Transparent President Wanted

Today, Donald Trump made an extremely interesting announcement. "From the Desk of Donald Trump" he stated that he would donate $5 million dollars to the charity of President Obama's choice in return for a release of his college and passport records.

If you care to watch the 2:44 second video clip, it has been placed below.

I cannot help but think of this video as a campaign plug for Mitt Romney. Donald Trump is an extremely affluent individual (Real-Estate Billionaire and Reality TV Personality) and for him to come out with a video as such, it puts President Obama in a very difficult situation; a situation in which I believe Donald Trump strategically put him in.

During the video, Trump states that if Obama were to release his college and passport records, "[Obama's selected charities] would be very, very happy". This puts President Obama in a tough situation. If he were to decline to release his records:

A) It would appear as though he may be hiding something from the American people, and

B) It would seem as though he disregarded the $5 donation offer to charity.

Either way, if President Obama declines to release his records, Donald Trump and the American people, in my opinion, can and will spin the denial into what I mentioned previously. On the flip side, if Obama actually were to release his records, I believe that criticism of such records are guaranteed to occur.

It is my personal belief that Donald Trump may have (no pun intended) trumped Obama merely weeks before this crucial election. What are your thoughts? What do you think Obama's decision will be? What will be the consequences for such actions? Please let me know with your comments!

Unjust Deception of the Enemy?

While I was reading the New York Times online this morning, an article came up in my feed that really interested me. The topic was about usage of booby-trapped weapons during warfare; particularly within the conflict in Syria.

For more background information and current usages, please read the article here. 

I find this topic extremely intriguing. Within the article, the downsides to the usage of bobby-trapped weapons (such as bullets, mortars and hand grenades) were many, but I truly think this is an effective way of fighting an enemy. 

Case of Bullets (NYTimes.com)

One of the ways of distributing such rigged weapons (bullets especially) are to intentionally push a crate off of the back of a supply truck, hoping that the enemy will see the newly found crate as a mistake made and free ammunition for their own use. This method however, has downsides. Not every bullet can be booby-trapped, because otherwise, the enemy will stop it's usage. Therefore, a select few of the bullets are actually booby-trapped with a TNT like substance, rigged to blow up upon firing. 

Vietnamese Soldiers (NYTimes.com)

The United States actually used exploding ammunition long before this conflict in Syria. In the 1960's, the United States leaked exploding ammunition to the Vietnamese soldiers, causing mass casualties, but effectively destroying weaponry of the Vietnamese in the meantime. 

Personally, I think that this is an incredibly valid form of warfare, although the legality of it is still unknown. If physically killing someone on the battlefield is completely legal in warfare, I take a strong stance of support about this topic of purposely placing explosive ammunition and other forms of weaponry in locations which the enemy will most likely find and use. 

What's your opinion on this topic? Should this form of warfare be allowed? Please let me know!

Fun With Erasure Poems

In class today, we began to introduce Erasure poems. I happen to find this type of poetry as one of my favorite varieties. I love how a completely new meaning can be found from a conversation (or transcript in this case) by pulling words out of context. From my interview transcript, I actually made a few of my own with titles. The part of my transcript I used was basically small talk after the bulk of the interview was conducted. The topics consisted of my family personally, New Trier Soccer as well as a few others. For the sake of space, please select, read more to see my work.

Plummeting to the Record Books

Baumgartner Free-Falling

More than 24 miles above Earth today, Felix Baumgartner took a free fall. This Austrian skydiver broke the sound barrier (690 MPH) by a landslide, traveling around 834 MPH during his descent. For more on the details on his descent, please read this article. 

Part of Baumgartner's Suit

Preparing to Jump

It's truly amazing where technology has taken our world today. A man jumped from over 128,000 feet above the ground and survived. First of all, the dangers of jumping were bountiful. At a height where exposed water vaporizes instantly, any hole in Felix Baumgartner's spacesuit would have killed him instantaneously. His suit was designed with technology which physically locks the parts of the suit together, in order to ensure it's protection of Baumgartner's life. Such technology was not available or even demised in the past, making such incredible feats intangible. We live in a world today of incredible technology, allowing jumps like Baumgartner's to become a reality. It was truly one of the defining moments of this century watching Felix Baumgartner break numerous world records, while millions watched the events streaming online. 

Today, this accomplishment cannot be described as anything but remarkable, but in the future, this may be viewed as just an ordinary occurrence, possibly just the norm of skydiving. What do you think the future will be like? What achievements will be next? Please let me know with your comments below. 

Just Another Day Off?

(Original 10/8/12)

(Revised 10/26/12)

Although Mr. Bolos has already created a blog post like this one, I feel the topic is pertinent enough to create another one similar to it, but with a whole different twist.

To many students across the nation, Columbus Day is just another break in the schedule of their school years. In my mind however, this day does not deserve the recognition that it has received.

Cristoforo Colombo and crew

Christopher Columbus (Americanized from actual name Cristoforo Colombo) stole the discovery of America from a Viking group led by Leif Eriksson. Yes, Cristoforo Colombo was the first official Spaniard to discover the United States we know today, but not even near the first one to do so.

Leif Eriksson discovered America 500 years before Colombo did and hasn't received even close to the amount of recognition Colombo does. Well, Leif Eriksson does have his own day of recognition, but it's hardly known at all and happens to be the day after Columbus Day.

Leif Eriksson

Americans in general tend to favor being regarded as a civil and progressive. The Spanish undoubtedly were civil and progressive at the time of Colombo's discovery of America, whereas the Vikings weren't as much. For these reasons, I think that Columbus Day is widely commemorated. Why not just credit the discovery of America to respected and notable Spaniards instead of the less impressive Vikings? It's truly a highway robbery. 

In contradiction, Americans love being first, the best, however you want to describe it. With this said, it comes as a shock in my mind that Americans continue to regard Columbus as the first person to discover America. With our incredible transfixion on being the first person or people to do something, it would only seem like the American norm to commemorate the first person to discover America -- Leif Eriksson. However, this is not the case and Columbus Day, celebrating the "runner-up",  is continued annually; directly contradicting the strong American value of being first. 

What do you think? Do you believe that Leif Eriksson day should be celebrated to conquer American values instead of Columbus Day? and or, should Americans continue to celebrate Columbus Day for purposes of relation with a progressive culture? Please weigh in with your thoughts.