Make love, not divorce

 It's spring, the flowers are coming into bloom and men and women of every age are reserving the day. The day that they become one in holy matrimony. But most of these people are in such a rush they forget to grow up. "Marriage are more likely to last longer when people marry at an older age, have higher education and earn more," the article Divorce rates increase if you're under twenty-five. There is no race to get married and if you find yourself in a situation where it seems like a must-have, you need to check your motives.

 Religion aside, you can be with someone and have sexual relations without making it such a shameful act. People often use this as a motive for marriage, as a way to satisfy the needs or urges but it makes so sense if this is a motive for marriage. If you plan to get married, the motive is important so rethink your motive and I suggest waiting. 

 Females and males have different ages in which the are considered mature or "all put together." Females being 18 and males being 21 but that does not mean you are ready for the responsible of marriage. "Sixty percent of marriages for couples between the ages 20 and 25 ends in divorce," that's more than half and should be taken into account.

Time is essential when it comes to your intended spouse. People are dynamic, constantly changing. The person you thought you knew inside and out could change in a manner of minutes. This is why when it comes to marriage, we should take our time with the person or not get married at all. 

 My father was married twice and both ended because of the horrible reason behind it. The first marriage was when he was 21 on the account of well, me. Immediately after they took the alter. He did not know this woman and it was merely a case of too much alcohol and no protection. Because of this, he's where he is today. Barely any college on account of his kids and TIME. Marriage is a death to youth, freedom, and ability to do as one pleases.  Marriage makes you one with your spouse, the time for childish dreams and freedom are over. His second marriage started and ended within months. This one was not a shotgun wedding, though, it was a case of "love", which is maybe sweet but its also stupid. 

 I do not believe in love and I think marriage is merely a scam to use on your tax returns but in the end, marriage is a choice where we live so choose wisely.

TOMs, are they for the people?

   In 2006, Blake Mycoskie the founded the idea of one for one. One for one being the TOMs organization where if you buy a pair of shoes, a pair will be donated to a person in need. This is why the price of shoes range from fifty dollars or more because the price without One for one would be half that. My issue with this is that the hookworm epidemic is what the whole One for one organization stands on but the money the collect from selling the shoe could ultimately eliminate the issue altogether.

   Over sixty million pairs of TOMs have been given to people in need only beginning to touch the issue of hookworm. There are over seven hundred million people around the world dealing with this issue, a significant amount compared to the number of shoes given to help this issue. That leaves six hundred and forty million people still at risk of attaining hookworm. 

  The only gain in this whole situation is for TOMs and their income. The manufacturing price for these shoes is seven dollars and fifty cents for a pair being made out of canvas paper for the structure and design and organic cotton for the base. The quality is woefully inadequate though the outside looks decently fashionable; not lasting more than a couple months and leaving their mission uncompleted after the first few months.

  The cost for roads in third world countries is three hundred million that's a little more than half of the people who are affected by hookworm being again, seven hundred million people. Since TOMs only brings shoes to select a number of Christian schools, let us say that the school has a number of 1000 kids and each kid gets is promised a pair of TOMs that's a total of twenty-five thousand dollars in shoes being that each pair alone would be at least twenty-five dollars. With the money they used to supply shoes at least the roads in that area could be fixed and maintained and get closer to solving the problem. Making these roads will make a bigger difference than a shoe made out of very destructive material. And if each person donated a dollar at most and least two countries can have the ability to build lasting roads and control the hookworm epidemic; the whole reason behind One for one. 


  I believe that the One for one organization is more a scam for a good name rather than an ability to help those in need. Despite all the children that have been given shoes it does not make a difference if they do not have a lasting solution. Seeing that they were or those who purchased two pairs of TOMs for one donated over sixty million pairs for about twenty-five dollars per shoe and the manufacturing price being seven dollars and fifty cents, the TOMs organization have made $1, 050,000,000 altogether. With this in mind TOMs if a public stock would be a great investment even if their morals are not in the right place. 

From a nonpolitical standpoint looking in

 The fight for power had begun, Donald Trump versus Hilary Clinton. The fight was brutal and prolonged. But HIlary fell ill and Trump found himself on top.
 Families all around sat in antici.....pation for the results of the election. Hilary supporters, braiding each others armpit hair and Trump supporters, sharpening their pitchforks and marrying their second cousins; when it happened. 
    "Our 45th president-elect everyone, Mr. Donald J. Trump."

