Obama presses Chinese leader on currency

Obama's new policy.
Sorry I couldn't get the embed code so i put it up through this link.

Gifts Helping the Economy

Not only does the government work on our national debt but on occasion so do individual contributors.

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — In a fifth-floor cubicle in a federal office building here is a wire-frame basket labeled “Gifts.”
Every few days, an envelope arrives, and a Treasury Department employee opens it. Inside, usually, is a check, often with a letter explaining why the sender wants to do his or her part to help reduce the federal debt of the United States.
A very small part, to be sure.
Last year, the Bureau of the Public Debt recorded $3.1 million in gifts, more than has been usual since the government began accepting such donations in 1961. At that rate, it would take millions of years to retire the $13.4 trillion the country owes its creditors, foreign and domestic.

If all the citizens of the united states were able to do this the national debt would be gone in  a matter of months instead of millions of years.

Diabetes gets drugged

FDA decided that the diabetes drug Avandia causes heart problems and they will stop shipping the drug.

WASHINGTON — In a highly unusual coordinated announcement, drug regulators in Europe and the United States said Thursday that Avandia, the controversial diabetes medicine, would no longer be widely available.

The drug’s sales will be suspended entirely in Europe, while patients in the United States will be allowed access to the medicine only if they and their doctors attest that they have tried every other diabetes medicine and that patients have been made aware of the drug’s substantial risks to the heart. Patients now taking Avandia may continue to do so.

I have family members on both sides that are diagnosed with diabetes so when I heard of this diabetes medicine it hit close to home.

China's Clean Energy

In relation to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded, this seems like an interesting approach to his idea of "Code Green".

The filing, by the 850,000-member United Steelworkers union, accuses China of violating the World Trade Organization’s free-trade rules by subsidizing exports of clean energy equipment like solar panels and wind turbines. Through its policies, fair or otherwise, China has helped turn its makers of that equipment into the global leaders, while manufacturers in the United States and Europe have struggled financially, cut jobs and in some cases moved operations to China.

I believe that even though China is in violation of the World Trade Organization's rules, this would be a great thing to capitalize on, especially if it can be used to help the energy problems of the world. 

Pastor's Phoney Plans, Falls Flat

In relation to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded; this seems like an interesting approach to his idea of the world becoming flat.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The pastor planning a burning of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks said Thursday he would not go forward with the event, adding he would meet with the imam planning to build an Islamic center near ground zero.But a deal that the pastor, Terry Jones, said that he had reached to move the Islamic center far from ground zero seems to be more vision than reality. The imam planning the center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, said in a statement that he had not spoken to Mr. Jones or Muhammad Musri, the Orlando Imam who has been acting as a mediator between New York and Gainesville.

I believe that this proves the world is indeed  becoming more and more flat due to the fact that the very people whom this pastor was trying to get rid of, were able to build a mosque near ground zero.

In relation to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded, This seems like an interesting approach to his version of "Code Green":

Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists’ biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative.

I believe that the alternate options that were presented, such as wind mill power, would be a more acceptable way of obtaining power instead of mountain top blowing. Not to mention that it would be the greener way of getting power.

Flat as the Rocky Mountains

In relation to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded, this seems to be an interesting way of disproving his theory that the twenty-first century world has become flat or equal.

Caroline Hunt, a resident of Manhattan, said she felt locating a new Islamic center close to ground zero would be “insensitive.”

Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who say they favor the project, according to a New York Times poll. The poll indicates that support for the 13-story complex, which organizers said would promote moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, is tepid in its home town.
Nearly a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks ignited a wave of anxiety about Muslims, many in the country’s biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city still have an uneasy relationship with Islam. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims. Thirty-three percent said that compared with other American citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists. And nearly 60 percent said people they now had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

 I believe that this shows how little people forget when it comes to the safety of their friends and family. Or that people are so ignorant as to make false connections between the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and every Muslim person in the world.

A HOT Topic

In relation to Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, & Crowded, this seem to be a direct interpritation of his theory that world is becoming hot!

Global warming has become perhaps the most complicated issue facing world leaders. On the one hand, warnings from the scientific community are becoming louder, as an increasing body of science points to rising dangers from the ongoing buildup of human-related greenhouse gases — produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and forests. On the other, the technological, economic and political issues that have to be resolved before a concerted worldwide effort to reduce emissions can begin have gotten no simpler, particularly in the face of a global economic slowdown.

Although we do need those political issues dealt with, I believe that we should focus on the environment first. I believe this because if we lose the environment we won't have any whereto have political problems, unless we discover a way to live under water, or on other planets.