Reading this article makes me believe that there was definitely leadership issues within the platoon. I don’t expect the platoon commander to always know where everyone in the platoon is at all times but he has men under him to make sure that everyone is there. Under the platoon commander is the platoon sergeant and under him are squad leaders. Someone in that chain of command should have known that the two men were wondering off away from the platoon. Obviously the two men are to blame for this crime but the lack of accountability by the staff is a big part of it too. These crimes can be avoided somewhat but no completely. There are some people who join the military as cold hearted killers. People want to join just to kill and see action. There are a few people who enjoy killing and the adrenaline rush of doing it. When someone likes that gets out of the country and invades another they expect to see battle. The killers not seeing battle makes them go crazy or “get bored” and they start killing innocent civilians. They would find justifications in their head just so they can actually go through with it. Another reason I don’t see these crimes ending anytime soon is soldiers are scared and some think everyone is out to get them. I have never been in war myself but I can imagine how frightening it must be to enter another country knowing that the enemy is there and they want to take your life. We are fighting an enemy that has no official uniforms. These people dress like the populous and can be women or children. This fear that anyone can be the enemy brings paranoia to people and they start shooting anything that can be a threat. People believe that war is like the old days. They see all these WWII movies and Vietnam films that make war look like a constant battleground. When soldiers have this mentality they believe that there is no doubt that they will see action. The war on terror is much different and is less dramatic. Natural born killers are not ready to face that when in country it will be pretty calm and the action will be dramatically less as shown in WWII or Vietnam.

I have never thought of America as being an empire before watching this video. I am joining the Marine Corps after college and I did not even know we had that many bases around the world. We spend so much money and have so many bases around the world; I understand why the rest of the world thinks we are the aggressive nation. We occupy so many countries but will not let countries occupy us. Truth is we are the biggest bully in the world and I’m afraid that will not last forever. Just like Rome, America started off as a small country with only 13 states (colonies). Then we expanded through purchases and war until we owned what we have now. When we acquired all of the land we started to have military bases around the world. Now we have fleets in all waters, bases in many lands, and we are the largest empire the world knows. Just like Rome and the Persian Empire we will eventually fall. Every great empire falls and America is not excluded. If we keep expanding and spending more money, countries will think we are getting too strong and would expect us to slow down. Just as the world thought about the Nazi regime being too powerful, other nations will think the same of America. However I do think it is a little too late for America to stop spending so much on defense. We have made so many enemies that the U.S needs to stay on top. I believe if we let our guard down now that there are many countries that will take advantage of the opportunity. I also believe that there are people right now planning on how to destroy the United States. It is inevitable that our country will be attacked again and we need to be ready. We should decrease the number of bases we have in the world but military spending should not decrease by much if at all. World peace is a fantasy that will never happen. Since ancient times nations have been in war and nothing will change. The question the U.S has to ask is, what is worth more…the country…or money. The country should always win and military spending keeps us safe.

Although I do believe that the oil companies having so much power in congress are awful, I also try to step in the shoes of the oil company leaders. I asked myself, "what if the government wanted to take extra income from me?" and I've decided that I would most certainly fight to stop that. What makes it easier for oil companies to fight is that they know that they will most likely win. It is really hard to put in so much money for something that you don't know the outcome to, but if I knew I was going to win then why not? I am a big believer of the idea that there is no such thing as true altruistic feelings. Everything is done to increase the welfare of one's own self. All the crap about saving more jobs and the future is just to feed the people with the idea that oil companies care about the welfare of others. In reality all they care about is the welfare of them. Proof of this is in the article it states the public was furious of the fact their taxpayers dollars are going to already well off private companies. Instead of hearing the public out they decided to dish out millions of dollars to lobbyist. They were going to fight the budget bill weather the public liked it or not, because they know they can win and they want the money.
Lobbyist like these are a prime example on how powerful private industries really are. America is based on a check and balances system with three different branches; I would argue that in the real world consist of an extra branch (lobbyist). Money has so much power that it really is no question that lobbyist have a huge say on government issues. People with the most even have the greatest chance in becoming a leader our government. Donald Trump who I haven’t seen in any political job is now in second place for the republican candidate for president. The only reason he got this far is because he has money and that makes him powerful.

