Rubio – Clinton Matchup

If it comes down to this (hopefully), here’s how it’ll look.  Rubio is certainly the most electable of the GOP candidates to date so it would be a smart choice for Republicans to recognize this and give him the primary. Time will tell.

Map created at 270toWin.com

WWI → WWII

This “flow chart” shows how US policies between the First and Second World Wars were both directly effected by the US involvement in World War One and, at the same time, had directs effects on the US involvement in World War Two.

Sources: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2346/2126206600_5548e93bec_z.jpg

A Playlist for Holden Caufield

GOP Responses to Obama’s SOTU’s

PreScript: Please, don’t let your political bias impact whether you read this.

In this blog, I will discuss and attempt to break apart and compare two Republican Resposnes to Obama’s first State of the Union for each term (2010 and 2014).  Each was given to spur Republican feelings among the people, contrary to the Democratic feelings Obama was hopeful to evoke.  Let’s start with the differences.

So Cool

The Manifestation of Manifest Destiny: The War On Terror

Let me make this clear in the first sentence: I am by no means, in this post, advocating for or against military action of any form in the Middle East.  OK, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about Bush.  I don’t know exactly the Bush Administration’s complete motives for going to war in the Middle East, and I won’t pretend to.  Some say it was oil; others say it was the elimination of terrorism.  Whatever the cause, the United States of America is now ending an almost thirteen year war against belligerent groups of radicals and fundamentalists in attempt to gain stability in the Middle East and to put an end to terrorism everywhere.  Let’s go back a few hundred years.  The United States was in a national state of greed (known as “Manifest Destiny”), in love with the idea that the God-beloved America was manifestly destined by God to be His nation and to spread this idea of a Christian democracy through the entire North American continent, specifically to the west coast.  Without all the religion (which, by the way, played a HUGE role), we Americans are better than everyone else and our government system was better than all others, and, by this token, we will (and should) thrive.  This is a very conceited and nerve-racking thought, and yet, as I sit at my computer on the north side of Chicago, IL, it makes me feel proud and a little voice in my head says, “Go America!”  I can’t say that I blame those 19^th century Americans for feeling this way.  I believe that there is some sort of identity that everyone can find in their country, and that being a bit nationalistic every once and awhile never hurt anybody . . . except Iraq and just about everyone around there.

CHF: BEAUTIFUL SOULS: EDWARD SNOWDEN??

Eyal Press’ book, Beautiful Souls, shows that, when life faces people with especially difficult challenges and moral conflicts, there are those who will stand against whatever it might be (i.e. one’s personal gains, money, the law, one’s society, social standing, etc.) to do what they believe is right. He tells stories of people who decide to face the consequences.

CHF: Bambi’s Jewish Roots

This lecturer gives a clear understanding to (as the title suggests) the Jewish roots of the book, and Disney film, Bambi.

Felix Salten truly believed that forest animals had cognitional abilities, and he had a strong relationship with these animals by hunting them.  Contrary to “other ‘nature lovers,’” Salten went out into the woods in rain and snow, not just the nice sunny days.  More than this, however, the lecturer spoke about Felix Salten’s Jewish Cultural Zionist views as an Austrian Jew.  Felix Salten was the author of Bambi: A Life In the Woods, and wrote it as an allegory to the life of a Jew in Austria at that time.  He also gives weight to the antisemitism which took root in the U.S. (which never finds itself free from racism in any respect), and how this affected the film industry’s changing a Jewish allegory into a strictly anti-hunting film.

Seemed Worth Sharing..

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.
~Albert Einstein

In Response to . . . (Thanks to “justcallmeshaz”)

Religion in the U.S. (Before the U.S.) (And Now.)

Not receiving much talk but for criticisms, religion plays an extremely important role in the founding of America, and continues to play a predominate role in “American Culture.” From the founding of the first school for higher level education, to the very reason for our work ethic that stands out to those from other countries, to the unalienable rights that we as Americans share, religion at the country’s founding is the cause. In fact, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, and others would never have been founded in the absence of religion and near-omnipresent religious controversy.