Final Reflections of the Year

Over the past year, my blog topic has changed drastically over time due to changes in my writing, because of changes in my personal life. As I progressed through the year, my life has changed more in this time than at any other time. This has influenced my writings particularly on my blogs, because with my blog starting with my own personal reflections on world news. I felt that while I was going on with my first blog that my slow change of becoming an angrier person started to show in my blog and that I couldn't really keep writing with a non-biased voice, so I couldn't allow my self to continue with this blog.

I then continued on with my new blog which was more of me giving commentaries on video games, something that I was using in an attempt to push my emotions away from the topic so that I could more easily give an honest description of the game/topic. However, as the year progressed I found less and less joy in making videos, more than likely because I just didn't really care about them knowing that no one was really looking at them, so they became less and less common for me to make. I then started to just post text instead, and so when I did this, I started to become less and less formal, and opposed to me giving real commentaries on games or tutorials like I originally started out doing, I started giving brief and non-informative summaries on my feelings and reviews of recent consoles and games.

After this I started writing on a friend's group blog project in an attempt to get some of my original interest of blogging back, because they had some regular page viewers, and I felt that if I posted there with people actually looking, maybe I could actually accomplish something worth writing like I used to be able to. This wasn't the case though because whenever I started writing something, all that would come to mind was, why does anyone care what I say about this? they aren't reading this blog for me, and they probably don't even want to hear my opinions.

I'm not sure if this was purely insomnia driven paranoia or if it was true, but I can't help but feel that I can't be entirely wrong about it. I feel that my work started at the top and dropped down sharply as my ability to focus and think critically also dropped.

For all those that have ever read one of my posts, or whoever is reading this now I thank you, and I appreciate any time you have given me. One last time, this has been a true experience:
                                                              -Toshi
                                                              -とし

The Final Post

This will be my final post on this blog, i find that there are too few stories for me to cover with the distinction of being at least partially unbiased. I admit, some of my posts have had bias in them which was against my original ideas of what this blog was going to be about, but as I progressed I noticed that more and more of my beliefs were getting involved with my posts which is something that I hadn't wanted to happen. I will be blogging elsewhere, mainly about tutorials for video games, tech., etc., if this interests you at all I recommend that you go to it superstrats.blogspot.com will be the new address, if you've read this blog at all I thank you, I will still keep this blog open and maybe come back to it if I feel an issue needs to be discussed, and so that if anyone comments on this that I can respond to them promptly.

Texas School Boards Do It Again

Ok, I’m not going to go soft on this next topic, to put it bluntly, the not only disturbs, but it outrages me, and almost pushes my tolerance of things of this nature to the limit. As you can see in this article from time (will post url at the end), there was just a resolution passed by the Texas Board of Education that their social studies books (in particular, world history books), teach more about Islam and it’s practices then Christian studies. I find this down right disgusting, first thing, why does it matter? I’m sure that if the students were as conservative as the majority of the board, they would know more about Christianity then they would about Islam, and it should be more important that they learn about other cultures and their practices then ones that they are already familiar with. For two, I think it ridiculous that this type of thing isn’t getting more coverage on the news, I found it on the US section of Time at the very bottom with a one sentence link and no other information about it, and it would have been easy to miss if you were just checking for daily news stories like I usually do. I think that the word about this type of ignorance should be brought to the light, and hopefully put to an end (however it most likely will not) if you agree with me that this type of thing should be going on, type to me in the comments. This has once again been Toshi.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2021277,00.html

Stem Cell Money Cut Off

I was reading in the newspaper the other day, and I saw an article about a judge who deemed that Stem Cell research was illegal because of a law saying no government funded research projects should destroy human embryos. Later in the article it names certain pro-life people who have agreed with this ruling, and who are saying that we should use left-over umbilical cords and after birth materials to study because it wouldn’t “destroy” the embryo’s life, and it would be a better research tool. First off, in my personal opinion, I find nothing wrong with using cells from aborted fetuses to study, since the abortion already occurred, and at least it will now be put to good use instead of just being discarded. (Side note, I’m not going to go into why or why not abortion should be allowed to happen, if I was going to, I would create an entire new post for it as there are multiple viewpoint and a lot of evidence for both sides) Secondly, using embryos that are in the middle of development is a much better research tool, as they have a much higher percentage of cells that haven’t been designated into their future states like umbilical cords and such already have. As you may or may not know, a stem cell is a cell that hasn’t been designated as to if it will be a heart cell, a nerve cell, etc. While there are ways that we now know (thanks to stem cell research) about how to convert cells that have already been designated into their final states, it is a very long and difficult process, that takes a substantial amount of money and time that could instead be used for actual research into the multiple fields of research being done on stem cells.

