Fight for freedoms: to choose or not to choose

Just from looking at the sites the prochoice site as information and what their mission is right when you click on the site.  The prolife site brings me to a bunch of links within their site and does not really tell me any information right from the site.  The information on the prochoice site was generally more proven it was backed with facts and scientific information as well as stories from women.  It did a good job at explaining their position while still given information on the other choice, one women on their blog said that she kept her baby and she never regretted the consequences. while the prolife side argues religious reasons and federal reasons (these being laws that they helped get created and into practice) the pro-lifers argue the un safeness of the procedure, this being because of the laws that the pro-lifers put into place that may have made abortion less safe. While the techniques are relatively unsafe, the people that do abortions in the medical field know how to solve those issues or have a hospital or doctor on staff who can in case of an emergence.  While prolife is winning the battle because of all the people who think that it is wrong and all the laws against it that are in or are trying to get in to practice that prevent or make it hard for doctors to do abortions among other things.   The approach that they are taking on the prolife side is the prohibition type approach, it is not illegal to drink alcohol just illegal to own make or sell it, it is not illegal to have an abortion in some states just illegal to give out or maintain or give out information about the abortions.  my opinion on this has not changed because of the site and that is mainly because of my biases leaning towards prochoice, also based on the site the prochoice side has a better site with information easy to read and available while pro life's site has millions of things to click on and is graphically uninteresting.

Ghost of War post 4

"When your traveling in uniform, especially a desert uniform, all you want is anonymity. But the pilot makes a big deal out of it, and people stare..."(161). On Smithson's leave from Iraq he gets on a plane to Albany (home); on the way the pilot bumps him and a fellow soldier up to the two extra first class seats on the plane.  He does not want to be given special treatment, "If it were up to me, I'd sit in the middle of the plane like everyone else."(161).  I found this interesting because after all that time spent working hard for the other soldiers in your unit as well as the rest of the armed forces that he would not want to tell people about the work that he has done.  However the last thing he wanted to do is hear peoples opinions on the war and why it was such a bad idea to get involved in, he just wanted to have peace on the way home. " People think that because I'm in uniform I want to talk about it. truth is I don't"(162).
Everyone is necessary in the military no matter how small the job may seem they carry out their mission so others can successfully carry out theirs.  The person sitting next to him on the plane works in mail he mentions that getting their mail is what keeps them going all day, and his job repairing roads keeps her job going.  The bullets fly and people lose their lives, although he has never lost anyone in his company, the soldier next to him has she talked about how one of them never got to see his new born child, days before he was supposed to go home on leave.  these situations cause stress and other symptoms, Smithson mentions,  "I can leave Iraq, but Iraq can never leave me."(167).  Smithson, during his sisters high school graduation party, goes to the garage to get a beer, at his parents house in New York, he hears a gunshot coming from the direction of the garage and immediately Smithson is on the ground and alert.  He yells at the nearest person asking what that was, a ballon popped in the backyard. Soldiers have to live with this fear even when they are safe at home, a ballon going pop could be mistaken for a gunshot and then people look at him as though he is crazy, like on the plane ride home, no one understands the war unless they've fought in it.

abortion

On this issue I honestly do not see why the women cannot choose to abort the baby because it is their baby and their body. The argument as to whether or not the fetus is a person is not really an argument because person or not the fetus has not developed memory or knows nothing better than the world it is in.  the last abortion clinic movie I believe is not really bias, while the film shows more of the argument from the pro life side, the pro lifers in the film are mostly arguing life because of religion and god will condemn them to hell for killing the fetus.  They harass the people going to get an abortion yet at the same time we get the sense that the pro lifers don't really care if it is medical reason that they are getting an abortion like baby and mother may die during birth; the pro lifers would say that they don't care, the baby should at least have a chance of living even at the expense of the mother.  Also arguing killing baby killers is justifiable however we cannot justify that people arguing that killing is wrong, and then killing people (someone else's child) is the right way to deal with things.  Therefore the film is not bias because it shows both sides of the argument and still leaves room for the person watching to decide what they believe for themselves.

Ghost of war third post

Each part seems to focus on a different subject this part being camaraderie between fellow soldiers as well as the things that the soldiers need to survive.  While they don't necessarily need some of the things that people send to them, they all appreciate it.  in the book an elementary school sends letters and basic wants.  Simthson notes that they can go to any storage facility on base and get a bar of soap and any other toiletries he needs but the soap sent by the kid is appreciated.  He also mentioned in this chapter how soldiers get used to the bombings and the explosions so much that they almost stop hearing all the wooshes and pops of the mortars that fly over their heads.  While he walks to dinner a mortar flies over his head and lands on the base about 600 feet away from him and he just walks to dinner;  his motto being at this point "I cannot control a mortar and stop it from blowing up right on top of me, but I can control when I run" He does not run he continues walking until another mortar hits a lot closer to his position.  Is it wrong for someone to get so used to war and violence and also not care about their own well being enough to walk when they should be running?

Last death penalty post: Ryan Vs death

While I have mixed feelings on the death penalty and capital punishment in general, because whether someone lives or dies depends heavily on the law of the state the crime was committed and on the crime itself.  Due to the flaws and various problems presented with not only the laws, but also the defense, jury selection, and other cases of improper trial procedures and forced confessions, I believe the suspension and commutation of death sentences in Illinois was just.

