Bowling for Columbine

            In government class we recently watched a documentary called Bowling for Columbine. This documentary was about the shooting at Columbine High School, and a few other shootings around the country. The documentary was conducted by Michael Moore.

            First off, I thought that Michael Moore did a superb job filming this documentary. He interviewed many people, asking very mind boggling questions. He also did a great job at keeping his audience entertained. He added some fun stuff in to the documentary, something that a CNN or CBS documentary does not have. The only problem I have with Michael Moore in this documentary is that he openly blamed K-Mart for the bullets. It was THEIR fault the bullets were sold, THEIR fault that the boys bought the bullets, and THEIR fault that the boys conducted the shooting with these bullets. I think that that is the only point he went a little too extreme.

            In the documentary Michael Moore pointed something out that I have never thought of before. He suggested the idea that our media causes us to fear. His idea is quite captivating. Just by watching our media or local news, we can obviously see that it is not made with the intention of making you happy. Unless, you live in Canada. Yes, Canada. Michael Moore went to Canada to observe what they watch on the news and get some statistics on the murder rates. Surprisingly enough, the Canadian News didn’t cover all the bad things in life. This could then be tied to their miniscule murder rate. Does our news affect the murder rate in the United States? I think that it has some affect, but not a majority. Putting murder, robbery, and other crime into people’s minds every day of the year is going to have some effect on not only the way that they think, but how they act as well.


With all of these topics floating around, we can't help but bring up our government. Obama has issued several executive orders (link to the website below) that try to restrict our gun owning abilities. He would rather have it that we can't own assault weapons. Is this right? I do not believe so, because he is limiting our freedoms. Obama could tie in that since our population owns so many guns that we do bad things. Kind of like Moore's theory about the media. We are influenced to do bad things.

            The next question I am going to cover is very controversial. Do guns kill people, or do people kill people? Ever since our country was founded, we have had the right to bear arms. This means that a person is allowed to own as many guns as they want. (restrictions may apply to certain kinds) Some political goons think that just because a man owns a 9mm pistol, and maybe an assault rifle or two that he is going to shoot up the local school. The truth of the matter is that most of the gun owners in the United States use their firearms for fun, leisure purposes. Not killing people. There has been a few incidents where someone has killed another person. But do not blame the gun for killing them! It isn’t like the gun got up, walked over to a school, and shot someone. The person did.

            One more topic I am going to cover is how to make schools safer. I believe that teachers should be allowed to keep guns in their class rooms. This would ensure that there would be some sort of defense. Another way is doors that automatically lock, like our school has. The future for America is very cloudy and dark. We can’t really tell what is going to happen. I believe that our government will try to ban/get rid of guns. However, we will see how this plays out in the future.

            In conclusion, we have a very twisted society. People like to blame inanimate objects for the killing of someone. They then like to take that story and publicize it, and make the public afraid of these inanimate objects. This in turn causes political goobers to try to restrict the use of these objects, therefore causing great debate and separation. I believe that this topic is a very good one to talk about, but I do believe that we reserve every right to own guns and use them.


Obama's Gun Laws

ISIS Crisis

                The terrorist organization ISIS is a growing clan of Muslim Extremists. They have been very active lately in the world. They have been be-heading their victims that do not agree with their religion. I did not know of the recruiting situation, however.

                In the news report we watched, we saw that ISIS is recruiting people around the world to join their group. The thought of them using teenage girls to help bring people into their group is not only kind of scary, but very intelligent. With social media being so big right now any teenage guy would do anything for a girl that talks to him. It is a very intelligent idea for ISIS to use these girls to recruit their minions.

                Another thought that captivated my mind was how far west ISIS is coming. I thought that they were only a Middle-Eastern problem. I had no idea that there are “dozens of ISIS members” in the U.S. according to the news people. The kid from Colorado that pleaded guilty to wanting to be a member of ISIS is also a scary thought. The ISIS group is getting an influence on the entire world.

                What should the U.S. do to prevent this terrorist influence from reaching out to our citizens? I really do not know how to solve this problem. The terrorist groups can go anywhere, do anything, and become anyone they want.

Lincoln

            In class last week, we watched the move “Lincoln”. This movie tells about the struggle that Abraham Lincoln and his followers went through to get the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed. This movie hit some things, historically, right on. However, some other things were Hollywood fantasies.

            One of the things that we were told to blog on was the executive power debate. In the movie, Lincoln tries to use executive powers to do what he wants. Was this right? Wrong? In my opinion I think he did what was right. Some people will argue that he was for slavery in the beginning, how could he ever change his mind?! Well the truth of the matter is that people, along with their views and opinions, change in time! So, Lincoln used his executive powers to try to do good for the country.

 Nowadays, our President has not used his executive powers for just “good”. Obama has taken this privilege of executive powers and turned it into his dominion of play time. It seems that he makes rules that support HIS needs/wants and HIS PARTY’S needs/wants. Yes, we will give the man credit that he has done a few things right, but other than that his executive powers have been abused.

Looking at one of the charts, one can clearly see that Obama has not used nearly as many executive orders as some other presidents have. Abraham Lincoln used quite a few for his time, is this wrong? Look at where Lincoln’s executive orders got us. They got us through a civil war! Now take a look at Obama’s executive orders. He has made it perfectly legal for the government to spy on American citizens. He has made more strict background checks on guns. Where is the good in either of these?

By comparing the abuse of executive powers today, and the use of them in the past, I have concluded that Abraham Lincoln did not abuse his executive powers. He did what he thought was right, and it turned out to be a good thing for our country. Comparing the effects of the ones back then, and the effects of the ones now, there is no contest. The executive orders are getting abused under the Obama presidency.