TU Tuesday - Local

The article I read was about a new bill being passed. This bill makes it so that "the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [has] to standardize drug labels, laying out the drug's risks in easy-to-understand language." Five years ago a 15 year old boy named Cody Miller took his own life due to the prescription he was taking. His family did not recognize this sudden depression, and then 17 days after taking Singulair he killed himself. One of the main reasons people want this bill to be passed is so they can avoid tragic accidents like these. Apparently "most consumers don't realize that the drug leaflets that come with prescription medications are not regulated or reviewed."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is trying to get this bill passed. If it is, "the Cody Miller Initiative for Safer Prescriptions Act, gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services two years to create a standard format for drug labels that is scientifically accurate and written in plain language describing the drug's proper use, common side effects and most serious risks." If this passes people who take drugs may be able to save their own life.

Source:
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Bill-Drug-labels-can-save-lives-3594022.php

50. Should women be allowed in the military?

Women should be allowed in the military because they're people too. Personally, I would never want to join, and I don't know why anyone would want to die fighting. So if someone actually wants to die fighting for the country, why not let them do so? It's a free country and that means people can do what they want. In the Declaration of Independence it says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Although at the time they said men, our country now believes women to be equal too.  The ideals of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (created by John Locke in the Enlightenment period) apply to women too.  Women work at jobs, they are mothers, and sometimes they're even stronger than men.  Why shouldn't they be allowed in the military?  There is no reason they shouldn't be allowed in.  If they want to die for this country, I say let them. 

Sources:

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

http://journalbuddies.com/journal_prompts__journal_topics/journal-writing-topics-memorial-day/

What is Crippling Us?

John Taylor Gatto tells of how public school is ruining children through an essay.  "Throughout most of American history, kids generally didn't go to high school, yet the unschooled rose to be admirals,...inventors,...captains of industry,...writers,...and even scholars,...In fact, until pretty recently people who reached the age of thirteen weren't looked upon as children at all. " (Against School)  He says how school is ruining maturity of kids, and their responsibility level.  Somehow kids aren't growing all the way up. "School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children. Again, this is no accident." (Against School)  He basically claims that school turns kids into servants of society.  "Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can." (Against School) Children who are public-schooled must have someone with them at all time, they lack the ability to be alone.  

This can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because Mildred, along with several other adults of this town, require the constant attention from the "parlor."  Mildred sits all day in the parlor, with the special converter that replaces a blank audience's name with her own, and talks to the three panel TV.  "'Will you turn the parlor off?' he asked. 'That's my family.' 'Will you turn it down for a sick man?' 'I'll turn it down.'" (Fahrenheit 451, page 48) Mildred can't even get herself away from the parlor.  She is so attached to an inanimate object, she can't be without it.  Just as the children who need the constant companionship who go to public school.  Ray Bradbury tells of how society is discriminating against those who are intelligent, or those who surpass everyone else by using dialog.  "We must all be alike.  Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy; for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against." (Fahrenheit 451, page 58)  Beatte tells Montag about how books are bad because they cause problems.  In this futuristic society it is believed if you don't read books, you are happy because you don't think about a made-up world that someone wrote that will contradict your thoughts.  People can not be offended, and that's why the fireman burn books.  

I am not persuded by John Taylor Gatto to think as he does because there are always the few exceptions to public school.  For example Jay Leno went to Emerson College to get a degree when his high school counciler told him to drop out of High School. He is famous, and he still went to school, he is not a servant to society.  I am sort of persuaded by Ray Bradbury because his futuristic view of the world is kind of true in a way that people gasp when you mutter the wrong thing.


Sources: 

• http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm
• http://www.collegecrunch.org/fun-stuff/famous-people-the-schools-they-went-to/
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Tried and True

If I had to spend the rest of my life in a library, museum or a zoo, I would pick a librabry.  Museums don't contain anything but artifacts, and small little boxes of information on the object.  It would get scary at night; I'd be afraid the things would come to life.  It would be lonely.  There would be no food.  Living my whole life in a zoo would be scary too, I'm terribly afraid of snakes and other reptiles.  It would be cool hanging out with the penguins though.  I love penguins. If I got hungry I could eat from a snack bar or kill and roast an animal.  It probably smells bad in a zoo too because of all the animal's poop.  Living in a library would be the best.  The smell of old books, and new pages is wonderful.  If I got bored I could watch a movie (they have a bunch of movies at the library for some reason), or listen to music, or I could get abosrbed into a book.  There is unlimited entertainment at the library.  There's also computers there, so I would be set for life.  Perhaps there's a small cafe in the library, if it was really fancy (like there is at Barns and Noble.)  That way I wouldn't starve to death.  So overall the library would be where I chose to live for the rest of my life.

