Caught Spying

             America and Germany are allies and therefor, America should have no need to spy and snoop into their business. If I had an Allie, I would expect trust, care, concern, and honesty to be present. It is not right to tap into ones communications, and I believe Angela Merkel handled and expressed herself in a very good way. She did not express anger but rather stated the necessities that must be present between allies. Angela Merkel seemed to remind America that trust must be present between them two and that they both need to focus on rebuilding it.
              Getting caught is an issue alone but then getting caught lying is a whole other issue at hand. America stated that they had not monitored and will not monitor Germany's communications in the future. This statement digs a hole for America because America has admitted to monitoring in the past. It is a very risky barrier to cross when weighing out the consequences of spying on Germany. The risk of finding something for intelligence benefits does not out weigh the diplomatic damage that will rise.
              Matthew Yglesias' five year plan seems promising but only in some parts. In his step one, of solving short term unemployment, I believe that suspending the printing of the federal reserve until nominal income catches up is a great idea and has a lot pushing for it to succeed. I do believe that his second step is interesting, but I do not know if it will be successful. It seems alittle radical to start taxing land value, because of all the aspects that land value includes. His step three, on raising all the different real wages seems to be promising also. I do not agree with his fourth step on how we could raise population threw immigration. I believe that he really jumped and aggressively pushed for ways in which we can allow immigrants into the United States, and I'm not too big of a fan. I believe  Mathew yglesias' fifth step is trying to change something that does not need to be changed. I believe copyright terms are fine at the level at which they are at, and do not need to be scaled back.

Chaos in Moscow

         Ethnic violence was the catalyst of a riot in Moscow which caused much trouble for the residents and police of Moscow. Migrants seem to be a huge problem in Moscow and I believe that much effort should be put into expelling them. To have a resident of Moscow say, "We are scared to walk the streets at night," is not alright nor healthy for the production and success of Moscow. These migrants are causing to much problems than the good that they bring to Moscow. Another resident also stated that these migrants take up low paying jobs, like construction that many residents would not do, but if that is all they are doing then much effort needs to be put into the act of expelling them. The great help by Moscow's police, detaining around 1600 migrants, a statistic stated in the article posted  by (Reuters.com) shows a great start. Ethnic violence can be started very easily in Moscow and I believe careful steps must also be taken to quell the violence that may erupt. Different ethnic holidays is one of the examples that may cause violence to erupt. Migrants are said to be targeted during these ethnic holidays and that they should take much caution in transporting from day to day activities. A lot of chaos is occurring in Moscow at the moment and can definitely be taken care of. Steps must be taken to quell the chaos and violence.

The 3rd Golden Age of Television

          The golden age of television was a time period where much criticism was focused on movies and television shows. Criticism was expressed through female and male critics, which supplied directors, writers, and producers many different angles to view, change, or not change the way they wrote and later produced a movie. Many different types of television go through criticism and through the boom of serial television, came the boom of criticism. Online criticism heavily increased in quantity, quality, and in its respectability. Martin and Sepinwall do not focus on how television could be different from what it is today because of criticism but rather what it is and how it came to be. It is amazing to step back and look at what had to happen and what created the shows and movies that we all watch today. I never really appreciated the steps that must have been taken to produce these great movies and shows that exist today. Criticism is a harsh step to have to deal with but a very helpful tool in creating great writing and shows. I believe that if one can really appreciate criticism and understand it along with the ability to use it for their own advantage, a writer can truly produce a great piece.

Government Shutdown

John McDaid

            The house and the senate couldn't agree on a bill to fund the government and because of it we have been put into a government shutdown that started on october 1. When I first heard of a government shutdown, I thought that it meant everyone that works for the federal government would be without their job completely and entirely and all parts of government would close. Some people in government stay and work during the shutdown and only parts of the government are shut down. This situation is horrible for our economy. Areas around Washington D.C. are said to lose $200 million each day in economic activity for each day that the government is shut down. 800,000 federal workers are estimated to be sent home. A prolonged and serious government shut down has only happened once before but smaller government shutdowns have happened seventeen times before. I wouldn't say that the government can ever really be prepared for a government shutdown but it is definitely something that should be further looked into because of how badly the economy can be affected by one. A government shutdown wouldn't happen if congress could just agree and follow through together. I wouldn't blame any particular party but congress definitely needs to pull together and seal the trench that is causing these problems.

