Monday Matters #28

  

Link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/crime-she-writes/201403/police-new-photos-prove-grunge-singers-death-suicide-0

This article talks about police in Seattle reopening the case regarding Kurt Cobain's alleged suicide on April 5th, 1994. The police decided to reopen the case to prove it was a suicide so that people would not bring up conspiracy theories on the 20th anniversary of his death. Also, there was a roll of underdeveloped photos that some claimed to overlook some evidence to suggest a murder and not a suicide. Police did their investigation and it was ended very quickly. They say there is not doubt that Cobain shot himself with a shotgun on that day while having a high concentration of heroine in his body. There was also a cigar box with drug paraphernalia to suggest this. Cobain struggled with drug addiction, depression, and even wrote a handwritten suicide note to suggest he killed himself. Police assure that there is no evidence of foul play.

Monday Matters #27

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/18/girls-physics-boys-other-subjects-gender-disparity

This article explains the gender differences between girls and boys in the area of physics. While boys account for half of all A-level physics students, girls only account for a quarter. The speaker is a female science teacher, and is disappointed at the fact that while this is true, boys also are falling behind in English behind girls. She believes that people should not just focus on getting girls interested math, but also on boys. She believes sticking a girl on a poster promoting girls getting into the sciences won't do the trick. There needs to be equal focus on boys and girls when it comes to academic performance. She ends with saying we need to change the mentality of both genders when it comes to academics. A male students should not feel he shouldn't do well in a subject because only girls do well or like the class, and vice versa. Ultimately, we need to strengthen students' confidence in themselves.

Monday Matters #26

Link: http://esciencenews.com/articles/2014/03/05/womens.jobs.are.poorer.paid.less.flexible.and.more.stressful

This article is about how studies have shown that women's working conditions and opportunities lag behind that of men's. According to a survey conducted about the occupations of men and women, Men consistently score better when it comes to stress, flexibility in schedule, wages, and promotion opportunities. These results invalidate the thought that women have on average lower paying jobs and lower promotion opportunities because of their responsibilities at home. There seems to be a trend in that women do not enjoy their jobs as much as men, and that they feel that cannot move up in position as easily as men. The studies also show women's resentment for lower salaries fro the same amount of work. Yet, this does not reflect the women's lack of achievement, the study claims. Lastly, the study also found that the more women working in a certain area of work, the more comparable the working conditions are with that of men in the same area.

Monday Matters #25

Link: http://www.sociologytimes.com/research/Study_shows_mentally_ill_more_likely_to_be_victims_not_perpetrators_of_violence.asp

This article talks about the correlation between the mentally ill and violence. While many seem to believe that the mentally ill are the perpetrators of violence. Studies from the North Carolina State University propose that a high number of violent adults that are mentally ill are also victims of violence. Also, a high number have reported to have been treated violently on multiple occasions. The article also reports that the mentally ill are 11 times more likely to be violent if they have been victims to violence. The article ends saying that we need  to not only help the mentally ill from being violent, but also helping them by protecting them from being victimized by other people. This in turn, according to their studies, would lower the amount of violence coming from mentally ill adults.

Monday Matters #24

The policies President Obama addressed in his State of the Union speech had a lot of things I agree with. The article talks about Obama addressing alternative energy. I completely agree with this point, mostly because I want the United States to break its dependency on foreign oil. They said we need to create more jobs, and prepare these people for those jobs. I agree with this as well; I feel that Americans are not fully prepared to contribute positively in society, so helping them be prepared is a good idea.  Another article says we need cheap energy, suggesting we keep importing oil. I disagree with this because it goes against my views that I have expressed above. The same article suggests we follow the first amendment more closely. I feel we should not. This being a radical idea, I feel that we as a country need to "update" the constitution in order to properly reflect the society of today. 

Monday Matters #23

The last two posts, one by liberals and one by conservatives, propose issues and important things that each think President Obama should mention in his State of the Union address. All of these suggestions from both sides are backed up by factual information, so there are not any assertions made that are not backed up by facts. There are, however, different points proposed by each side that they think Obama needs to address. The conservatives say that we need to stop the war on coal and have affordable energy readily available, while the liberals want coal out, and want the USA to find alternative energy sources to help the environment. The conservatives are really concerned with the education of our country, and with keeping the federal government out of peoples' lives as  much as possible. Oppositely the liberals are more concerned with creating jobs, economic and political populism, and strict gun control laws. These two political philosophies each have a different idea on how to improve our country, and they would argue that their respective ideas are the best. Both would agree on helping the middle class, but they have different ideas about how to accomplish this.

  

Monday Matters #22

Link: http://www.thenation.com/slideshow/157998/slide-show-7-ways-obamas-state-union-can-save-his-presidency

This article by The Nation explains what should be included in President Obama's State of the Union address in order to save his presidency. The first point made is to focus on creating jobs. America wants jobs and we cannot obsess over the Federal deficit. The second point explains that creating jobs is not enough, we also need to get Americans back to work. Obama needs to lay out a plan to carry this through. The article goes on to talk about how the president needs to get rid of the perception that he is in "big business's pocket" and help reclaim economic populism. The next point explains why the Obama administration needs to help struggling homeowners. His approach to this is widely viewed as ineffective, so he needs to approach this issue differently. Another point is that he needs to protect medicare and social security. Many people need this and it is his responsibility to protect it. Next, it explains that Obama needs to push for sensible gun control. This should also receive bipartisan support, so this needs to be addressed. The last point given is that Obama needs to address climate change. The sooner congress recognizes this problem, the more prepared the USA will be for the "new energy economy".