Liberty & Tyranny (My take)

I recently got the opportunity to read Mark Levin's book Liberty & Tyranny. As a individual who is very critical of the Government I found some aspects of the text very interesting and agreeable while I also disagreed with some of the text as well. Liberty and Tyranny is a very strong text that challenges the very fabric of the United States government. It presents the ethical imbalance that the government presents and how as time goes on the government moves further and further away from the roots and ideologies that the country was built on. As a country built by individuals running from the tyranny of their mother country there should be a sense of not wanting or allowing history to repeat itself, especially when the past history is in direct relation to what drove the country to fight for its independence. Liberty and Tyranny looks to prove that not only has the country forgotten or simply ignored its past history it is assuming the role of the mother country it once ran from. The biggest difference is that the country now presents itself in one manner while possessing an ulterior motive that it is in complete opposition with the principle of democracy that the country claims to be built on.

One of the very interesting parts of Liberty & Tyranny is the reference to individuals known an statists. Statist are individuals in the constant pursuit of increasing their power. Not only do they to look obtain continuous power they’re willing to obtain in ways that are often in direct opposition with the law. The Statists look to essentially bypass the opposing laws in their way by altering them in a way that permits their actions. Levin explains that Statist gained a lot of momentum during the enactment of the New Deal by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930’s. Levin believed that with New Deal, the firewalls of the constitution were breached due to the fact that many of aspects of the documents intended interpretation were ignored and changed in order makes the New Deal a reality

Liberty and Tyranny essentially calls for conservatism in order to curb statist and their continuing efforts of the government to gain more power. As with anything though, the progression of time must bring about some degree of change. The time period in which this country’s constitution was written was one free of the many technological advances we possess today and more importantly written in a time period followed by events such as slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, and the placement of the Japanese into concentration camps. These events were all enacted by those in the lineage of the writers of the document thus giving the impression that the sentiments of those who wrote it can be called into question. Therefore the appropriate changes needed to juxtapose the document with current day are understandable, but on a similar token those changes should be done in a mediated manner that doesn’t give unbalanced authority in a society rooted in freedom and equality for all.

Music these days…

I used to listen to American music quite a bit when I was younger but ever since high school and on I rarely do. The music that is playing these days does not appear to have that same catchy-ness and connecting to your mind and soul. When I turn on the radio, today’s music gets old and tiring very quickly after you constantly listen to it over and over again. It feels as if artists have lost touch with their own style of music and now use what works for them - mainstream, with similar sounding tunes and lyrics or just very repetitive lyrics. Now it lacks uniqueness and distinction between all kinds of music.

In my personal opinion, the high point of music lasted to the very early 2000’s and after maybe 2003, it just went downhill. When I hear a song played back in the 90’s, 80’s, and event the late 70’s and I would sing along with it and get caught up in the song. An example would be the boy bands like Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, which now looking back the lyrics are cheesy and corny but very catchy, somewhat innocent, and we can relate to. It was expressing our own personal feelings and literally putting what we had in our heart, into spoken words. It was memorable. Same thing can be said funk and disco – Bee Gees’s “Fever Night” and Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “September” has a beat that attracts you and makes you want to dance or Genesis’s “In the Air Tonight” brief drum solo before the chorus or the late Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, and “Thriller”.

I appreciate my parents playing the radio stations that still play old hits even though I refused to acknowledge that I like them when I was a kid. Obviously many of the songs were played before I was born but they are considered gems to what is being played now. The feelings, emotions, personality those songs had captured my heart. I’m not into the big names that are here today such as the whole Bieber fever or Lady Gaga and her strange tastes in fashion. If given a choice to listen to music that is playing now or just turn it off, I would turn it off and play my own set of music in my mind instead of making my ears bleed.

Connection

Today in class we talked about being connected 24/7. We are connected to our phones, laptops, iPods, etc. that allow us to communicate with others at any given moment. This is somewhat scary to know that most of us can’t go a few minutes without one of these things but also amazing to see how far technology has come.

