I wrote out my thoughts after I got back from the movies - watching "Serenity"; here they are:
A view on culture of humanity
The new film Serenity contains, mixed in with excellent fight scenes and some humor, an amazing thought process that should be considered by everyoneon Earth. There are actually a few themes that run throughout this movie, which add to its impact.
1. Humans are fallen and, without some outside influence, would fall into a deep current of selfishness and a lust for control, so strong that they would destroy themselves in a quest for more.
2. When in a leadership role it is important to know the reasons for a misssion or project, in order to know whether it is morally wrong or not, rather than blind obedience.
I don't care if you agree that there was some sort of moral to this film or not, but I found this to be one of the most amazing films I have ever seen.
This film broke it's way to my number 1 on the first viewing (tonight 45 minutes ago) because of an amazing story line, a deep message and some awesome fight scenes. This movie smashed StarwarsIII (though not one of my favorites, it was big this year) and it respectfully wins out over Batman Begins.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Friday, September 30, 2005
American prosperity
I have seemingly been bombarded with thoughts in the area of American arrogance which has made me think about the reasons for this mindset. America is one of the most prosperous countries in the world therefore most of its people are very self-righteous and condescending in the spreading of the American culture throughout the world. Americas prosperity has becom one of its greatrest attributes but also one of its worst detriments. Americans have become extremely selfish in their goals and worldviews there hasd been a severe loss of personality in the U.S. This loss of personality stems from that selfish want for more - not just more money but more land, food, friends, fun, sex or anything really, this has assisted in tearing the people of America farther and farther apart from each other and from the world. The "dog eat dog" mentality has given way to a bunch of cruel ideas of how to get ahead by stepping on the little people and basically the ends justifying the means sort of thing. This has also led to a major loss of people being personal due to a fear of personal hurt. Americans are shallow because they're afraid of what others think of them.
(I am planning a follow up post but I have a buttload of hpmework right now)
(I am planning a follow up post but I have a buttload of hpmework right now)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
<---->
The idea of censorship has been in our culture for years, I believe that it is an exceptionally good principle - in most cases. The cases that it is good in are those such as foul language, or nudity and the like - things that would (to the majority) be considered socially unacceptable. There has been a movement in the past several years to censor other things like beliefs or ideas that might cause a change in society - things, which the first amendment of the U.S. constitution was designed to protect. I have been thinking about writing this for several months now and I think that now is the time. The recent California court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional is (to me anyway) an open attack on not just Christianity, but any religion that has a "god" figure as its basis, this is an attack on the first amendment rights of all Americans as well - a serious dejavu for many back to the school prayer battle. I know you're thinking church and state church and state- that is a major load of crap, this government was founded on the basis that there was some sort of deity that was out there floating around, so I know that God is not God to everyone but for those of us who believe in Him can you kindly keep your mouths closed or - better yet go start your own country. Keep your atheistic self out of my life and my country. I'm ticked and pressed for time, so this sounds very calloused and blunt but hey, if I don't make someone think about this then my goal of swaying opinions is lost and I have just wasted my time.
Friday, September 09, 2005
I can't think of a title
The amount of donations here for relief has been amazing, I spent 3 hours this afternoon with 5 other people sorting childrens clothes donations for refugees downtown near USC. I will give an apology to Mark about the tartness of my response to his post earlier (and the self righteous in-your-face response post) but my arms were tired from food moving (okay so it's not a good excuse but it's all I have). I was also feeling overwhelmed by my 19 class hour course load (of which only 17 count for credit). I will say that the idea of prayer should definitely not be abandoned though because (scoff if you like) it works.
A small contribution
With the thousands of people being sent to Columbia SC as refugees from this dang hurricane, I had the opportunity to see a huge show of kindness from people through donations. Yesterday afternoon WMHK radio held a relief drive (food, clothes,...) at (I know, I know Mark) WalMart, in just a few hours they recieved close to a hundred shopping carts heaped up with stuff for the people who are being sent to SC. I was able to donate my time since money is scarce for college students. From 7:00 to 10:30 I helped load and unload a tractor trailor half full of stuff. I thought that it was pretty cool that I could help in some way.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
HHGTTG
Not a bad film over all. I was disappointed in the lack of complaints from marvin about the circuits in his side and the lack of the complete babelfish section of the guide but overall they left it close to normal. The small dog incident also does not occur in the end of the film but actually when he says (paraphrasing) "I seem to be having some problems with my lifestyle" to slartibartfast not when he says something stupid about a towel. I found that the Vogons were close to normal but over represented and the portrayal of marvin surprisingly decent. They did come close to really screwing up Zaphod by making him a mite goofy but not too bad. After I saw the movie saturday night I took my towel and went to play some laser tag, It was awesome (we need one of those places near camp).
