal. If they already have a felony conviction and own a gun illegally they don’t have much to lose.

Some felony convicted criminals claim they want a gun to go deer hunting or competition skeet shooting, but how would anyone truly know that’s what they wanted it for. It’s something they should have considered before making bad decisions, and I don’t feel sorry for them.

Nothing much can be done to stop a criminal from acquiring a gun, but the laws are there to protect the people. Criminals don’t care about a book full of statutes. They’re not concerned about the law. They may have to pay more for a gun, but it’s available and the higher prices create an incentive to steal more.

Unfortunately, these laws are creating an artificial underclass of people in this country. Felons have a hard time finding a decent job. They can’t vote or defend their own lives as well as their families. They may even have problems renting a home considering most places do background checks these days.

As far as the law is concerned, felons have handed over their civil rights forever, but only the criminal is to blame.

These laws are great and serve a purpose for the common good shared by society.

It’s impossible to monitor the type of felony committed when deciding what felony constitutes the right to bear arms. It may seem unfair to some and, in a sense, probably is.

However, if felons are allowed to have guns after paying their debt to society, then terrorists are allowed to have bombs after serving their sentence.

Obama made it his goal to end all combat operations by August 31, unfortunately there have been complications and this goal was a little belated.

What this goal means though is that not all the United States’ troops will be removed from Iraq.

First, the removal of combat troops is a decision that will positively affect Iraqi citizens and the citizens of the United States.

The reasons for the impact on us are blatantly obvious, the impact of Iraq, not so much. Citizens in Iraq need to be responsible for their own people, including the terrorists.

Our final mission was never a prolonged occupation of the nation but rather a clean-up operation. The borders were nothing more than suggestions and police and military forces could be easily bribed to turn a blind eye to terrorist activity.

If you want a solid example of Iraq’s past look no further than Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Now, even though occupation would appear be the most secure way of eventually deterring terrorist activities, if the past five years have taught s anything it’s that this is not true.

If anything, our 5 year occupation of Iraq has caused more hatred and increased terrorist activities in the region.

We need accountability in the Muslim world from Muslim leaders; otherwise it just feels like tyranny.

What better way to do that than through the training of Iraqi recruits, which has been tried before with very little success.

It’s important to remember though that there is a difference between Nixon’s vietnamization and the Iraq troop withdrawal.

First, the opposing force isn’t as organized as the Viet Cong and secondly Al Qaeda isn’t backed by an international super power (or so we hope.)

The biggest difference is that this isn’t a proxy war, but an attempt at suppressing a rogue terrorist group.

So is making Iraq accountable for it’s radical citizens and occupants a reasonable goal?

I would say yes, mainly because the United States does it every day.

We can’t pull the troops out now because our country isn’t safe yet. We still haven’t found Osama Bin Laden and we need to better train Iraqi security.

If we pull out now, we will have let down the thousands of soldiers that have fought and died for this country.

We have to stand strong and stick to our original plan. We have a new president, that shouldn’t meant that we have a whole new strategy about protecting our country.

In April of 2003, President Bush said, “We will except nothing less than complete and final victory.”

I certainly don’t feel that we have come near complete and final victory.

If we pull out our troops just because we have a new president with different views that makes our country look unstable.

Even the Iraqi politicians are scared of our departure. “All Iraqis want Americans to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible,” Asnan al Dulaimi, a senior Sunni politician said. “ We’re just afraid of the vacuum this withdraw may cause.”

Obama is taking our country in a completely different direction than our former leader intended.

Obama’s plan is to bring our entire troops home, no matter the consequence.

Just because we have a new leader doesn’t mean that we are a new country.

I think that Iraq and Afghanistan are taking Obama’s talk of withdraw as a sign of weakness.

If terrorists view us as week, they will begin to build confidence and start planning more attacks on the U.S.

I understand that Bush and Obama are different people with different views, but what kind of message does our changing of minds send to terrorists.

Obama has made the US look like a fool and doesn’t have the respect of other countries.

How stupid did he look when he attempted to shake hands with many Russians and was denied by every one of them?

I know the war seems bad because our fellow Americans are dying but the number of deaths in this war are far less than any other.

There are over 400,000 troops deployed in the Middle East and there has only been approximately 4300 deaths in a five-year period.

Terrorism is a problem that can’t go unanswered.

