The key to a sucessful nation

There are many different theory's about why certain civilizations do better than others. I believe that the key to a successful nation is the both location and resources. Take a native group of people. The main job for the people is to gather food. Food is of the highest importance in their eyes. So, every day, the men would go out hunting and the women may go collect food from crops. Simple. imagine though if in their area, they had an extremely high amount of food. By having more food, the tribe doesn't spend as much time getting food. So, what happens then is the population goes up because of the vast amount of food. Once there are a lot of people, that is when progress starts happening because there is no need for every person has to get food. So people start having new jobs like making weapons or creating tools for people to use. As the population becomes bigger and people start making new things, the basis for a thriving civilization comes into play. Technology. So by that point countless number of people are making new things. It is easy to see what happens next after that. So, what I'm saying is that the reason for groups of people being more advanced then others, starts with the amount of resources their nation had when it was created.

The presidential debate

The presidential debate between McCain and Obama hasn’t been one of the best debates I’ve seen this year. Both candidates seemed to have a little trouble answering each question and dealing with the other candidate. The one who seemed to be off the most was McCain. He was able to answer most the questions, although whenever he tried to confront Obama, it seemed as if he was attacking him and in a way really just seemed like a grumpy old man. Obama was a bit better. I thought that Obama didn’t answer his questions quite as well as McCain. However, when Obama started arguing with John, he won every time. One of the reasons Barack won every time was because he was able to stay cool while speaking and he had an reaction to every attack McCain made toward him. One thing I highly enjoyed about the debate was the questions asked. Most debate I hear questions that are important, but are too interesting. That defiantly wasn’t the case for this debate. One of my favorite questions asked was about how both candidates had commercials attacking each other, and the question was talking about that. One of the reasons I like that question so much is because it was so straight forward. Pretty much they were saying, would you say what you have said on your commercials to the candidates face. Now, I think that is such a juicy question to ask, because the candidates wanted to both seem innocent in a way, but this question defiantly called them out. I would also say that they both answered it relatively well.So, who won? It’s hard for me to say. I want to answer the question, although I do like Obama better than McCain, so while watching the debate, I had a bias the whole time. So, this time I’m giving into my bias, and I’ll say that Obama won. McCain seemed so on edge and jittery the whole time. So whenever he talked, it seems less sincere then if he was calm. It seemed that Obama kept his cool the whole time, which was unbelievably important. This whole campaign, he has been that way; it truly seems to be working.

The idea of "honor"

The idea of someone having honor goes back more the 2000 years. Basically, in ancient Japan, what each persons goal was, was to have a good life filled with honor. Meaning, that you have a good job, a respectable family, and that you follow orders. The main person who gave these orders was a shogun. A shogun is a military chief, who ruled over a large amount of land and was mainly the "king" of a part of Japan. One of the shoguns main tools, was the idea of honor. However, what really is honor. The dictionary definition says that it is a source of credit and respect. That may be true, but the way that honor was used was completely different to what most people think. I believe that honor was just a way to keep everyone in line. So lets say what if you don't have a respectable job, then you have no honor.They do this so they make sure you have a good job, but merely so they can ensure they can tax that person and get money. Also, it works in the legal system. If you were to break the law back then, people didn't say it was against the law, they would say that it is very dishonorable. Another way that the shogun used honor was in battle. When warriors were caught, it was honorable to kill yourself. The only reason that the shogun said it was honorable, was because he didn't want his captured men to turn to the other side, so to make sure of that, he would have them kill themselves. And shoguns back then weren't honorable at all. They were mostly all just greedy men who wanted more land. If they were ever in battle, they would never kill themselves. They would most likely try to buy their way out, but if that didn't work, they would most defiantly join the other side. So in all, I would say honor, is really just a ton of bull crap that leaders used to their advantages.

Afro Samurai

If you already don't know what Afro Samurai is,
it is a short animated tv series that is based on a samurai trying to
 defeat the warrior who killed his father. This series is known to be an 
anachronism, which means that you'll find something out of place in
time. So in afro samurai's case, the show takes place in the future but
you still see old school weapons and rituals used. Personally, I think
that the show Afro Samurai, is one of the coolest videos you can see
today. What makes Afro Samurai so amazing is two things. First, the
fighting in the movie is outstanding. It's filled with intense gory
fighting seens that you and find almost no where else. Secondly, the
way that the plot is structured. It's crazy simple. Take any two
entities that oppose each other, such as good and evil. Then take one
of mans primal instincts, fighting. Fighting is a way to put things
into human tangible form. It's basic tribal instincts. You don't see
animals ever argue, you see them fight. Then, take different ideologies
and embody certain concepts and you see it transformed into martial
arts. In different fights, you'll see someone with a lot of hate and
rage, fight much more aggressively and rip people apart. Then take
someone who is at peace, and is balanced, you'd see them either not
attack as much and be more defensive or wait until the other person
attacks and used the persons momentum and anger against them. Once you
have these to different opponents, they would fight, and then the
winner is superior. That is how people have matched up throughout
history, and that is exactly what you see in Afro Samurai, except,
instead of seeing good and evil, you see two different traits. Greed
and vengeance. So, throughout the movie, you have Afro Samurai, who
wants to take vengeance on the man who was driven by greed to obtain
the number one headband that the samurai's dad obtained. Then, the rest
of the characters also represent greed because all they want is the
number two head band that the afro samurai has, because without the
number two headband, your not allowed to fight the number one. And the
one with the number one headband, is known as a god. That's why so many
people are out for afro samurai, so they can take it, kill the number
one, and become a god (Thus the greed aspect). To have something so
amazing centered around something so simple is mind blowing. That is
why I love the show Afro Samurai so much, and why I think it that
people should defiantly look into it.

 




Is it really "Our" land?

Lately I've been thinking about how America came to be. I thought about what I learned in grade school, how the nice little pilgrims came to America, made friends with the Indians, and then all of a sudden, the Indians attacked the colonists so the colonists fought back and won America. This was my view up to about 8th grade. When I first heard that America was first the Natives land, and that we stole it, I wasn't to fond of the Idea. I liked to think that the way we came about owning this land was justified in a sense. And I still wish that was the case, however, it is true that our nation was pretty much founded by our ancestors robbing the Native Americans land right out from under them. So, if a native American came and knocked on my door, and showed me proof that my land, was really his land that I stole ... who would have the true right to it? I would like to think it's me, but I'm really not sure how I would back myself up.

Hmmm, what do you think? Do you have a right to the land you live on?