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Pavlov's Cat
I find this amusingly true, I found it on a professors office door. (not that that has anything to do with it being true)
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Life is pretty good right
I am in an excellent mood right now and I have no clue why. I turned in a really bad english paper that should have taken 2 days to write instead of 2 hours but I think I can get a b. I talked to a bunch of people the other day which is strange for me because I think most people other than me and people I know A1 suck. oh well I guess this sleep/caffeine/good day/good grade/bad weather good mood will end eventually and I will get back to my usual grouchy, critical, cynical mood. I don't know why the news stations down here even hire weathermen because the only times they're right is when you want them to be wrong. It was almost 80 the other day but now it is cloudy and 40 degrees, kind of miserable (I like it for some reason)
and for those who do, this is a good verse: 1 corinthians 10:13
or Hezekiah 1:72 "Do to others before they do it to you" :)
and for those who do, this is a good verse: 1 corinthians 10:13
or Hezekiah 1:72 "Do to others before they do it to you" :)
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Thursday, January 20, 2005
On NAFTA
Sorry It's long but Oh well
If NAFTA were not in existence then the American economy would be stronger because fewer jobs would be moved to Canada and Mexico.
The economy of the United States has been a little bit unstable for a few years; many people believe this is partially because of rising oil prices and partially because of the war in Iraq. I believe that the largest problem came before George W. Bush was first elected with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement under the leadership of president Clinton. The purpose of this agreement was to get better foreign relations with our immediate neighboring countries and served that purpose very well. The North American Free Trade agreement (often shortened NAFTA) is an agreement between Canada, The United States and Mexico, that allows each country to trade goods without being required to pay the usual import tariffs, which frees the countries businesses to compete freely across borders. NAFTA was signed in 1993 and was the first of several agreements of its nature to be signed. NAFTA has been very beneficial to companies from the United States as well as to the Mexican government. When United States companies saw the signing of NAFTA many saw a free agreement to cheaper labor because in the United States businesses have to adhere to the minimum wage, which is constantly rising, but in Mexico there is very little legislation written about wage limits. In Mexico people are usually willing to work for much less than people in the United States because there is a lower standard of living there. In the United States many people are not grateful for the jobs they have so they do not work as hard as they should, however in Mexico jobs are very few and far between so if a person has one they are willing to work hard to keep it. These factors are some of what led manufacturing companies to move some or all of their production into Mexico. Though it may seem like an expensive venture to move production to another country, in the long run it will end up paying for itself. The hardest thing a company had to undertake was constructing a site suitable for whatever they need it for. Next they hire and train a staff at a lower wage than the workers in the United States get paid, which can be very easy in most cases. One of the next tasks is to lay off the workers in the United States and sell the facilities. In doing this you have effectively lowered the amount of pay you disperse each week by moving the business into another country, which is very profitable because in several cases the production of the company went up as well. One such case of this was the Bosch Corporation’s factory in South Carolina, which was moved to Mexico with the intention of having a higher net income, which they succeeded in doing.
If NAFTA had not been signed then these companies would stay in the United States and would have continued to build the economy. Many people still don’t see what affect this has on our present economy but the effects are obvious. When NAFTA was signed, the companies did not instantly appear in Mexico and start production but they took time to see what the most profitable plan would be. The companies saw that in order to move the production smoothly, they had to reorganize where the headquarters would be for convenience, and to not allow warning signals to leak out to the rest of the employees. Another beneficial thing would be to have some Spanish-speaking supervisors to see that the work was done correctly. Then a reorganization of transportation might also be necessary in order to ship things from Mexico to the United States. These processes might take several years to do before you could even start the construction of the facilities, which could take another year or two. If these projects went smoothly a company could have finished by around 1999. Another problem with NAFTA was that in 1995 Mexico was undergoing some economic problems and used several parts of NAFTA to get money from the United States and Canada who had to pay because of the agreement.
Because of this agreement and others like it, the United States has lost large amounts of money that in the past would have been collected in tariffs. Overall NAFTA was a wonderful gesture but it had a downside in the fact that United States companies would try to use the agreement for personal gain while hurting the economy of their own country. If this agreement were to be dissolved the United States relations with Mexico and Canada would turn very sour quickly and those companies that moved out of the United States would end up charging higher prices for their goods or go out of business. This could also ruin the economy of Mexico because all of those people would either be laid off or receive large pay cuts. Although the signing of NAFTA was not an economical benefit, the problems with getting rid of it would make things a lot worse than the way they are now.
If NAFTA were not in existence then the American economy would be stronger because fewer jobs would be moved to Canada and Mexico.
