Trayvon Martin Case

http://youtu.be/ThUCKcOAb2M

For those of you who don't know about the Trayvon Martin case it is a very controversial case that is happening right now. It involves the controversial law called the Stand your Ground Law. The law states that of you feel like you are threatened you can use deadly harm to your attacker and you don't have to try an retreat first. Critics of the law call it the shoot first law and a lot of people say that it will cause more racial  killings. This is what they think happened in the Trayvon Martin case. Zimmermann followed Trayvon Martin and shot him because he thought he looked suspicious. Zimmermann thinks the Stand your Ground law will save him in this case. This relates to my topic because ALEC is the group that came up with the law and a lot of people think it was just for corporations to sell more guns. Watch the video above for more info on the Trayvon Martin case.

Voter ID Law

http://youtu.be/_xlSU9-SmEo

This video is basically a debate about the pros and cons of the controversial voter ID law that has come into affect in many states. This is one of the many laws that has been made up by ALEC. Republicans say that it helps make sure that there is no voter fraud happening. The Democrats say the republicans made this law solely for political purposes only. This law makes a lot college students, Hispanic, and African American people not be allowed to vote and these are people who tend to vote more democrat. The democrats think it is only a move to rig the elections more in favor of republicans. In this video you see both sides of the debate. Two people debate on whether or not the Voter ID Law should be in the states and it gets fairly heated because you can tell they are passionate about what they are talking about.

ALEC Watch Review

ALEC Watch is an online book written by the NRDC. It has a very liberal bias to the book and it basically talks about the horrors of the conservative group ALEC. There are 7 chapters and they talk about everything from the history of ALEC to benefits the legislatives get to corporate dividends. The liberal bias of this book may not be for everyone but I really did enjoy it since it agreed with most of what they were saying. One thing I didn’t like was that it really didn’t tell a story it was just a book of facts. It was very informative but it did not catch my interest like other books do. Since there wasn’t a story there wasn’t any characters in ALEC Watch to connect with which also made it harder to read. I did find it interesting how they talked about all of the trips the legislators get for bringing ALECs laws into their states. This obviously connects to my topic because the entire book is on my topic. The book is on ALEC and my topic is ALEC. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is interested in this topic but I would not recommend this to the average reader.

"ALEC Report." ALEC Report -- Table of Conents. NRDC. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://alecwatch.org/report.html>.

Capitalism: a Love Story

            Capitalism: a Love Story is a 2009 documentary directed by Michael Moore. It shows the effects corporate greed on American families. It shows the terror of what Capitalism does and how it helps only a few rich people but it doesn’t help anyone else. Right at the beginning they started comparing ancient Rome and the United States today. They talked about the similarities like Rome had chariot races and America has NASCAR, they compare their emperor to president, and both civilizations have a wide gap between the rich and the poor. These things eventually led to the demise of ancient Rome. I thought it started off the documentary very well because it shows history can repeat itself. It really set the tone for the rest of the movie.

            Another point that really stuck with me was pilots have to take up to $100,000 in student loans to become one but their starting year they only make $17,000 in a year. A running joke among pilots is don’t pick up your food stamps when you’re in your uniform. Also Pilots get paid less than a Taco Bell manager. But their excuse is “that’s capitalism.”

They touch aspects of the control that corporations have over their workers. For example, they talk about companies that take out insurance loans on their workers so if their workers die they get money for their death. These people are called “dead peasants” in the corporations. Moore did a very good job at shocking you with the facts about capitalism. I also really like the comical side that Moore put into the movie. For example, there is a scene where Moore tries to do a citizen’s arrest of the board of directors from AIG. It gives sort of a comic relief from the serious topic at hand. It also links to my topic because this talks about corporate greed and ALEC is basically just feeding corporate greed with what they are doing.

There is however a lot of controversy surrounding the movie. There are a lot of conservatives who claim he oversimplifies capitalism and he doesn’t really bash President Obama. I think it was a great movie and it makes you laugh and leaves you thinking about it later. It definitely reassured my view on capitalism and it is a definite must see.

Capitalism: A Love Story. Dir. Micheal Moore. Perf. Michael Moore. Overture Films, 2009. DVD.

Mockingjay book Review

The book Mockingjay is the third and last book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The heroic Katiniss Everdeen has now has become the face of the rebellion that has taken a hold of the dystopian country of Panem. She has to rally people and ready herself for a war against the Capital. I really like the political aspect to the book. I liked how it dived into the political aspects of district 13 and the life there. But I feel Suzanne Collins rushed the plot way too much and didn’t develop the amazing story lines that she had in the first two books.

As for characters, the first two books I really loved Katniss. She is the badass 16 year old that basically sticks it to the man. In the third book she got on my nerves. This was a bad thing and a good thing. I think Collins was trying to portray that she isn’t ready for a revolution and in ways she is just a 17 year old girl. But she makes decisions in the book that that really portray her true personality. I really did like the twists and turns the love story took over the course of the book. Overall I think people should read it who has read the first two books so they can get closure to the characters. But the first two books were way better than the third so in a way the book was a disappointment.