the LCS experience

The LCS class was very challenging and very interesting. I learned quite a bit about the different subject matters we covered. Two things that stuck in my head was the formation of Israel and new technology for drones. I learned about Israel, their history and how they were formed. I always thought they where a state created by natural selection like every other nation. I was really surprised that they just declared themselves a state in the middle of Palestine, an existing state, and that the rest of the world was OK with that. Found it interesting that President Roosevelt had his reservations of siding with the new state and it was through his friends influence that led the him to back Israel. The self declaration was really shocking to me and I can see why the Arab world would be upset over it. Ironically that's not something the media informs us about and generations of American's don't fully understand the dynamics of the history of the middle east.

The other thing I learned was while writing the piece about the use of drones. In my research I came across a nova video on the history of drones and they made a reference to a project called of Argis. Although, I didn't mention it in the original article I wrote, because I couldn't find any evidence that it was in use in the wars, I nonetheless found it interesting. In the video they walked the viewer through a demonstration of the system. The system is basically a surveillance camera using off the shelf cell phone technology. The camera system is hooked up to a drone and it's capacity is 1.8 billion pixels that can capture images from a medium size city from 17,500 feet in the air all at once. It captures so many details that it can track moving objects down to six inches. The data collected by the system is massive at 1 million terabytes of video a day. I just kept wondering when that technology would be available to local police enforcement and how it will change the way people commit crimes and how justice is served. The next evolution of a surveillance state.

All this reading and writing was challenging. It's been a while since I've really written for school. The last time I remember writing anything like I did for this class mechanical pencils and paper where the latest technology. Yeah computers weren't around unless you worked in some fancy office. All kidding aside what I fine tuned the most was my researching skills and writing with a strong thesis statement. Making the point was hard and all the reading for the research was exhausting.

Exhausting or not I did learn that I have some strong views and biases on certain subjects. Especially in politics. I figured out that I'm really more a liberal than an independent LOL. Not really a shocker but it's much better defined now. Also, I realized that even though I try to be unbiased and opened minded that I do show a bias towards the view that matches my own. As a student I tried very hard to be open minded and find that opposing view but it was extremely difficult at times. I felt that it was so much easier to find data, comments, statistics that agreed with what my point was. Almost, like my mind was blind to the opposing view until I stopped and actively searched for it. So I've learned to be a little less quick to use what I find and search a little further and deeper for that opposing view.

The class taught me a lot about myself and my views. If I could change one thing it would be the amount of time given for writing the blogs. It was challenging to carry a full course load and meet all the deadlines, but not having enough time being the reality of the world I guess that really can't be changed. The one other area I had a very difficult time was the assignments that where open ended and we could write about anything. I felt like I spent way to much time trying to figure out what I wanted to write about. It would've helped me to have a few ideas on what subjects to tackle. I found it much easier to deal with all the research and writing when I was given an area to focus on.

Even with that I guess that was a skill within itself. To seek and write something your interested in. It led me to write about something I never thought about before. The skill I obtained from this class that I will carry to all my other classes will be the researching and finding that opposing view. It's a powerful tool to understand what the opposing viewpoint is and I can see using that skill in other classes (well maybe not in math).

Talking about math, my favorite topic was 9-1-1, no not the police, but the event 9/11 and the war on terror. Simply because I feel it's a mistake that has cost this country too much and gained it too little. It's cost us the lives of not only the victims of 9/11 but all the soldiers that have died in the wars, over 8,400, and 50,000 injured and over 500,000+ deaths in Iraq alone. It changed the world view of this country from being heroic and justice oriented to invaders, and law breakers. The wars were the worst financial disaster this country has seen and it will continue to deplete our resources for decades to come. The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan war will reach 4 to 6 trillion dollars.

All in all I learned how to write a strong thesis statement and lead with it. I learned how to research material related to my subject area and select the research that supported my point of view and the opposing point of view. I learned how to hang in there and keep my mind open to finding opposing views. I learned that writing can be pleasurable and painful LOL. Most importantly I learned that I'm not as bad as I thought I was.

