The energy policy will have to change sooner or later regardless because our current energy policy revolves around a finite resource. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not oil, natural gas, nuclear fuel, and all forms of energy production that currently exist cannot exist indefinitely. Now that can be 20 years of sustainable energy that is in the form of non renewable energy, or 200 years, but the point is that one day the tap is going to run dry. Not only that but our current energy love affair with all things oil has reared its ugly head many times simply because we no longer have the production capability to gather crude oil and refine it at home. This leads us abroad and into our current mess of an international situation that is the wars in the Middle East. We are there for oil which is the bottom line and that is where our energy policy has dictated the course of our lives. A very large sum of pain, suffering, murder, and atrocities against our own kind for the ease of access to natural resources, and a comfortable consumption based lifestyle that we all enjoy very much with no thought as to the ramifications further down the road.

Change hopefully will be coming our way and hopefully our country and the world will look to more stable and more renewable options of providing energy for an ever increasing population. The current situation in Europe is where I feel our energy policy should be moving, if not at least taking inspiration from. This is no small problem we are facing because to solve our energy problems that might be down the road we need to look at our infrastructure, and what technological advancements are being made. The change therefore requires not only new policy but a more efficient/reliable system of getting energy from point A to point B.

There are a few things that I see as possible areas for our country to move forward with energy is a mix of renewable energies such as wind, solar, tidal, and geothermal; along with a supply of efficient energy from Nuclear energy. Nuclear energy in particular is still where I see our country moving because with better technology, newer reactors, and new fuel the power plants aren’t the disasters waiting to happen that the public at large feels they are. Hopefully as time moves forward we will not be stuck with a broken system because we acted too late to meet a new energy problem, and I see the energy policy as moving to an area where a healthy balance of sustainable energy provided by nuclear power is combined with the clean and ever present energy we can harness simply by being on the planet itself.

Adding race to the issue would only make the situation more of an eyesore. First off it he had been a Latino or African American this case might not even have taken so long to get hammered out and maybe the DA would've pressed charges instead of declining to pursue the issue the first time. It's sad but I think the whole process would have been sped up had he been a black man sexually assaulting young boys. People can hardly get over interracial couples sometimes and now you want to throw in an interracial pedophile and wonder what would happen? The argument would be in a much different tone with a lot more subtle and overt hate/racism from all sides. We all see what people are like in their true colors when you give them an outlet to express their inner feelings like the internet does. With that unrestricted free speech provided by the internet the hatred directed at Penn State but more directly at the hypothetical "colored" Sandusky might make your skin curl. We like to think we are in the clear when it comes to racism but if you have watched any of ESPN's 30 for 30, specifically "The Fab 5" the blatant ignorance and racism that has marked our country is still relevant not even 20 years ago. A stronger and more hateful backlash towards PSU and Sandusky would be the outcomes in my head if Sandusky were a person of color.

While the video was disturbing I did eat the second piece of chocolate because wasting it now would be worse because you are destroying their work and all the pain they have endured for such a simple commodity in our culture. What costs us a few dollars is ending up costing some of them their lives and that is a very disturbing thought considering how much chocolate we all take it for granted because of our own and not wrongly so obliviousness to the issue until confronted with it. While watching the video I was thinking about how much chocolate I have eaten in my life and how much chocolate so many other people have eaten in the course of their life. It is horrible that people have to suffer in the way they do but only action internationally and internally, in places such as the ivory coast; only then will workers rights be more universal, and slavery as a trade will dwindle into nonexistence.

It is a shame that so many of the commodities that we take for granted in out daily lives have such a large human toll to bring to us but that is the world we have been given and hopefully in our lifetime we can see it change.

saw this on r/cats get your weight up SG

White people have come from a position of power within our society because they are the majority of the population and have been since the country was founded. In current times the rhetoric of society has moved from one of hard work, determination, and the American Dream. To that of more and more uncertainty, loss, a wayward financial market, and an ever increasing sense of doom among the working classes of our country. It isn’t surprising when the people who make up the majority of the population in all forms of wealth are berated with all forms of messages for the future but the overall consensus in our news, and if what sam says is true is that, we are fucked so hard and there is not much that we can seemingly do. A lot of citizens, and white people for that matter, have decided that protesting the systems are going to bring about some massive amount of change. That is where the problems lies because I feel that white people in general have removed the blame from themselves and put it onto intangible systems involved with our government and financial institutions. White people are seeing the system as working against them and not themselves which is why the percentage of white people thinking they will be better off than their parents is so low.

