Ebola Hits the United States

     Ebola has officially been diagnosed to a person within the United States. According to who.int, ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. There has been a breakout in Africa recently of the disease and people have feared that it would be brought over to the states. Well, it happened. Just today, the CDC confirmed that a man who was traveling to the states from Liberia had brought the disease with him. The man who was diagnosed with Ebola currently is in Texas in an isolation chamber so the disease can not spread. Doctors say that people who were on his flight to America should not worry about catching the disease, but the people in his family have a chance of catching it. Hospitals have been preparing for Ebola to come here and also lawmakers have been too. There goal is to make sure the disease doesn't spread to hundreds and hundreds of people like it has in Africa. Luckily, this disease can only be caught by liquid interaction among people. So no, being around someone with Ebola will not get you infected. This disease has been in the minds of all Americans recently and could have a major impact if the disease does spread throughout the country. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/30/us-health-ebola-usa-idUSKCN0HP2F720140930

     With the biggest current event being the attacks on Syria, Professor Smith introduced me to an interesting article that speaks about what is going on. Never would I have thought that the actions of our commander and chief would be illegal and go against his constitutional rights. My interest in this topic initially started when I spoke to Professor Smith about how he felt the U.S was reacting to the beheading of our citizens. Prior to speaking with him, I never thought of the U.S as a country that would commit crimes that relate so much to terrorism. Now with us bombing Syria, it just makes it look even worse. So far, the U.S has reported 10 innocent civilian deaths within Syria. We, as a country, are taking the lives of innocent people because we feel as though we can. The biggest problem with this situation is how it was brought about. President Obama used the approval for the attack on Al Qaeda after the attacks on 9/11 to launch this act of war against ISIS. The approval that he used is over a decade old and was only intended to act upon those who were part of the attacks on 9/11. ISIS did not even exist at the time of 9/11.  Therefore, the act of war that President Obama activated is illegal and could lead Congress to impeach him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/opinion/obamas-betrayal-of-the-constitution.html?_r=0

Mann vs. State Case

Today in class, we attempted our first representation of a trial in a case involving a "fee" for a slave-owner harming his own slave. The court included a judge, 4 prosecutors, and 4 defendants. The prosecutors stood strong during their prosecution and had some valid points that easily could've provoked the Judge to stay with the initial fee. But the defendants were very sturdy with the information they provided to the court. Using the Bible and the 3/5 of a person rule dramatically helped them defend Mr. Mann. I felt as though simulating a court case really helped myself learn about the time period and how people would defend something that today we would think was wrong. The main argument was that an African American is only  3/5 of a person, more so just property.

http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ras2777/amgov/slavery2.html

The link above is to an article about the events surrounding the compromise to make a slave 3/5 a person. It speaks of ideas/choices that the North and the South strongly disagreed upon. It also talks about the rules and regulations with slaves and how they should be treated in some situations.

1st Article - ISIS fights back

Please read this portion first, then continue to the second paragraph.    
     The article that I have attached is one that looks at the point of view from Vice President Joe Biden. While reading this article, think about how you would feel about what is going on overseas. How do you feel about this? Is it terrorism? Or is it just a repercussion for our actions?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/03/world/meast/isis-beheading-videos/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

     During the war on terrorism, the United States has been dropping bombs on the Islamic State in Iraq better known as ISIS. This terrorist group is responding in a very vicious and vulgar way. So far, they have sent the United States two videos of American reports being beheaded along with a message for Obama to stop the bombings. The way that America looks at this situation is that they are a terrorist group killing our people. Well, what about how the ISIS people think about our country? Our army has been dropping bombs on their community killings innocent people, including children and their mothers. So the real question is, does the United States deserve this? Is ISIS actually a terrorist group? In my opinion, after listening to what Prof. Smith had to say, is that we caused this all on our own and they are just fighting back. The United States feels as though we can kill innocent people without any repercussions. The ISIS people are trying to send a message to us and if we do not stop, the heads of our people will be no longer. Our country has put us in a situation in which we do not like, but now we know how the families of the innocent people that we kill feel like.