I assert that a zombie scenario is far more frightening than robots taking over the world for three reasons. One is my belief that the forces unseen in this universe are far more powerful than the scientific ones. Second, my belief in the effects of entropy on machines and lastly the power of the allegory between the living and living dead.

Admittedly, a robot take-over is right around the corner at the rate we are headed. Robots are faster and stronger and more easily repaired than human beings. All it takes is A.I. Soon the average cell phone will be smarter than the average astrophysicist. Believe me when I say they passed the point of being smarter than the rest of us years ago. Robots would master our tools and then master us. Sure it is a totally scary scene, but it is no zombie apocalypse.

The dead rising is some seriously mythic ideas. How many major world religions have some kind of reference to some kind of undead action going down? I can think of three. Robots are probable and zombies are impossible. It is the impossible that really scares us. It takes fact to defeat the improbable monster, it takes faith to defeat an impossible one.

The fact is that machines break down. Mankind would find a way to exploit this. One good world-wide E.M..P. and then enemy is defeated. Fry everything with a circuit board and we turn technology back into our tools instead of our masters.
The real scary part of zombies comes from the allegory between what life and un-life really mean. Zombies were once people. Consider the horror of having to fight off our own son as he tries to eat your face. It could be your boyfriend really does want to take things to the next level, the one where he eats your brains.

The things we the living do for survival might make us no better than the monsters we fear. After enough time has passed in a zombie apocalypse it might be hard to tell who the real walking dead are.

In the end both zombies and robots should be marked off on the things we should mess with column. There would be no easy fix for either problem. But it is a simple truth that dead flesh reeks more than motor oil. For the olfactory horror in itself I am going to have to say a zombie apocalypse is the more bleak and hopeless future. Just ask yourself which movie was scarier; I, Robot or Dawn of the Dead? What movie offered more hope; the Matrix or 28 Days Later?

Here is why you should skip summer school: so you can live life instead.

Most folks have no choice over what they do. They have to work full-time jobs. After a certain age summer becomes nothing more than the hottest working season. If you have kids then it is even more of a problem because then you have to figure out what to do with the little beasts while you are putting in your nine to five. Summer vacation becomes nothing more than a week in the Ozarks while you max out your credit card and nearly die from heat-stroke.

The truth is that if you are the average college student between the ages of 18 and 22, then these summers are the prime of your youth. This is your time to climb mountains and swim across oceans. This is your time to live and love and laugh as hard as you can. Why sit in a stuffy classroom throughout the wild summer heat just to speed up to your adult professional life?

With modern medicine, there is a good chance you might live to 100, so there is plenty of time later to make the money. It is going to be hard to climb Mt. Everest in Depends, though, so now is probably the best time to give it your shot. It is said that “youth is wasted on the young.” Don’t prove it to be true by going to summer school.
If instead of indulging in drunken depravity you really feel the need to feed your academic bug, then at least do something cool and cultural like the semester at sea. There are any number of college programs that will take you to exotic locales and give you credit for it. How about going south and studying Español? Or taking in the Mediterranean with a stop in Greece?

Why rush to grow up when you could take the last years of your youth and innocence to sow wild oats and swing from chandeliers? Why not live life?

Summer courses lead to opportunity. It gives you an outlet to the stressful normal college setting. Think of how much better an assignment of yours could have been if you had more time. Summer courses give you that extra time that you need. It allows more teacher to student interaction and quicker access to the library and labs due to lesser students on campus.

When I chose to become a double major I had two options: either take summer school for two summers or graduate in five years. Then I thought about it. Do I really want to be here another year paying money for a meal plan, tuition, lab fees, student fees, loans and other expenses on top of that? My answer was an obvious no.

Summer courses are cheaper, easy to manage and give more time to truly focus on the curriculum that can boost your grade. They also only take eight weeks or fewer to complete. So what if you miss out on a little summer vacation time. The benefits of taking summer classes are far better than the time sitting on your butt like a couch potato or partying for late hours without any worry of missing your morning class. Summer classes give students a chance to get a head start of the courses needed to put on that cap and gown.

Some students are fortunate enough to graduate on time without having to partake in summer enrollment. And to you all, I say “good for you.” Yet to those majors that need around 60 credit hours or more to graduate (and you all know who you are) then there is no way you can graduate without taking at least one summer course. So I say you can be lazy or smart. You can be lazy and take 12 hours each semester and worry about graduation whenever it comes around, if it ever does come around. Or you can be smart, take a summer class and stay on top of your academic success and your graduation time. So please don’t make the wrong choice.