Eyes in the sky

1944 Japanese Balloon bomb

The United States should continue the use of drones. Not only should it continue it the U.S. should invest into making the technology safer and more effective. The U.S. is not the first country to use drones. That distinction goes to the Habsburg Austrian Empire which launched 200 pilot less balloons armed with bombs that where used against the rebellion of Venice in 1849. In 1944 Japan did something similar by releasing 9,000 balloons which contained bombs. The Japanese were hoping that the balloons would travel across the Pacific Ocean and cause panic and forest fires on the western shores of the U.S. Those where crude drones which had no navigation system but whose purpose was to harm a selected target. Today's drones are much more advance and can be navigated remotely with deadly precision. Drones comes in all different shapes and sizes. Currently, the largest of all drones is the Global Hawk, at a cost of around 140 million it can stay in the air for around 35 hours at 65,000 feet well above traditional airspace. The Global Hawk drone is used for spying and carries no weapons. The drone that most people have heard about is the predator drone at a cost of around 4 million. This drone unlike the Global Hawk is used to eliminate targets. It's armed with 2 hell fire missiles and laser tagging directs the missiles to a 9 foot accuracy. The drones are operated by military personnel thousands of miles away and the personnel go through a specialized one year program before they are giving live missions. These drones allow the U.S. to eliminate terrorist around the world. The U.S. states has targeted killing list and they routinely use drones to eliminate individuals on that list. The use of drones allows the U.S. to go to places where traditional forces can't easily go or are just to expensive or dangerous to go to. One of these places are the tribal areas deep in the mountains of the Pakistan. Those areas are known to harbor terrorist and their training camps. The first CIA use of a predator drone was in 2002 in Afghanistan after a target which some believe was Osama Bin Laden. Since then the use of drones has increased dramatically. What started under the Bush administration was followed by the Obama administration and outdone in just his first year. There have been a total of 370 drone strikes in Pakistan alone and while there have been civilian casualties they have steadily decline to less than 7%. Currently around 41% of all aircraft in the U.S. military are drones. Drones are also used domestically. The U.S. uses drones to monitor the border and various police departments utilize drones for surveillance, schools utilize drones for training. A total of 1,428 permits have been issued by the FAA for drones on U.S. soil. Drones are the future of our military and safety/security of our country.

Click to enlarge

Predator Drone

Global Hawk drone

Not everybody is in favor of using drones without putting privacy rules in place first, specifically the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states on their website that "Routine aerial surveillance would profoundly change the character of public life in America. Rules must be put in place to ensure that we can enjoy the benefits of this new technology without bringing us closer to a “surveillance society” in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded, and scrutinized by the government."

In New York Times post published on 11/23/2013 makes note that "Pakistani politicians denounce the attacks as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. Pakistani officials have regularly condemned the strikes in public while, in the past, endorsing them in private. But increasingly the drone campaign has strained relations between Pakistan and the United States."

On the war front "Amnesty International investigators conducted on-the-ground research into nine of the 45 drone strikes they reviewed. They found that in some cases, innocent civilians were killed in the strikes. In one circumstance, 18 workers were killed by multiple missiles in North Waziristan as they were settling into an evening meal. In another, a 68-year-old grandmother was killed by a Hellfire missile as she harvested vegetables from her family's farm." Civilian casualties are this sort are a sad fact of war nonetheless they are heart breaking and should not occur.

The genie is out of the bottle and we can't put the technology back in a safe place. The truth is that the usage of drones will expand because it does provide a financial benefit in reducing the cost of wars. It provides necessary surveillance to keep citizens safe and assist in solving crimes.

Wars are inevitable, messy in all sorts of ways, from the enormous loss of life to equipment and capital. However, with the use of drones we can for the first time in history conduct wars that minimize the loss of life. Avery Plaw a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts reported that in "conventional military conflicts over the last two decades, he found that estimates of civilian deaths ranged from about 33 percent to more than 80 percent of all deaths." that is far greater than the 3% found in drone strikes. According to Bradley J. Strawser "using them to go after terrorists not only was ethically permissible but also might be ethically obligatory, because of their advantages in identifying targets and striking with precision"

In future wars we will not lose as many civilians as the 100,000+ of people we've lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Wars will be targeted with minimal amount of troops on the ground. We'll have a fleet of automated drones that can search out and eliminate our enemies without providing them targets to harm as we won't have massive bases in their vicinity. Yes other countries will also have drones and there is an arms race but the price of saving lives and minimizing unnecessary deaths is worth it.