Prompt from: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/post/17477297690/my-28-most-tried-and-true-writing-prompts

TU Tuesday - Commencement Speech

Wise words are spoken, that touch your soul in commencement speeches.  Amy Poehler told Harvard's graduating class of 2011 "[w]hat [she has] discovered as a person in this world. And that is this: you can't do it alone."  I completely agree with her.  "[B]e open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own."  This statement holds true to the show Mrs. Poehler stars on, Parks and Recreation. "Daniels noted the mock documentary style of the series takes into account improvisation and the actors always give the editors so many choices to work with." (Inside Parks and Recreation) In the show all the actors and writers work together to create a wonderful show, without everyone's ideas and input, it would not be what it is today.   

Mrs. Poehler also expressed how she felt making good friends was a huge important part in life.  "Listen, say yes, live in the moment, make sure you play with people who have your back, make big choices early and often."  I agree with this because you do need people to have your back, so when you're down and in the dumps, they can rescue you.  Big choices lead to big responsibilities, and big responsibilities don't come easy without help.  "Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don't know about. "  I agree; If you speak your mind on everything, sometimes you'll get rejected and end up getting hurt.   You need friends to get you through life. "When you feel scared, hold someone's hand and look into their eyes. And when you feel brave, do the same thing. You are all here because you are smart. And you are brave. And if you add kindness and the ability to change a tire, you almost make up the perfect person."  Without other people influencing your life, you aren't who you are.

Sources:
http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0095-poehler.htm
http://www.paleycenter.org/fall-2009-inside-parks-recreation

  

1. How I Use Facebook

I use Facebook as a way to talk to people who don't have a phone/are grounded from it every once a month or so.  The "chat" feature is annoying.  I don't like Facebook.  I used to like it when I first got it back in middle school, but now I don't.  I used to use it for Farmville; I got to like level 35 and stopped because I realized it was stupid and I was wasting my life.  Sometimes when I log onto Facebook I will scroll down my news feed and literally start making rude comments at everything people post.  Or sometimes if I'm in a bad mood I scroll down and realize how stupid everyone is and tell the screen that I don't like that person, then I laugh to myself.  For tennis this year, me and the other team captains used Facebook as a way to get tennis messages out.  For example, our laser tag party that never happened.  Facebook is inefficient and stupid.  Sometimes when people posts things like "It's wednesday!" or "It's snowing!" it makes me get angry because I think that society is going downhill and the future generation is doomed.  Facebook used to be for college kids, then other kids got to it, now I believe a ton of parents use it, and now it's just dumb.  I use Facebook for pictures.  I want to delete my Facebook, but I don't want to because if i deleted it all the pictures would be gone.  In conclusion I use Facebook only when I have to. I'd much rather waste my life on the computer on Tumblr or playing video games.


Blog idea: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/100-blog-topics-i-hope-you-write/

Love to Know Slideshow

Prompt:  Behind Bars - Why is this person in jail?

 It was a cold and stormy night and a teenage male was just kicked out of his house.  He wondered around the street for hours and then decided to walk into the city.  The wet rain felt heavy on his head.  He looked at his feet as he walked.  He couldn't imagine that he'd been kicked out of his house.  He sighed and looked at his feet.  This wasn't how it was supposed to be.  His mind flashed back to earlier that day.

He and his parents had been fighting.  He was barely passing school.  They yelled at him for using drugs.  They told him cocaine would ruin his life; and he realized it did. But he couldn't stop his addiction. He needed help.

He started walking into an alley. What appeared to be a homeless man emerged from the shadows.  His beard was long and his eyes were red.
"Want to buy cocaine?" The man asked.  He stepped forward.  He needed the drug.  He stepped forward, handed him what money he had in his pocket and grabbed the bag of drugs. The next thing he knew he was blacked out.

He woke in a jail cell confused and angry.  It turns out the supposed homeless man was actually a CIA agent.  He didn't want to call his parents; that just made him more angry.  The night was awful.  He hoped to get out of jail soon; he felt he didn't deserve this.

Picture and Prompt taken from:  http://freelance-writing.lovetoknow.com/Slideshow:Free_Writing_Prompts~5

Creative Contest III

Computer controlled, but not a robot.

