Dual-wield

A man was shot and killed outside of a Scientology church in Hollywood. He approached three guards after getting out of his red convertible. One of the guards shot and killed him. The twist is that the man was wielding two samurai swords. Investigation is underway to see if the killing was justified. Surveillance footage shows the man exiting his car and walking up to the guards, he was shot when he got within striking distance. It was put into question whether the man was part of the Celebrity Centre Scientology church, and it turns out that he used to be a member a long while back. The deputy police chief judged by the video surveillance that the guards were protecting themselves, and that is why they shot and killed the man.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27877995/



This story caught my eye because of how crazy it sounded at first, and then after reading it, I still felt that it was pretty crazy. It seems like violence is getting more and more far fetched by the day. I just read another blog about some police men the tasered a man at a funeral off of, charlie's current event blog, http://charliesevents.blogspot.com/. What's happening with violence today?! I'm not sure if I'm only hearing the ridiculous stories, or if America is just going insane. I also want to talk about the Celebrity Centre Scientology church. It seems like we are putting to much power in the hands of the celebrities. It doesn't seem like they really deserve their own center. I think that the money that probably went into building this complex should have gone to build a community center in a ghetto or something to that effect. America needs to take the emphasis off of celebrities, so that they don't feel so self righteous, and feel that they can do anything they want.

"I'm going to go to juvie"

An eight year old boy was questioned in the shootings of his father and another man. At first he denied any involvement outright, saying that he came home from school and found them dead. Later he admitted to shooting each man at least twice, reloading sometimes. He went on to say that he only used guns when he hunted small game with his dad, but then contradicted this by saying that he sometimes used guns in the house, and felt bad because he didn't tell his dad. It is suspected that police may have obtained the confession in a poor manner. In the video that they took of the interview, they made the boy scared by telling him that if he didn't tell the truth, they could find out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27783996/

I'm going to focus primarily on what should be done with this boy. It is obvious to me that he killed these two men. The boy did lie countless times, but I don't think that the boy would lie about killing people. I think that the police were able to scare him into confessing, and he told the truth at this point. Now the question will be, what do we do with him? The obvious choice would be to put him in juvie for a while, and then move him into jail. I disagree with this choice though, I think that the boy should first be admitted into a metal institution, but if he is found to be unaffected by anything, then he should be put in jail. His crime is no different than if he was twenty, he still killed two men. The jail should maybe not put him with all the adults, but I don't think that juvie will suffice.

Rebuilding Afghanistan

Rebuilding Afghanistan will be "exceedingly difficult and complex," says Arnold Fields, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. There is still and insurgency, they have very little in terms of natural resources, and they are a war torn country. The initial investment that will be put into the reconstruction currently stands at a whopping $32 billion. The United States have outspent other countries by 127%. Congress said that they would put 20 million dollars into the auditing effort, but currently have only put in $16 million.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,445908,00.html

The United States has an obligation to help to fund the rebuilding of Afghanistan, but its sad to see 32 billion dollars, that could be used to help recover our failing economy, invested in these other countries. The war here was just and necessary, but I don't think that the American people are satisfied. Osama bin Laden hasn't been found, and an insurgency still exists. It seems pointless to me to rebuild a country that at any moment could spiral back into turmoil. I don't think that the country is stable enough to start investing in rebuilding it. I don't think that the terrorists are just going to allow the United States to intervene, and be there as much. I think during these troubling times, we should turn in, and look in, and solve our own problems, before those of others.

Down To The Wire

McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, is very proud to be by McCain's side right now. He sees McCain making an epic comeback, even though he is down in the polls. It was said that McCain is closing in, and Obama is losing a little bit of ground. The polls show McCain down within the margin of error, so they are somewhat unreliable as of now. Davis seems confident that McCain can win in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, where the race is fairly even right now. He says the state to watch will be Pennsylvania, a Republican hasn't won here in a long time, but he feels they are doing very well here. The last part of this interview talked about what they are doing in these last moments with money. The question was if they were spending more on advertisement, or the get-out-the-vote program. Davis says that a ton of money has been pumped into the get-out-the-vote program, and some in advertisement.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,445964,00.html

I want to focus on the part of this interview where they talked about voter suppression, and voter registration fraud. Both men recognized that this was going on for both parties, but it wasn't them, it's independent groups doing it for their self-interest. This makes me almost sick to my stomach. It's very unfair to both candidates, and takes a huge crap on what our founding fathers set up in The Constitution, doing this defeats the purpose of having a democracy. All people are sovereign, and thus, should have the power to decide who will lead them. If to many lawsuits occur on election day, then we may have to wait a very long time to see who our new president will be. I feel like doing this can only hurt a candidates chances of winning because it makes the party look bad. All Americans should be allowed to cast a ballot if they feel moved to.