On the flip side hispanics and african americans see the bulk of their problems as stemming from their own ability to put in work and better themselves. As shown by the videos and anyone who has had the opportunity to work with immigrant works they are truly hungry. This work ethic does not usually die off in their offspring because the overall mores of the family is that of putting in work all week and that if you work hard in the end you will be rewarded for it. Not only this ideal is prevalent but the fact that on average their lower socioeconomic status means that their offspring and subsequent generations can have a better outlook on achieving more upon the foundation that their parents have laid. That is also a major difference between the outlooks of hispanics/black as compared to whites. White families in many cases have had generations to build economic foundations within our society and to carve out their piece of the American dream. Hispanics and blacks on the other hand have had a relatively short window of opportunity to truly increase their overall wealth and standing within our society and thus they will have a brighter outlook into the future because so much of their success is yet to be told in the history books.

I am perfectly fine with legal and illegal immigration because it is the ideal that our country was predicated on. Without the urge for immigration my family wouldn't have come from Europe in the past century and a half. So without a way to come to the United States and make a living my fathers parents families would never have made it here. Without them coming to America and a whole World War happening my grandparents wouldn't have met, then my father wouldn't have been born, he wouldn't have been able to meet my mother, who was the descendant of German and English immigrants to the U.S, and then my brother and I would not have had a chance to be born and have the lives we so enjoy. These people are coming to the United States to make a way for themselves because they chose to leave what they had behind and come here. We should be embracing these people instead of trying to make sure their line is safe generations after their time on our planet is up. Immigrants legal or illegal want to live here and work hard, and hard working people are what all countries desire. I would personally like to see a de-emphasis on the borders separating our neighbors because as the significance of borders continues to fade as the world keeps getting smaller and smaller due to globalization our views on what exactly defines citizenship should also change.

If people want to live here and contribute to our society why aren't we accepting these immigrants as useful to our own nations productivity? The argument of the burden illegals place on society is always a counter argument I think of is that if you invite them to our community they will want to contribute. Latin Americans and Hispanic Americans are becoming a size able political entity in our political system. Clearly the immigrants coming to America now as related to the history of immigration want to live and participate in our society, and see their offspring prosper. But, as is the sad history of racism in America a large portion of immigrants meet hostility. If we bring our ideas on immigration, race, and culture to the 21st century and realize that the world is becoming a community in itself more and more each year, it would only make sense to see barriers to people entering countries as more and more irrelevant, and emphasizing a diverse world community instead of the isolationism we have so long lived under.

Why whould someone who hangs out with a different racial mix of friends be consider a poser? Is it, just because, like that is a valid explanation for anything that we do. Having friends of a different racial makeup and hanging out with them should be seen as a good things by any standard so long as they are friendships not based on meeting some quota. And lets be honest who truly says I’m gonna have a friend of a different race to meet some imaginary quota, like affirmative action for your personal life? If you get along with someone what should their race matter, and why would their race all of the sudden make them a poser of sorts. By labeling someone as a poser for being part of a different group and not just a different group as far as groups like preps, jocks, emo kids, skaters, etc but labeling for their race in the group is that not just racism sugar coated? It is the persons choice to associate with the groups they associate with, and when it is an honest choice how can one really be posing? Being part of the group one way or another, one skin color or another, and one gender or another, should not effect the way in which we see the individual’s or the group as a whole. I have been the one white guy in the class full of black people and while it may seem foreign at first it is only that way if you let your own preconceived notions of other people get in the way. Experiencing different groups as an outsider is a very interesting experience for those willing to walk outside of their own comfort zone that is if they aren’t comfortable with it to begin with.

