Rebuttal: Avoiding Terroism

      Jesse Valdez wrote about using peace to prevent terrorism. He stated,

"Don't ask other nations for peace. Tell them that peace is going to happen, because the world will get pretty screwed up if we don't put aside the past and start over."

 I don't agree with Jesse about this. It seems like he is saying send an army to any Nation that isn't going to be peaceful and tell them they are going to be peaceful. It seems like he is saying that we are going to force other nations to be peaceful. This basically contradicts his idea of being peaceful.
      Jesse also said that,

 ...we need to stop making plans on how to defend ourselves from threats of terrorism and start making peace with other nations and people alike.

 He has  no evidence for this statement. I found a website call Preventing Terrorism that says,

The best way to guard against terrorism is to have no enemies. No enemies equals no terrorism! Invincible Defense Technology (also known as Consciousness-Based Defense or Unified Field-Based Defense) is a scientifically validated means to prevent enemies from arising

Defending ourselves is a far better way of preventing terrorism because we are ready when the terrorists strike and we can also stop terrorists from before they even begin terrorizing. If we try to make peace with other nations and succeed, there will always be more people in the world that think something we do is wrong. These people will try to terrorize our country and using Jesse's idea of stop making defense plans, a lot of people would be dead, and there would be no more peace.
      In my opinion, in the best way to defend ourselves from terrorist attacks is to properly defend ourselves and create a worldwide anti-terrorism society dedicated to stopping terrorists. Trying to make peace with other nations if a very time consuming idea. In order to do this, we would need to spend lots of time and money. In the end there would still be nations that won't want to be peaceful. If we really want to properly defend our nation from terrorist attacks, then strengthening our defense would be the logical step.
        

Celie Quickwrite

      Celie's letters to god tell me that she is very scared and talking to god is the only way to get away from everything. Celie is a very hardworking woman who went through a lot. She is also very strong. I bet that a lot of people would have run away or committed suicide if they went through what she did. Celie is very hard working, she does all that she can to make sure Mr.___ is happy, and thats what she basically does all day. Writing letters to god is what keeps her going. Writing is the only place where she could get away from all the violence, distress, and pain in her life. It calms Celie down and is the only inspiration to keep going on with life.
      Celie writes letters to god because she is expecting some sort of sign, she wants god to help her. She says, "Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (Walker, pg. 1) She thinks that maybe if she keeps writing letters to god, then god might help her with her situation and make it better. I think Celie really believes that god will help her. Throughout the story so far, all the letters are directed toward god.
      Celie is in a very bad situation right now. "First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man." (Walker, pg. 49) I think that Celie might be lesbian. I'm not 100% sure, but there are a lot of things that make me think she is. She mentions a couple of times earlier in the story about how beautiful Shug Avery was. There were even a part where she kept some of Shug Avery's hair and made a quilt out of something Shug gave her. That is kind of creepy. I think that she is finally going to get a sign from god very soon. Her situation with Mr.____ is finally getting better, but if she is tempted because of Shug Avery, then things might get uglier.

The Risks of DNA Manipulation

      Imagine a world in which there were two societies, a society with regular people, and a society where there are geneticly altered superhumans. That's what it would be like if parents were allowed to alter their children's DNA. Parents should not be allowed to change their children DNA because there would be insufficient resources, it is unsafe, goes against some religions, and would split the human race into superhumans and humans.This is a quote from Batul Nafisa Baxamusa.

In the pursuit of producing babies without any genetic defects or hereditary disorders, we may end up producing super humans. Just as the example I mentioned in the beginning of my article, we may have a line of humans that may spell doom to those who are not genetically modified- Baxamusa

      If people were given the choice to genetically alter their DNA to that they could live longer, they would, and all the natural resources on earth would fade away. I think that if people lived for more than 100 years, and kept having babies, there would be more people being born than dieing. This would lead to insufficient living space, food, and people would have to fight for survival.
      Another reason why parents shouldn't be allowed to alter their children's DNA is because of safety. What if something goes wrong. I've learned in Biology that DNA is very complex and even what you eat can change it. What if a scientist messes up can causes a really bad mutation. The baby would probably die or something even worse would happen.
      There would probably be lots of revolts if scientists started letting the public alter their children's DNA. Changing DNA would totally go against the belief that god created man and women. People could just say, "Oh god created your baby boy, tsk tsk tsk, he could never compare to my super baby the top scientist created for me". In the post Science Vs. Religion  it said

Dividing that “baby” in half during an embryo cloning procedure would interfere with God’s intent. 

This would anger lots of religious people. Personally, I wouldn't want my baby to be cloned.
      Altering genes should not be legal. People should just let Darwin's theory of natural selection take place. People wouldn't be the only species population the earth, religious people wouldn't be mad, and there would still be natural resources left.

