Blog Stage 8: Comments

My response to http://ayishar.blogspot.com/:

In theory, I suppose the health care reform sounds very nice, but after it's been processed- not so much. Yes, it may be easier for anyone to obtain health insurance and therefore care, but how will budget cuts and less employees in the workplace ensure that this will be quality care? If the care we recieve may not be any help to us at all, wouldn't it be better to put a price on it? Maybe free health care isn't so "free" after all.

To Bear Arms.

One of the biggest issues our country has brought to light and is facing today is whether the gun control law should come to pass. Now, before I state my opinion and you think I'm just another redneck republican who will "fight like hell" to keep my "arms", I'd like to think I'm pretty open-minded and not strictly conservative. Yes, it's completely tragic when people die because some lunatic goes on a shooting spree, but who's to say that putting a ban on our right to weapons for self-defense will solve that? I in no way mean to belittle the deaths that have occurred, but think of it this way- currently, smoking marijuana (in most places) is technically still illegal, but that hardly stops people from accessing it and smoking it. I don't think this issue will be any different. There are still going to be people who choose to break the law and find some way to do it. People are still going to invariably, tragically die; that's life. In the online article, "A Big Controversy: Gun Laws", an excellent point is made. The article states, "After all, responsible citizens and gun owners follow gun laws. However, those people who are most likely to use guns violently - criminals - do not follow any laws. They simply do not follow gun laws, creating danger for everyone." Why should that be cause for us to give up that right? In my opinion, it seems, as the years go by- we're having to compromise more and more of our rights. If we strip away what helps us defend ourselves, how can we protect ourselves when someone untoward somehow gets a gun and is out on the loose? Will this really help preserve more human life? That is the question America needs to figure out the answer for itself.


"A Big Controversy: Gun Laws." - Agonist Learning Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. <http://agonist.org/Learning-Center/law/abigcontroversygunlaws.html>.

Ignorance- not always bliss.

In a recent editorial titled, Lessons of the past solve problems in the future, the editorial board of The Austin American Statesmen writes about problems that the Department of State Health have faced and been facing over the past few years. The article seems to be intended for the general public and perhaps government officials as they are mentioned in this closing statement: "...we should also remind officials that the only way to avoid future mistakes is to study and learn from past ones." The article relays findings made in a report by an advocacy group which explains how patients over the years have been sexually abused by the doctors responsible for treating them at psychiatric hospitals, and how the state has almost overlooked this because of the possibility of illegitimacy due to the patients' mental conditions. I do agree with the editorial board in that the state should examine the mistakes they made in overlooking the situation to help prevent this from happening in the future. 

Leadership???

After reading about Obama's leadership during Benghazi, an interesting point was brought to my attention from this article. Was The President very concerned with the events that took place last September? The main point of the passage is that the two top Defense Department leaders testified that they only had one conversation with Obama during the attack on September 11th, and Senator Lindsey Graham is fighting to hold President Obama "accountable". After questioning the two department heads, they claimed that The President was concerned about American lives despite his lack of contact, and was "well-informed" about the situation. The article states that Panetta and Dempsey (the Defense Department leaders) "claimed Thursday that the military could not have done more to save American lives that night, claiming that the difficulty in dispatching assets to the scene was "a problem of distance and time."
However, Panetta went on to say that the Pentagon, "spared no effort... to save American Lives."