State of The Union

Like much of his speech, Obama had powerful statements about what needed to be done for economical improvement, but the question is: Can the government and Obama follow through? Obama said that by freezing annual domestic spending for the next five years the country would be able to reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next decade. He mentioned that the freeze will bring cuts to like community action programs, and military spending. There have already been pay cuts for federal employees. These cuts will only account for annual domestic spending which only accounts for a little over 12% of out budget, the $400 billion may sound like a lot of savings, but with projections of a 6.2 trillion dollar deficit accumulating in the next few years the $400 billion sounds like pennies. The president asked millionaires to give up their tax break and mentioned that a permanent tax cut extension is out of the question budget-wise. Obama highly pushed the concept of investing. He said by investing in innovation, education and infrastructure, America will become a better environment for businesses and job creation. In order to help businesses Obama asked congress to lower corporate tax rates for the first time in 25 years. What was really interesting to see was the kind of awkward feeling the crowd had with members of different parties sitting next to each other. At times you could tell people weren't sure weather or not to clap. And there were often strange moments of silence. It was a bit of an uncomfortable feeling but I think it was good for the address to be given with the audience the way it was. In the future I think this will be beneficial to relationships in Washington.

Hidden Bias

The results I received on the IAT test, say that I strongly prefer European Americans when compared to African Americans.  I was surprised by the results because I don't truly think that I'm a prejudiced person. I don't agree with the results but its interesting to see. The reason for these results is because of how I took the test. I don't know if this environment that I'm taking it in, or how the test is given, if it can be considered accurate. I believe that the keyboard and the changing of sides for words really is what affected my test results. To me it wasn't a matter of whether those were hidden biases being exposed, but more of the test not being taken in the most productive way. In think this because it wasn't as if I was always putting negative words on the African American side. I would put words such as "nasty", and "awful" with whites too. That's why I don't believe this test was very accurate.
From reading the introduction page to the website I was able to learn a bit more about what these results mean, and where biases, prejudices, and stereotypes come from. Although many people claim to not be racist, which most aren't, we do have predispositions on certain things. Right now I can say that I don't believe I am a prejudiced person, or stereotypical, but I have made reference in the past that could possibly justify that I am. We learn this at a young age. I don't have a dislike for black people, I just have grown up in an environment where most of my friends are white.  I agree with what the website said in how if our communities were more integrated and had whites and blacks working together, then it would be easier to erase these hidden biases.

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests in January 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against the heavy-handed rule of President Hosni Mubarak. After 18 days of angry protests, Mr. Mubarak resigned and turned over all power to the military on Feb. 11, 2011, ending his 30 years of autocratic rule and bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world. The announcement, delivered during evening prayers in Cairo, set off a frenzy of celebration, with protesters shouting “Egypt is free!” The popular protest, peaceful and resilient despite numerous effort by Mr. Mubarak’s legendary security apparatus to suppress it, ultimately deposed an ally of the United States who has been instrumental in implementing American policy in the region for decades.  The Egyptian military consolidated its control
 over what it has called a democratic transition, dissolving the feeble Parliament, suspending the Constitution and calling for elections in six months, in sweeping steps that echoed protesters’ demands. In the slideshow I viewed, it was interesting to see the many different pictures from the revolution and to see what an actual revolution looked like. I thought it was nice to see the amount of people coming together after the President stepped down to help clean up the streets and it was just a very positive atmosphere. It's truly something amazing. I don't believe that they are going to be able to establish a stable/definite government for atleast 4-5 years.  These types of things don't happen over night. It will be a long process, that hopefully will benefit the U.S. in future years.

Final Response to Food Rules and Michael Pollan

When first assigned this project I never would have thought that I'd be reading a book tackling the issue on America's health problems deriving directly from what we eat. I knew that obesity in America was an issue and I'd seen films such as "Super Size Me", but I wasn't fully aware of the problem and where the issues start until my mom told me about Michael Pollan and his books The Omnivores Dilemma and Food Rules. Americans need to be smart with how they eat and need to demand better quality food from producers. The way we prepare and consume food in America is unhealthy. There is a reason why our neighbors in Europe are so much healthier than us and its because of what they eat, how often they eat, and how they prepare their meals. Be conscious of what you are putting into your body, read labels/understand that much of what we eat can't really be considered "food" if you can't even pronounce the ingredients on the label. We need to eat in moderation and demand that the government crack down on the way our food is produced on farms, and how we take care of the animals which provide us with our every day meals. If you get the chance take a look at Michael Pollan's work and consider all he has to say. I really enjoyed reading the book and found it very informative and interesting. Change isn't far, but the American people need to ignite the flame that pushes the American food revolution.