The economy of the United States has been a little bit unstable for a few years; many people believe this is partially because of rising oil prices and partially because of the war in Iraq. I believe that the largest problem came before George W. Bush was first elected with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement under the leadership of president Clinton. The purpose of this agreement was to get better foreign relations with our immediate neighboring countries and served that purpose very well. The North American Free Trade agreement (often shortened NAFTA) is an agreement between Canada, The United States and Mexico, that allows each country to trade goods without being required to pay the usual import tariffs, which frees the countries businesses to compete freely across borders. NAFTA was signed in 1993 and was the first of several agreements of its nature to be signed. NAFTA has been very beneficial to companies from the United States as well as to the Mexican government. When United States companies saw the signing of NAFTA many saw a free agreement to cheaper labor because in the United States businesses have to adhere to the minimum wage, which is constantly rising, but in Mexico there is very little legislation written about wage limits. In Mexico people are usually willing to work for much less than people in the United States because there is a lower standard of living there. In the United States many people are not grateful for the jobs they have so they do not work as hard as they should, however in Mexico jobs are very few and far between so if a person has one they are willing to work hard to keep it. These factors are some of what led manufacturing companies to move some or all of their production into Mexico. Though it may seem like an expensive venture to move production to another country, in the long run it will end up paying for itself. The hardest thing a company had to undertake was constructing a site suitable for whatever they need it for. Next they hire and train a staff at a lower wage than the workers in the United States get paid, which can be very easy in most cases. One of the next tasks is to lay off the workers in the United States and sell the facilities. In doing this you have effectively lowered the amount of pay you disperse each week by moving the business into another country, which is very profitable because in several cases the production of the company went up as well. One such case of this was the Bosch Corporation’s factory in South Carolina, which was moved to Mexico with the intention of having a higher net income, which they succeeded in doing.
If NAFTA had not been signed then these companies would stay in the United States and would have continued to build the economy. Many people still don’t see what affect this has on our present economy but the effects are obvious. When NAFTA was signed, the companies did not instantly appear in Mexico and start production but they took time to see what the most profitable plan would be. The companies saw that in order to move the production smoothly, they had to reorganize where the headquarters would be for convenience, and to not allow warning signals to leak out to the rest of the employees. Another beneficial thing would be to have some Spanish-speaking supervisors to see that the work was done correctly. Then a reorganization of transportation might also be necessary in order to ship things from Mexico to the United States. These processes might take several years to do before you could even start the construction of the facilities, which could take another year or two. If these projects went smoothly a company could have finished by around 1999. Another problem with NAFTA was that in 1995 Mexico was undergoing some economic problems and used several parts of NAFTA to get money from the United States and Canada who had to pay because of the agreement.
Because of this agreement and others like it, the United States has lost large amounts of money that in the past would have been collected in tariffs. Overall NAFTA was a wonderful gesture but it had a downside in the fact that United States companies would try to use the agreement for personal gain while hurting the economy of their own country. If this agreement were to be dissolved the United States relations with Mexico and Canada would turn very sour quickly and those companies that moved out of the United States would end up charging higher prices for their goods or go out of business. This could also ruin the economy of Mexico because all of those people would either be laid off or receive large pay cuts. Although the signing of NAFTA was not an economical benefit, the problems with getting rid of it would make things a lot worse than the way they are now.
Essays
I have been writing essays for my english classes so I figured, why deprive others from the joy of reading my obnoxious rants.
On Textbooks
If there were a greater number of textbook publishing companies then college book prices would be lower as a result of the competition.
At the beginning of every college semester students turn their wallets and bank accounts inside out because of the outrageous prices of books. In a few cases the reason books are so expensive is because the bookstores are scalping the prices in order to profit, but most textbooks cost between thirty and one hundred and fifty dollars. The root of the problem goes back to the publishers because after talking to several textbook writers I found that the royalties are very minimal. The job of the publishing company is to select the best books out of the masses, edit them and find a printer to make them; if the publisher does a good job they can make large amounts of money. The first way a company can make money is to choose a quality book, without a good book no one will buy it. If the book company decides on a book that will be a necessity, like a math, English or biology book then they are set up to earn more money, because there are fewer companies publishing those types of books. The next thing a company needs to do to make money is to edit the book and find the fastest cheapest printing company. Finally they choose a price that looks just low enough to be sold but much higher than it is truly worth.
The first thing that would lower these costs is if there were a larger number of companies publishing textbooks, because if there were more companies, there would be competition. One of the most basic principals of economics is that if there is competition, prices of the product decrease.
On Textbooks
If there were a greater number of textbook publishing companies then college book prices would be lower as a result of the competition.
At the beginning of every college semester students turn their wallets and bank accounts inside out because of the outrageous prices of books. In a few cases the reason books are so expensive is because the bookstores are scalping the prices in order to profit, but most textbooks cost between thirty and one hundred and fifty dollars. The root of the problem goes back to the publishers because after talking to several textbook writers I found that the royalties are very minimal. The job of the publishing company is to select the best books out of the masses, edit them and find a printer to make them; if the publisher does a good job they can make large amounts of money. The first way a company can make money is to choose a quality book, without a good book no one will buy it. If the book company decides on a book that will be a necessity, like a math, English or biology book then they are set up to earn more money, because there are fewer companies publishing those types of books. The next thing a company needs to do to make money is to edit the book and find the fastest cheapest printing company. Finally they choose a price that looks just low enough to be sold but much higher than it is truly worth.
The first thing that would lower these costs is if there were a larger number of companies publishing textbooks, because if there were more companies, there would be competition. One of the most basic principals of economics is that if there is competition, prices of the product decrease.
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