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BONUS: Documentary of drones by Nova.

 

Israel a land wrongfully claimed

The Jewish people where exiled from their native lands and have not earned the right to be in their ancestors land, which is now the Arab world. A civilization's evolution is dictated by the empires that conquer it's predecessor and creates a new civilization out of the newly conquered people. That has been the history of the world. In the middle east specifically the Jews have a long history of being conquered and exiled. The first written history occurred in the Siege of Jerusalem (597 BC), Nebuchadnezzar, "laid siege to the city of Judah. On the second day of the month of Adar (16 March) he conquered the city". He destroyed the first temple that King Solomon built. The Babylons where then conquered by the Persians. During the reign of King Cyrus the Jews returned to Jerusalem and built a second temple around 516 BC. Around 332 BC Alexander the Great, a Greek, conquers the lands of the Jews. The Romans also made their mark on the traditional Jewish lands and ruled from 70 BC to 324 where they destroyed Jerusalem, demolished the second temple and rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman city. The Jews where exiled yet again. That was then followed by yet another conqueror the Persians return and held to the land from 614-629, until the Christians captured the city. The Muslims conquered the area next from 638-1516. The area was then captured for a short period of time by the Crusaders in 1095 and they massacred "most of the city's non-Christian inhabitants. Barricaded in their synagogues, the Jews defended their quarter, only to be burnt to death or sold into slavery". From the period of 1516-1917 the Ottoman Empire ruled the land. When the Ottoman's started their rule there were only an estimated 1,000 Jews which quickly grew to 10,000 in the city of Jerusalem. Then during World War I the British capture Jerusalem (1917-1948) and the beginning of today's conflicts started to emerge. Palestine had primarily been an Arab state and was split into two countries the current Israel and Jordan. During the British rule immigration of Jewish people grew especially during War World II and the Holocaust. The British then push forward the "British Mandate for Palestine" which basically declared Palestine a national home for the Jewish people. This greatly upset the Arabs and all kinds of violence broke out between the Arabs and Jewish people. Massacres occurred on both sides and holy sites where destroyed from both faiths. The UN General Assembly adopted the resolution to partition Palestine in 1947. Which basically split the remaining part of Palestine into two separate states. Shortly thereafter Britain announced they would terminate the Mandate over Palestine on May 15, 1948. A day before the mandate ended the State of Israel was proclaimed by "The people's council, representatives of the Jewish community of eretz-israel and of the zionist movement" a total of 37 individuals. This declaration did not have the support of the native Arab community that had been living in Palestine for thousands of years and till this day is not recognized by many Arab nations. In the year 1948 a total of 21 countries recognized Israel as a country with more to follow. To this date a total of 25 countries, mostly in the Arab world, do not recognized Israel as a country. Israel is seen as an occupier.

There are plenty of nations and officials that believe Israel should be a state. In March 2013, while visiting Israel, President Obama stated "Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear," "The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a holocaust will never happen again." The United States and Israel have a very long history together, under President Truman's tenure, the U.S. was the very first country to recognize the new Jewish State and later recognize Israel as the official state.

During the Friends of Israel Initiative yearly meeting the former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar stated "Simply put, Europe must defend Israel if we want to preserve the West as we know it. Look at the changes sweeping the region. Uncertainty is the dominant factor. And Israel is both more important to the West today - and more besieged by hostility - than at any time in recent memory."

Historically the Jewish people lived around Jerusalem but they where hardly ever the rulers of that land. The land had been conquered by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. The Jewish people where exiled for a third time from their homeland (Diaspora) by the Romans and their holy city was destroyed. "The Romans drove the Jews out of Jerusalem and in so far as they could out of Judea altogether. This third exile is known as the "Diaspora" and was to be a powerful force throughout the next two millennia. Armed with their sacred books, their hopes, and their memories, the Jews scattered over much of Asia, northern Africa, and around the Caribbean, eventually winding up in such far-flung places as Russia and India" This means that for generations the Jewish people didn't live in their homelands. A few of the Jewish people attempted to take back their lands but failed.

