Andy Mitchell
Apparently, everyone in the country is “going green”. You probably know what I mean by this. “Going Green” has become the slogan for everything environmentally safe and attached to the growing popularity of stopping global warming. Companies big and small, individuals, and sometimes whole states have sacrificed a certain aspect of their lives in lieu of global warming. At the end of the day, after all of the ads, at the end of all the programs, will it really matter or is it too late? 
I have a great electric company. It seems that whenever the electric is off, which is a rare occasion in the first place; it is promptly turned back on in as little time as possible. I have no complaints with my electric company. However, have you ever noticed that the electricity goes off at the “best” times?
With spring in the air and summer right around the corner, there is one thing that is lurking around everybody’s home and has already struck at some people’s houses: Mowing the grass. It creeps up on you like a cold, and exactly like a cold it seems to keep coming back no matter how many times you take care of it. So, to celebrate this seasonal event, I have story of my own to share.
Recently, the global retailer Wal-Mart demanded for the record companies to lower their prices on CD’s. Wal-Mart threatened to stop carrying these CD’s if the record companies kept them at the prices they are now. Most music CD’s sell for thirteen or fourteen dollars. Some of the discounted or special CD’s cost about nine or ten dollars. Wal-Mart wants to sell these CD’s for no more than ten dollars. Some of the discounted CD’s would sell for five dollars. And, of course, the record companies are not buying it.
A few weeks ago, the document that gave phone companies immunity for reporting possible ‘terrorist’ activities via use of phones expired. The document, which was created during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, did not punish phone companies, such as AT&T, for giving what would be considered private information to the government if the information in question may be considered to be of a terroristic nature.
Can anyone believe how much the price of gasoline has gone up? The price has gone up, almost exponentially, within even the past few months. The gasoline companies and oil exporters claimed over eleven billion dollars in profit the last quarter. Does anyone want to stop this? Various oil companies have claimed that because of scarcity of oil and the difficulty involved to get the oil, the prices have gone up.
In some countries, it is considered illegal not to vote. On Election Day, if you do not cast your ballot at all, you may get a fine in the mail for two, three, maybe even five hundred dollars. Is this too harsh of a punishment? In these free countries, should people have the choice to vote or not?
In the beginning of the year 1649, something happened in England that took the attention of Europe. Had there been a CNN back then, I am quite positive that they would have covered this incident as they always do. Cameras would have been there for every minute of the event, and there would have been debates about whether or not it was the right thing to do. What would those cameras have seen had they been there? The world would have seen, first hand, the execution of Charles I, the King of England.
It has been said before that Hurricane Katrina did not discriminate. When the thousands of people affected by the storm lost their homes, cars, personal possessions, and some their lives, the hurricane did not discriminate. That is, it say the hurricane destroyed everything in its path, regardless of wealth, race, religion, or any other human-made idea.
Apparently, the United States is in the beginnings of a recession. At least, that’s what we’re told. Every viable news source (yes, even FOX news) has had the “recession” in their top headlines. I’ll be the first one to admit that something as convoluted as the economy is sometimes very difficult to understand. So, when the world’s greatest economy (at least I think it still is; I know the Euro is worth more than the dollar as of this writing) starts to decline, we panic.
