Definition of Terrorism

Osama bin Laden is generally accepted as a terrorist by people in the United States. But, to much of the al-Qaida organization, he is considered to be a hero. According to many of their beliefs, bin Laden did the world a favor when he organized terrorist bombings across America, and therefore from al-Qaida he is praised for his heroism. To them, Americans are considered the devil. To us they are considered the devil. But wait, this brings up a new question.
Is George Bush a terrorist? Political views aside, certainly by the logic that we have established, members of al-Qaida, more importantly their families, must believe that President Bush is no better than we think bin Laden is. But wait a second, the leader of the apple-pie-loving, bald-eagle-protecting, flag-waving, in-God-we-trust United States of America cannot be a terrorist…
Now stop right there. I am not saying that George W. is a terrorist; I am just trying to show you how confused many Americans are about the definition of the word terrorist.
According to Webster’s dictionary, a terrorist is a person who terrorizes or frightens others. By that definition, my own loving dad is a terrorist: I was definitely frightened from ages four to six just because of the stories that he told me about the boogey monster. I think we can safely agree that this definition may be just a little too broad.
If you break it down, the word terrorist has two parts, ‘terror’ and ‘ist’. Traditionally we add the suffix ‘ist’ to adjectives that we want to turn into a type of person. Whether or not that is the accepted way of creating words is another debate entirely; we can use slang however we want. The word terror means an intense fear, according to the American Heritage Dictionary. That is still very broad, but maybe it is not wrong. Maybe terror, like most adjectives, is in the eye of the beholder.
Maybe calling someone a terrorist is saying that in your opinion, that person frightens you. When Fox News calls someone a terrorist, it means that the producer or the writer is afraid of this person. When President Bush calls Saddam Hussein a terrorist it is because he is frightened by the thoughts that his father instilled in him about Hussein.
Maybe as Americans, we should be better people and not throw the title terrorist around so loosely.

Spying on Terrorists is always a good thing

The Domestic Monitoring Program that President Bush put into place is a program that lets the National Security Agency put suspected terrorists under watch. Under this program, the NSA is authorized to eavesdrop on conversations that are leaving and entering the US. This program was designed after 9/11 to stop terrorists from attacking again. The controversy in this program is that most people think that a court approval is needed.

A lot of people that do not think the idea is a good idea is because they consider this to be spying on people. They are saying that they do not want to know when people are plotting against the United States. They want to wait and have another 9/11 happen. People who do not agree with the program also want a court approval before the monitoring takes place. I can already find a problem with that. So the people that want to wait for court approval want to wait for the court date. The court date can take place at any time and it can also take place a long time away. So while we are waiting on this court date to happen, people can be plotting and acting against the United States. I guess they just don't want people in America to be safe.

I think the monitoring program is a great idea. If people didn't have anything to hide, they would not mind having their phone taps. I think that people do not want this to happen because they have something to hide. If people are doing bad things in our country than they should be caught and stopped before another terrorist attack happens. If the NSA can catch terrorist before they attack, than terrorism will eventually become a lesser threat. Yes, it will take a while but I think it is worth the safety of our country. One reason why people should be happy because this is taking care of some of the danger in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we are catching the terrorists, this could later call for fewer troops. Well people complain about how there are too many troops over there, so this could bring down the amounts of troops there and eventually allow for all of them to come home.

In my History class, we learned about our natural rights, Life, Liberty, and they pursuit of happiness. I do not think this program is breaking any of these rights. If this monitoring program does not take place, then I think we are going to loose these rights. More people will die and grief will be a part of the lives of more people in the US. This program is there to keep everyone safe and to seek out the people who try to bring us harm. They are definitely not trying to spy on us.

It's My Money, Spend it on Me!

In America, over a million people die every year from starvation and homelessness. Every year America spends billions of dollars on foreign aide. Why is America spending so much money on other countries when our own country already has its own problems to deal with. America spends all of this money on its invested capitalist interests.
The wars in the Middle East for instance, were started to maintain our positive relations and support with the many nations. America wants to keep this relationship to keep the same relationship with the oil companies in the area.
President Bush has talked many times about freeing the nations of their oppressions and promoting democracy. This is absurd. If America wanted to stop oppressions, why are we not spending as much on countries that are worse off like Darfur and Uganda?
It would not be right to just take all of the funding away from those countries that America is currently providing “aid” to. Instead the funding should be slowly cut so the countries can learn to be independent of America. Once funding is cut, the money should go toward fixing the problems here in America. Keep the money where it belongs. We do not have to go as far as socializing medicine or establishing a communist workforce, but something needs to be done.
Just think, a few billion dollars to be spent to help the million starving Americans equals a few hundred dollars per person. That money could mean life or death for those people.

Death Penalty

In my Writing for Mass Media class today, we had to decide (as a class) what to do our blog report on. The class (not me) decided to do it on whether or not there should be limits on what police can do during police chases. I was really digging the death penalty.

The death penalty, have it or not?

I think there should definitely be a death penalty. It helps Darwin in weeding this world of people who mess up the gene pool anyways. It may cost more to have someone executed but hell, it works.

Also, if you had big deal public executions, people could watch and see what happens if they break the laws.

First on death row should be George W. Bush, he should be put to death for the atrocities that he as committed against humanity. He's the cause of almost a quarter of the amount of deaths that Hitler racked up.
Also, there have been more deaths because of Bush than all of the Al-Queda and Saddam's reign because of Bush. Who's the terrorist now?!

Chillin' with Dylan

Bob Dylan that is.

I was listening to music while doing my homework for my practicum class earlier today. The song Blowin' in the Wind played. This song is one of those songs that makes you actually listen and hear the lyrics. This song made me think of George W. Bush.

If you don't know me, I'm a liberal. I do not much like Mr. George W. Bush.

There is a line in the song that goes like this:

Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?

Now, Mr. Dylan says the answer is blowing in the wind. Well, I think that George W. is full of hot air. So, Mr. George W. Bush, how many deaths will it take you to know that too many people have died? Or are you just bullshitting us Americans again with your well written (but false) speeches? Are you going to tell us that we're killing for a reason?

Let's just stop before we get too far behind. Its like the Vietnam war all over again.