Somalian shooters

John McDaid

        This is another horrible incident that has occurred and another that we have to read. I agree with all the survivors on how they explain the Somalian shooters. The Kenyan survivors explain how they are inhumane and had no feeling or emotion in there face. Again I want to express my feeling on how there are mentally unstable people in the world that we live in. To make a connection from the last reading, The Naval Yard Shooting, in both cases people act inhumanely and seem to be mentally unstable. I do believe there is a difference between The shooter in the Naval Yard and the Somalian shooters. The Somalian shooters seemed to commit this action more through anger and order. It is a horrible incident to have to deal with and go through and am very sorry for all those who were involved. I would categorize the article in the website, The Counter Punch as informal because it is not a refutable news source with a good editter, but more of a blog with an oppiniated author that does not cite good enough sources. I believe that is favored toward the perspective of someone who is against the form of policy of the United States.

Naval Yard Shooting

John McDaid

           The violent rampage that occurred in the navy yard is a horrible event that I wish never happened. I believe that there were many things that could have been done to stop this horrible incident, but in this case it just didn't work out for the better. It is crazy to know through examples like this one, that there are such mentally unstable people in our world today that could not only think of doing these kind of things but actually pull them off. It is a sure sign that Mr. Alexis had many mental problems. In my eyes I believe that there were too many red flags that popped up before the incident, to allow Mr. Alexis to still have security clearance. It is a shame that nobody was able to highlight and put the red flags together because this would have never happened. I just hope that the security clearance systems can learn from this event and prevent a future incident like this from happening. 

Syria

John McDaid

            The civil war that rose due to simple and peaceful protests during the Arab spring in 2011 has caused many problems and deaths in Syria. The economy of Syria before the civil war was very diverse. Agriculture, industry along with excavation, retail, and tourism made up Syria’s economy. The economy of Syria was crushed due to the break out of the civil war. Unemployment dropped four times its original standing. Hospitals were dropping, leaving only 30 of the 75 running and treating patients.

            I believe the self-interest of many Syrians is to get out of their homes and move on with their life somewhere else. I do not disagree with the two million people who fled from Syria to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. I think that the self-interest of the country has been lost for most Syrians. I wouldn’t call this a selfish move in any way because of how bad Syria is at this moment. Chemical warfare in Syria killed 1,429 people, which included 426 children. Of the hospitals that are still working and treating people, 3,600 patients were treated with neurotoxic symptoms. Homes being destroyed, people being killed/injured, and huge amounts of hospitals closing are sure signs that I believe will and obviously have triggered the feeling of self-interest in the minds of many Syrians.

            Self-interest doesn’t always have to be selfish. The United States in their action must choose a side. Whether they choose to be inactive and not help the people or if they want to be active and help the people, the decision will nonetheless, be one of self-interest. Mill uses the example of democratizing Syria, as a possible solution to its problems. Mill explains that turning Syria’s government into a democracy is not the one and only solution to solving Syria’s problems. However the United States government will like the people of America to believe that because it is in their interest to have a democracy in Syria. There has been democratizing failures of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, that could affect the decision of pursuing a goal of democratizing Syria. Syria could very well be a democratizing failure along with them, or could be a goal accomplished. It is in the self-interest of the United States to get involved and fix the problems that Syria had created for itself or to let Syria suffocate in the hole that will eventually collapse on top of its head.

            Intervening with Syria sparks the thought of self-interest. There is the thought of self-interest in the minds of fleeing Syrian’s and also in the minds of United States people in whether of not to intervene and find a solution that will help Syria out of the mess that they are in.