Outside Reading #2

This post is pages 1 to 30. Right from the get go this book makes you dislike the U.S. government. The U.S. government with help from the Pakistani government, seized Begg in February of 2002. According to the United States, they arrested him on assumptions that he had relations with Al-Qaeda and he was recruiting other civilians into the group. Begg was kidnapped from his home in the middle of the night and taken to a strange prison like building. He was interrogated many times and each time he told the truth and said he had no connections to Al- Qaeda. All he wanted to know was how his family was doing. they gave him no answers to this question. So far I like this book because the U.S. is so biased and makes us think that most muslims are bad and terrorists. But this book shows us the other side of the war on terror and how the U.S. makes decisions based on assumptions instead of cold hard facts. I think it is scary how the U.S. will kidnap someone based on their thoughts of that person. they should always be a hundred percent positive on who and what they are accusing.

Outside Reading #1

the book that I chose to read was "Enemy Combatant" by Moazzam Begg. this book shows us the story of the other side on America's war on terror. The book is the story of Moazzam Begg, a muslim who was wrongly accused of being a terrorist. Moazzam was placed in Guantanamo Bay and stayed there for two years. He was realeased in 2005 after suffering through over three hundred interogations and witnessess the killings of two detainees. When he was released, he was given no apologizes or reason for release, they just let him go. As soon as I saw the book it sparked an interest in me. And just reading the inside cover intrigued me more. I look forward to read this book and learn about how the American government accused many wrong people and what is wrong with the United States detention system.

Death Penalty

There are eight stagesd in a death penalty case, and basically seven out of those eight are designed to protect the rights of those accused. The only one that isn't is execution. But the rest help the accused. The accused goes through so many cases to make sure that he is guilty. There is even a trial before the actual trial called a pre trail. This system is sufficient enough to keep people who are truly innocent out of the execution chamber. There may be incidents when the innocent is executed, but their are very few of these, and usually they are just an accident and there is nothing the justice can do about it, like eye witness testimony. Other than those few cases the system runs pretty smoothly. The accused are given several chances to prove their innocence. And let's be honest isn't one chance more than enough.

Methods
Out of all the methods of execution the only one that is humane in my opinion is death by lethal injection. This is humane because in a sense the criminal is falling asleep and not waking up. This is the closest thing to a natural death. Electrecution, gas chamber and firing squad seem to be the most inhumane and cruel and unusual. These are cruel and unusual because the criminal feels pain and sometimes may die slowly and painfully. For instance firing squad isn't an instance death, the first few bullets may not kill you. Same with the gas chamber, they trap you in a room and it takes about thirty seconds before you finally die. the only method that should be used is lethal injection.

State by State
Looking at the map of executions in the US, most of them happen in the South and in Texas. One of the things that surprised was that in the southern states race was not an issue and usually more whites were killed than the other races combined. I thought that in some Southern states like Alabama or Mississippi would have more blacks than whites being executed. But that was me just stereotyping the South. Also barely any women are executed, there are women on death row in the state of California than there have been executions of women in the whole US. It makes wonder if less women are being arrested are if more are being proven innocent. When I looked at methods of execution it was really weird to see that states use other methods of execution besides lethal injection. Since I think that all the other methods are inhumane and immoral, I was dissapointed to see states in the US still using these methods.

Chart
When I first saw the chart I was suprised at the number of states that did not have the death penalty. I thought that the number would be much lower. Another thing that surprised me was how executions have been decreasing over the past decade. In the nineties they were increasing but now it is the opposite of that. In my opinion the main reason for this is that more Americans are against the death penalty now, then ten years ago. So this is probably playing a huge role in the outcome of trials and the number of executions. After reading the chart the Death Penalty Center seems to be nuetral or almost against the subject of the death penalty. They seem to be showing how less and less executions are happing every year and how there are other methods like life without parole.The thing that annoys me the most is that this chart is pretty convincing. It keeps on showing reasons why the death penalty is moral and unjust. One thing that I would add, would be some information to make the site nuetral to both sides.