I will tell you why this is significant.

When I was four years old I was molested by a seven year old girl. I never looked at it that way or even saw it as anything bad as I was growing up. It mostly just involved stripping off our clothes and lots of little kisses to the places that were different on the two of us. There was no use of force or coercion, we looked at it as a game. She called the game “Humping.” I was fairly enthusiastic about it and to this day a small part of me still loves her. Wherever you are Rachel, you changed my life.

Now with the knowledge of psychology and endless hours listening to Dr. Drew’s Loveline on the radio, I know that it was molestation. It had a lifelong effect of hyper-sexualizing me. Although I played the difference for my friends, after that I knew girls really didn’t have cooties, and although I had no name for what they did have, I knew I wanted to see one again. The thing that makes me the most sad is that she probably learned that behavior from some adult teaching it to her. Often I still cry for her.

As soon as I hit puberty I was off like a rocket, grinding my loins on anything that would grind back. Statistics show that the average man thinks of sex seven times a day, for me it is just once. One long perpetually sustaining thought that occasionally gets interrupted by reality.

For me, sex was my everything. Luckily in this perverted weird world we live in, I knew I was not alone.

People are crazy about sex. It is the biggest business there is out there. For every one normal web site there are five porn sites. Sex addiction is not just an addiction for Tiger Woods. We all have a bit of the bouncing bed beast inside of us. All my life I have embraced that beast.

Now I have it on a leash.

After nine months I can see things differently than I have before. I see how many people have an addiction to touch and a neediness for company. Most people cannot sit alone in their thoughts for longer than five minutes before grabbing their phones. We rush from lover to lover these days in such a whirl that the term “serial monogamist” has become a part of the zeitgeist. We work so hard to find that happiness that happens during the three to five minute afterglow that comes with the little death. Because the truth is when that bit is done right, it is amazing.

So why resist? Because it makes those moments of passion that much more precious if they pass less frequently. Because the perspective you gain about the way people move and interact and touch is mind blowing. Because learning to live with the world without wanting to mount it is very enlightening. Because celibacy helps you see the world without living at the sexual demands of anyone.

Oh and the national infection rate of herpes is 26 percent and condoms suck. Also you can get mouth cancer through performing oral sex on someone with HPV. Might as well just keep it in your pants.

If your body is telling you yes, then you should listen to it. Promiscuity is the way of the world. Why do we kid ourselves with these pre-conceived notions that if we abstain from sex with someone that we just meet, then the relationship will be more real.

Fornication is a big part of a relationship. You wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it first would you? We as humans have the natural desire to have sex. I think that we’re doing an injustice to ourselves if we don’t act on those urges. Seriously, I would hate to date a girl for three months, fall in love with her emotionally and then find out that we had no sexual chemistry.

Sex defines a relationship, not the whole relationship but think about it, if you are completely compatible with someone on an emotional level but have no sexual chemistry, then you are friends not lovers. That would be like talking to somebody on the internet for six months and being really emotionally compatible but then flying to, let’s say Vegas, and realizing that you had no sexual chemistry and just wasted the past six months on a relationship when it was just meant to be a friendship.

I spoke with a couple that have been in a serious relationship for nine months and had sex the first week. The sex took the relationship to the next level and made it complete. Their relationship is 65% sexual oriented. They love each other emotionally but if they wouldn’t have experimented sexual in the beginning, then they might have prolonged a relationship headed for friendship.

I mean how could you be so in love with no sexual contact or some kind of heat. Having sex with someone builds a kind of trust between the two. Why are you holding out for something that might not even be worth it or something that isn’t even that great?

Building an emotional relationship is what comes after sex. When you know you like the person, and you are sexually attracted to the person why not sleep with them? After you do you know from there whether you want to keep going with the relationship or just be friends. As long as you’re safe with the person I don’t see anything wrong with it.

One night stands are a great way to relieve stress and tension. As long as you wear condoms and you’re not being stupid about it. As I said before, sex is a natural human instinct and we need to act upon it. I think that people that are celibate are just mad and jealous because of their lack of ability to “get some.” The only reason that I would even consider being celibate is because the growing spread of STD’S.