When I first heard that I am not destined to have a lot of money because of how the inequality of money and the sociological factors will make me have about the same income as my parents; I was angry. I always knew that you can’t succeed with hard work alone, but to hear the statistics made me see how true that is. ¬I come from a very low income family and I’ve always wanted to be better than they are. To be told that the system the government has set up will most likely put me in the same place as my parents makes me question how our country is ran. I went through my whole life thinking this country has so many great opportunities and if you work hard you can make it big. I do still believe that there are more opportunities here than most countries but for the lower income citizens within; it is hard to get on top. The system is completely unfair and most people cope with the way it is. The majority of the population believes that inequality will always exist, and while I do think this is true the difference shouldn’t as large as it is now. The average income in the U.S for the bottom 90% is around 34,000. That means that as soon as an American is born the odds are against him/her. For a country that promises great opportunities they really should even out the odds of actually reaching that goal. People on top only want to give the advantage to themselves and the people they know. That is why most people claim that it doesn’t matter what you know it’s who you know. Connections and briberies are what our system is all about. If you know someone you can get to be very rich even with no skill at all. The children of the top .01% are examples of this. They are born rich with no skill and if they never do learn skills; they will still be rich. Unfortunately we live in an unfair system and I don’t see it changing for a very long time. People will continue to believe that the inequality difference is less than it really is and no one will fight for change. Not even me.

My personal opinion on religion extinction is that it will never happen. Religion has been around since ancient time and has always been around since. Not the same religion has always been around but some form of a religion still exists. What I do believe is that religion may change a great amount. The current religions are becoming less popular but they will still be people who believe. The people who say they are un-decided will find a religion soon or their kids will. A new religion will come up and they will like the ideas of it and join it. The world needs religion. People will always try to find someone to blame when something bad happens, and thank when the opposite happens. They need relief knowing that if they die; they will go to heaven or something similar. Some people don’t have anyone to talk to but a higher figure. Religion beings people closer together and that’s a plus in the population’s eyes. For example, the reason someone joins a frat or something similar is to be a part of something bigger than them. People know that they will make friends and actually have something to do. Boredom is a very dangerous thing and can cause people to join things they knew very little about. I can see religion being extinct for the younger population but not the older. Older people aren’t around friends as much or don’t have extra hobbies. Especially the retired population who really do nothing but maybe travel a little. This boredom that comes with getting older brings an urge to join a church and learn religion. Learning is something people will always do until death. Most people claim they have no religion because they don’t know enough about any religion. If everyone took time to sit down and learn different religions, it is guaranteed that they will find one they agree with. Once they find one they agree with they will want to learn more about it. The urge to learn will end up with them converting to that religion and “filling a void” in their life.

M’s story clearly states his understanding of what he has done. He knows he belongs in jail and does not deserve to be forgiven for what he has done. Although he believes he has done something terribly wrong, I believe he is going too hard on himself. He was a scared 14 year old boy who did not want the murder to happen in the first place. Putting a man in jail for life because he sat upstairs while a crime was going on is not right. I don’t disagree that he deserved some jail time but life is too much for sure. Life in jail is the worst sentence you may receive other than death. If a 14 year old boy got life for being upstairs during the murder, what did the murderer himself actually get? It is not fair that someone who did not kill anyone at all gets the same punishment as the person doing the killing. This equal punishment entails that both crimes were similar and that is not true at all. It is a waste of money to keep criminals in jail for life. Why waste money on a boy who clearly was just scared and froze up? I do agree that he should have tried to stop the killing, but realistically how far can a 14 year old boy go. It was too late to call the cops and he was out numbered. The odds of the counselor surviving were very slim and there was probably nothing M could have done to stop it. M is right for feeling guilty for not trying but he should also understand that there was probably nothing he could have done. Bravery is taught at a very young age. The invisible strings shape who we are and how we act in certain situations. M was not ready to face the situation he was put in. I honestly believe most 14 year old boys would not be ready or have the amount of braveness in that certain situation. You are prepared to face many challenges starting from a young age. M was not prepared for the challenge that night and I don’t think any boy can be.

Winning the lottery is a poor person’s dream. Just to have so much money at your disposal can make people believe that they will become happier. People know what kind of stuff they want to buy if they win the lottery. The first things on their mind would be a house or a car. Some people want something ridiculous like a fountain or something just because they have so much money so they ask themselves “why not?” What people don’t realize is that everyone in the world is selfish. Naturally everyone in the world will always think “well what is in it for me?” Even what is thought to be an unselfish act of giving money to charity can be seen as a gain to the giver. The giver will gain happiness and that is the only reason they would give money away. This greed of humans will give many problems to any person who wins the lottery. Most likely their friends will ask for some kind of cut. The lottery winner will get calls that go something like “hey remember that favor I did for you back in high school.” Every time the winner meets someone new he or she has to wonder if this person wants to be their friend because of money or not. Not only will friendships become complicated but their riches would draw crimes. The odds of getting robbed would increase for them because all big lotto winners are publicized on the media. So everyone and their grandmothers know who won a million dollars. Obviously those are the people the burglars are going to target so it increases the odds. If there was a way to win the lottery and not have it publicized that would be great. Although I know for sure that winning big money can bring down happiness I still wouldn’t mind winning it. I just wish that it can be my secret that I win and no one else would find out. I would buy a few things at a time and give a lot of it to my parents. Although this is very unrealistic, I believe this is the best way to transition from poor to rich.