When the Jews left their lands they lost the right to that land. It didn't matter if they where exiled or not. To the victor goes the spoils. Time goes on as it usually does and with it new empires are made from the dust of the old. The Ottoman Empire open it's doors to the Jewish people and they grew from the few into the tens of thousands. As the Ottoman Empire gave way to the British, because of the atrocities committed towards the Jewish people during WWII the doors of Palestine where opened to the Jews. During that whole time the Arabs where the majority of the people living in Palestine. According to the book The Pentecostal Mission in Palestine: The Legacy of Pentecostal Zionism in 1917 there where 56,000 Jews and 644,000 Arabs living in Palestine.

The Jewish people proclaimed their state but it was done while their where inside another country. The Arabs of Palestine where not conquered as where the Jewish ancestors of the past. The Jewish simply sat down and proclaimed their statehood and expected everybody to accept it. This is not the natural order of things and it created a rift in the Arab world because the land was stolen from a people that had been living there for thousands of years and had the same rights if not more than the Jewish people.

Should there be FDA regulation of e-cigarettes?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rate cigarette smoking as "...the leading preventable cause of death in the United States". Smoking affects just about every organ in your body and causes many diseases and reduces a persons general health. In the United States alone there are over 480,000 deaths every year. That's one out every five deaths in the United States. 90% of all lung cancer deaths and 80% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths are caused by smoking. There are direct medical costs ranging between $50 billion - $73 billion per year directly associated with diseases from cigarettes. Cigarettes main ingredient is tobacco but the real addictive qualities and harmful effects comes from the thousands different chemicals added to the product. Chemicals like tar, carbon monoxide, ammonia, arsenic, and nicotine are but a few. Tar blackens your lungs when inhaled. Carbon monoxide is found in a car's exhaust fumes, and we all know from watching movies that you can die from inhaling to much carbon monoxide. Ammonia is a chemical used to clean floors. Arsenic is a poison to kill rats. Finally, Nicotine is a poison used in bug sprays, which in it's pure form can kill a person with a single drop. Cigarettes are every where in American culture even though the cigarette companies lost major law suits in the 1990s. However, cigarette smoking is on a down trend and only 18% of adults smoked cigarettes in 2011 around 40 million people. Nowadays people are much more aware of the dangers of smoking. 28 states through out the country have banned smoking in enclosed places such as restaurants, stores, workplaces and have increased taxes collected from cigarette sales. Smokers are generally not happy with this approach and the increased cost of cigarettes.

A new alternative to inhaling nicotine was introduced in the new electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). The e-cigarette was invented in it's current modern form by Hon Lik in 2003. Hon, a Chinese pharmacist, invented the e-cigarette after his father died of lung cancer. Hon was also a very heavy smoker and quit smoking after his father passed away. Hon believes that e-cigarettes are "a much cleaner, safer way to inhale nicotine". E-cigarettes look, work and feel similarly to a cigarette but they vaporize the nicotine when the person inhales on the device. Every time person inhales the tip of the cigarette turns a cool color thanks to a built in led. There is no fire, no smoke, no tar, no arsenic or the other chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. It is assumed to be a safer form of getting a nicotine fix without all the side effects of traditional smoking. People use e-cigarettes as an alternative to traditional cigarettes; as a way to quit smoking or avoid relapsing; to deal with cravings for cigarettes or withdrawal symptoms; and because it's cheaper than smoking. E-cigarette usage has increased to a $2 billion industry and are popping up all over the country. Smokers are now turning to e-cigarettes and are vaping (that's what they call smoking e-cigarettes) in enclosed areas and public places. Something that they can't legally do in many states with traditional cigarettes. E-cigarettes also come in various flavors that enhance the vaping experience. However, e-cigarettes are not regulated and there's no standard set for the levels of nicotine in these devices or additives used in flavoring. The FDA needs to regulate electronic cigarettes just like any other type of drug to prevent unnecessary harm and exposure to children and young adults.

