thought process

So I have been doing some serious thinking and reflecting.

Some of you have read my blog postings, which have mainly been focused around foreign policy, but here is something that really has been an interesting question for me. I started this whole thing with the perception that to liberate social classes, there were many things that we would have to do. I believed that Lobbyists would have to take a stand down, and that the national minimum wage should be raised, and that every company (including foreign, U.S. based companies should have to pay taxes, and get no type of tax cuts), this would ensure that the people in the United States got the money that they deserved, so that people would have a relatively equal playing field, there were many other things that I wanted to change but you get the general idea.

The thinking process here was, if I changed the economic standing of citizens by limiting the influence of both domestic and foreign companies, and business leaders, and ensured that citizens would be granted the same types of privileges that wealthy people have... then things could at least be easier to live with, the poverty level wouldn't be so much, and the people who are homeless could get jobs easier because the companies couldn't move out of the country so easily.

To me that was a great thought process, and it was logical, at least at the time. Here is the problem and the question. If I change the economic standing of citizens does it mean that their class will be influenced for the better? At first I answered this with an emphatic YES, but look at it this way... your poor so I give you twenty bucks, but not only you get twenty bucks, but everyone gets twenty bucks now you are richer yes, but you are still twenty dollars poorer than everyone else, you may be able to get yourself a pair of pants, or maybe you invest in a haircut which later gets you a job, I don't know, but I do know that even though you may be able to dress yourself in better clothes, so are the people who were considered the middle class, and although the wealthy don't get as much money, they are still wealthy. The problem is that economics doesn't answer all of the question. Some people would say that they just want more money, but a middle class person might be asking for better job satisfaction, or for more compensation for traumatic events such as cancer, or a loss of a family member. The problem is, you will still be middle class, and your days will be just as monotonous as the day before. To change the United States, or even the world there would have to be a homogeneous mixture of economics, and morals... and for that to happen, well... it won't happen. For our economic, and socio- economic views to change there would have to be something epic to happen, like seriously we would need like a world wide economic collapse, and a quick entry for a new type of system that was generally accepted because it does not follow the same steps as our current economy in place.

Some people may say that this is now an economics debate and I am saying no it is not, there is a clear difference... our money may change but our social schema will not. If an economy is to better a society, the economy must embody the ideals of the people within it. Many people now are asking for more equality, people must understand that equality is not what people were asking for when our government was made, people wanted competition, and that is what they got, which is what makes it so hard for some people to live within our society. So, I guess the question is, what ideals does our country hold today? are we spawn of corruption, and indecency, people who put on a nice face, but are really mean and cruel. Or are we the country who on countless occasions has tried save, replenish, rebuild, or accept nations... I don't know how, why or when... but based on what we have seen and are seeing the economy will change, when it does there are going to be certain parties favored, with the health care bill, and the economic stimulus package I can see that there are huge strides to better the average americans lives, now lets hope there will be long term acts that will ensure not only a stable economy, but an economy that favors lives of freedom rather than lives of constant work, and cometetiveness

I'm tired of being informed

I have read I think like twenty sources. Each source saying something or another about foreign policy, and that is great, it means that there are a ton of sources to read from. At the same time all of these sources happen to be either very ambiguous, in what they are trying to actually contribute to the conversation on foreign policy, or they just give a crap load of information telling me about how they came to their conclusions about Foreign policy.

For all of those who like to talk a little about politics, here is some stuff to chew on.

Every country that the U.S. is involved with regarding trade, politics, and the like. All of these nations have some kind of treaty signed with the U.S. The U.S. has lobbyist that come to the terms of what that agreement should look like, and then send that to the nation that we want a treaty with, and they add or take away what they think should or should not be on the treaty.

