Another Reason to Vote in Favor of Prop 19

In anticipation of the legalization of marijuana, which will be made possible by the passage of Prop 19, some are beginning to purchase internet domain names in case marijuana goes web. In her New York Times Article titled "Marijuana Web Names Snapped Up, in Case of Legalization," Malia Wollan describes that: 

Mr. Faler, a former police officer who once worked the narcotics beat, has registered more than 1,000 marijuana-related Internet domain names, including oddities like icecreammarijuana.com and marijuanapastry.com. And he is not the only one banking on the drug’s online future. He is part of an Internet land grab for marijuana domains by so-called domainers who hope to sell their holdings at a profit, betting that more lenient marijuana laws will eventually drive more people to the Web for their supplies, whether they are seeking seeds, bongs, recipes or drug-laced dog treats.

Among the benefits that can come with the passing of Prop 19, which include diluting the influence of drug cartels and creating an economic boost for the state of California through taxes on marijuana, another benefit is providing a select few the opportunity get rich quick by purchasing internet domain names that marijuana product vendors might buy in the future, if Prop 19 passes. While this does not provide a significant economic boost, it gives some smart Californians the opportunity to get rich quick if Prop 19 and similar laws go into effect. These domain names are cheap now because they are useless due to the fact that Prop 19 still might not pass, but when marijuana laws become much more lenient, these domain names will be very desirable to online vendors, and the people who purchased the domain names will make a fortune.

Dubai, the Newest Adopter of the American Lifestyle

Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates, has recently become a popular tourist location, with its numerous luxurious hotels and newly acquired American lifestyle. Liz Alderman, columnist for the New York Times, in her article entitled "Dubai Faces Environmental Problems After Growth," explains that:

In the last year, tourists have swum amid raw sewage in Dubai’s slice of the Persian Gulf. The purifying of seawater to feed taps and fountains is raising salinity levels. And despite sitting on vast oil reserves, the region is running out of energy sources to support its rich lifestyle. 

Dubai is the perfect example of the lavish American lifestyle spreading to other places, and promoting greater waste, environmental damage and use of crucial, decreasing resources. Everyone wants to live like the Americans, and while this does bode well for immigration, when people transform the lifestyles of their country into American lifestyles, waste tends to vastly increase and the greenhouse effect increases and produces a more widespread and harsher global worming. As people in various places around the globe become wealthier as the world becomes flatter, to use one of Thomas Friedman's terms, more and more people will be able to support and live the lavish, expensive and wasteful lifestyle. While this does provide great support for the world economy, it is an issue today and for the future because the American lifestyle is incredibly wasteful and is one of the things that Friedman pushes us Americans to move away from because of its significant contribution to global warming and other detrimental environmental and economic effects.

Mental Health Break

Number 2 on this countdown is the best dunk of all time.

Whitman Exhibits Less Than Sportsman-like Behavior

Today, on October 26, the competing gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown met face-to-face most likely for the last time until the governor election. The candidates met in Long Beach, California along with current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger for Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference. Carla Marinucci, author of the San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Meg Whitman says she won't abandon negative ads," describes that:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman drew a chorus of boos from the capacity crowd at a major women's gathering here Tuesday after going on the attack against her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown and refusing to withdraw her negative television ads, as Brown said he would, for the rest of the campaign.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/26/MNTH1G2C1A.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz13X2b9iJ3

Even though most of the crowd was comprised of women, the crowd was not happy with Whitman because, while Brown agreed to stop the vicious and destructive advertisements on his end, Whitman did not want to retract these advertisements because she felt that she needed to protect her image with her destructive ads. Jerry Brown's willingness to retract his destructive ads displayed a sense of admirable integrity that all political candidates should possess. Whitman's unwillingness to retract the advertisements displayed insecurity on her part and showed that she really does have something to hide and she wants to make sure that she is on the attack so that others, especially Brown, don't attack her and reveal whatever she is attempting to hide or feels insecure about.

Yet Another Natural Disaster

Indonesia has became one of the most recent victims of a terrible natural disaster. The article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "Indonesia hit by deadly tsunami, volcanic eruption" by Slamet Riyadi explains that:

The eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday killed at least 25 people, forced thousands to flee down its slopes and spewed burning ash and smoke high into the air on the island of Java.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) west of the volcano, rescuers battled rough seas to reach the remote Mentawai islands, where a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami triggered by an earthquake Monday night swept away hundreds of homes, killing at least 113 villagers, said Mujiharto of the Health Ministry's crisis center. Up to 500 others are missing.