Proponents of e-cigarettes claim that they are the "best hope of improving the unacceptably low rate of successful quitting among addicted smokers." says Gilbert Ross. They are safer because they don't have cancer causing agents and other chemicals found in cigarettes. "It's safe smoking -- like smoking with a condom on," said William Taskas who is a distributor of Smoke-Stik in Canada.  "It's about as harmless as you can get." "I wouldn't worry at all if someone was smoking one of these by my kids," says Igor Burstyn a professor at Drexel University. In a study in the British Journal Lancet it was found that e-cigarettes "with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar achievement of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events." The Royal College of Physicians says "Electronic cigarettes and other nicotine-containing devices offer massive potential to improve public health, by providing smokers with a much safer alternative to tobacco,"  "They need to be widely available and affordable to smokers." So it would seem that smokers, industry and some doctors believe that e-cigarettes are better than the alternative.

In 2009 the FDA conducted a test and found that a small number of e-cigarettes had "detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals to which users could potentially be exposed" and "that quality control processes used to manufacture these products are inconsistent or non-existent." As you can see from this study e-cigarettes are not entirely harmless as the makers would like you to believe. Because the product isn't marketed as a medicine like the nicotine patch or as tobacco there are no regulations that cover the use of the product. So the companies that make e-cigarettes (over 200 products so far) are not mandated to disclose the ingredients of their products. Unlike the big tobacco companies e-cigarettes companies can advertise freely and there's a growing fear that it will re-glamorize cigarette smoking by using celebrities and making it seem like vaping is cool similar to the old style tobacco ads. Advertising of e-cigarettes has tripled from $6.4 million in 2011 to $18.3 million in 2012 according to a study by RTI International. The $18.3 million dollar number may not show the entire picture because once again unlike tobacco companies e-cigarette companies don't have to report their expenditures for advertising. This brings us to the next problem, age. Because it's not a tobacco product their isn't an age verification process and children can buy the e-cigarette. E-cigarettes come in lots of different flavors that children find attractive such as bubble gum, chocolate mint and cherry. A recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued by the CDC found that 1.78 million middle school and high school students have tried e-cigarettes and this can lead to using traditional cigarettes and other drugs. This is of great concern according to the American Cancer Society "the younger a person is when they start using tobacco, the more likely they are to use it as an adult." Nicotine is found in both types of cigarettes and it's the main ingredient in e-cigarettes. Nicotine is a poison and is very addictive and harmful to all ages. In recent years there number of calls to poison control centers across the country involving e-cigarettes has jumped to 215 per month and more then half of those calls involved children under the age of 6.

The common sense rule here should be if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it should be treated like a duck. E-Cigarettes where made to look like a cigarette and act like a cigarette in providing nicotine to the person vaping. Therefore the FDA should regulate the e-cigarette products just like a traditional cigarette.

Guns, laws, and politicians. Will it ever change?

A fight for freedom

The United States of America is a country of many rights including the freedom to bear arms. However, should we ordinary citizens be allowed to bear arms in our modern times? The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants citizens the right to "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." This amendment was established in 1791 and was influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689 which also allowed citizens to bear arms. James Madison's initial proposal to the bill of rights read: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person". The original intent of our forefathers was basically to allow citizens to be armed in order to participate in militias, in the defense of the country, and to put down insurrections. There was also a concern that the people needed a way to balance the power of any standing army that the federal government put in place. They believed that if citizens had the right to bear arms they would basically outnumber any standing army , and ensure that government didn't become tyrannical and oppressive.  When the second amendment was put in place this country was still the wild west. People needed guns for protection of all sorts. Protection from wild animals, protection from unfriendly natives, protection from criminals. The U.S. did not have a police force that could adequately protect their rights, and the U.S. didn't have a professional army, only the militias comprised of citizen volunteers. Fast forward to modern times and we no longer have militias. We have the largest military force in the world that outspends every other country combined. Every town, city, and state has multiple levels of police presence. We have the third largest police force in the world behind China and India. We also have 31,672 needless deaths a year with fire arms of all types as counted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). We rank number one in the world in the number of guns owned by it's citizens. We have 270 million total guns in the U.S. and that averages to 89 firearms per 100 residents. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 1993-2011 in the year 2011 there where 467,321 fire arms crime victims in the U.S. Since 1982 there have been at least 62 mass shootings in the U.S. In the past few years we've had mass shooting in movie theaters in Colorado, places of worship such as the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, at wok sites like the sign manufacturer in Minneapolis, and even in a elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut to name just a few. Three quarters of the 143 guns used in these horrific crimes where obtained legally and 71 of them where semi-automatics. Out of the 71 semi-automatics, more then half (48), would be outlawed if there where laws similar to the proposed Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 which failed to pass.