New friends and new people to share ideas and good times with is something that I never think of as a bad idea. So if being seen as a poser by the likes of people who want to be so narrow minded is fine by me because they aren’t enjoying a truly diverse life. I’m fine with that, but to judge so quickly and write off the outlier of a group on skin color as a poser is silly because if anything we should be encouraging that kind of behavior in our society to bridge the gaps in our diverse culture. When I’ve come into contact with this situation whether being the outlier or just another member of the majority good nature, kindness, and openness to the situation have always led me to see new things about people I formerly knew nothing about and expanded my already wide range of world views.

In my day to day life my race doesn't really effect the way I see the world around me, nor has it ever really had much to do with how I see the world in general. I'm aware of the idea of race and how it implies a multitude of feelings, and thoughts across a broad spectrum of people who are alive and who have come before us. However that fact that I identify as white because of my European heritage doesn't mean that suddenly my eyes are different. When I was growing up I had friends of all different personalities, groups, and colors because my school district had a good mix of people. Even from a young age I never quite understood the stereotypes, even those directed at other whites. Growing up I would hear half joking remarks made towards Catholics, and Irish people to be specific, coming from my Protestant German grandfather. The majority of these remarks were about the former people reproducing like mice, and yet when I would hang out with some friends who were Irish in many cases they came from 1 or 2 child homes. So growing up hearing the stereotypes and then seeing the opposite of that stereotype would only enforce my own idea that they are ideas that are mostly bunk. The same can be said for any stereotype I have heard in passing or from a friend about: Italians, Germans, Scottish, Irish, Arabs, Phillipinos, Russians, Poles, French, Nigerians, African Americans, American Indians, Latin Americans, Hispanics, and so many more. If I can make friends with so many groups and see that while cultural differences exist they are nothing to be afraid of. I enjoy the flavor of other cultures because it is something new and what is unfamiliar is only uncomfortable if you let it be.

Being of a specific color shouldn't influence how you see people because if you do let it then how can you truly say you aren't prejudiced. I am not without some bias in my life, but nothing I am not willing to set aside because I realize that they are just ideas about groups of people which are in a constant state of reinforcement or being proven wrong. Acceptance and tolerance, to a degree, are a good way to see all the colors of the world as not these supreme differences but just different parts of a big ol painting called life.

Your question is flawed to begin with because it makes the overall assumption that girls are being forced to wear the ridiculous shit that they do, and that all girls dress up in skimpy outfits wearing four inch heels because they are subconsciously being manipulated by the big old mass media Nazis. However, to get at answering your question I’ll pose a question; do the girls that go out dressed like cocktail waitresses have any choice in what they wear or are mindless slaves to an idea of beauty? If no amount of choice is involved then what are you saying about your genders ability to make decisions? Is it that you have no ability to make decisions at all when it comes to fashion or that you’re just blindly being spoon fed the flavor of the week and willingly accepting it? When it comes down to the issue it is the choice of the girls and their choice alone. Nobody is telling them that they have to wear what they wear, and personally I laugh at the girls who do wear the skimpy dresses in the dead of winter and then complain about it. I also find the skimpy dresses generally less attractive than a girl who took the time to be herself and feel good about her own skin. Nice jeans, a blouse/ shirt, flats, and a pretty smile that shows a girl is confident in her skin is way more attractive than seeing some ass and cleavage.

As far as males not having to sacrifice comfort go that is a whole other ballpark. When I want to look good going out on the weekend I try to coordinate what will look good, and be comfortable. So it is not necessarily that I/ other males in general don’t have to sacrifice comfort but that it is much easier to incorporate clothes that look good and are comfortable to wear. The same can be said for girl’s clothes because it isn’t hard to make an outfit look good that at the same time doesn’t give you frostbite when winter rolls in to town. If I went downtown in the dead of winter wearing sandals, a tank top, and short shorts because I have fabulous legs and arms and I really wanted to show them off people would think I was some sort of looney, or some slew of other reasons good or bad. So how is it different for girls who do pretty much the same thing? Do we just accept the fact that girls in general will do whatever it means to look good and just accept it? Frankly I think it is pretty silly to put this issue on a pedestal when it comes down to personal choice.

for all you bleeding hearts who get so easily offended by pixels on a screen. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=violence+in+video+game+stati...