NSA

N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens  by James Risen 

http://www.usnews.com/cartoons/editorial-cartoons-on-the-nsa


NSA scandal or near-perfection?  by Jenifer Rubin

According to Jenifer the NSA scandal is not as big of a deal as most people think it is. Although 
I do not fully trust her statement, she does have some numerical figures that may or may not be accurate. The chance of the NSA committing an "error" is  .00001156666 which is almost nonexistent.  Of course, that is assuming that statement  the NSA released about making 20 million inquiries each month is true. Out of the 2,776 errors (incidents) 1,904 of them involved foreigners whose cellphones were being wiretapped. But does that make it fair? The NSA scandal isn't only about Americans, although it is the primary focus, but it's about assumptions made and distrust created. Even if the error rate is extremely low, the errors made cause immediate negative impact. It's not only about this error it's also about spying and even though they claim they don't "eavesdrop", who can really believe them. It seems like no one can trust anyone anymore; skeptics are everywhere. 

Cheat

The author of “The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat,” Dave Tomar, demonstrates how cheating can follow a student to a professional, and how these cheaters are leading the academic world because of the pressures of exam-based learning. In his article, "How I Helped Teachers Cheat" he explains how form 2001-2010 he helped teachers cheat because they were under the pressure of helping their students pass the proficiency exam, or they were students who needed to pass rather than learn. He was a ghostwriter. He knew what he was doing, yet continued being a ghostwriter for almost a decade. Although he blames the system rather than the people, he shows that the current system of exam-based learning is not increasing success but it is increasing the cheating rates. He also shows how cheating as a student continues through life and although that person becomes successful and decides to become an teacher , do you really want that person as a teacher?

Complain

I'm not a complainer... Okay, that's a lie. I complain ALL the time but that's less spoken of than thought of. Why is that? A lot of people have quieted down.. settled down, but there are still so many things that we can "fix". I agree with Buckley in his essay, " Why Don't We Complain?" that part of the reason we don't complain is we want someone else to do it for us, who is in the same situation. I, for one, hate being the one who points out "hey, I need this!" I feel ... needy. I hate being the one who stands out I suppose... For my personal reasons, I don't mind suffering a bit, rather than resolving small issues that won't severely affect me. I mean, there have been some moments where I regret not speaking up but, that was entirely my fault. I suppose we do NEED to voice out our opinions for the greater good or for ourselves but we always wait... What idiot does this? Me.  And who else speaks when they shouldn't? Me.

I'm a feisty child. Always have been. I've never learned to control my temper too well, just at home though, I've got an excellent "mask"  at school. Anyways, you're basic story of a daughter-father argument. 

 Yep... something like this, I speak up and it is DEFINITLEY not a good idea. I acted this way because I tried to start a conversation and ended in argument. Daily typical thing. Except after the last scene of this strip, my dad didn't fly off , we argued more. 

Depends... do you trust me?

Trust is a hard topic to describe. There are different levels of trust but circumstance exists between those levels that change someone's level of trust, such as not giving money to the homeless to lending money to your family members. I honestly don't know where this idea developed, what began the symptoms of differentiating of what to trust and what not to trust. I do not know if it is some psychological instinct of some sort. For example, if our minds are still implemented in thinking that we cannot trust others such as in before we were just here for our own survival thus had to keep everything for ourselves to spawn and such.  But now today, you would  hope people change, you would hope that there is enough faith in humanity to trust others, that civilization is modern enough to know "Hey! Why  not give someone a chance?" But no, there are still many issues; we are still "behind" there are so many incidents that just create a higher likelihood for mistrust. But the problem is not only in those incidents we must also think about why those incidents happen. Why do people steal, kill, destroy and leave? Is it really always logical? Is it rational? Or moral? Maybe not. Thus people like to play safe. They like avoiding the possibility of being part of those incidents. Thus the trust crumbles.But there are still those who believe/trust in everything. Those we consider gullible;,or how many think of them, those who "fall into the trap."  It's not unusual seeing these extremes: those who are skeptics and those who are gullible; but, who is to say that a middle cannot exist. Where is that level where no one needs to lost and no one needs to win. I guess it just doesn't always exist.
And.. here's a cute comic ☻