Modern hand guns

Pro Gun groups would like to have the country believe that everybody should have a gun. That every law abiding citizen has the right to self defense, and to protect themselves and their property. Wayne LaPierre the Executive Vice President of the National Riffle Association (NRA) said during the Conservative Political Action Conference "We trust our freedom, In this uncertain world, surrounded by lies and corruption, there is no greater freedom than the right to survive, to protect our families with all the rifles, shotguns and handguns we want. I ask you. Do you trust this government to protect you?" Thomas Jefferson in the Thomas Jefferson Papers states "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government". Having a gun in this country is legal and as James Banks said it "...does not mean that I feel a need to justify owning guns beyond the fact that I use them responsibly, am old enough to purchase them legally, and enjoy having them." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stated that having a gun is "a human right for every person on the planet" and when running for president in 2012 he proposed that a treaty in the U.N. should be created to that end. Mr. Gingrich said that this would allow for "far fewer women would be raped, far fewer children would be killed, far fewer towns would be destroyed."

Where does that leaves us? A country that has lost according to the CDC National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 61, No. 4, May 8, 2013 well over 360,000 citizens from 1999-2010. That is more than all terrorist attacks to this country combined. The NRA has contributed more than $20 million toward political candidates since 1990, and another $32 million on lobbying since 1998. The NRA in 1996 successfully lobbied to cut funding of the CDC's gun violence research program which would've provided us with more useful information on the role of fire arms in this country. So we as a country could make informed decisions instead of emotional ones. Recently President Obama unfroze the program via an executive order.
Should the law be changed to allow only professionals with the necessity to carry fire-arms in carrying out their duties. This group of professionals being limited to the police force and other security professionals that protects the public's interest. Allowing anybody to own a fire arm just increase the pool of available weapons available to criminals. There are no reliable statistics that point out how law abiding citizen use their fire arms for self protection. However, the criminal element in this country has easily accessible weapons because of our constitutional right and because of that easy access crime with guns occurs. Other countries that have a stronger laws on fire arms have a much lower crime rates. In 2009 the UK had 138 gun deaths; in 2009 Canada had 173 gun deaths; in 2008 Japan's and 11 gun deaths; in 2010 Australia had 30 gun deaths.

Having such an abundant supply of fire arms and a culture of acceptance towards violence incorrectly allows criminals, vigilantes, people with mental health issues to take matters into their own hands. It allows criminals to commit more dangerous crimes against citizens. It  robs our inner city youth of their lives, and their futures. It allows massacres of the innocent in theaters, in workplaces, in schools, in military bases. On a more personal note my son in 2012 at the age of 17 was shoot 10 times by a criminal. The fact is that regardless if the fire arm was obtained legally or not ,or regardless of what laws where on the books this young man was in possession of a fire arm. My son did survive, and is just another statistic in this whole gun debate, and I venture to guess that if guns weren't readily available then that criminal element would find it harder if not nearly impossible to obtain a fire arm.

So what is the solution? Do we make it harder to own a weapon? Do we go the route of other countries and make it impossible? We as a country need to stop being so emotional over this issue. We need to sit down and have a real conversation of the issue, and find a solution. We should institute common sense laws, move to newer technology for fire arms. There are smart guns available that can negate the firing of the weapon by unauthorized users. The Armatix IP1 is one example of such a device. We should invest more in mental health services and education. We should remove the negative influence of lobbyist on this issue.

Ultimately, we should respect our laws, and honor the rights that so many of our citizens have died for, but we must remember that the constitution, and all works of men are not holly and sacred. We are flawed creatures, and our creations are only as perfect as we are. Times change and we adapt to the changes in our society, culture, and environment, and our laws should adapt with the changing times.

