I'm doing this post sort of early because I've realized that I can't trust myself to remember this kind of stuff.
It's hard to say where my favorite places in this country are because, sadly enough, I haven't been to very many of them. At some point in my life, I want to get around to visiting all 50 states, but that hasn't happened yet. It doesn't help that pretty much all of my family lives either in Texas or in North Carolina.
While I'm not actually overly fond of Texas, I love Austin. It's really an amazing city. Unfortunately, I don't usually get to see that much of it because most of my life takes place within a three-mile radius of my house. I think I take it for granted sometimes because I've lived here for most of my life and can't remember the city where I was born, but when I think about living anywhere else, I can't imagine it. Everywhere else just seems too... Normal. I don't think I could deal with that! I get kind of scared just thinking about it, and that is NOT an exaggeration.
Besides Austin, I'd have to say that I really like North Carolina. It's always summer when I'm there, and it is absolutely beautiful. It's a bit cooler (I'm talking about temperature here) than in Texas, and there are trees everywhere, and... I don't know. I can't really describe it, but it's amazing. I also have a lot of happy memories associated with it.
I also really like Arizona. Most people think of it a just a huge desert, and a lot of it IS desert, but I don't think they fully realize what a desert is. Arizona certainly isn't just a bunch of sand and cacti! It isn't really all that hot, either, especially in the north. And no-one that has seen the Grand Canyon could ever say that Arizona isn't interesting. I think that the Grand Canyon is one of those things that everyone who can should see at some point in their life. You really can't have any idea how vast and awe-inspiring it is until you've seen it and been down inside of it. I really can't find words to describe it.
I think that the last place I'm going to talk about is New York City. I've only been there once, but it was a wonderful experience. I'm not usually a fan of big cities, but it was so much more than that. There is so much to see and do there that I hardly experienced any of it. There's also a lot of history to be found there if you choose to look for it. This description of it isn't really doing it justice, but for some reason I can't think of anything else to say about it right now.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Terrorism
I really need to get better about keeping up with this kind of stuff. I didn't realize until today that we had a blog post due a week ago. So, uh, this is my second late post in a row. Sorry...
We do have terrorist attacks in this country, but not frequently. This is probably because for the most part, the leaders of our country are aware that there are many terrorist groups out there that want to attack the United States and have increased security because of that fact. Since most of these groups are from outside our country, increased security is effective. There have been no major terrorist attacks (if there have been any at all, either I didn't hear about them or my memory is terrible) within our borders since September 11, 2001, when suicide bombers attempted to hijack several planes and crash them into important buildings. Not all of their attempts succeeded, but the terrorists managed to destroy the World Trade Center and kill several thousand people.
Obviously, this caused quite a stir in the US and, in fact, all over the world. This was partially because terrorist attacks are very rare in the US compared to some other countries. However, this would have been considered a very large-scale attack even in a country where terrorist attacks were common. The events on September 11 prompted President Bush to declare a "war on terror" that is still going on today. The first thing our country did in this was was invade Afghanistan. In my opinion, this was justifiable because we believed that the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks were hiding there. However, in 2003 we all but abandoned that and invaded Iraq. Why? Apparently Bush thought there were weapons of mass destruction there. But there weren't. However, we did end up completely destroying their country and are still stuck there rebuilding. We are also spending a lot more money and resources there than we are in Afghanistan, where our mission to find the man that we believe to be responsible for the terrorist attacks on September 11, Osama bin Laden, is nowhere near success.
I can't predict how much longer we're going to be involved in this war. Our new president-elect, Barack Obama, who will be sworn is next January, has said that he will do all in his power to end the war in Iraq, but there's only so much he can do. We can't exactly just leave.
Oh, right, motives for terrorist attacks. The way I see it, there are a lot of reasons people in other countries might hate the US. I can sympathize with them. Americans are lazy. We are something of a privileged people, but in general, we don't accomplish much when compared to people from countries that have to work harder. Our country uses 25% of the world's energy but only has 5% of the population. We are horrible polluters and aren't doing as much as other developed countries to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. There are other things to be said, but this post wasn't supposed to be an anti-America rant. I'm not anti-American. Although I'm sure some people reading this post are going to think I'm a freakin' terrorist...
In conclusion: Yes, we occasionally have terrorist attacks, mainly because a lot of the world hates us. For the most part, we prevent them because we have the resources necessary to enforce very tight security.
We do have terrorist attacks in this country, but not frequently. This is probably because for the most part, the leaders of our country are aware that there are many terrorist groups out there that want to attack the United States and have increased security because of that fact. Since most of these groups are from outside our country, increased security is effective. There have been no major terrorist attacks (if there have been any at all, either I didn't hear about them or my memory is terrible) within our borders since September 11, 2001, when suicide bombers attempted to hijack several planes and crash them into important buildings. Not all of their attempts succeeded, but the terrorists managed to destroy the World Trade Center and kill several thousand people.
Obviously, this caused quite a stir in the US and, in fact, all over the world. This was partially because terrorist attacks are very rare in the US compared to some other countries. However, this would have been considered a very large-scale attack even in a country where terrorist attacks were common. The events on September 11 prompted President Bush to declare a "war on terror" that is still going on today. The first thing our country did in this was was invade Afghanistan. In my opinion, this was justifiable because we believed that the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks were hiding there. However, in 2003 we all but abandoned that and invaded Iraq. Why? Apparently Bush thought there were weapons of mass destruction there. But there weren't. However, we did end up completely destroying their country and are still stuck there rebuilding. We are also spending a lot more money and resources there than we are in Afghanistan, where our mission to find the man that we believe to be responsible for the terrorist attacks on September 11, Osama bin Laden, is nowhere near success.
I can't predict how much longer we're going to be involved in this war. Our new president-elect, Barack Obama, who will be sworn is next January, has said that he will do all in his power to end the war in Iraq, but there's only so much he can do. We can't exactly just leave.
Oh, right, motives for terrorist attacks. The way I see it, there are a lot of reasons people in other countries might hate the US. I can sympathize with them. Americans are lazy. We are something of a privileged people, but in general, we don't accomplish much when compared to people from countries that have to work harder. Our country uses 25% of the world's energy but only has 5% of the population. We are horrible polluters and aren't doing as much as other developed countries to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. There are other things to be said, but this post wasn't supposed to be an anti-America rant. I'm not anti-American. Although I'm sure some people reading this post are going to think I'm a freakin' terrorist...
In conclusion: Yes, we occasionally have terrorist attacks, mainly because a lot of the world hates us. For the most part, we prevent them because we have the resources necessary to enforce very tight security.
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