Laid to Rest

Throughout Britain’s history, they have only ever had one female Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher, recently died and had her funeral yesterday. As the Huffington Post reports, it was the largest funeral that Britain has had in over a decade; roughly 2,300 attended. The funeral was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a site I have been privileged enough to see already, and I believe that there is no better place to hold such an event. The event was held under extreme security in light of the recent Boston Marathon bombing, however, there were no incidents and no arrests. I don’t know that I’d want to cause a ruckus there either, they had over 700 guards in addition the the local police. I must say that, as with many idols of the past, I knew nothing of Thatcher until her death. And even now, the only thing I know is that she was a Prime Minister, and nicknamed “The Iron Lady.” It would be nice to find something about what type of leader she was, but I doubt that any news will do anything to shed unbiased light on the topic. It seems that history only remembers the valiant deeds and the dreadful mistakes, and seems to forget the minor decisions that account for the majority of a political figure’s term of office. I believe that if I were to do a search on some of her political actions, right after her death, I’m likely to only find information that praises her or descriptions of serious blunders while in office. While important, I don’t think that its the big decisions that necessarily define a leader, or a person for that matter. It’s the everyday choices that determine our worth; even though they are the most overlooked, and aren’t likely to make the news. In the case of Thatcher, I suppose we can assume that she made the right choices not only day to day, but in times of need. Why else would they honor her so?

Honor Killings

As always, in my free time, I’m scrolling online, looking for some good news. Got the normal amount of North Korean threat articles. The most intriguing one of the night was about a woman in Jordan who was found dead, with a slice down her stomach and a slit throat as well. The woman was pregnant, and the article said the fetus was around four months old. The mother was somewhere in her twenties. Now when I first saw the title, I had thought that the woman had committed suicide, and had slit her belly only prior to her throat. An exceedingly gruesome thought. However, after reading the extremely brief article I am under the impression that it was a family member or close friend who committed the crime. The article uses the phrase “honor killing” a couple times. To cap off the article, it states that in Jordan murder is punishable by death, while “honor killers” can have a reduced sentence. Now while I suppose I could look this information up, I would like to formulate a hypothesis first. I believe that either by religion or family structure within Jordan, premarital pregnancy is a punishable or a dishonorable crime. The situation may be so dire that the mother to be asks someone to kill her in order to save her from a worser fate. In doing so, the killer receives a more lenient punishment for doing as the victim asks, and by putting her out of future misery. After writing that sentence, I looked up the definition of honor killings. It is much like I thought, in regards to the victim being one who has dishonored the family. However, what I did not guess correctly, is that these women do not ask for this, they are targeted for dishonor ing their family. The fact that the woman does not ask for this makes more sense to me, but the reduced sentences of said killers makes less. Perhaps news of a trial about this incident will shed some light; although I am doubtful this case will make any more headlines.

The Toughest Race in the World

As a track runner myself, and a general athlete, I have a lot of respect for long distance runners. The dedication, determination, discipline, enduracne, and mental strength is inspiring. So when I saw an article labeled “The Toughest Race in the World” I was intruiged. This race is a 220 kilometer run through the Sahara desert and it started last Sunday. It takes seven days to complete, costs over $4,500 to enter, and is the equivelent of 5 and a half marathons spread over six stages. And you thought your week was rough. The article says that they receive contestents from all over the world, of all forms, shapes, sizes, and ablilities. Specifically they said some are 16, others are 76; some are even partially paralyzed. The inspiration for this race came when a Frenchman ran 350 km across the Algerian desert in 12 days, found it to be a life changing event and thought others would like a challenge. He returned to African and found 23 other runners who wanted to participate, and after 28 years the dream still hasn’t died. This year there are 12,000 participants. The runners are given a tent and water every night, but are expected to carry everything else on their back, including food, anti-venom, glowsticks, and sleeping gear. It didn’t make sense to me at first why they would need glowsticks, but later on the article said the longest stretch is 75 km in 34 hours. I’m pretty sure you can’t run for 34 hours straight, but you would definitely have to get some night time hours in. Which, in the Saharan desert, might almost be preferrable. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that it’s not nearly as hot at night. Either way, this race is tough. Sounds like hell to me, but apparantley there are 12,000 people with $4,500 and week to burn.

