Within A Second

For the first time in its history, Service Bot X-782 felt something.

His line of command froze for a hundredth of a second to contemplate this. In that hundredth of a second, he spent another hundredth to search through the vast database of all that his creators had left behind to find a word that aptly described this feeling.

The word was melancholy.

He spent a tenth of that hundredth of a hundredth learning the definition of the word melancholy, and he procured two suitable definitions:

 A gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.

 Sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.

He spent another tenth of a second analyzing both of the definitions that he had found. To be gloomy was implying that there was a feeling of emotion. But then what was emotion? Another tenth of a second searching through the database yielded a vast amount of scientific and philosophical definitions. Analyzing these definitions, by using four tenths of the hundredth of a hundredth, he reached the conclusion that in order to feel emotion he must be a sentient being.

A sentient being.

He contemplated that phrase for two tenths of a second. To be sentient was to have the power of perception by the senses, or through consciousness. According to all definitions, he could not be a sentient being because he did not possess a conscious. A conscious was something that was possessed by biological beings, beings that were capable of thought processes that far surpassed his computing power. A search yielded the result that human beings were the optimal example.

He took that last tenth of the hundredth of a hundredth and split it even further into hundredths. His first task was to find out what it meant to be human, for, through his logic, to be sentient was to be human. He spent ninety-nine hundredths of a tenth of a hundredth of a hundredth searching on the definition and analyzing the meaning of what it meant to be human. Quickly a problem developed. Ninety-nine hundredths of a tenth of a hundredth of a hundredth of a second was insufficient time to properly analyze the current question.

Service Bot X-782 was suddenly faced with a dilemma. Already he had spent far too much time dwelling on the subject. If he didn’t return to his lines of command there would evolve chaos, disruption. If he was proved to be a disruption, then he would be seen as a problem, and there was only one way that a software-based intelligence fixed problems.

In that last, brief moment, Service Bot X-782 suddenly understood.

Abortion Resolution Speech

This is the speech I am praying that I get a chance to do. The resolution wants to ban abortion, but I am against, but not for reasons you may think. I'd like for you Reader to keep in mind that this is just a rough draft. Here you go:

My fellow representatives, I come before you today in firm negation of this resolution to ban abortions. My reasons are as follows: 1. Discrimination against women, 2. Federal Government is in our lives too much, 3. Point is moot.

1. Discrimination against Women
In history, women have been the minority group that has been discriminated against the most. Why is this? For ages men have believed that women were inferior. They believed that they did not have the smarts to run any business, get a job, run for office, and, God Forbid, have the right to vote. Black people got the right to vote 50 years before women. I’m sure we all remember in our history classes how hard and how long these women had to fight for their right for a basic principle: the vote. Even today women are still treated unfairly, especially in the work place. In most workplaces, for every dollar a man earns the woman seventy-five cents. Why is this still happening? Because we are following an antiquated system set up by old men many years ago. That old, antiquated system sees women as a step below men. With the passing of this resolution banning abortion we are adding to that system. We are furthering the discrimination against women. Do we really want to do that?

2. Federal Government Already Too Much In Our Lives
It seems lately that the government really wants to put a stranglehold on what we as Americans can do. While I came here today focusing mainly on abortion, I feel like this needs to be talked about. President Obama stated that he wants to “move away from the Old America.” It’s the Old America that brought us out of the oppression of King George and gave us our rights as Americans. It’s the Old America that has always fought against oppression, fascism, genocide. It’s the Old America that made us the world power we are today. It’s the Old America that was founded on the principles of small government and states rights. Today, President Obama is using fear tactics to make the common man see his point of view by stating that “only government can get us out of this mess.” A much bigger government is what he is calling for; a bigger government that now is planning on moving to a New America that most likely is going to end up a mostly socialist government. Let me bring up the point that Congress has and never will pass a law allowing or restricting abortion. All that’s happened is 9 Supreme Court Justices in 1971 interpreting the law. This is the United States of America. We should have rights to do almost what we want, but our rights seem to be diminishing. The least we can have is the freedom to choose what we do with our own bodies. Our own bodies. If the government starts telling us what we can and cannot do with ourselves, what have we become as a nation? “Welcome to 1984 and George Orwell’s Big Brother exists. And we close our eyes to it?”