All his supporters leaped in joy, whistling, "yee, doggy" and chewing tobacco. Hilary supporters sat in a circle, taking bong hits for Jesus in an overcrowded room full of puppies and liberals. 

 "The world is ending," they cried in disbelief.

   Even before Trump came into power, the riots were still present, these riots forshadowing his reign. Absolute chaos was ahead, heartbreak spreading. This free country would seem behind bars with Trump holding the keys to freedom.

  Meanwhile, in the white house, there sat Barrack Obama and Joe Biden scheming against the new president-elect.

  "Let's change the WiFi password to ILUVMEXICANS, he'll never guess it," Obama said slapping his knee.

"Now, now Barrack, be civil, let's hack his twitter and tweet about his tanning addiction," Biden interjects.

  "Yes, that's genius! What would I do without you, buddy?" Obama says ruffling Biden's hair. 

  After Kanye wests meltdown reporters were lining up for an inerview and one was lucky enough to.

"So you voted for Trump?" a reporter asks.

 "Yeah man, he has my full support. Now, I ain't no woman beater he knows how to keep them in line, hah pow, pow," Kanye said with extreme enthusiasm.

-meltdown video

"How do you explain this?" the reporter asks.

"Fuck, man get out of my face," Kanye exists.

Actions taken against the Latino community are absolutely heartbreaking. Trump has terorized the emotions of so many peaceful members of the United States.

"Sir, what are you doing right now?" a reporter asks.

"Estoy construyendo una pared para bloquear a los haters," he explained with sass.

Hilary shows up and pats him on the back in compassion.

"This is CNN reporting live and I ask you, rethink your vote, thank you and goodnight," the reporter ends.

"And I'd like to announce our 45th president of the united states....(reads card) Hilary Clinton," the host says.

*all is quiet 

Whispers: "It's the other one."

"I apologize for the mix-up. Congratulations, Donald J. Trump; our 45th president of the United states!" host corrects himself.

*Green screen flashes war scenes and pictures of Hitler

"I apologize again, we're having minor difficulties, on to this commercial break," said with nervous laughing.

* rainbows and American flag in background

"We the people x 24 times and this is my speech. Let's make America great again," Trump says giving a Hitler salute and winks. 

Oh debt... nah not for me but you can have it...

  Between forty-four million students who have borrowed to pay for college, we have accumulated nearly 1.3 trillion dollars in student loan debt. That's an average of $37,172 for four years, suggests studentloanhero.org. And this is not including extra costs when it comes to the type of college you attend and living expenses. The average tuition for a 4-year college being $18,000 a year. This is a hell of a lot more than a high school graduate with no financial support other than if they choose to add on the responsibility of a part-time minimum wage job. In a recent poll, over fifteen percent of parents cannot or will not contribute to their child's education, financially leaving over twenty-seven percent of students to cover most or all of the cost of college without proper means of income.

   All of high school, it has always been a major push to get excellent grades for the sake of college but never until the middle of this year did I realize the cost was so high and that my parent could not financially help me. This left me with a lot of choices for my future. During the course of the year, I had applied for over fifty widely different colleges with my intended major in mind, thinking my dad had saved up or started a fund for my college and that I would be able to work my way through the rest of the difference. But by November 30, the final day to turn in applications, I was given a huge wake-up call, I can not afford college on my own without taking out loans which my family is totally against (thanks to Dave Ramsey who I'm coming to the conclusion, my dad thinks is god. I despise this Ramsey guy tbh), so that would be out of the question. So college options were limited, it was between Grand canyon University, Yuba college, or no college.

   Grand Canyon University is a for-profit Christian college with a tuition lower than a state school and has excellent programs for the arts which are my intended major. I had the mindset that "hey, its an out of state school and my dad is not going to be able to help anyway, why stay here when my new "dream school" is calling me?" But the cost still being higher than I can afford even with a part time job, I had to decline this choice.

    My second choice honestly was no college because really I was focused on working towards my major but you don't actually start on your major until you get your associates so hoping for a name college would be pointless considering the cost and no college would just be fucking stupid in my opinion as of now. 