Abortion

When I first look at each site, I am instantly more drawn to the pro choice website, instead of the pro-life website. The pro-choice website looks professional, it is easy to find things and easy to read. While on the pro-life website, it looks like any random person could make it. It seems like it took the creators ten minutes to make it and the majority of the time was occupied by cutting and pasting. One thing that I did like about the Pro-life website was the statistics. This is one thing that the pro-choice thing did not have. Stats are always good to have because they are true, informative and easy to read. The pro-choice website is more informative and seems to be winning the argument. One of the things that helps it, is that they have a link to show that there is no link between abortion and mental health. While the other site just has a small paragraph about the issue, After seeing these two sites, my thoughts on Pro-life people have gone down. Mainly beacuse of the layout of the site. It seems that they spend more time protesting instead of informing people on the internet.

Parental Notification
If a daughter is 17 or 18 the parent should be notified. They should be notified because if you are 17 you are still in your parents care and most 18 year olds don't move out right away. Parents deserve the right to know if there kid is having an abortion, because it is a family matter at this age. A baby doesn't only affect the daughter, it affects her whole family. At this age a baby is another mouth to feed, someone else to take care of. Parents have a huge say in this, since they will be paying for most of these things. Parents should have a say, but they shouldn't have the power to chose. The choice should alwyas be the one of the person having the abortion..

Father Notification
The father should only be notified if the women wants him to know. And in most cases tthe would woman would have already told the father. Abortion Clinics should not be forced to tell the father against the woman's will. And if the father does know about this he should not have to consent. Again it is the woman's choice and she should not be forced to do something that she doesn't want to do. So the father should only be notified if the woman agrees to it. But he shouldn't have a right to chose. If he wanted to keep the baby, he could talk to his wife about it, but his consent is not necessary.

Illinios Abortion Laws
Well the first thing I disagree with is the ban on abortion after 12 weeks. Illinios should give women the right to abort their baby, if they want to. It is a private matter and they should not have a say in it. Women should not be forced to only have 12 weeks, because there are unknown factors, like money and access to transportation. Another thing that I disagree with is Spousal notification. The spouse should hear this from his wife, but only if she wants to tell him. SHe should not be forced to do this. Also refusal to provide health services is another dislike, because women might need these services for other things. But some good things are a woman's acess to emergency concraception and low income access to abortion. So in conclusion one of the things I would change with the Illinios law would be the 12 week maximum.

Death Penalty

Clifford Boggess should have been executed. He had no societal value as a person, born again Christian or an artist. The case of Clifford Boggess was that people can change and that he was a living example of this statement. The guilty party argued that Boggess was a new man, a better man. I don't believe this, Clifford Boggess was a cold blooded murderer and he would always be one. I do believe that people can change, but that doesn't apply to murderers. In my opinion there has to be something very wrong with you if you kill someone, especially if you admi that you are guilty. Clifford Boggess came from a family of criminals and he continued the tradition. It wasn't that Boggess just killed a random victim, he knew his first victim, Boggess was part of his communtiy and he knew the victim that he chose to kill. If Boggess doesn't feel the effects of the death penalty, he will still be causing stress and continuos pain in the victims family. Without Clifford Boggess the families and othhers would feel relief and be able to move on with their lives. SOme may argue that Clifford is born again Christian and an aspiring artist and that he is a better person. But this is to great of a risk, the government can't go around freeing everyone, that might have changed for the better. Clifford Boggess will always be a bad person and nothing in the world can change that. Death is the only way with this man.

Religion in School

The students at the school should be allowed to express thier religous beliefs. The way the students are expressing themselves is not even that bad. handing out candy canes and pencils, is not disruptive and it won't provoke anyone to take action against that person. Also most of the people who are doing this are probably in middle or elementary school. And in middle school none of the kids care what religion you are, it is just candy to them. in one of the cases the school banned decorations from pencils to red and green napkins. None of these things are disruptive, the school shouldn't be allowed to ban these small things. If the students were carrying signs and yelling, or starting arguments and riots, it would be a different case. These students have the right to freedom of religion and the right to express themselves.

Issues From Last Class

One of the issues raised was what is the boundary line on ones free speech. In the activity we saw pictures of a fraternity party and the students were dsiguised as african americans and Klu Klux Klan members. The issue raised was does the college have the right to punish these students and is this a restriction of their freedom of speech. In my opinion the school has every right to expell or suspend these students. Since most schools have a zero tolerance policy on discrimination, the school has the right to punish these students. I believe that what these students are doing is wrong, disruptive and clearly directed at a group of people. Their actions can provoke people to take action against them and cause a physical disruption. The students should be puni.shed