            In Governor Ryan’s speech, Ryan, after holding conferences with many different parties with different views on the death penalty decided to suspend the death penalty in Illinois.  Governor Ryan does this because, “Thirty-three of the death row inmates were represented at trial by an attorney who had later been disbarred or at some point suspended from practicing law.” This means that the trials of most of the death row inmates were faulty because the defense of the murder was either not adequate or sneaky and bad to the point of losing their law license.  Governor Ryan mentioned that Illinois had an issue with race and the jury in most cases where the defendant was black, the jury was all white and they sentenced the defendant to death.  The jury was not of the defendant’s peers nor was it mixed with even the slightest bit of color. With these mistakes and unfair trials, this being before the death penalty was declared unconstitutional under the eighth amendment; Ryan mentioned that 33 people, all of whom executed, were innocent of their crime.  Ryan then states, “Since we reinstated the death penalty there are also 93 people - 93 - where our criminal justice system imposed the most severe sanction and later rescinded the sentence or even released them from custody because they were innocent.” This meaning that the system of justice was so faulty that before anyone else on death row gets executed something had to be done right away, and the only thing to do or the only right thing to do was to stop the executions before more innocent people find themselves with a needle in the arm, dying for a crime someone else committed, and is still out committing (if the real person who committed the crime was an idiot). In the newspaper article  James McKay, chief of capital legislation task force of Cook County, mentioned, "With the death penalty off the table, there'll be even more trials. There'll be no incentive to plead guilty. I do not believe for one second that taking the death penalty off the table will save the state of Illinois any money whatsoever."  The death penalty should not have been abolished because now it would no longer deter people from committing capital crimes.  McKay mentions money, but it I do not believe that the reasoning behind killing the death penalty was money; the reason  was the many innocent people who were corrupted, or forced by corruption, by our justice system this leading to an unfair and unjust trial that lead to an unjust sentence for the crime they did not do. There would be more cases and trails where the defendant is only facing life in prison if the defendant believes he or she deserves to die for their crimes then they would not have any reason to plea guilt. Also the jury would have no real incentive to verdict guilt either because it is no longer life or death, it is life in prison or out. McKay also claims that based off of statistics in a previous death penalty case, in a decision of 10 to 2, death was sentenced telling him that juries and the people of Illinois want the death sentence and getting rid of it was wrong.  Ryan knew that he was going to be criticized by others about his decision because there are people who defiantly want the death penalty and there are people who deserve it, but what if that 10 to 2 vote to execute someone was on an innocent person.  Governor Ryan was worrying about that scenario when he correctly and justifiably suspended and executed the death penalty.  

Ghost of war post 2

The book brings up issues revolving around the war, but specifically the military not having the supplies needed to get the job done.  Spec. Smithson (the main character and author) is part of and engineering and equipment maintains platoon which has just been deployed in Iraq to build barracks, repair bridges and transport supplies.  the trucks that they had when deployed had little to no armor the base they stayed at was promised tents, but never got any we cannot fight a war with insufficient equipment.  While Smithson and the rest of the platoon is on a mission (building stuff) he talks about the part of the war no one in America ever sees on the news and in movies and TV shows and how its "the half of the truth that sells newspapers... The only people who understand [the war] are stuck here with us."(94).  Before this line he tells us of children who come up to the convoy holding brown water with specs of stuff floating in it, the kid says that it is his drinking water.  Someone in the platoon throws the kid a bottle of his water and tells the kid that this is what water is supposed to look like if it is to be drank.  During the drive into Iraq the soldiers threw packets of food into the street for the kids who lined the side of the road with their families, but nobody sees this part of the war; nobody sees the people who built the barracks so that others can sleep, America does not see the soldiers protecting a small town from slaughter in the middle of the night and no one sees the Iraqi people of that village celebrating and giving food they don't have to the soldiers who protected them.  The media is bias, Smithson mentioned that CNN was against the war, they wouldn't show these kids being helped, they would show these kids being shot at by soldiers (according to the book it is Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to shoot at children who start throwing rocks at the convoys).  They wouldn't show the food packets being tossed out the windows of the convoy to the kids on the road, instead, they would show another truck running over the kid as the kid goes for the food (SOP says the soldiers cannot throw food to the villagers not because soldiers are mean and don't want to help them, but because they've had incidents of children getting hit be cars while running to claim the food; the soldiers do it any way, but they make sure the food gets thrown away from the road).  So how does America get its fair news? Where can we see the big picture of what is going on with out the media only showing the side they support to sway opinion towards them? the media is all about ratings, if the population is against the war they are going to show only the footage that supports, or builds on, the majorities opinion of the war to get more views. They would show the unjustness of it and the unprepared state which the army throws its' soldiers into war rarely do they ever show or speak of the good the soldiers were doing there.

The Death penalty and Dexter

Because of our justice system, Dexter, if caught would be sentenced to death because some of the people he kills are people who were guilty, but proven innocent and therefore is innocent.  also a murder is a murder whether it is to kill others who kill or not.  The death penalty itself is legal in some states because it is executing a person found guilty beyond reasonable doubt the way. Dexter carries out his own death penalty is not legal it is execution people he finds guilty beyond reasonable doubt not the justice system.  What he is doing is just in his eyes but isn't it just to some of the other murders in the show who killed for a reason, they don't expect to get caught as much as Dexter.  The excuse of him not being able to control it is not a mitigating factor and neither is his life growing up torturing animals because he cannot control his impulse.