Senior Reflection Blog #1

Ok well, this is going to be some recent news, just some teenage angst that we all gotta deal with at some point as a teenager.
So you know how they always say, in your first year of having your license you will most likely get pulled over and at least get one ticket, or get in an accident. I got my license awhile ago in April last year and luckily I made it through the first year, happy fun stuff right? Never got a ticket, never been in an accident, sure am lucky to be me! Well today (May 14th) I got into my first accident...rather disappointing news when you think you're out of the clear! Thought I had enough room to back up hit the parked car behind, I said to myself "great...". I guess it also had to do with my frustration with losing my invisalign retainers a few minutes before, loss of focus. Now I have a huge dent on the side of my bumper, but luckily the car I hit only took damage to the license plate. Not quite sure how that adds up in equal damage, but I am sure lucky that his car was not worse. I just talked to the owner of the car, seemed like a pretty nice person, so I think things will be ok.
Overall I view this as an important life lesson. Karma sure does comes back around,and I definitely shouldn't let my stress get me so frustrated. But, hey it's an experience thing, had to go through an accident sometime in life first right?

4th quarter Current Event #1

So my article this week was found in the Washington Post website on some pregame speculation on the 3-3 tied series of the Capitals vs the Penguins in the Stanley Cup conferenc semifinals. I am personally really excited to watch this game. The Capitals have been possibly the best team of all sports in D.C. for the last few years. Teams like the Nationals, or the Redskins (who I'd wish would do better than just getting to the first round of playoffs :( ) never get as far or have as much of a success as the Capitals. As predicted in the article and most likely by all, this will come down to a close game, in overtime or a late goal in 3rd period, especially because every game except for one in this series of the Capitals vs. The Penguins has been decided down to 1 goal margins. Also 3 of the games of the 6 so far have been decided in Overtime.

Editorial Blog #5

My article for this week is on the SAT posted online on the USAtoday.com editorials section. The new policy on the SAT now is that they do not have to send all their scores to applied colleges, you only have to send your best, which poses an advantage for current SAT and future SAT student takers compared to years before. The new policy of the SAT by CollegeBoard is called “Score Choice”. Score Choice though has a bias to benefit more well-off families because it involves retaking the SAT multiple times, which means paying fees again. College Board waive the $45 SAT fee twice for students in need, but that doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Although the board gave high school seniors 221,962 fee waivers last year, that total doesn't count an additional 170,000 test takers from households that earn less than $60,000 a year.

The writer of the article thinks that rather than define the SAT in a scramble for customers and repeat business, College Board ought to redouble its efforts to measure academic potential, using proven gauges of academic success such as the standardized essay-writing portion and tests on advanced-level subjects.

After reading this article I agree with the writer’s opinion on certain aspects. I do think that College Board should focus less on business status and work more towards their original attempt in gauging academic success with the SAT. However in our state of the economy, it’s probably tough for families to pay for their sons’ and daughters’ test fees in the first place, and they need a new way to start up business. I being a student also think this “Score Choice” is a good idea because I had to send in all of my test scores for my colleges even with my bad ones, this helps students a lot more in the application process because they won’t judge them on bad scores even if they did really well on one. Although if you think about it, all students have this benefit so it makes it harder on the application choice if all students send all their better scores, so this actually might make the application process for colleges harder on students.

Editorial Blog #4

President Obama recently confirmed this idea and the U.S. is at the moment considering it, but as the writer says, there comes both promise and peril in this action. The positive outcome of this would be the U.S. could somehow replicate the successful results of the agreements with Sunni leaders in Iraq that snapped their alliance with al-Qaeda, dramatically reduced violence and advanced political stability. The negative setbacks that might happen is that we could provoke the Taliban more, because Pakistan’s government has made deals with the Taliban which caused a way for the Taliban to attack Afghanistan more often. Right not the most likely appealing strategy is to work with the lower-level ranked Taliban, but we and our allies are unaware on how many such people of that exist, and people who will work to cooperate with us. The Taliban in general is focused on establishing Islamic domination, unlike the Sunnis who yearn to re-establish the political power they had under Saddam Hussein's secular government.