College and Universities

      No, it doesn't matter if you graduate from a elite college or university, which is why I think (Martha O'Connell's) response was the most persuasive. 

"The key to success in college and beyond has more to do with what students do with their time during college than where they choose to attend." - O'Connell

      I agree with O'Connell, it matters what you do in college rather than what college you attend. If you go to Harvard or Yale and all you do is party all day and night, then it just means your parents had lots of money to waste. The reason I find this response the most persuasive is because she has evidence for what she has to say unlike some of the other responses. I think that the reason most parents want their children to go to these elite colleges and universities is because they have never been to college and/or they don't know about the other colleges and universities because they don't get as much praise. Just because a school is not popular or "the best" doesn't mean its a bad school.
     The response I found the least persuasive was written by James Shulman. He stated that

"...students who get into these schools graduate at higher rates and have clear advantages over peers in getting jobs on Wall Street, earning Ph.D.s in philosophy, or doing medical research." -Shulman

     This is the least persuasive response because he gives no evidence for anything that he says. He could be making up everything that he said. When I read this, I think that he is saying that you're guaranteed a job or going to be more successful in the future if you graduate from an elite college. The thing that bothers me the most is that he is that he's basically saying student that don't graduate from an elite college or university will never be as successful as the students that do. It's totally not true, here is a community college where many famous people have graduated from. This is why I think Martha O'Connell has a more persuasive response.

Response to Billy

I found this quote about global warming on Billy Lau's blog

People need to change their ways and stop polluting the air and to save more electricity. Twenty percent of scientists say that global warming is just another natural occurrence.

      I totally agree with Billy. Pollution is killing the earth and causing harm to the people living on it. I think that the scientists were bribed to say that global warming is just another "natural" occurrence.
      There are tons of ways to stop global warming, but lots of people are just don't know much about it. When I go to Chinatown I always see trash on the ground everywhere. I think people that don't speak English don't know much about whats happening to the Earth, so thats why they litter. Other times people have littered so much that its become a habit. The government should make commercials on foreign TV shows so that people that don't speak English will have an idea of what things like littering do to the world.
      One of the best ways to stop pollution is to recycle. There are tons of things you can recycle that could save money and even earn some money. Every time you drink something from a bottle or can, recycle it. My family save up all the bottles of beer, water, and soda in garbage bags, and every two months we go to a recycling place and sell them for about eighty dollars. Other ways you can be Eco-friendly is to reuse plastic shopping bags as garbage bags. This is a good one, every time you want to go somewhere that is less that two miles, WALK, or BIKE, etc. This could save LOTS of money. Gas is getting more and more expensive and when you walk, there are two things going on that are beneficial to you. One you burn calories and reduce the chance of gaining some fat on your stomach. Two your helping stop global warming by not using a car. If your a boy, it helps your 6-pack, if your a girl it helps with curves. There you go two incentives to be Eco-friendly.

Internet and Wireless in the World

      Internet is growing rapidly. The variety of speeds and the amount of things you can do with the internet are endless. More and more daily tasks are now easier because of wireless technologies. You can start your car from hundreds of miles away, surf the internet without any cords, but is all of this actually safe.

      The iPhone and other smartphones are at the center of all these wireless activities. You can control almost everything with your iPhone, TV, computer, house, and ever car. I was thinking about all the shortcuts the iPhone can perform and realized that if you're a really experienced hacker that can get into government servers, you could hack into peoples iPhone's too. I read some articles about how hackers were downloading apps using other peoples accounts and passwords. If people can do this then they could probably easily steal your car too. 

      There are now lots of TV's that are internet ready. They are TV's with apps similar to the iPhone I think that in a few years internet could replace cable TV. Services like Netflix and Hulu can stream TV episodes and Movies straight to your internet ready TV. Its also cheaper than cable. I use Netflix and Hulu, they are awesome. Maybe in a few years no one will know what cable is.The TV's also allow for people to go on websites like Facebook, and even read  the news. I have a 55" TV and going on Facebook on a 55" TV is pretty cool. 

     There have been some new wireless products that I've seen and read about. I see lots of ads about wireless charging pads, and have even read about a soup that can be cooked on a wireless counter top. I read this on FLUD an app that has cool news. It said a kitchen counter top was being created that when you buy certain products and lay it on the counter, that it would automatically start cooking by itself. The craziest thing I read about was a speaker that was just a box and could control who hears what in a room. Basically you point the speaker at someone and only that person could hear the music that your were playing. There are some crazy new electronics that are being created today.

      Technology is really getting more advanced. I don't even know what to expect anymore.