CIA and their torturing

In the past few days I was required to read two articles about the CIA and their torturing methods. One article was the CIA and their “Salt Prisons”. The other was about how two guys with little experience, collected a duel salary of over $80mill.

One of the first established salt prisons was an underground prison outside of a military base in Afghanistan. The prison was nicknamed “The Salt Pit". It was basically just like a medieval dungeon. Only the most hardcore terrorists were sent here to be tortured for information. What are some of the forms of torture is what you may ask? Well, these so called world threat terrorists were put in small, dark spaces, cuffed or tied to bars with their hands above their heads and fed very poorly. One way of torture and in my eyes the most screwed up way of torture was that these terrorists were forced to feeding up through the anal cavity, within days after their capture.

The CIA had hired two men to help research and develop new and more effective ways to get information through torture. These men even helped in the operation of the torture methods they helped to create. Anyway, the CIA had given these men a contract of $180mil. But these men had only received $81mill out of that contract. It was stated that these men had never had any previous knowledge of any type of CIA secret information and or any al Qaeda knowledge besides of what was said over national television. The reason they hired these men was because they had be psychology majors and they thought that these men could think of ways to get into the minds of alleged terrorists to gain the maximum amount of information. How do you feel that the CIA thinks it is ok to spend $81mill of tax payers’ money?

(Sydney Morning Herald) This article is all about the blood on many hands of people involved in the CIA torture scandal. It states about the same as the first article I wrote about. But this one states that it was not only the U.S that took use of these torture prisons, but also the U.K., Australia, Canada and many more. So does that mean that all of these countries are working together to take control of the world. Could this be the work of the Illuminati? The world may never know.

University Of North Carolina Cheating Scandal

Do you think that college athletes deserve to get special treatment? Do you think that college athletes deserve to get paid? Do you think they should be able to take phony classes just to get an easy A and have a high grade point average so that they can be eligible to play in their college’s game? Well apparently the University Of North Carolina thinks so. A report given to CNN uncovers an 18 year fraud of academics that had allowed their athletes to take fake classes to stay eligible to play. Over these 18 years, over thirty-one hundred students took these so called fake classes. The worst part about it is that the athletic advisors of these student athletes enrolled them into the classes. The media and other college personal had thought it was odd that these athletes had such perfect grades for so many years. And then started an eight month investigation. This investigation has been harassing the college for over 5 years. (http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/us/unc-report-academic-fraud/)

(http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/22/4256604/fake-class-scheme-aided-unc-players.html) In October of this year is when this scandal took off nationally. the man responsible, well his name is Kenneth Weinstein. Who is Kenneth Weinstein? well he is currently a lawyer but he was earlier the assistant attorney general for the united states. so whatever this man says, should be extremely credible. Ken had combined a team of experts around the UCLA campus area to help him investigate. he and his team searched through over a million e-mails, and records and later reviewed over 150 papers that students had wrote.

(http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2014/10/wainstein-report-might-be-the-conclusion-to-uncs-academic-scandal) Chancellor Carol Folt said in a press conference, "Was this an academic or an athletic issue? Clearly it was an issue in both areas. It was a university issue. They trusted us with their education, and they took these courses and they deserved so much better." for the first time ever, Folt had finally said that these activities had been directly related to the college's staff and athletes. Folt had then later resigned to escape the media and pressure.

So tell me was this a fault of the college academics, or the college athletics. To me this is a fault of everyone at the university. I’m not saying that the college should have to suffer any suspensions and or firing of staff, but the just need to realize that they made a mistake. A mistake that lasted 18 years, and then they need to try and fix what they have allowed to happen

Taking Chance

I have learned many lessons from watching the movie “Taking Chance”. One of which is respect. The definition of respect is “a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good, valuable, important / a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, and should be treated in an appropriate way / a particular way of thinking about or looking at something. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/respect) My parents taught me when I was and still am growing up that I need to respect not only the wants and needs of other peoples but to respect my elders and those who have done something for a positive cause. I believe that Private First Class Chance Phillips deserves most, if not every last ounce of my respect.