I will admit that if I have my iPod with me, I will be listening to music or browsing Facebook, Twitter, or any other sites I regularly visit. I was on campus all day today and any short break I had consisted of me staring at a tiny iPod screen trying to read the latest updates about the day. I took the time to eat lunch and do homework, but why did I feel the need to go right back to that screen after I was finished? Was it a habit or part of my daily routine? When I wake up in the morning, I always go on the computer to check my email, Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs. When the professor says “face time” or “close your laptops” to us in class, we are all hesitant to do so. We simply do not want to lose that connection we have with others for a few minutes. We step outside of that comfort zone of the familiar and into the “real life.” It sounds silly to say this because we’ve all managed to go years without that constant connection to technology. Growing up in the 90s, the only thing I did on the computer was play games on AOL, Oregon Trail, or draw stuff on Paint. I was outside constantly playing soccer, basketball, going to the beach, etc. - having fun being a typical kid. Life was simple; it was easy. Now, we have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, e-mail, iTunes, and so many other useless programs that we feel the need to check all the time. Everything is digitalized.

I think we all need to disconnect from technology for a little bit and enjoy talking to people face to face – real human interaction. It will be refreshing to experience life like we all did before smart phones were invented and Apple ruled the world.

Doll Festival

Tomorrow,March 3rd, is Japanese traditional festival which is called Doll Festival.
Actually, the day is for girl's day. This festival is a traditional event held to pray for girls' healthy growth.
For that day, families with girls display a set of hina dolls in their home and make offerings of white sake and hina-arare, Japanese traditional snack.

Yesterday, I got an email from my mother.
and she told me that she displays dolls for me and my sister.

This is the dolls for us <3

Microsoft vs Apple

It was once argued that Microsoft possessed an unfair stronghold on the technological market.I always found this to funny and hypocritical of a government based in capitalism. Though it was considered an issue in the past its very clear that the modern day market conditions are seemly shaped after the very issues Microsoft was persecuted for. Microsoft’s idea to supply Internet Explorer with its operating system years ago speaks virtue to its innovative nature. The Macintosh operating system now comes with The “Safari” web browser, yet it is not cited as an unfair advantage.

Aside from supplying a web browser, Apple also supplies its very popular Iphone exclusively to AT&T and more recently Verizon. While this can be seen as giving AT&T a competitive edge, there has be no legal opposition from competing wireless phone service providers. That may be as a result of there being a competitive nature that was absent at the time of the persecution of Microsoft. The Microsoft case seemed to present the ethical question of should there be a sense of equal progression amongst companies in the same industry or should there be freedom to use the resources made available to all of them in order to make advances? Despite the fact the Iphone was offered exclusively to AT&T, there was no interjection on the part of competing wireless phone carriers, they instead introduced their own respective phones that could compete and rival the technology of the iphone.

Apple also released the mp3 industry leading iPod, but its strong market presence is also met with competition from mp3 players created by Microsoft and plethora of other companies. Was the Microsoft case, a case of its competitors lacking the motivation to take the necessary steps to compete? The answer is impossible to know but given Microsoft’s continued industry leading success years after the case and the current industry positions of those who filed the suits, the answer does lean more towards yes than no.

Where is my 4.0 GPA?

I think this is the most traffic I have seen on the blogger website thus far. Probably because Professor told us he wants to see 12 blog posts by today, wednesday. The blogs keep jumping and jumping and I am part of that statistic. One with the followers when we should all be leaders. I just slacked on my blogging because I was so busy the past few weeks and I'm still so busy. I rarely find time to eat. I'm lucky I have free time now. I'm usually in class, at work, or in meetings. I never get a free minute to myself besides sleeping.

It's like the 5th or 6th week of the semester and I still am not in the full swing of my schedule. I don't know why it's take me so hard to adapt this semester but it is. I feel like I'm just so busy with everything and maybe because I'm a junior and everything is piling up on me. Feels like high school all over again but more stressful and no one to tell me what to do. My first round of exams aren't even over yet. I still have to take an exam for finance. Speaking of finance, MOST TIME CONSUMING CLASS EVER!

I have homework to do EVERY WEEK and it get's hard to stay on top of my school work. I have to do this ZOOM simulation thing and it's due every monday night and then I have homework due almost every week. My exam for this class is next week and I am kind of lost in all of it. I can do the finance problems when he goes over it in class but when I'm alone doing homework I'm completely lost. How will I get my 4.0 with this kind of mentality? I MUST GET THAT 4.0! For myself, for my friends, and to show my parents I can be as smart as my sister!