The right to a peaceful death

This is a first draft of something I will come back to and edit as regularly as I can. I hope.
Uncle D and Ma, I'm sure you don't mind this. But if you do, let me know and I'll take it down. Love you both.

There is no easy way to put this.

Three years ago, when I was 18, my Uncle and I were placing bright colored tape on all of the appliances in my Grandma’s house: the right setting on the washer and dryer, which button would start the microwave, where to set the oven. This was exactly when I knew that the right to death, or the possibility of euthanasia, assisted-suicide, whatever you want to call it, should exist.

My grandmother, Mary, passed away in the first half of 2013, and that was the happiest moment of the last several years of her life.  

Short Story 2

David wasn't sure what he was looking at. The shape was unique, bursting, showing a muted lifestyle. He thought it was on par with most contemporary art, really. An amorphous blob, surely with much deeper meaning.

The woman shot him a glare.

She had seen him staring. "May as well go for broke," David said under his breath.

He walked over to her table. "excuse me ma'am, are you free later? I think you could be the highlight of my art gallery opening soon. It's my first solo gallery. It's called, Follies of Excess. You'd be a perfect fit, for once."

He didn't even wait for her to reply. The bell clanged as he opened the door and he was on his way.

"You really are too old for that," said a voice behind him.

The Morality of Torture

This is mostly just stream of consciousness thought after one of my classes. We were talking about whether or not it is ever okay to torture. Most people were taking the utilitarian side where the consequences of the action far outweigh the costs, in certain cases. This bothers me a lot.

In the U.S., torture is a worse punishment than death. how can a country not believe in cruel and unusual punishment but believe in the death penalty? Does it follow that we can kill for information, but not torture?

Is torture worse than death? Is torture acceptable in circumstances when it prevents death? In consequentialism, there could be debate on whether the torture of one person to save a second is justified. But 1000? One million? Is there a number of lives saved where torture becomes not only justifiable, but morally good. Does it ever become something that ought to be done?

Choosing Humanity

On September 17, 2001, President George W. Bush gave a speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, DC. In this speech so soon after a tragedy, he said, “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace, they represent evil and war.”

Twelve years later, this is still something that many Americans forget. Islam is not the problem. Just because someone looks like someone who is bad, or shares a religion with someone who is bad, does not mean that they are a bad person. We must respect people as people. Someone is not lesser because they call their God by the name of Allah. This is a country that does not believe in discrimination, yet we still see mainstream arguments that people who look like Arabs or Muslims should be singled out.

Song Review: P.O.S feat. Justin Vernon -- Where We Land

I am once again trying something new with something that blends two of my passions: music and politics.

Today I'm going to look at a song and do my best to way over-analyze it. Shouldn't be too hard.

First off, here's the song:

Review of the Second Presidential Debate Q2, CROSSTALK 2012

And we're back. When we left before, Obama was talking shit about Romney, and Romney was spewing lies. Nothing new. Once again, I'm using the Washington Post transcript of the debate.

CROWLEY: Mr. President, the next question is going to be for you here.

And, Mr. Romney — Governor Romney — there’ll be plenty of chances here to go on, but I want to…

ROMNEY: That — that Detroit — that Detroit answer…

CROWLEY: We have all these folks.

ROMNEY: … that Detroit answer…

CROWLEY: I will let you absolutely…

ROMNEY: … and the rest of the answer, way off the mark.

CROWLEY: OK. Will — will — you certainly will have lots of time here coming up.

Review of the Second Presidential Debate, Question 1 with rebuttals

So, trying something new here. I'm going to go through a transcript of the Presidential debate, and just give a sort of commentary on it. Not quite sure how it'll work, but hopefully something interesting will come of it. Let me know what you guys think.