Philosophy

Communism is an economic and political philosophy. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, a 23 page pamphlet explaining their ideas, in 1848. This pamphlet would eventually become the most influential work- it inspired many revolts and revolutionaries.  (Some of the most famous revolutionaries are Fidel Castro, and Mao Zedong.)  During this time the Industrial Revolution was happening in Britain due to its land, labor and capitol. Captialism was also the economic system during this time, which allowed the Industrial Revolution to happen. People were driven by the want to get money for their ideas. The Industrial Revolution caused a widening gap between the middle class's white collar workers, the bourgeoisie, and the blue collar workers, the proletariat. Mr. Marx and Mr. Engles both argued that this has always been the case with humans; they had always been divided into these types of classes. These two philosophers believed that the Industrial Revolution "enriched the wealthy and impoverished the poor" (World History: Patterns of Interaction.) Communism in theory is that the capitalism will destroy itself by the proletariot revolting. The proletariot will then control the government by a dictorship of themselves. The theory then says that the government will go away, and the people will be self sufficient. Basically; this final state is called communism. No governement and run by the people. The people are all equal under communism, they all get the same amount of food, same clothing, same everything. Each person will do their part to help the overall state. Individuality is gone under communism, but the people want the state to benefit because everything the state owns is all the peoples.

I do not agree with communism because throughout history it fails.  There has never been one successful communism state.  The only time people actually want to be united as one, and share everything is when they are all connected by god.  The Amish are a great example of that.  Why would the rich want to give their hard earned money to the poor?  The poor definitely would want the money from the rich.  But communism isn't fair.  The government can never be stable enough to leave because the society of the people won't ever be self sufficient.  If everyone is working for the same cause, people will start to get lazy during their jobs because they figure it doesn't matter how hard they work; as long as they look like they are doing work they will get paid the same amount as everyone else. If the government is currupt, which most likely it is, then the whole state will never be equal.  In the state you're supposedly supposed to be all equal; but some are more equal than others. Humans are naturally greedy, and this is why communism will never work.  

Works Cited

Black, Linda, Larry S. Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, and Dahia Ibo Shabaka. "25.4 An Age of Reform." World History: Patterns of Interaction. By Roger B. Beck. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), 1998. Print.

"The Communist Manifesto." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 May 2012. Web. 06 May 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto>.

"The Principles of Communism." The Principles of Communism. Web. 06 May 2012. <http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm>.

TU Tuesday - Classified

If you're looking for a place to fix, or get a new fence this is the place.  We do estimates too!  Call us up!

http://timesunion.kaango.com/ad-fence-sales-installation-and-repair/20535916

NOTE:  THIS STORY IS FICTION


Sad and Broken


The day was sunny and hot when it all happened. The mysterious event that caused me to have to spend money.  I slowly walked to my backyard, with a glass of lemonaid my Mum had made for me.  "I'll make you lemonaid if you go outside and trim the hedges." she had said. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, because exposure to the sun was causing my pale white skin to sweat.  I didn't like the sun; I was used to being in a dark room with my computer and video games  for several hours everyday. It's not my fault I'm 30 and still live with my parents- I'm renting out the basement.  I have no job. I went to go chop the hedges I noticed a large hole in the brand new fence my Pa installed last week.  I screamed and ran back inside because I didn't know what to do. 


My mom pushed me back outside and I stood and stared at the fence.  I walked back towards it.  It was up to me to repair it.  I grabbed a hammer and some wood and thought for a very, very, very long time how to fix it.  I sat on a lawn chair, and continued staring at the fence.  I put on a hat because the sun was getting to me.  I understood what to do.


I went back downstairs into the basement and Googled how to fix a fence.  I read slowly, understanding every word.  I grabbed some nails from the garage and went back outside to the fence.  I put up a board of wood and hammered it over the hole.  I actually enjoyed fixing this fence.  I worked on it for about an hour.  As I walked back inside my mom gave me another glass of lemonaid.  She was so happy I fixed the fence!


When my pa got home he saw I fixed the fence.   He had a brilliant plan.  He asked me if I wanted to make a fence repair and installation service with him.  He hated his current job, so he was glad to try something new.  I was so happy, I never had a job before.  We decided to call it "J D Fence" because my name is Donald and his name is Jerry.  We were going to be the best fence repair team ever! "Aluminum, [c]hainlink, [v]inyl and [w]ood", we will learn to do it all! 


 From that time and on, me and my father fixed fences.  I eventually made enough money to move out of my parent's house. At the start we had to do "[f]ree [e]stimates" because we didn't have enough customers.  But then our fence service grew.  We became the richest fence installers and repairmen ever.