Puzzles & Politics

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U.N. Sanctions Against North Korea

China and Russia have now agreed to cooaperate in the "blockade" of North Korea. Especially now that we do know that the explosions were in fact nuclear from taking air samples over North Korea. Naturally North Korea's Responce to this is anger saying that these sanctions are an act of war. According to some officials in South Korea and Japan, North Korea could be preparing for a second nuclear test; thinking that it will ear them respect. "The fact of the matter is that nuclear tests make us respect them less," U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said to reporters. China and Russia are the lifeline of North Korea, without there support North Korea won't last long. They have now way to support themselves seeing as their onlyeconomic support comes from: producing and dealing heroin, selling weapons, and making very high quality counterfeit U.S. $100 bills.
North Korea's reigime will fall. its just a matter of when. The question the South Korean's and China is facing is: when Kim Jong II falls and the awful totatlarian reigime collapses. what are the surrounding countries going to do with 23 million malnurished, starving, illiterate North Korean refugees?

Puzzles & Politics
m_j_nels
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Myspace vs. Facebook

Yes, yes myspace and facebook is not "politics" but they are 2 of the biggest websites out there. So i thought just for fun i would share why i think facebook is far superior to myspace.

Facebook is way more secure. the privacy settings even allow you to choose not to show up in searches. The interface is clean and easy to use, and there are barely any ads! Myspace to me seems cluttered and burried under adds and "featured profiles". Facebook is centered mainly around photographs and realashionships. You can post unlimited pictures, and albums, and tag your friends in them. what a great way to share memories! Furthermore on facebook when you add a friend you have the option of saying how you know the person, and you can choose to let them only see your limited profile, if you don't want them to know certain things about you.

Myspace the focus to me seems popularity. How many friends do you have? Who is your "top 8"? Drama is built up when someone else is Fred's number 1 friend and you are left at number 3. There is no way to make you profile completely private; it will still show up in the listings if someone searches your name.

How many stories do you hear about predators on myspace? Alot. What about facebook? Personally i han't heard any. Thats because Facebook is geared for older peole (college kids initialy, its now opened up to high schoolers). "Well myspace you can add bands, movies and decorate your profile" some people might say. My response to that is all videos and music do is slow down the website, which is one of the reasons why there are alot of "unexpected errors" on myspace. Through Facebook there are promotional deals that let you get about 30 free songs a month on i tunes. For videos why not just go to you tube where there are alot more? And Finally, for some people, they just love to decorate, getting all the pink, flashy profiles. For me though i found i was wasting hours trying to find cool profiles that would impress everyone. Thats why i like facebook; the focus is more on realashinships.

Puzzles & Politics
m_j_nels
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North Korea

Today 2 explosions, presumably nuclear, were detected in North Korea. Even if the explosions weren't nuclear; what is the North Korean Government trying to communicate? I think everyone can agree that it isn't nesscarily for peace. The controversy is what stand the U.S., and the U.N. for that matter, should take on this. Should we take peaceful stance like the Clinton administration took in 94 with the help of Jimmy Carter? Or should the U.S. take a more aggressive stance on this, and not negotiate with hostile governments with the goal of a nuclear arssenal? There is a History of arms agreements not working, it didn't work with Hitler, or the Soviet Union. The agreement in '94 sure didn't slow down North Korea from producing enriched Plutonium. In fact through the agreement we gave support to the North Korean Government wich helped support the very reigime we are haveing troubles with today. Thats the downside of negotiating. The more aggressive stance of posses massive problems as well. Striking stratigical locations in North Korea could spur North Korea to fire the countless missiles and artillery at Seoul, the capital of South Korea, bringing the city to ruins and the death of thousands of lives. There is however an agressive stance without millitary action. Ronald Regan saw that there were three main things that composed the Soviet Union, one being the flow of money. China is the economic lifeline of North Korea, convincing them to halt business with North Korea could potentialy bring N.K. to its knees. of course this is alot more complex than this and there are most likely compoments that i didn't mention or take into consideration. It will be interesting to see how this folds out.

Puzzles & Politics
m_j_nels
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Foley Fallout

The Foley fallout is a major issue of todays media coverage. I am glad he is gone and what he did was dispicable. What i find intresting is that the democratic party is making a huge deal about this internet sex scandal when they defend clinton and the numerous intems/pages that he had sexual congress with Monica Lewinsky nameing one of them. Now i am not defending Foley at all but the release of this information now 30 days before a midterm election is a completeley political move.

Puzzles & Politics
m_j_nels
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My Political Worldview

when it comes to a political view point, I would consider myself a conservative. The main reasons are moral standards. I belive abortion is wrong, that life is precious and a baby in a mothers womb is just as much alive as you or me. With this being said it comes down to a matter of pro life or pro choice. Pro choice to me translates to pro death, which in reality is what is happening in an abortion, killing a baby. I say this because it seems to me that if you choose not to have an abortion there are more choices available. there is adobtion, giving up custody of the baby, or keeping him/her and raising him or her.
Another reason why i am conservative is i believe marriage should be defined as a man and a woman.
Of course there are divisions in the republican party about these issues but generally speaking i feel that the right believes in these morals more than the left.
The Democratic party is more split on more issues. There are the far left like Michael Moore, who hate America. And there are those who don't think that way at all. Also democrats can't decide whether they are for or against the war in Iraq. Some democrats i have talked to just get angry when you disagree with them. an example of this is during the last presidential election we had a Bush sign in our yard, the next day we found it in a dumpster. we put it back up, the next morning it was gone altogether. i heard a story where someone whoose car bore a republican bumper sticker,and thier car got egged. At a republican convention i went to, while we were leaving there were protesters just screaming in our faces. Now i know that this does not go for every democrat or liberal, but i don't know any storys where republicans egg democratic cars or steal opposing party signs. in my opinion the democratic party has to unite and show some signs of maturity.

Puzzles & Politics
m_j_nels
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