Walgreens sells condoms and sexual lubricants. You can probably even find a dental dam if you look hard enough. So I’ll be the guy in line at the drug store with a hand full of ultra thins and some KY yours and mine. You celibate people go on living your lives being filled with built up sexual tension, preaching to sexually active people about why celibacy is good and I’ll keep ignoring you.

If you don’t believe Jefferson Airplane, why don’t we ask Alice? I’m sure Alice would reason that choice is the beauty of life and the larger the institution the more freedom we give up. I won’t lie either though, you do get more security. But the same could be said for a teenager’s curfew.

This world is filled with choices, and when we get down to it, some of them may not be best for us. For example, (not to drag the healthcare debate out of the closest) if the government mandates you to buy a service how can you ever learn its worth? That’s true with anything the government hands out. Choices are what make us grow and learn; expand our individualism. How can we become strong individuals if we never learn plight—and most American families have felt this plight.

Ask any American where they came from, they will say another country, we are a nation of immigrants. When we immigrated though, we worked. In Missouri, German immigrants worked the land or raised cattle. In small towns and cities they owned shops. In the first one hundred years of this country there was no social security, no Medicare for the poor, and definitely no universal healthcare.

How does the concept of federalism tie into poverty? Simply put, (and I say this with the risk of being labeled a fear monger) socialism and American federalism are very similar. Socialism doesn’t just hurt the rich as they will have to pay higher taxes, but it also hurts the poor. Think about this, you are being cheated out of an important American learning process. People don’t succeed out of pure luck, they do it through generations of hard work and investing in the family unit, not the government unit.

The family unit can fail though, no doubt. Our 44th president came from a weaker family unit, but with no father he relied primarily on his community, whether it was neighbors or college mentors. But what happened to the community?

In the twenties when a person lost their home and couldn’t make it, the community helped them, whether that was the local government that had set up a poor farm or good ole’ George Bailey with his Buildings and Loans.

Higher federal taxes on citizens and mandates on local governments prevent these things. There is little to no incentive for companies or small businesses to donate to charities, other than small tax deductions. How can a local government maintain a poor farm while the federal government is telling them they have to spend extra money on new speed signs for their state’s highways?

The American dream has been realized, and for the decades after we were lost. What do we do now that we know what we want and how to get it? Remember though, it wasn’t about getting the goal, but the journey we took getting it, the individuals that shined during these times, Lincoln, Armstrong, Douglas, Yeager, Parks— all individuals who helped realize the American dream. So, enjoy your journey and “remember what the door mouse said, ‘Feed your Head.’”

But the fear of government growing too big is a justifiable fear. The United States of America was founded on a need to serve the people rather forcing the people to serve the government. Our founding fathers wanted to create a union unfettered by the heavy hand of a king’s will. To prevent that from ever happening again, the US developed a system to empower the people. The people would cast votes to elect officials that represented their interests and that of the country. The majority would rule in the interest of fairness and compromise.

I hate the direction that politics has taken, but I realize that controversy is nothing new. When the stakes are high, people will do anything to ensure their own security and prosperity.

Perhaps people have lost sight of uplifting the most downtrodden of their population. I believe in keeping my moral values in line with my politics, and I believe we are only as strong as the weakest segment of our population.

The healthcare debate has been front and center since the election which landed President Obama in the White House. The lies and misconceptions which have been perpetuated by the right are evidence that republicans don’t want to be a part of progress. All progress can be construed as big brother’s inevitable takeover to steal your money, take your healthcare, and kill your grandma.

In the presently troubled economic times the public’s trepidation towards change is understandable. We are in the midst of the largest financial crisis since the depression. It doesn’t seem like a good time to fix the system because of the instability we face as a country. But rather than being paralyzed by fear, perhaps the need for progress is even stronger.

During the Great Depression President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the New Deal which put in place many social welfare departments to assist in the financial rehabilitation of our country. Among the departments was the social security office which was designed to aid the growing population of poverty stricken seniors. Though the change was not easy, it was necessary. The Obama administration’s current legislation raises concerns for citizens that too much money is added to the national deficit our children will repay. I like to believe we are developing a foundation that our children can stand on.

The USA is a great country. So why can’t we perfect the system our government runs? Don’t let a fear of “change” hinder the necessary. We should jump in first. There was a time when we considered ourselves innovators of freedom and democracy.

