Blogs

Blog Reflection #1: Article URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6900EL20101001

Review:

This article was about President Obama trying to rally up the efforts and spirits of his fellow democrats in order to maintain their democratic majority in congress. Obama foresees that he may be losing either one or two of his chamber members due to voters anxieties about high unemployment and anemic economic recovery. "I need you to be fired up, I need you to stay fired up!" Obama shouted at his crowd of 3,000 young people in a concert-like setting at Constitution Hall. "If we can duplicate that same kind of energy and motivation and focus, then I'm absolutely confident we can not only maintain our majorities in the House and the Senate but we can continue to deliver for middle-class Americans," he said. Obama is trying to say that if they keep up their hopes and have the same optimism and energy about the election as these young people did at the concert, that they would be able to turn this whole election around and win. "I said this in an interview a while back: part of being a Democrat I guess is kind of looking at the glass half-empty sometimes," Obama said. He believes that in order to stir up energy to work and make progress, they need to look at the negative aspects arising. Hoping that once they all see the bad that is about to come, they will work harder than ever. "But you know what? Now is the time to remind ourselves of what we have accomplished and to recognize that all those things that remain undone will not get done unless we are just as focused, just as energized," he added.

﻿Blog Reflection #2: Article URL: []

Review:

This article was about a man named Mario Vargas Llosa who was granted the nobel prize for literature from the Swedish academy for his "cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of th eindividual's resistance, revolt and defeat." Oscar Haza is a Dominican journalist from Miami and he was the one to interview Mario. Mario was'nt a man noticed by the academy before and they didn't even mention his name as a candidate. The interviewer felt that Marios novel //The War at the End of the World// written in 1981 is what made him deserver this award and if he did not receive it, it would be the biggest mistake made by the adacemy so far. Mario has been someone who always stood up for his beliefs through his book. protests, rallies, and many other events. He also created the Internation Foundation for Liberty in order to spread the ideas in which he believes. The fight for freedom of Marios people has been directly helped by Mario and his actions. Therefore, he justifiably won this prize.

Blog Reflection #3: Article URL: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2012/why.html?hpid=topnews

Review: This article was about what the future holds for President Obama in the upcoming years. What is predicted is that the democrats will lose majority in the House but narrowly hold onto the majority in the Senate. Another prediction is that the upcoming election in 2012 is not looking very good for Obama. The people planning on running against him on the republican side seem to be a bit ahead of him in the popularity majority. But other polls stated that when asked who would want Obama back as president, 47% of people answered yes while only 42% of people said no. Although these polls are showing certain decisions in the people, others say that polls like this should not be taken this soon because peoples opinions can change within the two years before the election. Whats surprising is that another poll has stated that forty seven percent of independents prefer Obama not run for reelection while just 37 percent say he should. Those numbers among independents are lower than every other modern president at this time in their term except for Reagan who had just 34%. This is showing how Obama is having trouble rallying the independent voters to his side since he has taken office. The republicans have a much better chance of rallying these voters to their side. Also, If you look at the 2008 exit poll, Obama took 89% of Democrats while McCain took 90% of Republicans. It was among the 29% of electorates who call themselves independents where Obama beat McCain 52% to 44%. The independent voters are truly what helped Obama win no matter how many Democrats he got to vote for him.

Blog Reflection #1:

Article URL: []

Review: In advanced economies, real income per capita is at least 16 times what it was about 200 years ago. This is an extremely surprising piece of information. Deirdre N. McCloskey writes in her dazzling new book, Bourgeois Dignity "In 1800 the average human consumed and expected her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to go on consuming a mere $3 a day...The only people much better off than $3 or so up to 1800 were lords or bishops or some few of the merchants. It had been this way for all of history, and for that matter all of prehistory. With her $3 a day the average denizen of the earth got a few pounds of potatoes, a little milk, an occasional scrap of meat." This is saying that although people expected everything to decline, most things have risen! Life expectancy is up, literacy levels are up, and people on average are making up to ten times as much as they once did. Why did this all happen? It was simply due to a new attitude on wealth and life. People became richer and better off just from having a good outlook on everything. Although our president will not support this. Michelle and Barack Obama would never urge "college students to contribute to hope and change by entering the innovative economy's great swirl of creative destruction".

﻿Blog Reflection #2:

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Review: In a post by Nigel Barber, he ends his thoughts by stating "The reasons that churches lose ground in developed countries can be summarized in market terms. First, with better science, and with government safety nets, and smaller families, there is less fear and uncertainty in people's daily lives and hence less of a market for religion. At the same time many alternative products are being offered, such as psychotropic medicines and electronic entertainment that have fewer strings attached and that do not require slavish conformity to unscientific beliefs." This post was talking about evidence and trends about atheism and the declining need for religion. It is a fact that the majority of people live in a post-religion era and it is also true that many people have turned to religion during these economically and emotionally difficult times. Michael Austing knows that religion is not only present as a form of security, most people follow religion because they actually believe that it is true. Religion cannot be described in market-based terms thought because religion is not a consumer product. It is at its best when it calls for unselfishness, love, an absence of self centered feelings, sacrifice, and faith. Michael also states that Athiesm cannot replace religion because athiesm is the belief that God does not exist. This in and of itself cannot form the foundation in order to live your life. A productive life needs positive beliefs and values which one develops through the belief in a higher power. Although, Austin does agree that sports can provide these beliefs and values to an extent. They provide loyalty, community-identification, and limited transcendence of the experiences related to sports. But again, this is to an extent. Austin feels that sports are unable to provide sufficient meaning, transcendence, and a sense of fufillment in life. Therefore, sports cannot fully replace religion. Therefore, Austin says that we should all be eternally greatful for the presence of these beliefs in our lives and that the statements made about athiesm replacing religion are highlly exaggerated.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;">﻿Blog Reflection #3:

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Review: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obama has now been in office for two years and he has yet to make a major policy initiative about Latin America. Regional officials think that he should have made some sort of effort in this area by this point and hope that he does in 2011 and increase U.S involvement. There are seven ways his administration feels he could increase his engagement in Latin America. They include convincing Nicaragua to end its illegal occupation of Costa Rica, push for approval of the Colombia and Panama free-trade agreements, expanding U.S. economic cooperation with Brazil, increasing security aid to Mexico, listing Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, floating serious proposals for reforming the OAS, and finally, establishing a bipartisan commission on Latin America. The three most important are the first three mentioned. The first refers to several weeks ago when Nicaraguan troops invaded Costa Rican territory and settled in Calero island. The OAS demanded their withdrawl only to have it revoked by President Ortega. So far, the U.S has barely helped. By tollerating this aggression, we are saying that we support the Sandinista government and showing a lack of U.S leadership in the region. We must sternly inform the Nicaraguan regime that continuing to occupy Costa Rican territory will make them lose access to future economic need and jeopardize their participation in Central-American free-trade agreements. The second one refers to iif the Columbia and Panama Free-trade agreements receive congressional approval, it will be hard for the US to persue a larger agenda of hemispheric trade liberization. They were originally signed in 2006 and 2007. The third refers to the fact that Obama should build upon the work that President Bush did with Brazilian leader Lula Da Silva. The US-Brazil commercial dialogue began in 2006, and it help us to build economic ties with Latin Americas most populated country. Lula will soon be replaced by Dilma Rousseff on January 1st and he should use their first meeting to make the case for expanding bilateral trade.