Well that seems to be the story of my life. I completely forgot about this final blog. I'm here now though, just a day late.
I can not believe that this is my last blog. The time has flown by. This has been a great experience that I would not trade for anything. That being said, this will be my last blog post. It has been a wonderful learning experience but it was just that, a learning experience. I have learned a lot this semester and that knowledge will help me in the future. Coming into this most of my writing was technical writing and not academic writing. Believe it or not they are completely different. Technical writing is almost like writing directions and academic writing is proving a point. After these 15 or 16 weeks I believe I am a more well rounded writer with a few more tools in my toolbox.
As I said this is my last post. Take it easy everyone and look for me in the 2020 Olympics.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Drone Strikes, Fair or Foul?
Since 2004 the CIA has launched 337 drone strikes in Pakistan(New America). Forty five of those strikes have killed fifty one leaders of militant groups. There are two schools of thought on the subject of drone strikes. One is that it is good to take the leaders of terror groups out. While the other side thinks that it would be better to send in a team of people to capture the leaders and try to get information out of them.There are certain risks and advantages involved with both.
One of the main advantages of the drone strikes is the certain level of safety. The drone can be controlled from many miles away so there is very little risk of any US service man or woman getting killed or wounded. A price tag can not be put on the life a service member. Their safety should be the first thing on every American's mind.
A disadvantage of drone strikes is the chance or collateral damage. It is common practice of militants to put their bases next to places with a large volume of civilians. When a missile hits its target it creates a lot of damage and unfortunately civilians are sometimes involved. As the drone strikes have gone on the US has gotten better at minimizing the damage but we cannot completely eliminate it.
One of the main advantages of the drone strikes is the certain level of safety. The drone can be controlled from many miles away so there is very little risk of any US service man or woman getting killed or wounded. A price tag can not be put on the life a service member. Their safety should be the first thing on every American's mind.
A disadvantage of drone strikes is the chance or collateral damage. It is common practice of militants to put their bases next to places with a large volume of civilians. When a missile hits its target it creates a lot of damage and unfortunately civilians are sometimes involved. As the drone strikes have gone on the US has gotten better at minimizing the damage but we cannot completely eliminate it.
Works Cited
New America Foundation. The Year of the Drone.
2012. 14 November 2012
<http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/about/militants>.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Its over
Well we know who won the election. Obama will be our president through 2016. As of right now(Florida is still too close to call) he has 303 electoral votes and Romney has 203. Although Obama won by 100 electoral votes it was a much closer race than that. If you look at this view of an electoral map you can see that there is a fairly even distribution of red and blue states. The races in a few swing states were super close also.
The results in Virginia were very close. Every vote counted here. Obama won Virginia by a little over 100,000 votes. In a state that populated that is very close. What is interesting is that some of the rural counties that normally tend to vote democrat went to Romney. Also is seems that northern Virginia specifically Fairfax and Loudoun county are close to the epicenter of the democratic growth in Virginia. That should be an interesting trend to watch.
North Carolina was also an extremely close race. With Romney winning it by under 100,00 votes. Again North Carolina was another state where every vote counted.
One state that was very interesting to watch last night was Ohio. Most people believed that Romney needed Ohio to win the race. Obama jumped out to a very early lead when the early election ballots and when the live ballots came in the race tightened up. Something that surprised me is that when Ohio was called for Obama, he was only up by something like 962 votes. I find it absolutely amazing the mathematicians could call it when it was that close.
The Aftermath
Well after hundreds of millions of dollars spent not a lot has changed. Obama is still president. The democrats still control the senate and the republicans control the house. Seems kind of like a waste to me.
As we the people look forward to the future there are some super challenges ahead for us all. We have a rising threat in Iran. A huge debt from China. We have not passed a budget in four years. Our politicians refuse to work together and sequestration looming on the horizon. These will be a tough four years for American, but we can rise through them and continue to be great. We must stick together and hold our politicians accountable for their actions.
The results in Virginia were very close. Every vote counted here. Obama won Virginia by a little over 100,000 votes. In a state that populated that is very close. What is interesting is that some of the rural counties that normally tend to vote democrat went to Romney. Also is seems that northern Virginia specifically Fairfax and Loudoun county are close to the epicenter of the democratic growth in Virginia. That should be an interesting trend to watch.
North Carolina was also an extremely close race. With Romney winning it by under 100,00 votes. Again North Carolina was another state where every vote counted.
One state that was very interesting to watch last night was Ohio. Most people believed that Romney needed Ohio to win the race. Obama jumped out to a very early lead when the early election ballots and when the live ballots came in the race tightened up. Something that surprised me is that when Ohio was called for Obama, he was only up by something like 962 votes. I find it absolutely amazing the mathematicians could call it when it was that close.
The Aftermath
Well after hundreds of millions of dollars spent not a lot has changed. Obama is still president. The democrats still control the senate and the republicans control the house. Seems kind of like a waste to me.
As we the people look forward to the future there are some super challenges ahead for us all. We have a rising threat in Iran. A huge debt from China. We have not passed a budget in four years. Our politicians refuse to work together and sequestration looming on the horizon. These will be a tough four years for American, but we can rise through them and continue to be great. We must stick together and hold our politicians accountable for their actions.
Works Cited
Politico. 2012 Presidential Election. 6-7
November 2012. 7 November 2012
<http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/>.
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