What the Frac...ing

The United States has been a major consumer of oil, coal, and natural gas. We have used those energy resources for the past 100 years. Our industrial sectors (manufacturing, agriculture, mining, construction), our transportation sectors (vehicles used to transport people or goods), our commercial sectors (office buildings, stores, churches, service industry, etc...) and even our homes depend on fossil fuels. As of 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 81% of our energy needs came from fossil fuels, with only 9% from various renewable energy sources, and 8% from nuclear electric power. The United States in 2012 was able to produce 83% of the energy needed with the remainder imported. It's clear that we as a nation depend on energy to keep our economy going, but is the continued consumption of fossil fuel the right thing in the long run. It's estimated that we have enough oil to last anywhere from 50 to 140 years, depending on who you believe and that may increase with continued innovations and efficiencies to technology that makes oil accessible.Our need for energy is so demanding that we have created a new process called Hydraulic fracturing better known as fracking. Fracking drills a whole into the earth right above a shale deposit. The drill goes down a few miles then angles of horizontally for a couple of miles and then basically pushes water, sand, and chemicals into cracks made by the drill until natural gas is released.  Fracking is being done at the Bakken and Marcellus shale formation in the northern Appalachian Basin which goes through various states.

The U.S. Geological Survey 2013 reassessment of the Bakken and Three forks area found that the Bakken and Three Forks area contained "7.4 billion barrels of oil, 6.7 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 0.53 billion barrels of natural gas liquids". The OhioEPA on their "Drilling for Natural Gas in the Marcellus and Utica Shales: Environmental Regulatory Basics" paper states that there are "363 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to satisfy U.S. energy demands for about 14 years." This enormous amount has brought the oil industry to expand into these areas. The oil companies have moved into these areas and leased the land from home owners and created thousands of wells. The wells are flushed with "...up to four million gallons of fresh water" and that water contains sand and chemicals. Most of the water stays underground and around 15% of it comes up the well within 7 days. The environmental impact of fracking hasn't be thoroughly studied, but there's a growing concern that the process may be contaminating groundwater. In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft report stating that chemicals from fracking were found in well water in Wyoming.

The environmental problems are just one of the issues surrounding fracking. The presence of newly found oil and gas brings a huge amounts of people from all walks of life from around the U.S. into the affected areas. The oil companies have to keep water, waste water, gas, oil, and other products moving to and from the sites. Oil workers of all types work at the rigs and become permanent workers of the areas as the wells can last 30-40 years. Small rural towns that weren't equipped to handle thousands of people find struggle through growing pains. The boom is great for local business like restaurants, bars, hotels, and stores. However, there is a darker side in the increase in crime, prostitution and the change in the rural communities culture. The towns don't have the resources, or the budgets, to build new roads, schools, or hire staff. Hiring staff becomes a problem as the towns can't pay as well a salary as the oil companies. The documentary "Boom! Behind the Bakken" by PBS Montana chronicles the issues around fast growth of the town of Williston in Montana, a small town around the Bakken area. Economically fracking is positive for the individuals, towns, region and country. It creates thousands of jobs and provides and energy resource that the country needs.

Fracking creates jobs. During the Conservative Policy Summit this year Senator Ted Cruz of Texas goes on the say that the average pay of North Dakota is $45 an hour. That McDonalds was given a $300 sign in bonus, that high school graduates can earn more than $80k driving a truck and Wal-Mart cashiers are making $17 an hour.  Daniel Simmons Director of State Affairs at the Institute for Energy Research stated that  "...multistate governmental agency representing states' oil and gas interests have found no evidence of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing fluids." Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation explains fresh water aqua-firs occur from the surface to at most 1000 feet below the surface and that companies are fracking at a distance much further than that . He implied that the drinking water will be safe.

