Senator John McCain defending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

For the first time, I agree with him. When people are about to die, or in danger, they don't ask if the person who is trying to help them is gay or not, all they want is help from someone else. However, the way Senator John McCain answers the question kind of bothers me, because he would not pay attention to other people's opinion, but I think he got the point.

More Discrimination at Work

After 9/11, many people got defensive and discriminated Muslims. It's been 9 years since September 11 attack had occurred in the United States, but people are still discriminating Muslims at work.

At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks. Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, with Muslim workers filing a record 803 such claims in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. That was up 20 percent from the previous year and up nearly 60 percent from 2005, according to federal data.The number of complaints filed since then will not be announced until January, but Islamic groups say they have received a surge in complaints recently, suggesting that 2010’s figure will set another record.

 I know people are still upset about September 11 attack, and they have right to be angry, but they should not express their feelings. Not only government, the people are not letting other birds to fly in, but instead, they are making them to fly away from America. And if people does not stop this soon, I think America will lose many brilliant people, and more and more people will hate America and possibly become terrorist to get revenge on the society.

Reducing Obesity or Reducing Hunger?

Kids are getting fatter and fatter everyday, and trying to reduce the childhood obesity, the senate passed the bill, which deals with that problem, in early August. Some people are happy about it, but some others are not.

At issue is how to pay for additional spending on the school lunch program and other child nutrition projects eagerly sought by the White House. A bill that the House is expected to consider within days would come up with some of the money by cutting future food stamp benefits.

Since the government does not have a lot of money, they have to cut future food stamps benefit, then it creates a massive problem to the people who does not make a lot of money to support their family.However, I do believe the bill, which is strongly suggested by Mrs. Obama, is really necessary for kids, but now is not the right time to do it. We should take care of the people who cannot get food first.

Overpopulation might get worse

The Book, Big, Flat, and Crowded, by Tom Friedman also talked about the earth getting overpopulated, and this article, from NY Times, says, it might get worse.

Today the fertility level in China is around 1.7 children per woman. if China were to relax its one-child policy, then it’s reasonable to expect that fertility would rise. How much? Well, if fertility increased to replacement level of 2.1 (an increase of just under a half a child), which is not unreasonable given desired family size, the country’s annual number of births would increase by nearly 30 percent, or approximately five million additional births. By midcentury, this would add up to nearly a quarter-billion more Chinese than currently projected by the U.N. And given China’s impact on the environment, especially greenhouse gas emissions, this change of policy clearly portends a great deal.

 If Chinese start to give birth to more than one child, the world would get too crowded, so the the fuel from the hell would be gone sooner than we expected. I am not saying they do not have right to give birth to more than one child, but that sounds kind of scary.

The reason why the U.S. shoul use less fossil fuels

The main reason of greenhouse effect, CO2, is keep increasing because the world is getting flatted. And Tom Friedman said the reason why the world is heating up faster than ever is caused by India, and China's economy growth, and in this article, Yu Qingtai said,

When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, we cannot only look at the current situation and ignore history, nor look at overall emissions and ignore per capita figures. China’s accumulated emissions account for only 7% of the global total. Emissions are caused by consumption of energy, and this is the foundation of social development. As a Chinese person, I cannot accept someone from a developed nation having more right than me to consume energy. We are all created equal – this is no empty slogan. The Americans have no right to tell the Chinese that they can only consume 20% as much energy. We do not want to pollute as they did, but we have the right to pursue a better life.

According to this, American just cannot blame other country for using a lot of fossil fuel, because America consumes most of the fossil fuel from all around the world. Telling other countries not to consume use as much fossil fuel as the U.S. is really selfish of them, because they do not have right to interfere other countries business.

Look at this doubters

Again, I am using Portugal's recent success of not using a lot of Fossil Fuels to support Tom Friedman's book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. And this article from NY Times shows how they managed to succeed that.

Five years ago, the leaders of this sun-scorched, wind-swept nation made a bet: To reduce Portugal’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, they embarked on an array of ambitious renewable energy projects — primarily harnessing the country’s wind and hydropower, but also its sunlight and ocean waves. 
Today, Lisbon’s trendy bars, Porto’s factories and the Algarve’s glamorous resorts are powered substantially by clean energy. Nearly 45 percent of the electricity in Portugal’s grid will come from renewable sources this year, up from 17 percent just five years ago.
Land-based wind power — this year deemed “potentially competitive” with fossil fuels by the International Energy Agency in Paris — has expanded sevenfold in that time. And Portugal expects in 2011 to become the first country to inaugurate a national network of charging stations for electric cars.

