Senior Reflections

1.) This year has been great in your class Mr. Stroud. Along with actually learning it was an incredibly funny class to be in. The constant arguing between you, and Max always made most of our class laugh. The best moment in the class was that push up competition, I hadn't expected for you to wreck Max that badly.

2.) I am so glad that Senior year is nearly over. Now that political science is over I have much more free time. Hopefully this summer I will be able to work and save up money for use at college over the next few years. Best of luck next year with Political Science and setting up all of the kids with internships.

3.) Now that summer is almost starting I can just relax. I only have swimming and work for three nights a week. I will be able to sleep in most mornings and hang out with my friends, something I have not been able to do much lately. Hopefully my family will be able to make it to the beach this year. Have a good summer.

Current Events

Airport Police may be Unprepared for Threats   http://tinyurl.com/7d5wqk7

A new study shows that many airport police forces might not be well enough trained to deal with a scenario dealing with multiple gunmen. The article states a cause of this could be that because airport security is a “cushy” job many of the men and women working it are older, they got their positions because of seniority.

I chose this article because it looked interesting and security should definitely be a concern. This article addresses many problems some obvious and some obscure and hopefully this could get some momentum to help responsibly increase security without costing everybody an arm and a leg. 

Senior Pranks: Goats on Roof?   http://tinyurl.com/cxrf9kr

This story tells of what a school in Simsbury, Connecticut that had to do to get goats off of an overhang. The fire department got all four of the goats safely off the roof and the administrators have not done anything because they did not want to overreact to a senior prank.

This story is an example of what our school should be doing, not overreacting. Was the oil thing stupid? Yes, should the kids who did it get some form of punishment? Yes, but should they not be allowed to walk? No that punishes the family more than the kids. They just need to chill out and take a good look at what happened because the crime doesn’t fit the punishment.

Breathalyzer to Enter Prom?   http://tinyurl.com/6u5a2oy

This story is about some kids who tried to go to their schools prom but because of a policy enacted by the school board everyone trying to enter prom had to take a breathalyzer and pass it. So two students said no and cited the fourth amendment and a Supreme Court case as reason for why they should not be forced to take a breathalyzer without reasonable suspicion.

It is definitely wrong that they would choose to make everyone take a breathalyzer even though it was in response to incidents earlier in the year. They should have simply taken the students who were caught last time and make them take a breathalyzer.

Rare Color Photographs of D-Day  http://tinyurl.com/7oqqsm9

This article tells of an unveiling of a statue today in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont honoring Major Dick Winters. You may have heard of Winters if you watched the “Band of Brothers” series, it was based off of events his troops faced. Finally they have some photos of the war in color which are pretty cool to look at.

I chose this article because it’s not every day that they release stuff from WWII. It wasn’t as informative as I would have liked but it still showed quite a few cool pictures which were fun to look at.

Apple and Human Rights

In recent months it has  become quite evident that Apple has disregarded human life in the attempt to make profit. Last year in order to work in Apple factories workers were forced to sign pledges that swore they would not commit suicide. In January there was an explosion at and I-Pad factory killing two, injuring dozens. Apple has been found to be using child laborers, toxic chemicals, and ignoring many imminent signs of danger, simply to turn a faster profit. If Apple tried making I-Pads with these methods in the USA then they would be out of business but because China disregards human rights they get away with this. Hardly fair is it?

Pope Visits Latin America

The Pope recently visited Latin America.

While in Mexico he met with victims of the violence and many of his supporters. He also encouraged that they would fight the drug violence whenever possible. Also over 3000 members of clergy swooped into Guanajuato in the hopes of meeting the Pope. One of the goals of this trip to Mexico was to encourage a Catholic revival. While the Pope was in Mexico he donned a sombrero, which has led to a fairly amusing picture, which he wore while giving a mass.

Obama's Chances

Obama's approval has been bouncing up and down. His approval is bouncing between 40-50% with it currently being 44%. I think that he has a good chance of winning the presidency, depending on who the GOP candidate is. If it's either Gingrich or Romney he has a good chance of winning, both have flip-flopped on big issues, and since they are the two primary candidates his chance actually appear to be quite good.

Roadkill Rampage

This was drawn by Adam Zyglis. This shows how all of the GOP candidates so far have not had much success running a fast paced race and the only one who has done consistently well is Romney. This picture shows how Bachman was the first to pull ahead and then get mowed down, followed by Perry, and Cain. This picture is also foreshadowing Gingrich's downfall, in the corner you can see another bunny with no name, but it's pretty clear who the author thinks will win the nomination. He is saying that slow and steady wins the race, and that Romney is getting closer to it, he purposefully left another rabbit up there to represent Gingrich who he is predicting will fail.

Romney (D) vs. Romney (R)

In the "who will win the GOP nomination?" debacle, first off, it won't be Cain. Now for Mitt Romney he could win the nomination for many different reasons. One of the biggest ones is unlike all of the other candidates he has a fairly clean record. He is both well financed and supported and has a great appeal to the more moderate republican base.

The biggest things he has running against him is not, contrary to popular belief, Newt Gingrich's many chins, but himself. The way he ran things as governor and his flip-flopping on core beliefs all hurt him in almost every debate. Also his religious affiliation, "not" being a christian, but being a Mormon hurts him. His religion, flip-flopping on core beliefs, and centered ideas will make it hard for him to win the nomination, since most people that vote in primaries are the ones that lean more strongly.

Forced Labor

By: Monte Wolverton
Gingrich is overseeing a forced labor camp, which is a joke about his idea for child labor, he wants to let kids work for their schools in exchange for money and work experience.

The author is using an ironic exageration to get his point across, of course they would never be put into a pit like that and forced to work.

This has to deal with his recent comment on child labor and his idea to help fix some issues he sees with it.

The idea here is that allowing young children to work, is unfair to them, and likely to lead to the abuse of the system.

The cartoonist is most likely a liberal who believes in childrens' rights.