Current Event Articles

1. "This Valentine's Day, Occupy the Romantic-Industrial Complex". I chose this article primarily because Valentine's Day was yesterday and there is always people who love this holiday and people who hate it. Being indifferent to the holiday, I chose to see what this article about the "Romantic-Industrial Complex" had to say. This article focused mainly on why society "buys-in" to getting heart shaped presents, chocolates and flowers as a way to profess love for another person. This article mentions that companies that market Valentine's Day presents net billions in dollars every year. In addition, this article mentions that the wedding experience costs Americans 70-80 billion dollars every year. I found it very intriguing that this article mentioned that marrying for money is not a new concept, but marrying for love is. Overall, I don't necessarily agree with the author's point that people should not celebrate this "Halmark" holiday. I think that regardless of whether or not people feel they need material gifts and a special day to feel loved, it is truly a harmless day that can make people happy, which is all that matters.
2. "US, Europe Eye Risky, Unprecedented Penalty for Iran Over Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons".  I chose this article because nuclear weapons always have been, and will always continue to be, a very important issue in the face of global governments. This article talks about how Iran is suspected to be harboring nuclear weapons that could be potentially used against any nation that they feel is unwilling to cooperate with them and/or stresses different moral or ethical values than Iran. Therefore, President Barack Obama wants to evict Iran from SWIFT, a company that deals with overseas oil. Thus, if Iran is evicted, overseas oil will take a skyrocketing price increase over the next couple of years. For many countries currently in a great economic depression, spending more on oil is simply not an option. If I were in this position, I would find this decision very difficult. On one hand you have a dangerous, unreliable nation with such great and destructive weapons that leaves every nation, especially the USA, in fear of attack. However, on the other hand, Iran supplies many nations including the USA with oil, without which many nations would be oil deficient and facing even greater economic despair. Whichever the decision may be, I feel that this is a sticky, loose-loose conflict for everyone except Iran.
3. "Monica Yant Kinney: Pa. Bill Preventing Local Gun Crackdowns Would be Travesty." I chose this article primarily because I knew that guns are such a large moral conflict in this nation during this time period. A lot of people struggle with the moral issue of wether or not people should be able to own guns for their own personal uses, one of which includes protection. To be honest, I found this article somewhat confusing. From what I could understand, this article talked about how Pennsylvania legislatures are enacting bills to make sure that if household guns are lost or stolen, this must be reported. Legislators are also pushing for a bill that sues any township that pass local gun laws. Personally, I am not really sure about how I feel about guns. Guns can be imperative to one's own protection when living in certain areas or working at certain jobs. However, guns can also lead to increased violence and often accidental death. However, overall, I feel that any person should be allowed to own a gun with a proper license and extreme care and caution. Refusing to sell to criminals would surely end the violence and extreme caution would surely reduce accidental death due to guns.