 Portugal succeed to use less fossil fuels by using the fuels from the heaven, such as solar, wind, and water power. If Portugal was managed to succeed that, then I think America can succeed in using less fossil fuels as well.

Europeans are stepping up

In the Book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Tom FriSolar panels at a plant in Freiberg, Germany. Germany is the world’s largest solar market.edman mentioned about Denmark using Taxation to stop people from using a lot of gift from the hell. And not only Denmark, France are using more and more renewable resources, gift from the heaven, every year, and i thought, "Hey, they are actually a lot of Europe countries that are going for the reusable energy in Europe country."after reading this article from NY Times.

Europe’s evolution toward a heavier reliance on renewable energy is nicely documented in a report released this week by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. The study, “Statistical Aspects of the Energy Economy in 2009,” provides a wealth of interesting detail without a lot of editorializing.
From 2008 to 2009 alone, the use of renewable energy in the European Union increased 8.3 percent. As I’ve reported as part of our continuing series, “Beyond Fossil Fuels,” some countries have made particularly great strides in this arena. Portugal now gets nearly 45 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, up from 17 percent five years ago.
The Eurostat report found that the production of energy from hard coal and natural gas showed an “important decrease” (9.2 and 10.1 percent, respectively). To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union is also aggressively pushing its members to cut back on their use of coal.

European countries are trying really hard to make world cleaner and by using those renewable resources, they proved that they are stepping forward every year, so they get richer every year, but America is not doing anything but keeping walking in the same place.

Do you still think Global Warming is a myth?

Although many scientist proved that global warming is real deal, and earth is getting hotter everyday, there are always some people who does not believe in that because some area is getting colder.

Tibet’s high-altitude meadows disappear as global warming and overgrazing accelerate desertification. “Once the grasslands are destroyed, they rarely come back,” a Chinese official says. [The Guardian]
The Amazon River drops to its lowest level in 40 years, causing transportation chaos. [The Telegraph]

It is too late to restore the things we had already done to this planet, however, it is not too late to stop global warming from getting worse, so people have to realize now that the global warming is a real, and do something about it. From NY Times.

People are training for green jobs right now!

 Tom Friedman said the united states should go with "Code Green", to make the world healthier and that is the way for United States to be in the center of economy of the world again. And this article, from NY Times, proves that the government is trying to go with "Code Green."

The federal government is pouring $500 million into training for green jobs, and the sector devoted to energy efficiency is estimated to grow as much as fourfold in the next decade, to some 1.3 million people, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its March 2010 report was financed by the Energy Department. Green-collar jobs have grabbed the public’s attention, and educational institutions are starting programs to train the managers who will oversee the technologies, manufacturing processes and materials that will be used to conserve energy and help safeguard natural resources.

The government are starting to realize how important is the "code green" is to United States. But unfortunately, not many people wants to take that class because they do not always lead to employment in the current economy.If company realize how important the "code green" is, then someday, they might lead the employment in the United States.

You can change the world, too

Tom Friedman said, world is getting hotter everyday, and one of the main cause of the greenhouse effect is the carbon dioxide (CO2) which is created by human. This article tells us the things we could do to make Earth healthy.

The third consecutive Spare the Air Day was called for Friday as hot, stagnant air remained in the Bay Area.
Both Wednesday and Thursday were also Spare the Air days, after a cool summer had brought only two before this week
With ozone levels in the air expected to approach unhealthy levels, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared a Spare the Air day for the region.
The agency encourages people on Spare the Air days to take bikes, public transit or carpools instead of driving solo, to cook indoors rather than barbecue, and to avoid using aerosol sprays and gas-powered gardening equipment.

 We could prevent releasing a huge amount of Carbon Dioxide by following those suggestions. I think the citizen of the United States cannot just rely on government to solve this environment problem, so we have to act first, show government how much we care about the environment, and then eventually, they will use some money on this situation.