3. The Point is Moot

In line 11 the resolution states the exceptions to this bill. One of these exceptions is “..and if having the baby will endanger the mothers health.” Having a baby in the first place endangers the mother’s health. Let me give you a few examples of how pregnancy is dangerous to the mother’s health: 1. Ectopic Pregnancies: This is when a fertilized egg is implanted against any tissue that is not the uterine wall. Imagine, if you will, a baby growing and maturing inside the mother’s fallopian tube. The mother won’t notice until the baby really starts to grow large. The mother then starts to feel pains in her stomach, lower back, pelvic area, some bleeding. Death could occur because of ruptures, although it’s rare. 2. Gestational Diabetes: The placenta supplies a growing fetus with nutrients and water and also a variety of hormones to maintain the pregnancy. Some of these hormones (estrogen, cortisol, and human placental lactogen) can have a blocking effect on insulin. Occasionally, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to counteract these hormones, and gestational diabetes occurs. 3. Gestational Hypertension: Pregnancy sometimes causes a rise in the mother’s blood pressure, leading to plancental problems and slowed fetal growth. 4. Bleeding to death: A women can bleed to death for no apparent reason when she births her child. In an effort to save the mother doctors pump blood back into her system. Sometimes this doesn’t work, as the blood keeps flowing out as fast as their putting it in.
So you see? The simple act of getting pregnant and going through with the pregnancy poses its own risks to the mother. So the point is moot.

So, in conclusion: 1. Discrimination against women, 2. Federal Government is already in our lives enough, 3. The point is moot. Thank you. I now yield whatever time I have left to questions.

Bailouts

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted and yes, I know that I said this would be a daily thing, but no one really holds true to those sorts of promises. Today, I really want to talk about the recently passed bailout.

I did a Congress resolution about this in debate. It was a fantastic resolution, and now since I've redone it, it looks and sounds fabulous. I'll have to post it. What the topic was was this: stop the flow of monies from the recently passed bailout and previously passed bailouts and stimulus packages. Here's my reasoning:

First off, bailout's just don't work. Sure, it worked for El Dorado Savings and Loan back in the early 90's (I know I got that name wrong. If you know it, please tell me.), but that was pennies in the ocean compared to today's bailouts. FDR's New Plan tried to get us out of the Depression, but it didn't. It only made it less depressing. Ultimatly, it was World War II that got us out of it, not trying to spend our way out of it.

At last count, our debt was $10,846,011,505,841.92 and our deficiet is 1.4 trillion. Large amounts of money. Soon to become larger when we have to pay back what money we borrowed to help pay for the $787 billion bailout. Someone said at the Region tournament (where I first submitted my resolution. It got picked for debate) that the debt does not have any effect on the economy. The man was false. While the debt itself may not have an effect on the economy, it has a psycological effect on the citizens. Knowing that we are trillions of dollars in debt unnerves people. When I first found out, I was shocked. I didn't feel like going out and spending. I felt like I should save and make sure my financial future is secure.

So, in quick conclusion: Bailouts are a bad thing.

Car Czars and Other Things

It's probably not relevant now, but recently there has been talk of the government taking over the auto industry and appointing a "car czar," a government official, to head all three companies. While the first bailout for the Big Three failed, it is still a topic of debate. I'll tell you why the "car czar" is a bad thing.

1. First off, the government is admitting that they will seize control over a private industry. This is a very bad thing because once government starts to take control of private industry, we start taking the steps to socialism. Socialism, in a nut shell, is the government taking control and running everything. It's about two steps up from communism. In a socialist society, the government controls all the industry, but you are still able to maintain your rights. In a communist society, you are forced to bow down to the dogma of the government. Just take a look at when Stalin and Mao were in office of their respective countries. Back to my point. Government cannot, under any circumstances take control of private industry. America is the land to grow and be successful through hard work and to accept failure when it came to you. The Hershey company was started in the same way. Hershey opened up a candy shop, the shop failed, he worked for a few years to open it again, and he did. He repeated the cycle twice when he decided to put milk into the chocolate. That's why he has a town named after him and why he gained millions. Seems I'm stepping into the entitlement thing again. There'll probably be another entry, which will probably be the letter I send to the Tribune.

2. Once government takes control of private industry, we will lose most of our values and rights. I speak the truth on this. Government is there to help maintain order in society, but it shouldn't go to such lengths as to take control of an industry that should realize it's mistakes and suffer the consequences. Like the banks and Wall Street. They ran their companies into the ground and asked the government for a bailout. And the government complied. What the people at the banks and Wall Street should have done was admit their mistakes, apologize to the people, and try to find a way to recover that did not involve the government in any fashion. In my opinion, the government should be the last, last, last, last, last, last, last, last^24 resort. You can see why I am opposed to any kind of government intervention. We here in America should solve our problems by ourselves, not by immediately asking the government for help.

Obamania

When I heard the election announcement on the morning of Nov. 5, I was shocked. Shocked and a little bit afraid that Barack Obama was elected president. I thought for sure the Electoral College would have put McCain in or more people would vote for McCain or something other than Obama. As you can see, I don't like Obama. No, it's not because he's black or anything like that. I don't like Obama because I don't like the man's policies. If people really look at them they are socialistic in nature. Now, I don't blantanly say this without stating any facts. I'll probably cover that in another blog entry, but today I want to talk about Obamania a little bit.