If we are to trade with only certain countries which I understand, because there are just nations that the United States cannot support in good conciouss. If we are to trade with these nations then shouldn't all these countries get the same treatment? for instance instead of saying, hey we are going to trade this with this country, and this with another country, couldn't we just make it easy and make a broad statement saying yes we will trade what you are willing to trade, just don't send anything that you know is illegal in our freaking country. If this option was given to every country it would be easier. Another scenario, instead of saying to only Russia that we want them to lower the amount of nuclear arms that we have in their country, we talk to all of the nations and come up with a satisfiable agreement for everyone, and if any one nation doesn't want to comply, then they simply won't be apart of our treaty? If we listened to other countries demands and at the same time took our own security, and our own well being into account then everyone would be playing on a relatively level playing field.

There will always be conflict, because I believe that people in power will want more power, but as I have said before, the power lies in the people, and if you have nine countries saying, sorry charlie, but you broke the rules, that would be a troublesome state of affairs.

I wanna hear some people views on unilateralism ( the idea that the United States should work alone independant and sovereign of all nations), and their views on multilateralism ( the idea that the United States would interact with and be subject to the discressions of the nations in which it interacts with.)

Personally I believe in Multilateralism- I don't think that america can operate independently anymore, only because of the fact that we rely on so much of other peoples resources. If we were to cut our revenue from some countries, their lives would become chaos, and in turn our lives would hurt from the lack of their contributions. It only makes sense that if we are going to wheel and deal with other nations, give and take, then we should give and take equally, not distribute it to people we like better, just because they are nicer, but we should give the same advantages to everyone... I mean isn't that what capitalism is, everyone starts on a level playing field, and the dogs fight it out to see whos on top in the end...

This is a big debate in foreign policy it is important because some people view the U.S. as a superpower that can't be touched, and that we are the good guys, but look at it from other peoples point of view and most often we are the people to pick a fight, to say no, or to stick our nose where it doesn't belong.

lol comments are appreciated, tell me what you think

The Puff Eye

ok so, One day, about two years ago, I woke up in the morning and was suprised to find that i had a severe case of what I deem "the puff eye". It's when your eye gets all puffy for no freekin reason. I'm assuming it'f from getting bacteria in your eye or an allergic reaction, or possibly both. When I got it in high school my eye swell up fopr 3 days and i could not go to school because I wasn't about to walk around looking like an alien and get made fun of for the rest of my life. Recently a girl came into my work ( I work at Walgreens and a Dance studio) asking if we carried hypoallergtic makeup because she had sensitve eyes and they were swelling because of her makeup. This weekend I discovered that one of my very own friends was a victim of the puff eye. He had slept in someone else's bed and woke up with a puffy irratated eye socket.

I just want all of you who are helpless victims of the puff eye that you are not alone and there is help out there. If you do come down with the puf eye:
1. Wash it with baby shampoo (as it will disinfect the eye while not causing irritaion and tears like most soaps).
2. Do NOT rub it or
3. Do NOT rub your eye on ppl ( unless you really dont like the person and think it would be funny to see them walk around for a couple days with a swollen, red, nasty eyeball)
4. Don't leave your house, (cuz i will laugh at you if i see you)

the end.

SURVEY - Credit Cards: For or Against them?

I decided that the question I will be attempting to answer is: How does one's economic or social background impact attitudes towards credit card usage and accumulation of debt?

Just to get a feel as to which direction to turn, I ask..

Credit Cards: For or Against them and why?

If you could just give a few points to support your response that would be great :) THANKS!

She Called Me A Douche!

A couple days ago I was talking to a girl at the bus stop, mainly because I was bored and had just missed the bus I should have been on, so I had some time to kill. After complaining how pissed I was that we had to wait out in the cold so much, we switched to a different topic. The girl looked down at her phone, and then she said, “awe that sucks”, I said, “what sucks” ( I should have just kept my mouth shut). She starts talking about how horrible the situation in Haiti is, and how much more she thought we as a nation should help Haiti more... my argumentative side showed up.

