Let's imagine you want to buy two pounds of Golden Delicious apples. Unfortunately, you are too busy to go to the grocery store yourself, so you send your son to buy the apples. Now, suppose that instead of going to the grocery store and buying the apples, your son goes…
I didn’t know that they had amusement parks like this, until I recently saw this advertisement . . .
ADVERTISEMENT
Americans are unfairly deprived of what it’s like to be a genuine civilian war victim. Americans experience the effects of bombs and bullets from a distance, through antiseptic television reports and glitzy video games. Our research has shown, however, that many of you want a much more up-close, detailed, exciting and visceral experience. We also realize that Americans have a difficult time learning anything at all in the absent of a concurrent entertainment experience.
It is for this reason that we have built Civilian Casualty Theme Park to give you the Adventure and Experience of being a civilian war victim. We offer you the thrill and exhilaration of BEING THERE while your own neighborhood is ripped apart by warfare. This is no ordinary theme park. We give you up-close and personal real-life action where the bombs actually explode. If you like haunted houses and slasher films, you’re going to love Civilian Casualty Theme Park!
We use state-of-the-art computer simulations and pharmacology combined with hundreds of highly trained actors and technicians to give you the gut-wrenching and mind-twisting experience of what it is like to be a civilian war victim. For starters, our experts and technicians will construct a replica of your own neighborhood in anticipation of your scheduled visit.
After allowing you to settle in at your own residence in your own personalized Hollywood-caliber “neighborhood,” your heart will start …
One of the most fundamental principles of any war is that, to win, you must divide your enemies and unite your friends. This principle is know by various names, including "divide and conquer" and "strength in numbers." How well has the Bush Administration applied this principle? Throughout the Middle East,…
In a political climate drenched with debate as well as petty fighting, many people embrace bipartisan cooperation when it makes one of its rare appearances. A no-brainer of a bill feels like a relief, and it indicates that Congress actually has the ability to conduct business in a productive way. The uncontested passage of a bill feels particularly sweet when the bill deals with an emotionally gratifying issue, like the recent creation of a national sex offender registry.
No one urged President Bush to veto this bill. Named for the America’s Most Wanted host’s kidnapped son, Adam Walsh, this bill had all the trappings of legislative gem: widespread bipartisan support, quick, painless passage, and the emotional pull that only arresting child molesters for 25 years can elicit.
The law establishes a national-level database of past sex offenders’ names and locations. Many states have implemented databases of this kind before, but this law penalizes past offenders more harshly for not providing current information, and increases criminal penalties for child predators as well. It certainly sounds like a Congressional slam-dunk, providing all Americans with more access to information, and better protecting the nation’s children from proven sex criminals. Most people would support such a piece of legislation without a moment’s thought.
But any issue that prompts you to think with your heart rather than your head can have disastrous results. Botched legislation has enjoyed widespread gut-reaction support before, after all. And sex offender registries have not had a shining history.…
A few weeks back, one of my teachers asked the class to make a five-minute PowerPoint Presentation on any topic of our choice. I chose to address a question which has long intrigued several people around me, including my classmates: “Why am I vegan?”
I thought long and hard on how I should present my views on the subject. I finally decided that my presentation would consist of pictures of factory-farmed animals being ill-treated. The presentation was appreciated by everyone but, in reality, those pictures barely account for my being vegan. Make no mistake, the depravity of the manner in which animals are treated on farms does disturb me. But my convictions about vegetarianism are rooted in a larger moral framework, one which recognizes the rights of all forms of substantial intelligence, including animals.
I was recently discussing animals’ rights with my friend, who remarked, “Rights? They are just animals for god’s sake!”
His remark that they were just animals revealed a common attitude held towards animals. Many people see animals as no different from other resources which can be harnessed for human use. They do understand the concept of rights, but this word for them, applies only to humans. I wonder if these people have thought through the concept of human rights at all. Are these rights given to humans, simply because they possess the “form” of humans?
Today, most people have a decent understanding of human rights. We generally deem it to be important for all humans, irrespective …