Numerous Indonesians are either missing, dead, or injured. Combined from the two disasters, at least 138 people have been killed. Those who were not injured or killed had to evacuate their homes because of the volcanic eruption. It seems as though more and more natural disasters are occurring, and this cannot be a coincidence. I believe that global warming, creating harsher and more extreme weather is a huge contributing factor to the number of natural disasters that is occurring in the world. While movies that depict end-of-the-world scenarios, like 2012 may be somewhat far-fetched, unrealistic and exaggerated, they do have some grounds in science and simply exaggerate the truth of what may happen to us if we continue on our path of global warming.

Sarah Palin, Desperate for Attention

"I'd rather be doing this than be in some stuffy, old, political office." I see Sarah Palin's new show on TLC simply as a cry for attention. As obvious from the quote from the preview, she is a little bitter about the last presidential elections because if she wasn't, then why would she even run for president if she doesn't enjoy the job? I find this new series to be quite ridiculous, in part because political leaders should not be involved with entertainment, other than in short, isolated instances. Political leaders should be 99% professional and 1% entertainers because nobody wants a leader whom they can't take seriously because they are so involved in providing thrills for viewers, rather than creating a solid base for the country or state they govern. In order for one to maintain a professional appearance, one must keep entertainment aside, because otherwise, they are seen merely as people who don't want to be forgotten and are desperate for attention. The bottom line is that entertainment and politics should not be mixed.

Google Will Soon Take Over the World

Google, the company that every American knows who knows what a computer is, was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in January 1996. Google had humble beginnings as merely a search engine, but today, it is a common name and has dipped its fingers into many different fields and is controlled by visionaries who know exactly what they must do in order to keep expanding their company. It has dipped its fingers into the field of cell phones, has several different apps on Apple's famous App Store, and now has many more capabilities than just those of a search engine, among other things. The company continues to defy people's predictions and is expanding endlessly. Claire Cain Miller explains in her article titled "Google’s Income Rises 32%, Topping Forecast" in October 14, 2010 issue of The New York Times that Google is still dipping its fingers into even more fields. 

This month, Google introduced Google TV, which lets people access the Web on their television screens. Though it does not yet include advertising, it could eventually help Google get some of the $50 billion television advertising market, Mr. Gillis said.

Google has already become quite the economic behemoth, and is continuously growing, due to rich ideas such as Google TV and others. At the rate that Google is growing right now, it won't be very long until Google takes over the world, or just finds a creative way to control people around the globe.

Californians and Their Pot

Prop 19 on the California ballot is a controversial proposition. Prop 19, if passed, will legalize private marijuana growth (in an area of no more than 25 square feet) and use for those 21 years of age and older. There are many expected downfalls to Prop 19, yet there are just as many expected benefits, one of the most significant of which being a decrease in the influence of the Mexican drug traffickers and a shrinking of the size of the Mexican drug cartels. This expected benefit apparently does not hold according the the San Francisco Chronicle article of October 12, 2010, entitled "Study: Legalizing pot won't hinder Mexican cartels" by Martha Mendoza.

Californians, who make up one-seventh of the U.S. marijuana market, already are farming marijuana at a much higher rate than in neighboring states and tend to buy domestic rather than smuggled marijuana, the study found.

The study found that the majority of Californians either farm their own marijuana or prefer to buy domestic marijuana, which supposedly shows that Mexican drug cartels have little influence in California. I found this study to be questionable because if, as the study says, most Californians don't buy the products of Mexican drug cartels, then it doesn't make sense why people so strongly believe that these cartels have power and are making such a hullabaloo regarding the influence of Mexican drug cartels. I believe that despite the results of this study, the Mexican drug cartels do have some noticeable power as a result of California operations and passing Prop 19 will make it difficult for drug cartels to remain as influential as they were and are now and I agree with Stephen Downing, former Los Angeles chief of police, who says:

It's ridiculous to claim that ending prohibition won't have a big financial impact on these violent criminals' bottom lines

The Tea Party is Gaining Ground?

America's newly formed political party, the Tea Party, aimed toward establishing laws that are radically conservative in their nature. Despite the fact that it is led by a few less than intellectual people, the Tea Party is gaining ground and support in the country much to the surprise of many. The Tea Party formed because certain high-standing and vocal Republicans were not pleased with the road that the Republican party was currently on and felt that the Republican party was too politically centralized and was therefore in need of more radical policies in order to fulfill the position that, in their opinion, all true Republicans should hold. The New York Times article entitled "Tea Party Set to Win Enough Races for Wide Influence" by Kate Zernike from October 14, 2010 explains how the Tea Party is currently getting enough support from Americans to have a noticable influence on American politics:

33 Tea Party-backed candidates are in tossup races or running in House districts that are solidly or leaning Republican, and 8 stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats. While the numbers are relatively small, they could exert outsize influence, putting pressure on Republican leaders to carry out promises to significantly cut spending and taxes, to repeal health care legislation and financial regulations passed this year, and to phase out Social Security and Medicare in favor of personal savings accounts.