OK so before I start talking and pissing everyone off just as much as I pissed this girl off I have to say a few things. I am writing my English Paper on Foreign Diplomacy, and I haven’t really fine tuned down the specific purpose yet, but what I have gotten so far is that the U.S. does a freaking lot. Now, any humanitarians who are reading this I want to put at ease right now. I believe that EVERYONE should have the right to live a good life, and I personally have already put myself through four engagements over seas in the military, whether you believe that I was being humanitarian or not is up to you. I joined the Army to save American lives, not necessarily the Americans in America, but if I killed an Iraqi that could potentially kill countless other soldiers I was ok with that. I am a socialist at heart, I wish that everyone could learn how to play fair, but this is a dog eat dog world.

So this girl mentioned Haiti, and how deplorable the situation still is in Haiti, and that now since it has been a month or so since the earthquake, the situation has kind of settled in the back of peoples heads. I looked at her, and I had to ask, “ do you really think we should be over there?” She looked at me like I was the scum of the earth, like I had just killed a baby with a wet sponge shoved down its throat with a hot spoon. As soon as I saw that reaction I started trying to like, make it seem less horrible than how it came out. I explained to her that we have one of the biggest economic disasters we have had in a long time, we have millions of people who are unemployed, and literally spent billions of dollars to stall the depression. On top of doing all of that we have two war fronts one in Afghanistan, and another in Iraq, and a possible third in Iran. So, when Haiti had it’s disaster we sent troops that we are paying to activate and send to Haiti to keep the peace, then of course the medical help, the water, and aid that we sent cost us even more money, spent our gas, and used our tax dollars. Like I said I want to help people, but how can the U.S. in a matter of days go and help or relieve in a matter of a couple months help rebuild an entire country, but we have to fight tooth and nail to just make living comfortable for four million people. Why do I have to be a big brother to every country but my own, why is it that I am the one expected to dish out the tax dollars to take out dictators who don’t dictate my own country. I explained all of this to her, and she was still looking at me like I was the one who had killed all of those people in Haiti. I looked at her and said, “ look, you can hate me all you want, but if you love people so much you might wanna try loving the people who are still alive, four million people living in poverty, or 200,000 who are dead and could care less.

The Big Brother Policy:

the Big Brother Policy said that the most Powerful nations had a responsibility to help those countries who are in need and cannot help themselves. I want everyone to recognize something. We as a nation are in need, in some ways we have more need than a lot of so called “lesser nations”. We are also not necessarily always helping these nations either, Iraq, Afghanistan, Hawaii, and Germany, these nations, all of them, we have “helped”, then afterwards guess what happens, we put up an embassy bring in some companies to help with the effort and now the U.S. has another foothold on the rest of the world.

I tried explaining all of this stuff to this girl, I wish I knew her name so that I could apologize,and at least tell her that I did not want to offend her. but at the same time I have the same beliefs.

Americans Need to start learning how to fuck off, leave other countries alone, they are not ours. If we are not going to take them over, if they don’t physically ask us to help, leave them alone! It is a simple request, I am tired of seeing congress make laws, and then those laws being ratified without any consent from the general public. I would have wanted a say when we went to war with Iraq, I would have wanted a say when we ratified the stimulus bill, I want a say how we deal with other nations. If we are the strongest nation, it is only because of the people who are within the nation, and I am tired of supporting the poorest Nations without supporting the poorest Americans, and I hate supporting people who don’t ask our help to begin with.

If anyone has any rebuttals or responses that they would like to add I would enjoy getting them, if you are going to just call me a douche please tell me why, and if anyone has any sources that they are thinking of when they read all of this give me a list lol anything that could help me figure some things out or give me a fresh perspective would be awesome

thanks

I'm bored....

Anyone wanna go throw rocks at cars or like get harassed by religious fanatics on campus or something...seriously, I was pumped to get back to the house...but this is lame

GODDAMMIT HENRY I WAS TRYING TO PAY ATTENTION!!!