Torture Tactics
Did you know that a large amount of American money is spent each year on torturing terrorists from other countries? Two military psychologists got paid $80 million by the American government to create torture tactics that they could use on suspected terrorists to try and gain knowledge from them. These two doctors were receiving quite the pay day even though neither one of them had any experience as professional interrogators. They actually didn’t even have and specialized knowledge on the terrorist group al Qaeda. Another thing that wasn’t very great about these two is that they didn’t really seem to invent anything, yet they still got the paid outrageous amounts with the taxpayer’s money.

I also never knew about the Salt Pit prison until now. The Salt Pit is a dungeon like prison where many terrorists have been tortured. The government began to use the building in 2002, one year after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. One of the supervisors said that the Salt Pit was good for interrogation because it was “the closest thing to a dungeon.” There was many different methods of torture that was used here ranging from water torture, to deprivation of sleep. No good records were kept on what actually happened here which makes it hard for people to figure out what actually happened here.

During the Bush administration, hundreds of said to be terrorists had been tortured by the CIA. The main spots where this had all been taking place were in Afghanistan, Guantánamo, and Iraq, but it also happened in other countries as well. Shortly after President Obama took office in 2009, he began taking important steps towards ending the torture program in the United States.

Even though the people now know what is going on, there has still been little accountability for these deeds.

Accountability For Torture

28^th Amendment

                I am proposing that we add a 28^th amendment to the Constitution. I believe that the winners in an election are based on popular vote. Elections should be decided how the people vote and not how many electoral votes someone gets.

                I feel that more people would vote if elections were decided on popular vote because they would feel that their votes are more important. I believe that people would have more of a say in the government if they elections were based this way because their opinion would matter more.

                Also if elections were based on popular vote, small states would have more of a say in elections. Right now small states like South Dakota and its people only get 3 votes in a presidential election, but if elections were based on popular vote, the many people living here would be a bigger part of the election and their votes would matter more.  

Bowling for Columbine

We have recently watched the film “Bowling for Columbine” in our government class. It was a very good movie and I thought it was full of good educational information. The movie is a documentary where Michael Moore goes all over the country to ask people about their views on gun control. Moore did a great job making this documentary and he knew exactly what to say to really get people thinking.

The media plays a huge role in a society filled with guns and violence. Michael Moore investigated the media in this movie and witnessed how it is used in many cases to scare and frighten the people. These people may be living in a nice, calm, rather peaceful community, but the media shows all the violence and scares the people. Take the local news for example, the majority of the stories on there about all the bad that is happening in the area and they take less time to focus on the good. Moore observed this by interviewing people from other countries and comparing their news to the news that we watch in America. Members of the Canadian society agree that while their local news focuses on good things occurring in the area, news in the US is more focused on the bad things happening.

One of the biggest questions asked when talking about gun control is, do guns kill people or do people kill people? I don’t know, let me ask you, do cars make people drive drunk? Do pencils misspell words on their own? Last time I checked, none of these objects have a mind of its own and is completely useless unless someone is operating it. Guns don’t kill people – people kill people. Michael Moore talks about this topic in an article with The Washington Times and he believes this is only half right though. He said he would change it to, “guns don’t kill people – Americans kill people.”

The second amendment gives all Americans the right to keep and bear arms. Just because it’s a right that all American citizens have doesn’t mean you should abuse this right. The people who are killing innocent people are definitely abusing this right. I don’t believe that the people writing the Constitution intended for people to use this right to kill other people.

Society is trying to make communities safer against gun violence. Many schools everywhere are beginning to enforce stricter zero tolerance rules against weapons in school or on school grounds. There doing this to try and create the safest environment possible for the kids.

The only way for the government to end gun violence is for the government to take total control over guns. I think it is impossible for the government to take total control over guns and I don’t believe they should have total control over guns and take the right away from the innocent people who don’t abuse their right to have guns. So what does the future hold for America and gun laws? Nobody knows.

Micheal Moore; Washington Times Article

Abuse or Discipline

If you have read the news lately you will see many articles about some professional athletes who are said to have “abused” either their kids or their wife or girlfriend. Many NFL players have been targeted lately for abuse charges. The big question that is being asked is where the line between discipline and abuse is.

I believe that you should be able to discipline your child and not have to worry about being punished for it. How are you supposed to teach a child right from wrong if you can’t discipline them? On the other hand, I do believe there is a line between discipline and abuse. I think that if you hit your child so bad that it leaves physical marks all over their body, it then becomes abuse and the parent should be punished.

I do not believe that you should ever hit your wife or girlfriend. Any man who hits a girl should be punished. Hitting a woman is wrong no matter what your reason may be. Men should have more respect than to ever hit a woman.

I think that the NFL players that are being punished through the NFL is wrong. I believe that the NFL should not be the one decides the punishment for these athletes and the law should provide the punishment just like it would for any average man who has committed these crimes.

Executive Orders

Along with being president, comes great power and authority. Some say that certain presidents abuse this power while others believe that everything the president does is for the good of the country. I recently watched the film “Lincoln” and thought it was very educational; but the question still comes to some historians who wonder if Lincoln went against the constitution and abused his executive powers to try and pass the thirteenth amendment and abolish slavery in the States.  

At the time, Lincoln had issued more executive orders than all the presidents that had served before him. Does that mean he was abusing his powers as president? Some believe it is so, others don’t feel that way. Even though Lincoln passed more executive orders than any of the previous presidents before him, the decisions were more helpful than harmful making them good decisions. I feel that Lincoln did not abuse his executive powers, because all of his actions were an attempt to abolish slavery and try to end the war as soon as he could. With the entire country in the state of rebellion, Lincoln believed that he had the right to certain war powers, which is a concept not in the Constitution.

If you were to compare our current president Barack Obama to Lincoln, I feel that Lincoln did more for the people than Obama. President Obama is passing numerous executive orders  for the government to take over things such as ways of transportation. He is also trying to take control of things like communication media and health, education, and welfare functions. While Obama is creating many executive orders to control everything about our country, Lincoln was passing numerous executive orders to keep our country together.

I believe that Lincoln is one of the country’s greatest presidents and he should be remembered that way. I think the film “Lincoln” is a great way to honor what he did for this great nation in which we all live in.