To Resist Hitler And Survive

The commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust has reminded many of the heroes and the victims during this time. Some of these heroes include those who tried to fight against the criminals and the women that took action to save the lives of their spouses. For example, "Every child here knows the names of Hans and Sophie Scholl, college students who were guillotined for distributing anit-Nazi pamphlets". These students were punished for trying to do good which now is viewed as a negative influence. Also, the women who took the nonviolent approach reigned successful. The women were able to get the police to back down and their hursbands were released. I think that this was very smart of the women to do. It shows that giving up was an option for them and they were not going out without a fight. I think that the children of Germany today may have a chance of getting a bad impression because of their nation's past but I also think that it can be easily prevented.

Our Moral Duty In Iraq

This article is based around the topic of the Iraqi war and it's morality. The author states that we have several obligations to the Iraqi people which is the main reason we still have troops stationed there. I agree with the efforts of Tim Ryan, Rosa DeLauro, Marcy Kaptur, and their colleagues. The war that we are fighting is immoral and we need to bring an end to it. According to the author, "Today's challenge in Iraq is to ensure that an unjust war does not lead to an unjust peace". I strongly agree with this statement because if the reason to begin wasn't just then why would the outcome be? The only positive to the Iraqi War is the effort of the United States' effort to combat terrorist groups. We have already seen the damages terrorists can cause after 9/11 and it would be even more devastating if we had a reoccurance. According to the text, thee best antiwar arguement is the two immoral failures in Iraq. They include, "it was immoral to intervene; in the ensuing nationbuilding process, the United States has failed the Iraqi people by willing an end (a peaceful and prosperous Iraq) without willing the means to achieve it". I think that we have failed the Iraqi people because they have not receieved the desired ending. Overall, I believe that the war in Iraq could have been avoidable but now it has turned into something larger than itself.

Iraqi Kids Play Make-Believe War Games

In this article, the author describes the effect the war has on Iraqi children. Iraqi children are heavily influenced by the violence involved in the war and it reflects on their make-believe play. Children, more commonly young boys, pretend to be at war with one another like many of the fathers. The owner of the nearby toy store stated that most of the toys he sells are the large toy guns. I definitley think that this has a negative affect on the children as they are growing up learning that violence is okay. I don't think that parents just verbally reinforcing the negative aspects of it will help. Children will learn from others actions. I definitley think that since the war also affects the children's school work that it is a major problem. If they think that they are going to be killed soon that it is definitley a negative cognitive affect.

Al Gore, Globab Warming, Inconvenient Truth:Scientists Respond To Gore's Warnings Of Climate Catastophe

In this article the author, Harris, made some very convincing points about the falseness of Gore's lecture. Harris points out that Gore used biologists and other irrelevant scientists to prove his points. I agree with this article that by getting information from scientists that do not specialize in the area of climate is irrational. According to Professor Tim Patterson the level of Carbon Dioxide has absolutley nothing to do with global warming. Patterson is a paleoclimatologist and he has testified the irrelavance. Patterson states, " 'There is no meaning ful correlation between Carbon Dioxide levels and Earth's temperature over this geologic time frame. In fact, when Carbon Dioxide levels wer eover ten times hight then they are now, about 450 million years ago, the plante was in the dpeths of the absolute coldest period of the last billion years' "(Wood 651). Patterson's statement clearly proves that Gore's information was not to be trusted because he was giving out wrong information.

DNA Test Gives Students Ethnic Shocks

This article struck me as extremley interesting. Most people in society do consider themselves to be of one ethnicity, when in actuality an individual can have many. The students in Samuel Richards class all express the curiousity factor when it comes to ethnicity. The enitre class was willing to volunteer for the experiment which shows that they all have their doubts. The end of this article I also found very interesting and it stood out the most.
" 'But it makes me question, why are we doing this? Why do people, especially in this country, want to know? Why are we, as a people, so caught up in race? Maybe we haven't progressed as much as we thought we had' "(Wood 627).
I agree with the author's last statement because we really haven't progressed as much as we would have liked on this issue. Ethnicity is still a common influence on various things everday.We all just need to accept who we are as people and not who we are because of our genetics.

Your Gamete, Myself

The article "Your Gamete, Myself'", by Peggy Orenstein, is based on the controversial issue of egg donors. The main conflict on this topic is the other option of adoption. I personally feel that becoming an egg donor is a very positive process as you are bringing a new life into the world. At the same time, I agree that there are already so many children in foster care that are looking for families. Both choices have their pros and cons. Egg donors allow those who are infertile to have that experience of childbirth. This procedure is also very costly. Becky and her husband Russell, who were introduced in the article, figured that they would eventually owe close to $35,000 due to the donation. Adoption is also another option for those who are unable to have children of their own. I personally prefer adoption over egg donors. I also feel that any child whether from an egg donor or adopted has the right to know their history. Both of these choices are very empowering but overall I think that adoption is the better choice.

Facebook: Why I Hate It

My initial reaction when I began reading this article was that I could easily relate to the author. Similar to Sarah, I begin my morning routine with a quick check of my facebook, hoping for a new wall post or news feed. Several consecutive hours are wasted daily on facebook rather than using that time being productive and working on class assignments. At this time, facebook is minimized at the bottom of my screen for future use. This shows that facebook can easily become an addiction. Applications are also a very popular aspect. One in particular "Make a Baby" may send the wrong message to children and teens that it is appropriate to have children at such a young age. Although "Make a Baby" is a virtual version of a baby it can be taken in a different direction. Although facebook does have it's negatives, it is a very good source for communication. Now that I am away at college in a different state than my high school, it is very common to lose touch with former class mates and friends. Facebook allows me to "add" them as a friend and we can either send messages or write on each other's walls. The author also mentioned the infamous facebook status. Allowing members to write about exactly what they are doing tends to become distracting and bothersome. Does anyone actually need to know what are you doing at every moment of the day? Facebook has affected a vast amount of people of all ages and it continues to expand making it an even larger phenomena everyday.