Vatican on Science

While skimming through the CNN World tab, I came across a couple good articles. Most of them about the impending North Korea apocalypse, which I’ve already blogged on several times and is getting kind of old. But then, I see THIS! An article about the Vatican’s stance on science? Exciting stuff. With a new pope sitting on the throne, all bets are off.  I was pumped to see that the Pope was first trained as a chemical technician. However, as the article went on, it seems like this was false hope. While the Pope did say that he was looking to rebrand the relation between science and religion. Pope Benedict had previously made some ground with the same topic, I believe he found no reason to find evolution implausible. Pope Francis said that the church is going to tread more carefully when concerning science, however some of the traditional barriers remain. Since we’re speaking of barriers, the current pope does not believe in the use of contraceptives (quite ordinary for a Catholic), as it interferes with God’s will of procreation and promotes promiscuity. However, condoms are very effective at stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, despite it being a contraceptive. As the pope is a very influential person, I hope he makes an exception. Additionally, his stance on embryonic research is less than pleasing. Because of the Catholic belief in the right-to-life, any use of embryo’s is sinful. While I can understand this position, I think that the medical advancements that can come from such research far outweigh the consequences. Plus there are several sources of embryonic stem cells that aren’t nearly as immoral: the placenta is rich with them as is the umbillical cord, neither of which would kill the baby by using. The other way is to use unused frozen eggs. While this is still a potential baby, if it’s going to be permanately frozen and not used, I believe it’s more immoral to not use this resource for the betterment of those already living. Overall, I am curious as to what the new pope will bring to the table, but I suspect that not much will change.

North Korea Again

Well, we can’t really go anywhere now without hearing about the North Korean threats. While I do not believe any more official threats have been received from the area, the general population is still worried about their safety. According to this article about the recent North Korean situation, the public opinion regarding North Korea as a safety concern to Americans has risen 13% in less than a month. However, analysts are sticking to their claim that Kim Jong Un is still huffing and puffing smoke. They believe that North Korea is still a couple years away from being able to craft a functioning nuclear weapon. There was also talk, not in the previous article though, that North Korea didn’t even have missiles that could make it to the  US. I believe the official report said that about the furthest they could go is Japan, making us relatively safe here in the good ol’ US of A. Even the South Koreans aren’t very worried. There are still flights to South Korea from the US, and many say that its not any more dangerous to be in SKorea now than it was a couple weeks ago. The British also stated that they have not restricted travel to South Korea. I have to say, if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make his move pretty quickly, we are all going to disregard him just as easily as we started to notice him. And while the government has said they are fully prepared to defend our allies, no speech has come from Obama addressing the public (to my knowledge); I trust my government, if they aren’t worried, neither am I. Better yet, if South Korea’s not worried, then hey, I might not make the trip to Seoul (wasn’t planning it anytime soon) but everything else just seems happy, happy, happy.