The GOP has crippled the public with a fear of the very nature of government. This rampant cynicism has taken a toll on the people. Progress isn’t the path of least resistance, but it is the only way to sustainable success.

The way I see it starting, some goon shoves Bruce Banner in the lunch line somewhere in Metropolis, and lil’ Brucie starts throwing a green-skinned temper-tantrum. Within the first five minutes, ten square blocks of the City of Tomorrow are devastated, and Superman has just shown up from stopping a tsunami or an earthquake on the other side of the planet. A couple miles away still and breaking the sound barrier a few times, Superman has already used his telescopic and x-ray vision to determine that a hulking, man-shaped tumor is destroying his favorite city, and closing in on the Daily Planet.

Being Superman, he goes in for a quick assessment of this monster that he’s never seen before. Landing several super-speed punches in succession, Superman lets up, since most enemies just can’t take that kind of punishment. And then? BADOOM. Superman is jettisoned into the ocean, having just fallen victim to an incredible green uppercut with a strength he’s never witnessed outside of his own Weight Training Room of Solitude. At this point, Superman regrettably realizes that he’s going to have to fight harder and more viciously than ever before.

Superman charges back, unleashing a volley of heat vision blasts and, uh, cold… breath… to hopefully imprison or at least slow the Hulk down. Of course, this pisses the Hulk off to no end. “The madder Hulk gets, the STRONGER Hulk gets!” he bellows, sounding something like a toddler not getting a new action figure at KB Toys. The Incredible one then grabs Superman’s head, spins him a few times, drives the man of steel about two miles underground and walks into the lobby of the Daily Planet. The force of an atom bomb is detonated in the building, and the Planet falls. Dazed, Superman wakes up somewhere in the earth’s crust and witnesses the carnage and mayhem two miles above him. Red fills his eyes.

Superman is now more pissed than he ever thought possible and ready to do whatever it takes to make the Hulk dead. After all, the Hulk has just killed Superman’s wife and friends and put him out of an honest job. Waaaaay faster than a speeding bullet, Superman flies up on the unsuspecting Hulk, who has already forgotten about the last son of Krypton. Since the Hulk let’s damn near everyone know how his powers work, the whole madder/stronger thing, Superman has an advantage. Zooming in on the green behemoth, Superman uses his various vision powers to pin-point the portion of Hulk’s brain that triggers anger and adrenaline, and promptly fillets it with his heat vision, effectively lobotomizing the Hulk. The Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner, Superman crushes his head, then throws the body towards the sun for good measure. Having broken his no-killing oath, Superman soars into space, never to be seen again. The end.

Born of the fury of a gamma bomb, the Hulk is a creature of rage and strength whose emerald skin is capable of withstanding the onslaught of heavy artillery fire. His leg muscles are so powerful they can propel the Hulk and his girth of 1040 lbs. to a distance of near three miles in a single bound, which is significantly farther than the height of a tall building.

The key power of the Hulk is that the madder the Hulk gets, the stronger the Hulks gets. How does it make you feel when someone punches you in the face? It pisses you off. It does the same thing to Hulk which only makes him stronger. The only chance that Superman has of beating the Hulk is unleashing full power from the first blow, which he wouldn’t do because he is too big of a boy scout. In any normal brawl, the Hulk is going to keep getting stronger the more Superman beats on him. This will lead to the eventual beating of a Kryptonian ass.

Sure, Superman has all those extra powers that the Hulk doesn’t: heat vision, super hearing, super ventriloquism but none of that matters in a beat down. What matters in a beat down is just how much damage you do and how much you can destroy which comes from getting stronger as you get angrier.
Here is their battle in 200 words.

Superman is flying over the New Mexico desert when he sees the emerald monster ripping up chunks of Route 66 because he just got hit by a car. Faster than a speeding bullet the man of steel barrels into jade jaws with the force of a missile and sends the Hulk skipping across the desert like a stone over water. This makes the Hulk angry and as Superman closes in for a second attack he is struck with blow just short of Doomsday’s power.

Superman would then realize that this would be a battle that he had to give all he has and the slugfest that would be engaged would shake the desert. The impact of their fists would ring bells on both American coasts as both warriors tear into each other with power of Titans. Superman’s speed and intellect would give him the upper hand as he beat the beast into a broken and bloodied mess. At this point, his boy scout code would kick in and he would enter a crisis of remorse about how close he came to actually killing a living being. His mistake because while he is crying, the Hulk is still getting angry from the pain of ruptured organs and as he gets stronger and adrenaline surges through him, his body heals.

