UK Border Agency to be Split - Comparative Post #3

Home Secretary Theresa May has shown her intentions of splitting the UK Border Agency into two separate agencies, forming a new "Border Force".  This comes following revelations that hundreds of thousands of people were let into Great Britain without properly being checked.

This kind of extreme response by the Home Secretary, show that people in the UK rank immigration as a very important people.  In fact, most people in Great Britain rank immigration as either the top or second most important issue that Great Britain faces.  This may be because the vast majority of the UK remains white, and they haven't had to deal with immigration problems until now.

Elections in Russia - Comparative Post #2

Russia.

You are the first to arrive to the ballot box on voting day, bright and early, the air fresh and cold on your skin.  Curiosity compels you to wonder, are you REALLY the first one there?  Bending forward and peaking through the slit where votes are cast, you see massive mounds of slips already there.  But how can this be?  There is NO ONE else here except you!  Upon closer inspection, they all say "Putin".  What a bummmmmer.  That rascal.

Recently, there was a parliamentary election in Russia.  Exit polls suggested that Putin's party, the "Kremlin" was going to win about 40% of the seats.  But the final results indicated that the Kremlin had won over 50% of the seats.

Because Russia is a parliamentary system, this guarantees that Putin will be elected as president.  Putin has already been president before, and people are tired of him.  His authoritarian regime had been ruthless in the past, squelching nearly all opposition.  However, he knew what he was doing, and helped contribute to an economic boom in the country, fueled by the oil industry.

But recently, the economy has not been so great.  People are angry that Putin has been the central power holder for so long.  They are angry that the elections have been rigged.  They want more freedom and less corruption, and they will do whatever it takes to get those.

Over the past few years, the world has been changing rapidly. An avalanche of democracy and capitalism has swept the world.  Even China has nearly completely switched from a command economy to capitalism.  Egypt's authoritarian regime fell rather peacefully (its leader smartly voluntarily decided to step down), and held fair parliamentary elections.  That very contagious disease called democracy quickly infected Libya, although the infection quickly soared to a raging fever, as the ruler of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, refused to step down and waged war against his own citizens.  And now, right now, democracy's victim is Syria.

And Syria is going to be one hell of a sick patient, at least judging by that video I saw on Youtube of Syrian tanks firing into residential neighborhoods, in, well, Syria.

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to live in a first world country.
Just think, right now, there are over 200,000 people in North Korea, who will live out the rest of their short miserable lives working all day in concentration camps, where Men, women and children are forced to work seven days a week as slaves and eat 'rats, frogs, snakes, insects'.

BUMMER.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039542/North-Korea-Satellite-photos-death-camps-deny-exist.html#ixzz1mEXLXagW

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/russia/index.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16337298

China and Russia double-veto Syrian Resolution

A Western-Arab U.N. Security Council resolution backing an Arab League plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, was double vetoed by Russia and China.  Sources indicate that China was simply tagging along with China.

Russia's veto cam after a series of its proposals for the draft resultion were rejected by U.S. and European officials.  Many of the proposals were written in favor of the Syrian government, which U.S. and European countries find unacceptable.

Russia vetoed the proprosal because it didn't want to cause "rejime change" in Syria,  a close ally and a key Russian weapons export destination.

This double veto has outraged the Western countries, who have condemned it as "A sad day for this council, a sad day for all Syrians, and a sad day for democracy." Moscow and Beijing are now "complicit in the policy of repression" of Damascus.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/04/syria-un-resolution_n_1254441.html

Reflection of Senior Year - Week 6 Question

My senior year has probably been the most stressful year in highschool, but not by much.  I applied early to Virginia Tech and got in.  After I did that, I didn't need to apply to any other colleges, alleviating that common stressful necessity which has befallen many of my friends.

The most stressful it has been all year is actually now.  Robotics season has started, which mean I must dedicate vast amounts of time to the team (4 days a week).  In addition, BC Calculus just keeps getting harder.

One thing I would like to do, is stop procrastinating.  For example, I am currently typing up a blog post that was due a week ago, a criminal act worse that procrastination.  I call it amaturecrastination, because a pro would finish right before it's due, not a week after.

Iranian Embargo - Political Cartoon # 6

GOP Squabbling - Cartoon #5

by Ken Catalino

This political cartoon demonstrates the downgrading effect that the media has been having on the GOP presidential candidates.  All of the recent GOP debates have been squabbles and attacks between the Republican candidates, which shows that they are not unified.  It makes Obama, the Democrat presidential incumbent, look good.

All of the characters have been caricatured.  This is common in political cartoons, as it makes it clear which characters are which.

The author of this cartoon believes that the GOP candidates should stop squabbling and try to get their main messages and platforms across instead.

GOP nomination prediction - #5

The GOP candidate results for the New Hampshire primary are:

Mitt Romney	95,737	39.4%
Ron Paul	55,514	22.8%
Jon Huntsman	40,954	16.8%
Newt Gingrich	22,955	9.4%
Rick Santorum	22,738	9.3%
Rick Perry	1,711	0.7%
Michele Bachmann	344	0.1%
Other	3,242	1.3%

Mitt Romney, of course, has done as expected, with a large margin of victory over all other candidates.  Of all the candidates, Mitt Romney is in the best position to defeat Obama in the general presidential election, due do his moderate views.  This appeals to many swing voters, who tend to sway between Democrat and Republican candidates.  Mitt Romney is also the best prepared in terms of organization and money supply.

Ron Paul is doing suprisingly well considering that he was the last candidate to enter the GOP nomination race.  In contrast to the other Republican candidates, Ron Paul believes in less government for all aspects of society, an ideology termed "Libertarian".

Jon Huntsman is also doing better than expected.  He has moderate views.  I don't much about him.

New Gingrich is doing worse than expected.  At one point he was the most serious rival to Mitt Romney.  However, recently, he has dropped in the polls, and his results in New Hampshire aren't very promising.

Rick Santorum is doing WAYYY better than expected.  The media essentially shunned him because it though that no one wanted to vote for him.  However, after his surprisingly good results in the Iowa causus, he gained momentum and much more media attention.

Rick Perry: maybe in the South.  But no one in the north wants to vote for Rick Perry.

Michele Bachmann dropped out before the election.  I don't know why anyone would vote for her.

Other: it seems that more people voted for Mickey Mouse than Rick Perry.  Interesting.