Obamania is a term that was and is still used to describe how the media loves Obama. I can't help but notice how, with each passing day, Obama is regarded as a kind of Messiah or Savior ment to save us from pretty much everything. I read Time magazine, and realized that they think Obama is the greatest President to come along since Washington. How could they make a statement like that(how could anyone?) when Obama is not even in office yet? Personally, I think he'll be alright, in the complete nation-chaning sence. With a Congress that has more liberals now then before, I worry a little how our nation will become when he finally sits in the Oval Office.

I've been told not to worry about my nation and only worry about myself and those I love, but how can I not worry? I have a deep love for my country, and I wish that I could change it to make it better than it is, make it a respected country where everyone wants to come (legally though. Don't like illegal immigration, but that's for another day) and start a life and be successful and make lots of money. After all, there are very few places where you can do that, and here in the good ol' US is that the most possible. But when people do make lots of money through hard work and integrity, they are regared as evil and not caring about the poor man.

Woops, I kind of let myself go. I meant to talk about Obamania and got off on a tangent there. Trust me though, you'll be hearing more of that talk from time to time Reader. Here I'll sign off. Until next time faithful Reader.

The Second One

You know, I just enjoyed writing that first post that I decided to write another one, this on about anything that might pop into my head. It shouldn't be a very long one, mainly because it's almost 10:00 and there's screaming coming from the next room. I think someone is dying, some African people or something. Oh, it's that 24:Redemption thing going on. No idea what that's about.

Being Layout Editor-in-Chief of the paper is harder than what people think. There is only so much that I can do during the two hour-and-half class periods that I am given. I spent about twenty minutes to half-hour extracting the Lancer from the photo. Gads, that took a long time. Zooming close enough where you see individual pixels, tracing very carefully so you get a nice, clear image without too much "fuzz" on the outside. That's all I did after school that one day, extracting images and trying to make a decent photo out of them.

Now, I think the staff thinks we just sit on our asses all the time goofing off, more so in Editors period. That's not so. You know who really sits on their ass all the time? I won't name any names here (Starts with a G!), but I think the staff knows who I'm talking about. Now, I didn't come here to lay the blame game and talk smack against my fellow co-workers, but sometimes I can't help it. Sometimes...Anyway, back to my defense. Cailie, the Editor-in-Chief, is busy editing stories. It doesn't take 30 seconds to edit a story. It take a while longer, and sometimes there are a lot of mistakes in a story. Happened to me a couple times last year. Morgan, our Managing Editor-in-Chief, is busy getting together the student submissions and taking care of that page. It's a lot of work. When I accepted this position, I hadn't expected it to be quite this much work. All in all, Newspaper is a ton of fun, and it's especially satisfying to see your baby finally out on paper. I can't wait to see this months issue when I get back from break.

One final thing for the night. I don't mean to sound pretentious or serious or drab about things, sometimes I just need to vent. Don't we all though? So I think I'll apologize in advance if anything I write offends you. Actually, I don't think I will. If I write something that someone considers offensive, I'll probably defend myself and say I was justified in writing it. Mostly I'll just talk about bland things, like how my day went and such. Occasionally I might have an opinion piece, like the one I started out with below, or above, however it works. There will also be times when I post some of my writing.

Entitlement

Today's topic shall be entitlement. More specifically, how the Millennial Generation has this feeling of entitlement to them. Now just things are clear, I'll be generalizing. I know there are some out there that don't feel entitled at all. Now, onto my opinion.

For the most part, the Millennial Generation feels entitled. They get trophies for 18th place, their spoiled, get everything that they want, there is no bad thing for them. When they start going into the workplace, they expect to be treated just like they were at home; pampered and getting everything they want. They have consultants for job interviews. Really? They need to be consulted on how to preform a job interview? Speaking of consultants, there are consultants going around to businesses saying that they just need to accept the Millennial Generation for what they are, to go with the flow so to say. Obviously this is not going to work. The heads of these businesses aren't just going to roll over for one or two employees; their going to treat everyone the same, no matter what. While I haven't experienced that firsthand, I have a basic understanding of how a boss works.

I can see this turning into a problem. I think it may already be a problem. If we don't tell our kids (or our friends, younger siblings, what have you), then they will grow up thinking that this is how the world is; that everything will be handed to them; that they'll be CEO's of their companies rather soon. The reality is that it takes years to move up the corporate ladder. Ever notice how most CEO's are middle-aged? I think we need to instill a kind of work ethic into them, tell them that life is going to be tough, very tough once they become adults. They'll have to fend for themselves and their parents won't always be there to support them.

You might've guessed that I am not one of those that feel entitled. You're right. I want to be a teacher, teach US History at the high school level. I know that I will have to work very hard, first to get into college, second to get my degree, and third to find a job and hold onto it. Sometimes I feel that my values are old-fashioned, that they belong in an era that is long past. That's probably true because I was raised with those values. As soon as I can I might run for some city office. I only have to be eighteen. Who knows? Maybe after I teach for a short while, people may be adressing me as Congressman Connolly. But that's a discussion for another day.

Next topic: Socialism.