Oscar Pistorius Bail Update

Skimming across world news, I found a topic that I thought would be closed for a little while. Oscar Pistorius has had an update on the restrictions of his bail, take a look. The South African judge stated that he saw no reason why Pistorius should be restricted to life within the Republic of South Africa, and gave him the freedom to leave the country. As the video on the article says, this decision makes sense from the standpoint of his job. He’s a track runner; that’s how he makes a living. If he doesn’t run at meet or his events, then he better find a local McDonalds that’s hiring. I would suppose as a world renowned athlete, most of his work would be outside of the country, and therefore he’s got to travel. Plus, Pistorius has already been declared as having no flight risk. The family of the deceased, Reeva Steenkamp, has not offered any comments. I would have to agree with the judges ruling, I doubt a man with two prosthetic legs is going to make it far without being recognized. While he has been granted permission to leave the country for meets, he has not yet restarted his training regimine and is not currently on a training program. Arnold Pistorius (Oscar’s uncle) says its difficicult for Pistorius to even decide to leave the house, and when he does run it is equally difficult for him. These statements make me want to believe that he is innocent of murder, and that it was not an accident. I believe a guilty man wouldn’t have a hard time deciding whether or not to go out on a run, especially if the guilty man is a track star. But in the end, it’s up to the jury to decide, which probably won’t happen until July.

Gay Marriage in the United States

In the news lately, there’s a lot of talk about the Supreme Court hearing a case over gay marriage. More specifically I believe, California’s Proposition 8, which outlaws same-sex marriage. The justices have been hearing arguments for the past couple days, and although a decision is unlikely until about June, here’s an article to catch you up. This article states that four justices are likely to back same-sex marriage, while four are against it, leaving one justice to make the swing vote decision. I would like to discuss the article less, and focus more on my personal views of the issue at hand. From both the article and from everyday life, I have gleaned that those who are against gay marriage defend their position from either a religious standpoint or a procreation standpoint. By this I mean that either they believe their religion tells them that gay marriage is not allowed, or that marriage should be an institution that’s main focus is to create and raise children. I would like to state that I am completely for gay marriage in all 50 states; I was raised in a Christian church since I was born; I’m a heterosexual teenage male (with a beautiful girlfriend too); and I see absolutely no argument for why gay marriage is wrong. I believe that the religious argument is flawed, based on this logic: if man is sinful because he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, then that means that those who have not eaten it’s fruit are free of sin and live how God intended for all to live. Since no other animal has eaten of the fruit, they are all free of sin. Yet despite being pure, 19 species of mammals (exculding humans), 8 species of birds, 16 species of fish, 29 species of reptiles, 4 species of amphibians, 62 species of insect, and 9 other species of other invertabretes all exhibit signs of homosexuality. Here’s the list. However, on the procreation side, the idea is that marriage is an institution that is primarily for rearing children. I believe this to be flawed as well, we grant marriage licenses to couples over the age of 60, even though they sure aren’t making any babies. All in all, I believe that if two people are soulmates in every aspect except in the eyes of the law, who am I to tell them it’s sinful?

North Korean War?

As it is currently prevalent in the news, I decided to do some research on the current tension brewing between North Korea, and pretty much the rest of the world. Take a look at this article, describing US Secretary of State John Kerry’s response to the threats. Also, if you look at the cover picture for the article, it’s a map entitled: Plans for the strategic forces to target mainland US. That’s us. That’s not good. However, the article presents two points, one that’s scary, and one that’s reassuring. Kerry’s said that the US is prepared to defend her allies (in this case, South Korea). Also, we have moved nuclear warships to the Korean area, as well as starting military exercises, moving planes, and flying bombers over South Korea. This is scary. As a 17 year old male, I’m almost eligible for the draft. While I would willingly devote myself to the protection of our nation, a mandatory draft means that we are in a heap of trouble. Thankfully, a draft has not been enforced since Vietnam I believe. On the reassuring side, most of the military and economic advisers believe the threats to be a bluff. The threat itself included voiding the 1953 armistice, reopen ing a nuclear power plant, and general hostilities. Most believe that the leader, Kim Jong Un, is trying to establish a name for himself and to give himself power. I would have to agree, it seems foolish for them to try and attack south korea, simply from the standpoint of alliances. China doesn’t want the region militarized, Japan believes we must proceed with caution, and you know the US is just dying to start another war. Additionally, if the war increases to a global scale, we can probably count on the support of Great Britain and France, as well as other anti-communistic countries. In sum, I believe we are relatively safe, but Kim has proven that he can grab our attention.