Discussion on weeks-9--10-research-and-journal

[DanielaD]

Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" is a perfect metaphor for America's problem of
profligacy. In the story, there is a beautiful land lush with trees,
grass, ponds, and several animals all living in peace. The Lorax is
the creature that "speaks for the trees" and is a sort of
environmentalist. Then, people come into the land and begin to cut
down the trees to create clothes to sell and make money. The Lorax
warns them several times to stop cutting down the trees at such a
rapid rate because they will no longer be able to set up shop on the
lands without resources to create their product, but they continue
nonetheless. Over time, there are no more trees, the air and water is
polluted, and all the animals have left to find a better, cleaner
place to live, and the Lorax disappears. This can be paralleled with
America's dependence on oil, which is needed to run our cars, run our
factories, and heat our houses. At the same time, this abundant usage
of oil is killing our atmosphere, and the cars require roads, which
kill habitats. Global warming is killing the planet, and at some
point, if we continue this way, there will be nothing left and this
world will be uninhabitable by humans.
America needs to realize that there are other ways to create energy to
keep our factories and cars up and running. Instead of spending money
on waging wars in foreign countries to bully them into supplying
America with cheap oil, America's money should be spent to improve
public transportation, which would require people to use their cars
less, decrease carbon emissions, and also lessen this country's
dependence on oil to run our cars. Money could also be spent on
researching renewable and clean energy sources, such as hydrogen
fuel.

[Talissa D]

In Limits of Power, Bacevich claims Americans borrows beyond their
means and have a problem with spending money that they do not have.
We see this in the 1994 movie Blank Check when Preston, the 12 year
old main character, receives a blank check from a gangster, cashes it
in for $1,000,000 and starts spending. Some time passes and of
course, the gangster wants his money back but Preston does not have it
anymore. Americans do this all the time by using credit cards and
borrowing from the banks. When the time comes to pay the loans off,
most go into debt because they spent the money they did not have in
the first place. Like Preston, most Americans fall into the trap of
consumerism and then are left with problems that they will struggle to
get through.

A more practical way to live is shown in the movie The Pursuit of
Happiness. Christopher Gardner, a father and husband, falls into debt
and no longer is able to support his family. His wife leaves him and
he is forced to live on the streets with his son. Instead of
borrowing money continuously he takes an internship that, with
patience, eventually makes him a millionaire. Chris Gardner is a
perfect example of having faith and not falling into the horrible
cycle of consumerism. Once he fell into debt, he didn’t overspend,
only bought things he needed to survive with his son, applied for any
work he could find, and eventually it paid off.

[Guadalupe R]

Homer Simpson is the funniest character I have known but he can also
get stubborn and always get in trouble when he tries to proof his
point. In an episode were Homer was fighting with the garbage man for
not taking his trash, he decided to run for sanitation commissioner.
His logo was “have some one else do it”. He did won for sanitation
commissioner and wanted to improve the system with nice and expensive
uniforms and trash collecting cars. He spends one year’s budget in
one month, obvious he is not able to manage money. In order to pay
the over due bill he started to get trash from other cities and dump
then in Springfield land fields. Even thought he wanted to do a good
action in improving the sanitation system he was irresponsible with
the spending and projects.

In contrast Marge Simpson in despite the foolish action the Homer
does. She is the one that keep the family together. She tried to save
and manage money as they are a family of five. Marge is the
responsible one that absorbs her family problems. We don’t see her as
a modern women that is always shopping but rather saving.

[JB]

One television show that we can relate to the idea and reason of
American going to war is called “American Dad”. This TV show shows how
a CIA agent goes to do different missions in order to keep America
safe. The main character, Stan, shows how he is careless when it comes
to “protecting “his family and America because he doesn’t care how he
accomplish this as long as he accomplish his goal. This is how America
is treating the war, they don’t care how the win the war as long as
they win the war.

[Erick18]

Post 9/11....The US began using its ARMY as a means to negotiation.
The US is hurt that it was bombarded and may be holding a burden. Its
foreign policy has become one that feels no pity for other nations.
Being the last "super-power", the US can be compared to notorious
Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. Mr. Burns is the wealthiest man in
Springfield. Mr Burns represents that unquenchable desire to increase
your own wealth and power. To do whatever you want without regard for
consequences and without interference from the authorities is an
advantage that the superior get.

[Lily]

discussion_week 9-11 research/journal (Lily & L.J.)

Bacevich argues that Americans spend lot of money in training the
military that maybe add to the fall down of the economy of America
just to prove the other countries that America is a "superpower" among
countries in the world. In comparison with the movie "Wall Street"
1987, Bud Fox, an ambitious stock broker who has a strong desire to
get to the top. He worked with one of the biggest stock speculators
on Wall Street, Gordon Gekko wants to manipulates the market using
inside information and Bud Fox philosophy "greed is good". Nothing
will stop him from pursuing a good deal and he takes advantage of
Bud's burning to desire to succeed. Soon, Bud finds himself getting
information from any source and using to gain an advantage. It all
comes to a head however when Gekko targets Blue Star airlines, the
company where Bud's father has worked for 24 years, secretly planning
to break it up and plunder the employees' retirement fund.

.. can i just continue posting it later midnight...i have to read it
first and the film...

[Stephanie N.]

In Limits of Power, Bacevich argues that America is over consuming. In
the Simpsons people see how Homer, a working man, goes home every
afternoon and just goes to Moe’s bar and waste all the money he has on
beer. Homer is America wasting money on unnecessary things. A better
character would be Nathan in the book Nectar in the Sieve. Nathan is a
hardworking dad in his village and he likes to work his land. The
little money that the family gets is from his work and this family
doesn’t waste any of the money on unnecessary stuff but on food
clothes and supplies to work the field. America should be more like
this family, where they just waste their money on what they need and
not on luxurious and all this other useless stuff.

[Minerva, A]

Bacevich talks in his book, the limits of power about the military
crisis. The US strategy to out the Taliban was a failure as the
author say, “the Taliban regime was removed but not the movement.”
Batman is a character that has always fought crime with all the
resources he has since he is a millionaire. In the movie, the dark
night, he fights Joker but even though batman has the equipment to
stop him he does not fulfills this goal. Joker manages to terrorize
Gotham City. This resembles the U.S. policy about the occupation in
Afghanistan. The US military has all the technology, weapons, and
equipment to finish the Afghan war but has not being able to do so.
Al-Qaeda is still murdering and terrorizing people that have contact
with US soldiers. In the movie Batman endures many horrible
sacrifices but at the end his girlfriend is Joker's victim. Even
though American soldiers are enduring so much in Afghanistan the end
could be the same as the movie. The US has wasted so many soldiers
and Afghan civilians’ life for nothing.

[Shoomyla C]

Bart Simpson is a character who live's life without any worries and
letting other people take care of his business. Bart never look's at
the negative side of a situation, he just goes with the flow and lives
by thinking "whatever happens, happens". Bart never recieves good
grades in school, but in fact is a trouble maker. He never tries to
make a difference in life, and he bever tries to overachieve his
goals.He does not try to help the community because he is too busy
living his own life.
In comparison to Bart, LIsa Simpson tries to make a difference in the
community. She is always willing to help people, she is willing to
sacrifice her own free time just to help others. Lisa tries to involve
herself in government matters, speaking up for what's right and wrong.
She is an overachiever in school and is never satisfied with just
recieving an a.Although Lisa is an overachiever her intentions are not
for herself, but for her communty, her intentions are great.In
comparison with Bacevich's ideas, bacevichs believes "america should
cuirb it's appettite" indeed that is correct, but it would not hurt
America to overachieve with good intentions, if it were bad intentions
then it would be a huge problem.