  So my final choice is Yuba College, by going here to get my associates I save around $50,000 compared to a well-known school I would have chosen to attend. Yuba college also offers a lot of the same classes that other colleges has as well but with little or no cost with the help of FAFSA and other financial aid services. This choice gives me time to save up for a state school where I can focus on my major. Economics is about the choices we make and how they affect us, in this situation I was able to make good choices with lasting effects that I would regret. 

Globalization is the gateway drug to poor people +++++

Having established globalization; our world is filled with its pro's and con's mostly concerning the lower and middle class. "Globalization is simply about the free movement of goods, capital, people, and ideas around the world and across borders", the article "What Globalization isn't" by Michael Tanner explains. My focus for this blog is how this effects the price of goods in the United States, human response, and job decline. 

The average income for those in poverty around the world was $1.90 per day, this was 37 percent of the world's population; a pretty big chunk. But due to globalization that percentage shrunk to 9.6 percent, the majority of these jobs not in the United States.

Globalization helped lower prices on many items in America because the manufacturer is and was foreign but do not get me wrong the consumer rates rose through the roof increasing by 29 percent. This was of course due to the now unemployed and not wealthy portion of America. Although the prices of goods may be more agreeable is it really worth all the jobs that were lost. According to Mattew Klein in his article, "How many US manufacturing jobs were lost to globalization," the total lost jobs was over 2 million; over 2 million well-paying "American jobs". These newly unemployed people now having to depend on welfare and pretty much redirect themselves completely, career wise. This ties into our 18 trillion dollar budget in which very little of it pays for those on welfare but still gives our well-earned money to those whom "can make it themselves" but don't fault them for they know not what the system has done. Globalization has created a cycle of unemployment, foreign manufacturers, cheaper goods, and lazier people.                

A friend of the family suffered the effects of globalization. He had devoted all his life savings to a trade school and learned a unique skill of programming and CGI; one that paid excellently, he even got to work on the hit movie Tron. Due to how well he and others with this specific skill were paid; the job was shipped overseas where profits would rise but these American jobs would be lost. So he is now (like many others in his situation) restarting by going back to school and forcing himself into something that is not so much his passion but a job that only America can provide.

Globalization is a blessing only because it helps bring our countries together; forming a good relationship and communication but tends to lead to trouble when it comes to the lower and middle-class people of America. The only profit made is with the wealthy making more by paying less for services by people who do not necessarily have the background. "Buy low, sell high", my grandpa always says and that's exactly what globalization does, making money at the cost of American jobs.

God translates himself

Religions were formed throughout history; in various times and in a variety of places all spread out in the world. My learning through research and discussion has lead me to believe that although these religions seem vastly different in time and place, they were not exposed to each other in time of creation but they all have similarities in beliefs, community, rituals, ethics, and relics. In class, this topic was brought up through the verse Luke 23:34, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing". In the conversation, the topic of truth arose; how all people are exposed to the truth because god gives them this knowledge, meaning that due to this statement there is a possibility that all religions are based on one god. One god but different forms of worship because of background, culture, and time period.


There are 6 major aspects of religion; belief system, sacredness, community, rituals, ethics, and relics. The most important being belief system since it is the foundation of every religion.

Christianity's belief system is based on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This belief is mainly universal but the use of terms for Jesus, God, or heaven differs. These beliefs originated from Judaism in which Christianity was formed out of. A commonality between Christianity and Judaism is Buddism having the belief in Nirvana after death, a heaven. Resting places being a crucial part of religion it is amazing to see the connection between not only Buddism but Islamic, Hinduism, and Confucianism.

The Buddist belief system is based on reincarnation and nirvana as well as Sila, Samadhi, and Prajna. Sila is one's virtues, good conduct, and morality. The well-known principle, "Do unto others as you wish them to do onto you" is introduced in this section of Buddism belief system; identical to the Christian fundamental and many other religions.
Samadhi is putting religion into practice by concentration, meditation, and mental development; doing these things makes one stronger and helps to maintain good conduct. Meditation is also referred back to Hinduism which has physical meditation called yoga. Prajna is the impact you receive from worship; discernment, insight, wisdom, and enlightenment. Wisdom in Buddism is what makes the mind pure and calm. Romans 1:18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth", this is quoted because your truth is in your heart and mind which brings you peace. For Christians, this truth is the bible, gods word.