Although the Tea Party is very new, the party and its members are determined on expanding and exterting their political influence. In the House and Senate, according to theis article, the Tea Paarty is beginning to emerge, and even though elections have yet to come, there is a good chance that we might see a number of Tea Party members inflitrating the House and Senate. As the article says, the number of people in the Tea Party who are prospectives for open spots in the House and Senate is not large enough to cause significant change, but these prospectives still consider themselves as Republicans, just more radical Republicans, and might be able to sway the opinions the other, less radical Republicans, and be able to push for the policies that they see fit for a better America. In my opinion, the Tea Party will have its run for the next few years, but will eventually die out, just like all other minority parties because of a lack of supporters and radical policies.

My Political Lean

     The Quiz

The following are your scores. They are based on a gradual range of 0 to 12. For instance, a Conservative/Progressive score of 3 and 0 will both yield a result of social conservative, yet 0 would be an extreme conservative and 3 a moderate conservative

Conservative/Progressive score: 8
You are a social moderate. You think the progressive movement is overall well meaning, but sometimes it goes too far. On issues like abortion and affirmative action, you see the negatives of both extremes on the issue. You probably value religion, but at the same time you think it should still stay separate from the government

Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score: 11
You're a Social Capitalist, you think that, left to its own, Capitalism leaves a lot of people behind. You think that Health Care should be free to all, that the minimum wage should be raised, and that the government should provide jobs to all that are capable of having them. You likely hated the Bush tax cuts, and believe that the middle class has gotten poorer, and the rich have gotten richer over the past several years. The far extreme of social capitalism is socialism.

Libertarian/Authoritarian score: 4
You're a Moderate. You think that we all have certain inalienable rights that must be protected, but that sometimes laws need to be made to protect the majority's lives or quality of lives. You might think that the 2nd amendment isn't necessary anymore because letting everyone a gun is extremely dangerous to the community. You might also be against illegal drug use or public pornography because of its possible harmful effects to society.

Pacifist/Militarist score: 2
You're a Pacifist. You are angered that the United States thinks it should dominate the world through its military force. You think that the only time war is necessary is when we are in direct danger of being attacked. You also believe the US spends way too much of its money on defense, as we can practically cut it in half and still easily defend ourselves, and use that money to fix all our economic problems.

Overall, you would most likely fit into the category of Democrat

Currently, after 69450 submissions, the average Conservative/Progressive score is 5.98, the average Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score is 6.72, the average Libertarian/Authoritarian score is 5.51, and the average Pacifist/Militarist score is 4.58


1. Are our gun control laws too strict? - 28% said yes, 72% said no
2. Should gay marriage be legalized? - 64% said yes, 36% said no
3. Should we consider invading Iran? - 24% said yes, 76% said no
4. Should intelligent design be taught in public schools alongside evolution? - 50% said yes, 50% said no
5. Does the US need a system of universal health care? - 60% said yes, 40% said no
6. Should marijuana be legalized? - 57% said yes, 43% said no
7. Should we repeal [or substantially change] the Patriot Act? - 58% said yes, 42% said no
8. Does the US have a right to stop countries we do not trust from getting weapons? - 51% said yes, 49% said no
9. Should we end (or reduce the use of) the death penalty? - 40% said yes, 60% said no
10. Should there be a higher minimum wage? - 67% said yes, 33% said no
11. Does affirmative action do more harm than good? - 64% said yes, 36% said no
12. Is the United States spending too much money on defense? - 55% said yes, 45% said no
13. Should embryonic stem cell research be funded by the government? - 59% said yes, 41% said no
14. Should flag burning be legal? - 44% said yes, 56% said no
15. Should all people (rich and poor) pay fewer taxes? - 60% said yes, 40% said no
16. Should the US begin withdrawing from Iraq? - 77% said yes, 23% said no
17. Is it sometimes justified to wiretap US citizens without a warrant? - 34% said yes, 66% said no
18. Should the government be involved in reducing the amount of violence/pornography in tv/movies/games/etc? - 25% said yes, 75% said no
19. Should the United States only start a war if there is an imminent threat of being attacked ourselves? - 76% said yes, 24% said no
20. Should stopping illegal immigration be one of our top priorities? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
21. Is outsourcing of American jobs justified if it allows for cheaper goods? - 29% said yes, 71% said no
22. Are all abortions unethical? [with the exception of risk to mother's health] - 38% said yes, 62% said no
23. Should social security be privatized? - 55% said yes, 45% said no
24. Should the United States ever go to war even if the UN is against it? - 52% said yes, 48% said no

Mental Health Break

Humans at the earliest stage of development are always funny: