Gun Control and The Second Amendment

Last week's school shooting in Cleveland brings up interesting questions about our right to bear arms.

Some argue that it is far to easy for young people to get their hands on guns to carry out such crimes.

While others argue the importance of keeping guns in preserving our freedom?

What do you think?

One Marines Journey

Photojournalist Danfung Dennis has captured the brutalities of the war in Afghanistan for The New York Times, Newsweek, The Guardian and The Washington Post. But as the war stretched on, he started to feel that the images were losing their impact.

"After so many years of war," he tells NPR's Neal Conan, "society's become numb to pictures of conflict, and so I felt like I had to move into a new medium to try to shake people from their indifference."

Read more...

How does this movie differ from reality TV?

Was this an 'anti-war' movie?

Do you think this movie deserved to win the Oscar for best documentary? Why or why not?

What are the costs of war? What are the rewards? Is it worth it?

What do you think should be done about Afghanistan especially given recent headlines?

The Taliban

From Time Magazine (July, 2010)

The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. They dragged her to a mountain clearing near her village in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ignoring her protests that her in-laws had been abusive, that she had no choice but to escape. Shivering in the cold air and blinded by the flashlights trained on her by her husband's family, she faced her spouse and accuser. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Later, he would tell Aisha's uncle that she had to be made an example of lest other girls in the village try to do the same thing. The commander gave his verdict, and men moved in to deliver the punishment. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. Aisha passed out from the pain but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die.

This didn't happen 10 years ago, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It happened last year. Now hidden in a secret women's shelter in the relative safety of Kabul, where she was taken after receiving care from U.S. forces, Aisha recounts her tale in a monotone, her eyes flat and distant. She listens obsessively to the news on a small radio that she keeps by her side. Talk that the Afghan government is considering some kind of political accommodation with the Taliban is the only thing that elicits an emotional response. "They are the people that did this to me," she says, touching the jagged bridge of scarred flesh and bone that frames the gaping hole in an otherwise beautiful face. "How can we reconcile with them?"


Questions for discussion:

1.) How are Aisha’s rights as a person being violated? How would this sort of event be viewed in the United States? Why is it so different in Afghanistan?

2.) What does this type of event say about the US progress in Afghanistan?

3.) Why did we go into Afghanistan to begin with? Should this ongoing conflict be viewed as a success? Why or why not?

Click here to learn more.

After Durban, What Next?

Reading updates about the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, felt discouraging to me, with the United States seemingly out-of-touch with the reality of global warming. But I experienced a nagging sense of familiarity as US legislators at home and negotiators abroad ignored scientific truths, communicated through hyperbole, and used obstructionist delay tactics.

Read more...

Dreaming of a 'Green' Christams

When we think 'Green' Christmas were not talking about this guy!

“Give the eco gift that keeps giving to the whole planet. Wind power and offset plans help everyone on your gift list go green.”

How does it work?

Shop the store and make your holiday 'Wish List.'

Other tips for having a 'Green Christmas.'

A Year Without Santa?

The U.N. annual climate summit in Durban, South Africa, has drawn scientists and world leaders to discuss the impact of Global Warming on the future of our planet.

What are the effects of Global Warming? Could it ruin Christmas? What about the Polar Bears?

In September 2009, documentary filmmaker Peter Gilbert joined more than 40 observers - including musicians Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker, Robyn Hitchcock, Ryuichi Sakamoto and writer Suzan-Lori Parks - on an ice-breaking ship for a nine-day voyage off the coast of Greenland with artist-led climate change project, Cape Farewell. Their goal was to see, experience and contemplate the effects of climate change first-hand - and to begin a creative conversation with the rest of the world about one of the most important and pressing issues facing the future of humanity.

Watch the movie: Burning Ice

Learning Questions

1. What is the purpose of this trip to the Arctic?
2. Describe one specific landscape they come across along their journey?
3. What demographic is going to suffer the most from climate change, according to Lemn Sissay?
4. How have some artists begun to incorporate the experiences from this trip into their work?
5. How do the filmmakers incorporate the musicians performances into the film? What does this add to the documentary?
6. What did you find most interesting about this film? Why do you think the filmmaker decided to make this film?

To Spray or Not to Spray

Late last week, university police at UC Davis tore down the tents of campus protesters, arresting 8 students in the process. Students were upset about increased tuition rates. At one point, to clear a path, the police pepper-sprayed a line of seated, quiet protesters.

What is your reaction to the video? How would you describe this scene?

What amendment to the Constitution protects our right to 'peacefully assemble?'

Was this protest peaceful? How was this protest different from the students at Penn State?

What laws were the UC Davis students breaking? Was the force used by the officers suitable given the situation?

Watch this clip of the Lt. Pike warning the students right before the incident. Does this change your opinion of what happened?

In the interests of fairness, put yourself in their shoes, and think about how you would have handled the situation. What action would have been more appropriate? How would you have handled the situation differently?

The video of the pepper-spraying has outraged the world and Lieutenant John Pike, the pepper-sprayer, is being vilified on the Internet, as are the rest of the police involved here.

Whats the big deal? Pepper spray is just a 'food product' right?

Is pepper spray 'America's new car horn?'

Perhaps we should be relieved that the weapon used in this case was pepper spray, not bullets, as in the Kent State massacre of 1970, in which the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students.


Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-21/news/30424391_1_pepper-spray-protesters-university-police#ixzz1f7hEnPrh