This article is very disturbing and so are the images that it has associated with it. It is hard to believe that some platoons are really overseas committing such hateful, careless war crimes. And it is some big mystery as to why the United States has such a poor image in the eyes of the Muslim people? The fact that information such as this has been reported in the media is bound to cause some problems. Here in the United States, we like to believe that our military overseas is fighting only the enemies and not random civilians that they view as "savages." It is quite amusing that this news is not gaining attention or being reported across all media broadcast stations. All we like to report when it comes to morale based stories that have to deal with the war; we only hear the good things that are being done by our soldiers, while the barbaric, hateful acts are overlooked while our news reports of reality TV shows and meaningless conflicts with celebrities. Although, perhaps it is because the majority of us like it that way? We like thinking that everything is under control and things are great in the world.

I know that not all military forces overseas are like this, but this gives the terrorists all it needs for propaganda in order to gain the support of the locals into helping drive us out. This whole story is fucked up. Everything from fantasizing around campfires with other team members to kill the civilians, to cutting off the pinky of a victim to keep as a trophy of killing an unarmed, 15 year old boy farmer. These crimes are premeditated and the team should be tried in military court. It makes one wonder if this act of murder was committed due to psychological illness or just plain boredom and anxiety. Either way, the whole group participated under the knowing of the higher ranked officer. All that makes evil possible to triumph is the inactivity of a good man to stand in its way. This article is very disturbing and I hope that this activity is rare in the Middle East; of course there is little way of knowing.

After reading this article, it is hard to look at the natural gas companies in a positive way. It seams like they are doing more harm than good, but that may also be because we only hear the bad not the good. Because energy is such a valuable resource for America and many other countries, the companies seem to have the power to do and get anything that they wish. Many of these companies have a great amount of money that allows them to buy out politicians' votes in order to manipulate congress and numerous other agencies in their favor. Bills that control this new found energy extraction method were seen first by multi billion dollar corporations. These companies make a huge profit here in the united states, but a huge opportunity was found to increase profit margin by selling their natural gas overseas. This means less gas for us in the lonng run and less money for the united states than if sold within our borders. Having this alternative source of fuel may also be a good thing. It will allow us to, if ways are researched to improve the effiecncy are found, cut down on our oil use reducing the amount of money we shell out to foreign countries. This is money that isnt being used to feed national enemies and terror groups. However, as of now we highly depend on oil because of how efficient it is. I believe that we will continue to use oil even if natural gas is improved, just because we know almost all there is to know about oil as compared to natural gas. Even though natural gas is better for the environment, but our standard of living is placed highly above the atmosphere and environment. Even by fracking and acquiring natural gas, the local environment is seveerely threatened. The ways of getting this natural gas is highly questionable in ways of "right." This fracking method is resulting in a poisoning of underground water sources, such as wells that are used by familes nearby and is impossible to live without.

Money is one of the easiest tools to use in order to acquire or manipulate the distribution of power. With the amount of money the oil companies make and the high demand for oil currently, they are probably the most powerful companies in the world. With this large amount of power it really is not surprising that they meddle with politics and are active followers and members. With the large amounts of money these oil companies possess, they can manipulate politics in any way that benefits the oil industry. This is an example of the legalized bribery system our nation currently has instilled. The more money one has, the amount of power they have and can essentially "pay" the politicians to act in the favor of the companies. This is the sole reason a billion dollar industry can go untaxed and nobody, not even our own PRESIDENT has the power to go against the oil companies and impose a tax. Meanwhile, people with less money such as the middle class has continuously rising taxes that a very small tax on the oil companies can more than meet the amount of money required to be collected. The greed of the modern day oil companies is drastically hurting the economy of the United States because they acquire so much money that the government has less power than they do.
The oil industry is basically a monopoly due to the fact that it is a nonrenewable energy source and we are running out making the price of oil for each company is about equal and continually rising. There is almost nothing the government can do about this. The government need oil in order to fuel the lives we live and upkeep the lifestyles we live. Oil is the most efficient source of energy known to man so far, but we quickly have to find an alternative fuel that’s just as efficient because oil is quickly diminishing. The new craze is natural gas, which seems to cause more trouble than the benefits it provides according to the documentary “Gasland.” Although this is a documentary of only one side’s view. To my knowledge, this is a very eco unfriendly method of obtaining energy because it pollutes the waters of nearby streams and wells making it undrinkable by the local families. Wells that are built on the property of the owners receive a generous settlement from the companies to obtain drilling rights of that real estate. Natural gas is untaxable by the government, because technically the government does not own the gas that is being obtained by the companies. The only tax possible is a tax imposed on heavy machinery and damage done to roads. Overall, the energy industry as a whole has a tremendous amount of power due to the dependability of resources for everyday life and the amount of money these industries collect.