A 60 Minutes show aired on May 4, 2013 goes into details around the human errors that cause accidents, leakeages, spills, and explosions. The state EPA fined a fracking company after recording infrared images of hissing and poping smoke stack. The same video shows an accident in Lousiana where 17 cows died because they ingested fracking fluids that run off into their pastures. If those chemicals can kill a cow what do you think it will do humans? To make matters worst the companies that conduct fracking are not required by law to list what chemicals are being used to frac. This is because they where exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) via a loop hole known as Haliburton loop hole which was pushed by then Vice President Dick Cheney. Even with the issues documented with fracking it is still a real opportunity for the U.S. to become energy independent and remove OPEC from our energy equation. It shouldn't be an end all. We should continue with fracking but ensure that companies adhere to the law and that government puts in place stronger safety standards that minimize accidents. The corporations running the fracking sites should be held to a more stringent safety standard to ensure the environment isn't destroyed. Furthermore, government should continue to invest in the creation of cleaner, renewable energy and see the additional fossil fuel capacity of the shale formations as bridge to green energy. This will be the way our economy can transition from old and dying legacy fuels to greener, cleaner, healthier alternatives that can keep our economy growing without destroying our environment.

Reflections...

On the afternoon of April 15, 2013 I was home with my husband. I was prepping the ingredients for our dinner for that evening. We were laughing, talking and just enjoying each others company. As usual the television in the kitchen was on, when all of a sudden out of nowhere there was an interruption on the news about what was happening in the 117th Boston Marathon. We both sat down watching in disbelief as another terrorist attack was unfolding in our own backward. My first thoughts were for real? How can this be? It felt surreal. I saw the images on the television but couldn't believe it was happening. I remember my husband saying god bless those people and give them strength. I felt the pain of those poor people as if it was me in the middle of that chaos. How I would freak out, feel confused, scared, and not be sure of what to do or where to go. How can somebody in the middle of all that chaos know where it was safe to go?

The city and our Government learned that the country is still vulnerable to terrorist attack. The nation realized that the "war on terror" as President Bush declared isn't over. The world learned that people will do evil and cowardly things to make their points, and that Boston citizens are tough and don't cave in to terrorism. We are Boston strong. We all saw the bystanders that run into the blast to help out their fellow citizens.That horrible event also showcased how as Richard Serino stated in his statement to the hearing for Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombings: Preparing for and Responding to the Attack on July 10, 2013 "It was an amazing example of humanity, service and teamwork". In the same hearing Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis, III stated that "The community plays one of the most important roles in our Nation’s fight against terrorism. They contributed to the success, efficiency and safe resolution of the investigation by providing videos, photographs, information and sheltering in place." Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann stated that "Boston’s responders were both lucky and good". The real lesson learned in this horrible event is that we as people don't really have the power to stop a lone wolf intent in hurting people, but we have the power to live and help those in need.



As a society we have to understand that terrorism is a form of manipulation. It is meant to terrify a community to despair and and give in to the terrorist demands. So what do we do about it? We do like that old British propaganda saying "Keep Calm Carry On". We don't let the terrorist dictate how we live. We live our lives without fear even if the possibility of an attack is around the corner. The minute we lock ourselves away and stop living freely we lose to the terrorist. We become stronger by continuing living and not fearing. We remember the victims of these horrible acts and turn it into moments of solidarity. Our next steps should be to identify how this happened. How a person living in this country can so easily turn into a lone wolf terrorist and use the very freedoms guaranteed by our constitution to terrorize.

The latest terror threats we receive are from Muslims extremist intent on harming the west by any means necessary. As a country we need to look into the war on terror, and be honest in determining if these wars have made us safer or left us with more enemies. In an analysis by James L. Payne of Osama's bin Laden's statements and interviews documented in the book "Messages to the World (2005)" by Bruce Lawrence 72% of bin Laden's statement revolve around "Criticism of U.S./Western/Jewish aggression, oppression, and
exploitation of Muslim lands and peoples". The percentage is staggering and telling if the ill will towards the west comes from our involvement with Muslims lands and it's people ,then why not give the terrorist what they want. Let's leave those country alone. Let them figure out what they want for their own lives, governments, and countries.

People do horrible things and this is nothing new. After all we been dealing with terrorism for decades, prior to 9/11 we had domestic terrorist. We have people dying through mass shootings in schools, malls, and churches. We also have empathetic, altruistic and brave people that jump into the fray and help out others. That characteristic of the american psyche is was makes me proud to be an american. We are strong, independent and don't give up easily.