It is all over from there. Hulk is now far stronger than Superman and he attacks with such ferocity that it is apparent why he is called the Savage Hulk. His berserk rage is not sated until Superman is a primary color smear across the landscape.

Being able to log into Myspace, Facebook or Twitter, or any other social Web site out there, allows one to connect with people who they might not be able to talk to in their local geography. It is true that we are moving into the global one world village and internet socializing is what makes it all possible. Through the internet, I can share jokes with hucksters in Hawaii, exchange recipes with real people in Rwanda and swap naughty pictures with all those lovely Ukrainian women out there.

These are not things I could do if my social scene was limited to St. Joseph. Through the internet, I have been allowed to catch up with kids I graduated high school with twenty years gone now. I probably never would have reconnected with most of these people if it were not for internet socializing.

Back to the concept of globalism. This world we live in has truly become a smaller place. News travels far faster now than in the days of analog television dialogue. Internet socializing allows you to be a part of that exchange process.

Internet socialization is perfect for those who do not have the loudest voice in mixed company. Internet socialization is great for ugly people. And for someone like me, right now, afflicted with this damnable swine flu, eyes burning, guts clenching, shivering and sweating at the same time, I can still seek out the internet for the presence of a person so I can know I am not alone in the universe. And this way no one has to watch me cough up a lung.

You may be screaming at me because of this blatant blasphemy against the titans of the internet, but I know what I’m talking about. I, too, use social networking sites, and I’m here to tell you: social networking is becoming an issue in today’s society. How are we going to teach the younger generation valuable social skills when our own social experience takes place in front of the cold glow of a computer screen? You have hundreds of friends, you say? Well, how many of those people do you actually know? How many of them have ever been invited to your home or even know where you live? Sure, Facebook and Myspace may connect old friends, but those occasional messages usually turn into nothing more than another virtual relationship for another fake social setting.

Even family and close friends are now spending hours online posting nonsensical one liners and writing short messages, but they cannot take the time to pick up the phone or even write an e-mail even though e-mail is actually part of social networking. What we are really doing in social networking is putting an unnecessary, and perhaps harmful, layer of space between ourselves and other people. In moderation, social networking can be fun, but it should never be a replacement for good old-fashioned, face to face interaction.

First off, laws are laws. They hold social norms for society, and without them, we wouldn’t have a society. We would literally have an endless concrete jungle, but how do we punish lawbreakers?

I don’t, and never have believed that deterrence is a legitimate argument for the death penalty, because no punishment can truly deter crime, especially a crime as severe as murder. There are other reasons why I support the death penalty and that is eugenics.

When people hear the word ‘eugenics’ they either think of Star Trek canon or Adolf Hitler. I do not support the Übermensch like Hitler does because he took Nietzsche and Darwin completely out of context. What we do have to remember though, is that as a population, we have to keep ourselves in check.

The human race is constantly growing and has never stopped. Ever since the medical advancements of the 20th century, we have kept fornicating and fornicating.

So, if we must kill people, why not kill those who kill? Now, on basis, this idea is good. I do indeed recognize the problems with our current system. Innocent people have been put to death in the past, but remember, gubs don’t kill dinos, dinos kill dinos.

We cannot blame the instrument for the user’s mistake. That is all the death penalty is: an instrument for population control.
Should we assess if people on death row can be rehabilitated? Absolutely. Our prison system has never been about helping people but just a place to keep undesirables.

Take Charles Manson for instance. I know that he doesn’t have any chance of getting out on parole, so what’s the point of him being in prison? To eat my tax dollars or free labor for the government?

I truly believe that Dick and Perry, given some psychiatric help, could have been rehabilitated. We could have put them back into society as productive members, and they would have been a true success story. Yes, murder is wrong, but that doesn’t make people any less human. We should always try and help out fellow men, and then, if they are broke beyond repair, we put them down, plain and simple. Human beings are animals and when an animal has reached past its usefulness, we kill it. Sometimes we eat it, but I am in no way supporting the events of “Soylent Green” to ever come true.

I don’t know who should decide who should die and who should live. In a perfect world, it would be up to the community: a trial by your peers. All I know is that if we don’t keep our population in check through instruments like the death penalty, contraceptives and mandatory family numbers, mother nature is going to fight back.