Food Rules #5

Where's our food grown? What's in it? And why is it so cheap? Pollan says that ever since WW2, Americans have been on this "quest" to make food as cheap and abundant as possible. This has been the direction of all our agricultural policy to drive down the cost of food, which is always popular obviously, politically very popular, especially starting with the Nixon administration when we really went into overdrive in organizing subsidies to drive down the cost of corn and soy which were the building blocks of fast food. In real dollars were spending less on food than anyone in history. Only about 9% of our income goes toward our food. Its succeeded in a sense...we have lots of cheap and abundant food, but its almost succeeded to well. Much of America suffers from obesity, and type two diabetes. And as it turns out cheap food has many hidden costs. So how is it that we get the food so cheap? You have to brutalize the workers, and brutalize the animals, shoot them up with drugs, and feed them inappropriate diets. There are so many hidden costs that we are not aware of and if you think about it its quite gross. The food corporations and farms don't care about your health, they care about the money they get. If you can grow a chicken in 49 days why would you want one you gotta grow in three months? This is just an example of what farmers are doing in order to fulfill the idea that food needs to be made faster, fatter , bigger, cheaper. Look at the tobacco industry, the battle against tobacco is a perfect model of how an industries irresponsible behavior can be changed. Imagine of what it would be if as a national policy the idea would be to have such nutritionally dense food that people actually felt better, had more energy, and weren't sick as much. Its up to the people, we need to start demanding good wholesome food and really take this issue seriously. Only then will we see changes.

Food Rules #4

Rule 4: Avoid food products that contain high fructose corn syrup and foods that have some form of sugar (or sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients.  Here is some food for thought, when eating treats keep in mind to treat them as treats! As funny as that sounds in Pollan's book he covers sweets and how we abuse them in our diets. Labels list ingredients by weight, and any product that has more sugar than other ingredients has too much sugar. Complicating matters is the fact that, thanks to food science, there are now some forty types f sugar used in processed food, including barley malt, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, cane juice, corn sweetener, dextrin dextrose, fructo-oligosaccharides, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, sucrose, invert sugar, polydextrose, sucrose, turbinado sugar and son. Sugar is sugar. And organic sugar is sugar too. Now having sugar isnt bad at all. It's when we abuse it is when it becomes unhealthy.  Treat treats as treats. If you reward yourself with something sweet then it is ok to have. But if your constantly indulging junk food then its just downright unhealthy. When looking at products that have high fructose corn syrup remember this. Its not that HFCS is any worse for you than regular sugar, but because it is, like many other unfamiliar ingredients in packaged foods, a reliable marker for a food product that has been highly processed.  As I'm looking at a box of poptarts, I notice that a top five ingredient is HFCS. Pop Tarts are my favorite and not bad for you, but having HFCS shows that this is a highly processed food that has a lot of things in it in order to keep it fresh for a long time. If we are aware of what we put in our bodies and we eat these foods in moderation then its not a problem, its when we have these all the time it then becomes health issue.

Food Rules #3

One of the cool aspects of this book is that it gives you tips about how to shop and what to look out for while fighting a larger issue. This book is  in fact about the food you consume and why some of it may be very unhealthy for you but cloaked in banners of "health".  This is about gov't or someone compromising our health for the benefit of big business like Monsanto who controls most of the grain in the US. Many people seem to be confused about whether food is an issue in America. It is huge.  Michelle Obama is behind it and it is one her pet campaigns but also many other groups. There are dangerous additives to virtually all the products we consume and that we put on our bodies. From Obesity to the fake additives and dangerous carcinogens that are unknowingly added to our foods and given incompressible names, there is a problem in this country. Many people are ignorant to the fact that obesity is a huge issue in America. Many have the mindset that its not my problem so why should I care. We need to start caring. For those who are interested in politics then you know what the new Health care system entails. Not only do people with weight issues usually have other health problems, but for those who constantly indulge chemicals and disgusting products into their bodies they will eventually have health problems as well. The point im trying to make is eventually when you pay for their health care with your taxes you will care what they (and you eat). If your pay check  takes 50% of your pay so that everyone has healthcare you will care what people eat.   In the end we pay for all of the problems we have.