As for the writer, he/she believes that U.S. and NATO need to keep up with the military pressure in Afghanistan for now so that it will eventually lead to talks with the Taliban and extremists like a key to open a door. Also the writer believes that the best thing for now might be to leave the negotiations with Afghani leaders for now.

I definitely agree with the writer on this point, it’s definitely too soon to start to act on this idea. Using the U.S. and NATO military power we can use it as a foothold over the Taliban to sort of force them into coming into terms and agreements with us and our allies, one step must lead into another and something cannot be solved by jumping a step or relying on one idea.

Editorial Blog #3

This week editorial was found Washington Post’s issue for February 22nd, 2009. This writer talks about his/her’s support for Ken Salazar the U.S.’s new Interior Secretary. Salazar hopes to begin in starting a preservation project for the national mall of D.C. as the new Interior Secretary. He believes that the mall is a national icon, and that they need to take responsibility in keep the mall in a good condition. The article stated Bush administration’s Interior department has neglected to do much, and Salazar hopes to turn that around. Other plans of improvements to things include assisting President Obama in developing a new energy frontier and new opportunities for youth and better programs for Native Americans. It will take lots of money to start these improvements and preservation of the mall. The article ends with a quote by Salazar: “When I think about 1.8 million people out there on Jan. 20, it's an incredible statement about our nation. . . . There's something very special about this place, something very special about the Mall, and it will be a very high priority for me." What he said in that quote demonstrates how well he fits this role as our interior secretary, and I feel like we can trust this man to do a good job after saying something like that!

Editorial Blog #2

This week’s editorial that I found was in the Washington Post from the February 18th paper. The article was by Kathleen Parker, and it is called Be Calm and Prosper which is mainly about our economy right now and how President Obama is very supportive and still very positive on looking upon the future of the economy in our country. Obama has stated that there are times in this country where we have been in worse situations than now, such as what most of our grandparents have went through with the Great Depression. Obama believes we will make it through this crisis, stating that Americans are tough and resilient. The writer states that part of the greatest challenge of being President as Obama, is to convince the American people that their situation is serious while not scaring them into economic paralysis. Kathleen Parker, the writer of the article continues on remaining very supportive of Obama’s optimism and states that his optimism and faith is the best medicine for our country’s state right now and I agree with her on that. Staying positive can only bring a better output, we shouldn’t give up just because things look bleak. Obama believes that our goals are long term and our current economic situation should not be based on solely on what happens on one day in the stock market, whether it rises or falls. I enjoyed this editorial because it’s a good in hearing a different point of view on our economy rather than the average negative stuff you hear or read all the time on the news. It’s good to know someone is supportive and looking on a more positive perspective of our future.

Editorial Blog #1

So this is the first editorial blog yay! fun stuff....
Anywho my editorial was posted on USATODAY.com by a person (that was remained anonymous) on 2/4/09. It was about the Salmonella problem in our country right now and basically talks about this peanut plant in Blakely, Georgia that was shut down because of Salmonella. It also talks about the sanitation problems of this peanut plant such as various holes in the roof which could leak water into the building, mold on the walls and roof, holes where critters and animals could enter in and out, and roaches found in various places. Kinda scary to know that some of the food you eat might have came from this place...but LETS MOVE ON because I like my peanut products too much. The editorial mainly blames the U.S. government and the FDA for not taking action to put into further investigation into this problem earlier, and blames companies for ignoring the problems in sanitation. I just want to be able to eat my peanut products without worrying about Salmonella... :) On the brightside if your allergic to peanuts then this doesn't concern you as much, haha.

Here's the link to the article if you're interested in reading it
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/02/our-view-on-foo.html#more