The Confucian belief system is more based on ethical principles because it tends to take from religions like Taoism and Buddism instead of forming religious fundamentals of their own. As for Heaven, Confucians believe it is a positive personal force in the universe. The Hindu Belief for heaven is similar to this because, like a force that is not tangible, they believe it is more joining in unity with god; Moksha.

The Hindu belief system is through 4 main points. Dharma, which requires one to be faithful to god, maintaining their religious rituals and attending to family needs as well; this is to be played out in all areas of life: religion, social, and familiar. Karma is the next belief. The saying 'what comes around goes around' is the main belief in this section. Similar to "Do unto others as you wish them to do onto you", a connection to Christianity. Samsara is known as reincarnation, this idea is closer to Christianity's version of heaven (which is surprising since it is closer to the origins of Buddism). Karma refers to the actions you do on earth and how those actions decide your balance in the next life, the question 'are you genuinely pure or evil'. This heaven is referred to as Moksha, which means unity with god.

The Islamic belief system is based on there being 'one, unique, incomparable god' but Jesus is not to have existed because it is the Muslim belief that a higher power such as god would not have lowered himself to a form lower than himself: that of a bondservant. No other gods or idols are to worshiped other than the one true god is another major point. Allah is the term used for god in this setting; this is used by both Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. This surprised me.

Other than the belief in Jesus and the extraordinary activists in the Islamic religion; Christians and Muslims both have the same belief system which is surprising because they do not seem to get along.

The sacredness and community are one and the same for Christians, Buddhists, Confucists, and Hindi's. Each having a sacred place whether it be a church, temple, mosque, or living room they all gather for the same reason; to worship together. "For where two or three gathers in my name, there am I with them", Matthew 18:20, I believe god is present with these groups but in a way that is familiar to them all.

The same is true for ethics; each agrees with one another in having virtues, values, and good moral conduct although Buddhists are looser in ethics being more free-wheeling and Muslims taking ethic to a whole new level but altogether, 'what would a godly person do?' (wwgpd?) would work for them all.

Rituals in the Catholic church include Baptism; an initiation and the other seven sacraments as well as things like ash Wednesday. The Religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Islamic, and Christian are similar. Hinduism, Islamic, and Christian being more prominent because these religions have a designated god and so the process of initiation is becoming one with god but due to Buddism and Confucianism being more a right of passage.

Without excuse, god has made himself known to everyone, throughout time; even before Christ. The evidence for god is endless. My thought is that god only gives you what he knows you can handle and in this timeline of religions, the Christian stories were not exposed to those in different areas,so god gave the people their own miracles. These miracles being the basis of the religions formed and the names used for god are in different forms but he has many forms so this is understandable. The Christian God is one, unique, imcomparable god, who comes in many forms and I have come to believe that the god/gods worshiped in other religions are all connected to one true god.

He's just so unqualified

  Donald Trump appointed Scott Pruitt as Environmental protection agency (EPA) administrator; a man with no environmental standing and a degree in political science and communications. Pruitt plans to actually sue the organization he is appointed on as well as a few other environmental regulation organizations because they have 'too much power'.

  The EPA has gained a lot of respect from all over the world due to work they have done. Due to EPA air pollution has gone down by 70%, this is amazing. They built a community worldwide working to make air, water,   and land up the environmental code. Eco-Campus was created as well, leaving a lasting effect on our youth in the United States and Taiwan; an expanded community. As for water, they've worked in places like Asia and Africa making it less polluted and safe to drink. Mercury levels have also decreased making fish safer to consume. Air has been regulated through programs working all over the world but mainly in places like China and other trouble areas because although they are far from the US, we are still affected. The land is being taken care of through clearing and cleaning contaminated areas. To lead this organization, Gina McCarthy was appointed by Barack Obama in his presidency, which was an excellent choice due to her background. She has a BA in Social Anthropology and a BS in Environmental Health Engineering both degrees perfect for the position she obtained. She also had experience as Connecticut's development of Environmental protection commissioner. She is surpassingly more qualified than Pruitt and I do not understand the reasoning behind his appointment.