Exposure

Back in 2009, Obama made a promise to the American people, referring to what would soon be known as the Obamacare, making health insurance affordable to all. Obama stated,  "Here’s a guarantee that I've made.  If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you've got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor." According to the article, "Clarence Page: Obama Told "One Of Those Political Lies" About Health Insurance," Clarence Page defends Obamacare and yet justifies that Barack Obama did lie although he states that it was "one of those political lies."  Although a supporter of Obamacare,  his positive opinion on Obama's broken commitment to the people of America seems to persist. And although, the reporter (Hugh Hewitt)  tries to insist that what Obama has done is something that the American public may disapprove  Page continues avoiding the subject because these lies through politics are "regular" "common" and people should be "used" to them. It's amusing.. well not really, its  bit annoying how lies easily slip in the politcal world and many other places.  I get it, you want to get better results for a better good, but once oyu make a commitment and it has been recorded you're done, you cannot change it or else you deceive he peopel and yourself on your promise. And someone accepts that this is...reasonable. I dislike the liar but I am frustrated and provoked at those who accept these broken promises. Although in the end Page clears up the details with the reporter by stating "Well, a lot of things bother me more than that, but not because of overselling his program. Every president oversells their programs. But just the fact that the whole process of putting Obamacare together disturbed me that he gave up too much early on, in my view." Though I know there would be others who would not follow such beliefs. 

Girls like English Boys like Math

AP, Advanced Placement classes, meant for the scholarly student that are assumed to gain broad knowledge about a subject. The Princeton Review, the company who writes the books for these AP students, are known for their success and deemed as "flawless." With The Princeton Review's version on AP tests anyone can get a higher score, right? Based on these covers, the AP English Literature and Composition, U.S. History, Calculus AB & BC and Physics C exams are focused for a certain audience. It has usually been presumed that males were good at Mathematics and Science while the females were good at English and History. This image depicts, even now in 2013, that the belief still surges through. What strikes me that even those with and "ivy league" title were careless/ignorant enough to portray their covers as such. Another thing to notice is the people's position. The women seem reserved, shy if you may, merely concealing their pride and the men in the other hand seem to be more open and prideful.. All are smiling at least. It is just quite intriguing how even if through our conscious or unconscious decisions we tend to classify roles to certain sexes. It's amazing how sexism runs society.

Infierno

I am in the darkness. It's not cold.They  had learned the cold was not a torturous temperature for we eventually become numb. Its not hot. They learned that the heat scorched our senses in the same way the cold numbed them.We're melting. Then they freeze us. Then they melt us again. We can never adjust to the environment and this is just part of the physical torture.

We were tricked. We were deceived. We thought we were led to heaven. We did not know that Satan was a beautiful creature. He allured us into the depths of hell. He was the fallen angel, Lucifer. Whenever we got the chance we made fun of him and called him Lucy but when we were caught we were stuck in the realm of hallucination. We were back into the living world and we were betrayed in the worst way possible. I guess he was stating that even Jesus, the one who was betrayed, was us and that we did not have the ability to escape after three days and resurrect. We were stuck in that realm for three eternities instead. I was there with my family. I loved them they did not love me. They sent me away and instead I was tortured. I was twisted until my bones flew out. I was given false hope that they would save me and love me again.

In hell you get used to the torture. It still hurts everyday but you forget what you once considered yourself, a human soul. That is when you enter the next level as a demon. They are all psychopaths. You don't want to become one of them, they are the devil's minions. They lose all sense of rationality and feeling. They only live by Satan's command and they cannot even sense a will anymore. My father has become a minion. I visit him daily, always hoping he will remember me. He does not. Instead he eats the devours the flesh of creatures. As he was morphing into a minion he was dying. It hurt him so much. It was painful. I hated hell. They say once you start talking in past tense that those are sign that you are becoming a minion. I guess it is not so far because all I have left of my soul are images of torture.

I am starting like it here.