Plain and simple: I like money, and I would be willing to lay a bit of it down that you do too. It affects my daily life; it affects the daily life of every single person I know. This is why it is my favorite reason for not supporting the capital punishment. Did you know that Indiana’s cost for the death penalty is greater than the cost of its life without parole sentence? Not just a little either, we are talking a whopping 38% greater. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, the numbers are different but the story remains the same across the board. It costs more to kill someone than to keep them alive. Where exactly do you think that money is coming from? That is right boys and girls: our tax money.

Why is it so expensive you ask? Well, the utmost care has to be given to these cases. This includes public defenders, lengthy jury selection and several appeals to minimize mistakes. As a tax payer, you might be tempted to say “cut the frills,” but hold on there. These things are in place to ensure that each person who has charges brought against them is tried fairly. As a society that has a justice system based on due process, there is no way to do capital punishment cheap. Why should a system that is already morally bankrupting us take the same toll on our already weakened dollar?

Capital punishment is ultimately a failure as an institution; not just because it makes us hypocrites, but because we simply aren’t getting the bang for our buck. To be candid about it, right now we need money flowing to the right places: not towards a barbaric practice that is useless and cost ineffective. Why not flow that capital away from capital punishment and to oh, I don’t know- schools after school programs. Now, I know it might seem radical, but education does make a person less likely to commit crime and seems like a much more deserving recipient of my tax money than “legal” retribution killing.

This is particularly true of the pornography industry. Not that porn is prohibited, instead, restricted and considered taboo. Regardless, its presence in our culture cannot go unnoticed. With the internet as its vehicle, pornography is just a double-click away from every American household. This unlimited availability of pornography has certainly changed the face of American sexuality of the past 30 years.

Pornography has been around in one form or another since the 1st century B.C. The porn industry really got its start in the mid 1950’s when Hugh Hefner started Playboy. In the following years, other pornography pilgrims started magazines and created competition in the new industry. From this time on, pornography has flourished as its own kind of sub-culture.

The beginnings of this new industry came at a time when counter-culture propaganda was all around. The Beat generation of authors, artists and musicians saw the same resistance from the rest of society as there ideology did not match the masses. The ideas, once thought radical during the 1950’s and 1960’s, are not that radical today. Pornography has enjoyed a similar acceptance as time pushed forward.

Now it seems that American sexuality and pornography have reached the summit. Acts of sexuality are not such private matters anymore. Porn for (dare I say) every kink and fetish is available. This awakening of sexuality has opened the door for exploration within one’s personal interests. Desires, that perhaps once were too taboo to speak of, are now easier to make reality.

Single men, women and couples enjoy pornography today. In its beginnings, the industry was marketed to men. This separation of sexuality, even within a relationship, was also soon to change. The liberation of women indirectly liberated porn by closing the gap on the gender bias within the industry. Now, it is not unusual for partners to enjoy pornographic materials together. This allows for closer sexual connections between partners by making fantasies and desires not as taboo.

It is important not to forget that pornography is not for everyone and it should be regulated. It is still important for parents to have the “birds and bees” talk with their children before they make that double-click and find out for themselves. Sexuality is still a personal matter and sexual decisions should not be made in haste.
Pornography, much like alcohol, provides pleasure. Pleasure seeking behavior is natural for humans. I feel lucky to live in a country where my freedom of speech and expression protects my right to enjoy things that provide pleasure.

In the early 80’s, the punk band called the Dead Kennedy’s released a song called “MTV Get Off the Air.” The basic protest was that once you saw a music video, it burned another person’s vision of what that song looked like into your skull. Forever more when you heard a song, in your head you saw the video. The idea is that music videos would destroy what is left of human imagination. In many ways, porn has done the same thing to our sexuality.

In the early 1980’s, when I first started shoplifting to get my porn fix, there might have been a girl on girl pictorial every third issue. This gradually began to increase until it got to the 1990’s when there was some girl on girl fun at least once and issue. Now I can’t even go to a party without seeing some attention starved debutante that makes out with another girl just because it is 2 a.m. and no one was paying attention to her. Madonna and Brittney Spears locked lips in front of the world at the 2003 MTV VMA’s and the world yawned. The evolution of pornography has made the taboo commonplace.