Lets take a society in which everyone makes the same amount of money across every job and everyone lives out the same lifestyle. Our lifestyle as we know it today would not nearly exist, in fact, our hypothetical society would be unrecognizable compared to todays society. people wouldnt live nearly as well compared to today. Much of our technology would be nonexistant because a scientist would not have the incentive to work harder than they have to in order to make the same money as a fast food worker. In fact, formal schooling would not exist. The uneven distribution of wealth clearly helps our society as whole. Even someone in the lower class has the opportunity to at least try and better their life by hard work and dedication. Overall, i think competition is the reason in which we have an unequal distribution of wealth in our country. If people are living well, they have no reason to further improve their lifestyle and therefore do not need more money. People on top, however, stay on top more often than not because of the risks they take in order to out do an opposing competitor. The tricky situation to analyze is the lower class. Most people that fall into the lower class are people that were born into the lower class. They still have the same opportunities education wise as someone in the middle class, though the quality may be lower. People in the lower class need to work the hardest and be the most dedicated to moving up in the world than a middle class average person, but once they pass that hump of lower class into middle class they can continue to work and become finanjcially stable. I think our country works well as it is and the inequality of wealth distribution clearly has been a reason as to why.

It makes sense that there would be an inequality of wealth within the united states. Some jobs are more important in a sense that they contriibute more to society than others. Naturally, the people that make the decisions for out country ar going to be making a lot of the money, because thats how our governement works. With an increasing amount of risk that is included in the job, such as making poor decisions in office or making a mathematical error causing an accident in a lab, those people taking the most risk are naturally going to make more money than someone that has little to no risk involved in their job to the sense that they can not majorly influence society on a global scale.

As mentioned before, people dislike going against the group in fear of being different, but it is much easier to join the bandwagon persay. A perfect example of everything mentioned before is the criticism of someone well known such as the president. A media member may have their opinion published and slowly people start to agree to the point where it becomes the majority. In this type of situation, it is easier than take the groups opinion than to form than form an individual opinion. It then becomes harder to form another idea and the process starts all over again.

I believe it is easy to manipulate a group of people because nobody loses. By following the group, most everyone is benefiting from the action in mind and in turn, the whole group benefits by adding to the experience Although, the start of the activity is rarely thought about. Every trend in society was started by a single person or group of people. This is because it takes great courage in order to go against the group and be different. Often times, though, it sets a chain reaction that that starts in small groups and slowly gets larger of a group. An example of this is a few people that go against people who arent dancing and start dancing. Ususally, the whole group starts dancoing because everyone is benefiting from participating in the group.

By reading this article i was able to see how people could be easily manipulated when in the presence of a large group. Nobody likes being the oddball out and will instantly alter its behavior to mimic the group in order to avoid standing out from the group. Just look at media, the easiest way to manipulate large groupos of people is using media to make a large group of people to think the same way, and in turn, act a certain way. Many people go out of their way just to be apart of the group. An example of this can be found in a small group of people watching a funny movie. If everyon one in the group but one person begins to laugh, that person is more likely to laugh than if they watched the same parts alone. This is brought about because of need to connect to other people. People in the group are inclined to act the same as the others in order to share in the experience of the group. This can also be seen in the experiment that was shown in class about how a person would as simple of turning to look the same direction as the other people in an elevator and shift their position in order to.

Take a car for example, a car given lasts nowhere near as long as a car earned because the car earned has sentimental as well as monetary value attached to it.. Money has a way of going to a persons head. Most often than not, good friends will be lost and false friends will be made in the sudden gain of money, then if the transition is made(which it often times is) from rich back to poor, all friends will be lost and the lottery winner is actually worse off. I believe this is the true curse the article is talking about

Nobody tries to be poor. Although when a poor person suddenly has access to large amounts of money, they try to change the way they live, the way they act, and their whole image. The problem with this is that they cant just magically change their entire way of life because theyre suddenly rich. They would do their best to live the way they think rich people would live, but many people fail in doing so. Probably the biggest problem related to quickly making the transition from lower class to upper class and skipping middle class is not gaining the responsibility to manage money and being naïve about the people in your life. Not earning your own money but rather suddenly receiving money also hurts the chances of lottery winners to hold on to their money. The winners do not appreciate the money because they did not have to work for it. This is also seen in teenagers with rich parents that give them everything they want.