This movie really hit home to me, mainly because my eldest sister had enlisted into the National Guard after school. I understand that most nation guard people do not get shipped overseas into the war, but just knowing that she could have been him really gets to me. Also my first cousin (Wade) had enlisted into the army when he had also graduated from high school. He was overseas for about a year, year and a half and at any point in that year, year and a half, could he have been seriously injured or even killed. I do not want to say that I know what some of the families in the United States have been through losing a loved one, because I have not had that happen to me.

 The reason why Private First Class Chance Phelps deserves all of my respect is what he did overseas. The man was not only a guy who joked around and picked up the spirits of the men and women around him, but he was always willing to do everything and anything he could to help. That day when Chance Phelps was killed, he was told to stay back, but he went any way. The platoon he was in was drawing heavy fire and so Chance took it in his own hands to draw the fire away from his platoon. He shot in no general direction, just anywhere and everywhere. His captain had seen that his gun was still going off into the air and he asked Chance if he was shooting at the birds. Then the Captain saw what he had hoped did not happen. Chance had been shot in the head and his finger was still on the trigger.

A lesson that I learned from this is courage, bravery, and once again respect. I think that courage and bravery go together because it takes a lot of courage and bravery to do something like he did. And also respect again. Chance did everything he could to save his friends and country, and I believe that he succeeded. But no one should have to pay that ultimate sacrifice.

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl is Chance’s escort for his journey back home. Mike Strobl went through many airports and at every airport not only Chance, but also Michael were treated with utmost respect. When people found out that Mike Strobl was being an escort for a fallen soldier, they all got really sad. But every person either put their hand over their heart or saluted to the fallen soldier. But the man at the metal detector in the terminal had no respect for a soldier in uniform, and he had treated him with little to no respect, and that should never happen.

Respect is a big part of our country. And that is the way it should always be. Without respect kids of my generation would just be a bunch of hooligans getting in trouble all the time.

My class has recently watched the movie “Bowling for Columbine.” In this movie, a man by the name of Michael Moore portrays his views about this country’s gun control laws, and the tragic shootings that have happened in the United States. I believe that the laws that the government towards the rights to guns are necessary to be able to stay safe, but the government could take action towards making more reasonable, safe and but yet more strict gun rights and laws.

Pewresearch.com says that more than a third of Americans own at least 1 gun. It then states that there is anywhere between 270million-310million guns in the United States. You know what that means? That means that it is so easy to get a gun or multiple guns here in the states! Granted that you must be 18 and have to have a background check, but that still doesn’t make it any harder to get a gun! Out of those 270-320 million guns, not all of them may be automatics, or semi-automatics., but each and every gun is lethal in the wrong hands. And those are the key words, “In the wrong hands”.

Do guns kill people or do people kill people? If you have a gun lying on a table, aimed right at a person, and there is nothing on the table, and there is no one else in the room, there is no possible way that that gun can go off and shoot that person. There must be some type of force to pull back on, or push the trigger, and make the gun go off. I understand where there are accidents where a gun does go off unexpectedly, but it still takes some force on the trigger to activate it.

Earlier in the year, President Obama signed 23 gun safety executive orders. What is an executive order you may ask? An executive order is defined as “a president’s power to issue orders which come from the congress and the U.S. Constitution” says Legal Dictionary.com.

I believe that Obama is trying all he can to make it as safe as possible, but I don’t believe that getting rid of guns completely will work. First of all, if he gets rid of guns, the people that actually want to use guns for bad, will get their hands on a gun someway somehow. Second, if Obama gets rid of all the guns, how are people supposed to hunt wildlife, and or kill livestock to actually have food to eat. I think there are ways to keep things as safe as possible but still be able to own guns and use them responsibly.

The second amendment protects my right as a citizen of the United States, the right to bear arms. I’m not about to give that right up.