Man-love would have once sent most men screaming into the closet, but after Brokeback Mountain man-love became in. It would have never gotten that way without porn. Years ago I never had to worry when working a fountain machine and in offering someone a Dr. Pepper, I might joke and say “so you like some DP do you?” Thanks to porn, too many people now catch the thinly veiled innuendo.

Mankind has shifted the way we make love to one another just by the guidance of dirty movies. Things like reverse cowgirl and doggie-style have become commonplace phrases and practices. BDSM and other sex fetishes that were once employed only by the freaky fringe are now the play style of many normal folks. Porn has made this possible.

Now I am the last person to suggest any restraints on the first amendment. Porn should not be restricted by any law. But I am beginning to wonder if maybe it is time for mankind to ask himself if we really need to watch Debbie do it again. Do we really need to give up control of our darkest most secret naughty spaces to profiteering and pornography?

Political propaganda has flooded the media as the idea of change has conservatives and liberals alike fighting in a tug-of-war for America’s support. How ironic. A nation whom less than one year ago elected a president that campaigned on a platform of change is unable to make necessary changes to benefit its own citizen’s health and well being. As town hall debates over health care reform continue across the nation its hard not to notice just how divided our nation is.

Liberal lawmakers are pushing for a public option. An option that would make health care available to everyone at a price anyone can afford. I believe this is necessary. America has always offered support around the world, but we are not as willing to take care of our own.

So why not a public option you ask? Conservatives argue that they are not responsible for taking care of the health needs for those who are unable to provide it for themselves. They argue that they have done nothing to assume this debt. Oddly enough the United States provides aid to countries in need all around the world with taxpayer dollars, yet is unable to meet the health care needs on its own soil.

Conservatives argue that government run health care will ultimately fail like other government run health care programs. I invite those lawmakers to talk to a veteran about their medical coverage. The government is capable of providing quality health care. Maybe we should model a public plan off the Veterans Administration.

Obama Care is not the answer either. Much of Obama’s plan is great, but with all the packaging around, it would be hard for anyone to know what it really says. So here’s my suggestion: much like our forefathers did when drafting the Constitution, we should start with a skeleton; not so we can write the book as we go, rather so we are prepared to make changes for our own changing needs. We should know what not to do, such as how we got ourselves into the mess we’re in currently. Let’s build on the wisdom we gained from our failures and build a healthier tomorrow for generations to come. We must stop fearing change since the world continues to change around us.

American health care is the best in world. We have the longest average life span and the most recent medical technology. Why would we want to change any of this? Making health care a government enterprise is counter-productive to the medical advances that we have made in the past twenty years.

Here’s a quick scenario; an old woman is dying of cancer. She has been terminal for three years. Unfortunately, the tumors are not shrinking and the cancer keeps growing. The insurance company informs her family that her policy only allows for a maximum of $5 million of life-time health care, and that she has reached it. Now imagine if instead of the insurance company, it was the government.

Historically speaking, Americans would not tolerate this. The government should never regulate free enterprise, especially one that deals in the health of citizens.

Yes, health care costs are very expensive, but we do have the best in the world. Health insurance companies can be malicious and greedy; it is one of the disadvantages to capitalism. Our government’s job is to regulate these corporations, not control them. If the government becomes the corporation, who is there to regulate?

A better solution would be also to regulate pharmaceutical companies from unjustly selling their products to the United States at a higher price than other countries. This is why our medicine is so much more expensive because we are subsidizing it for the socialist countries, eg. France and Canada.

If liberals believe the insurance companies are being unjust now, wait until the government runs our lives. Do you want fat politicians telling you what to eat and drink? They can and will deny health care to people they believe don’t deserve it.

Government-run health care would function with the efficiency of the postal system and the heart and soul of the IRS. With insurance companies you pay for a personal agent, while one government employee may be responsible for thousands of citizens.

The medical and scientific advances of the 20th century were causes for our competitive capitalistic economy. If the health care industry controls how much health care a citizen gets, regardless of wealth, then all medical advances will cease, or become too cheap to be of any use.

Unfortunately, people do die as a result of nature. If we base our system off of competition, then we have set up our own survival of the fittest: the fittest being the most rich and the most intelligent to buy health insurance.

Under any system, people’s lives will end; just under the government’s system everyone’s lives will end a lot sooner.

When the judges become criminals who do the American people turn to? The last time such an atrocity was committed we revolted, wrote our own constitution and a Bill of Rights which did not include the right to health care.