American culture is heavily influenced by what the media portrays and how it makes this country look so dangerous. All that the news shows is the bad things that happen all around the nation. Things that are very rare in occurrence are what networks love to display. The video about the person who almost kidnapped the kid is over dramatized. I believe yes there are the very few unlucky kids that get kidnapped, but the number is so few that it should not stop parents from giving their kids the freedom to walk to places on their own. The media has instilled this fear in parents making it very hard for them to let go sometimes. When it is the time for college, parents will hesitate to let their children move out because there are “crazy” people out there. It really puts a lot of pressure on the parents to let their kids go off on their own and they live in constant fear after that. Some parents will call their kids every day just to check up on them. Americans are influenced by fear and I believe that’s how leaders are chosen. An example of this is when the terror attacks on the world trade centers happened everyone feared terrorist. The talk of terrorist was all over the news and it instilled fear into people. The people wanted a leader with a strong military pursuit so I believe the reason George Bush was re-elected is because of the peoples fear on terrorist. Then terrorist started to diminish from the media news. Now we have troubles in health care and the economy. This new fear that the economy would collapse and another depression would happen persuaded America to vote democrat, because he brought new economic ideas. The people also believed being in two wars brought economic troubles so they did not want to vote for the republican who promotes military strength. This is why Obama was elected. The media is a huge influence in America today. So huge that it can influence which person gets elected president of the United States.

Michelle’s Obama plans to help women who are breast feeding is economically better for society I believe. I believe her reasons for doing this absolutely make sense. The popularity of breast feeding has decreased over the past years. Obama has created an incentive for women to breast feed. What she has figured out is that breast feeding can cause a child to be less obese. So if we can increase breast feeding then we decrease child obesity and in turn decreasing the nation’s obesity rate. This all makes sense to me. People are naturally selfish, and people are always asking what’s in it for me. So just that it’s healthier/cheaper to breast feed is not incentive enough to do it anymore. Women need more, so Obama gave them more for the good of the country. Now although I agree with what she did and her reasoning for doing it, I don’t agree with her timing. The government is in an over 1 trillion dollars in deficit right now. The government shouldn’t really be spending money on anything else. Tax revenues are down because of tax cuts and government spending is too high. Obama created this social service during a very dangerous economic struggle. Although we are not in a recession anymore we owe so much money that eventually the taxes in this country will be extraordinary high. I believe government should cut spending in a lot of things and a social payment is one of them. They need to look into revising social security benefits and unemployment. This breast feeding thing does not help out deficit problems and debt problems so she should’ve waited until our deficit decreased (although she might not be first lady when that happens). Overall I think her plan was a very good one in the sense of helping Americans, but I think she just picked the wrong time to implement the plan. The situation we are going through is a very serious one and because of it I believe the republicans got it right this time and we need to stop letting the government pay for everything. We need paying off their debts to be a priority or will be controlled by China.

The video about empathetic civilization actually makes sense to me. He explained that people share emotions between each other. The spider example was that if a spider is crawling up someone else’s arm that you yourself would feel grossed put. I have actually experienced this phenomenon many times before. This sharing of emotions is very real and it makes sense that it can lead for a worldwide togetherness. His best argument that he made was when he explained the timeline of how people associated with each other. He explains that humans started to group up by blood ties. Then he states after blood ties it became religious ties. The last tie was national ties. The group of people started from small group of people and grew to what we call nations today. The reason this growth happened is because of the information technology that developed so quickly. It totally makes sense that the next step after national ties is using that we all live on the same planet as a tie. If we can feel what other people are feeling that should stop war and violence. If we as humans became truly empathetic then we would know that if we shoot another person, bomb another person, or poison another that he will be in a lot of pain. When that person has pain we should feel pain as well. This enough should compose us to naturally not be violent people because according to the laws of empathy we don’t want to feel the pain also. If I truly accepted what this man has said I would probably have much less hate for another person. I wouldn’t think people are crazy and believe that there is a reason for everything they believe in. I would put myself in other people shoes and try to feel what they have been through and their reasoning for where they are now. For example if a Middle Eastern person hates Americans, I would ask myself why? I would put myself in their shoes and see that there are these people invading my country and changing my way of life.