Going off from my first point in the paragraph above, there is actually an extremely small number of fetuses actually being “destroyed” by the stem cell process, almost 95% of samples they use are from aborted fetuses that would have just been discarded, and the rest are from artificially inseminated embryos that are becoming even less and less common as public outrage about them has increased. This basically denies the claim that stem cell research is bad because of its “destroying” of life, and I think we can all agree that the potentials for stem cell research are so great that we shouldn’t completely ignore it. With the potential to heal diseases such as Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and even the chance that it may be used to treat cancer, I think that it would be reckless, no idiotic, not to look into it at all, especially if there isn’t any actual embryos being specifically created to “kill” am I saying that the stigma about this topic will ever go away? It probably won’t, but it’s not like this is the only topic that this is true about, I can think of several off the top of my head. All I’m saying is, get your facts straight before you try to combat an issue, and don’t rush to conclusions because of one single source telling you something, do your own research about the topic, and don’t be rushed by people to change your viewpoints, or to create yours based on there’s.

-Toshi

GOP's Plan for Future of the Health Care Bill

As we all know, this November brings drastic change to Washington. It's the midterm elections and there are already some astonishing upsets with many incumbants of the GOP losing to members of the Tea Party. This leads some people to assume that come Election Day, the support for Tea party members that are now their party's candidates, will be able to replace the Democrats in their Majority of either the House or the Senate, if not both. If this does happen, members of the GOP have already stated many of theri ideas of what they will do regarding the healthcare reform bill that was passed several months ago.

These ideas involve everything from changing minute details inside the bill, such as how it currently states all employers must offer health insurance or be fined for not offering it, which many Republicans think is going against both the business' consitutional rights and their well-being in the sense that many smaller businesses may not be able to handle the financial stress it may impress upon them in such a weak economy. But, there is the other side, in which some candidates are saying that they want to revoke the bill all together because having a system in which every must have health care, and that businesses must provide it for them is unconstitutional and that by forcing all to have some sort of government provided health care will somehow turn us into either a socialist or even a communist society.

Personally i see nothing wrong with us have a government provided or government supplemental health care system, because in my mind, I think that everyone should be able to get the same amount of care that everyone else can, and that just because some people don't have an employer that offers it, or don't have the money to purchase it themselves that they shouldn't be forced to have to pay the full bill and then not be able to, and then see themselves spiral into a circle of perpetual debt.

Upcoming independence for Southern Sudan? Freedom or a death sentence?

                On a much different note, it has been announced recently that the Southern Region of Sudan may get it independence in a UN vote in January of 2011. Whether this will be a change for the better, or a change for the worse has still yet to be shown, as there are clear and concise arguments for both side. While I’m sure that nearly everyone in Southern Sudan has been waiting there entire life for the freedom of their region because of the oppression on their people by the government in the north, there are clear and obvious repercussions if this were to happen.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1994209,00.html

                While the government may not have acted in the South’s favor, the north is still the economic center of the country, with the south having little to no income what so ever. This for one, would raise poverty in this already extremely poor region, but it could also promote more violence, as people are already going to extremes, (such as having to patrol with their cattle while wielding weapons so thieves won’t come and take their cattle), but if the economic situation didn’t improve, people would go to further lengths to make a living for their families and children, which could cause even more violence in this war and genocide torn country, a factor that could push a new sovereign state of south Sudan to the breaking point. If we don’t wish for this to occur, it will be extremely important that other countries help the region begin to (hopefully) thrive, so that it doesn’t start out as a country that has no legs to stand on, and has pressure from all sides to succeed, which may cause the new state to crumble quickly. 

Bigotry

   Ever since my last post, I have been thinking more and more about the topic of bigotry, and how it is becoming even more blatantly obvious in our daily lives. I began reading several articles on time, newsweek, the associated press, etc. on the New York mosque, and the consequences/protests that have started because of the plan to build it.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2016795,00.html

   If you read this you'll understand what I mean. Some of these are completely unrelated to the New York mosque, but some are directly caused by it. In this article it names several examples of attacks on Islamic groups, everything from burning mosques, to slicing up a cab drivers neck and face because he was Muslim. These anti-Muslim sentiments aren't only being made by anonymous, little known people, there are actually people with (technical) political power. Sarah Palin can be seen here saying "Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate." on her twitter page. http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,2004752,00.html While refudiate isn't technically a legitimate word, Sarah has used it many times before, as a sort of combination of refute and repudiate, and the underlying meaning of this statement is pretty clear if you read it even once. They are saying that Muslims aren't equal and that they're somehow lesser beings/humans for following this "evil" religion ("evil" because it doesn't fit into their "all knowing and always truthful" religion of "peace") 

   As you can tell, I feel quite strongly about this topic. Not that I feel that Muslims are more important then any other group of people, or that Christians are lesser or anything, just that this type of hate is going on for no reason what so ever. I find it infuriating that these people can bad-mouth an entire religion when their only evidence is fear and ignorance. For those that don't know, the Muslim God, (Allah in Arabic) is in fact that same god as that of the Christians, and of the Jews. (that's right the Christian God, is the same as the Islamic Allah and the Jewish Yahweh) And because of this, this type of ignorance and hatred is even more ridiculous.

   Now, not all bigotry comes in the form of religious persecution, there is also anti-black sentiments being thrown around like it's nothing by groups of people who feel that they are some how lesser for being black. I think that we cannot stop until we have stopped all bigotry, and that it should be considered a major social issue until we at least get some type of control over it. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, and I think that we shouldn't let this type of behavior spread, it only makes the rest of us look bad for having to deal with these scoundrels.