Driving while texting

“Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year. In 2002, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die each year as a result of using cell phones while driving. They estimated that another 330,000 are injured.” The statistics on texting while driving will make you cringe and make you think it’s a no-brainer for Senator Schumer from NY Times to ban texting while driving. Fourteen states, including Alaska, California, and New Jersey, have banned texting while driving, a large number of states are not complying, but they are beginning to think about it after learning what will happen if they don’t. “States that do not ban texting by drivers could forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funds under legislation introduced Wednesday in the Senate. Under the measure, states would have two years to outlaw the sending of text and e-mail messages by drivers or lose 25 percent of their highway money each year until the money was depleted.” Recent studies found that texting while driving is more dangerous than talking on the phone or driving drunk. Another study done by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that, “truck drivers face a 23 times greater risk of crash or near crash when texting than when not doing so.” The legislation to ban texting while driving was based on the past legislation on raising the drinking age. “Mr. Schumer said that the legislation was essentially based on the drinking age law.”
http://www.edgarsnyder.com/auto-accident/auto/cell/statistics.html

The role of government and NRA

I agree with the controversial topics the blogger brings up in this article, from the left-leaning blog Huffington Post, on the United States gun policy. The point the author brings up, “I accept the NRA slogan that: "Guns Don't Kill People; People Kill People". But, call me crazy, I think a person who did not have a gun would have difficulty shooting anybody”, is a really good point and makes you think. I strongly oppose all the current action on the gun policy and I don’t think hand weapons should be easily accessible. “The irony to me in this argument is that the danger caused by the vast prevalence of weapons in this country has been caused, or at least encouraged, in large measure by the acts of the NRA and its advocates. It is their policies which have made guns so accessible and available.” The point the author brings up, “I have read the arguments that restrictions do not work, that gun deaths are down; that restrictions only affect the law-abiding not the criminals, etc., but the numbers of dead and wounded from guns seem to be irrelevant. I read statistics that 30,000 die each year and about 70,000 are wounded by guns, many of whom include children”, hits the argument center in the head; nothing compares to someone’s life. The author’s intended audience is left-leaning adults who oppose NRA. The creditability is legitimate because the author is Judge H. Lee Sarokin, who retired in 1996 after 17 years on the federal bench.

My Thoughts On The Waiting Game

I really agree and understand what the author is saying in The Waiting Game. I think it is very important that you know what is going on and what needs to be done in our economy. The points of interest that the author points out are very important ones. "It is true that more time is needed to show results for policies that are currently in place, including stimulus spending, foreclosure relief and the bank rescue. But it is also clear that joblessness and defaults are worse now than was assumed when those policies were formed. So the need for more federal help is all but inevitable, as are political fights over renewed aid. President Obama may want to avoid those battles until health reform passes, but he still should lay the groundwork in three main areas: Stimulus Spending, Foreclosure Relief, Bank Rescue." I think the intended audience is mostly unemployed, people who have lost their homes to for closure, people in the baby boomers years, and the people who elected Obama to office and are wondering what he has and hasn't completed in office. Also the author's claim proves and brings up a good point, "So why exactly is the Obama administration waiting to act?" This article makes you look back and think about the promises made in the policies and how many of them have been fulfilled. The author brings up a good point about how Obama is waiting till the heath reform passes, but while it's a waiting game, shouldn't the Government be preparing for the next challenges?

Unemployment in the United States

Unless you have been hiding underneath a rock, you know something about our economy and the unemployment. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession.” Unemployment has been rising at an alarming rate and hit 14.7 million just recently in June. This news article from The Wall Street Journal summarizes the current unemployment rate and the rate of people who haven’t searched for work. The amount of workers taking part-time jobs has also been skyrocketing, doubling in this recession. “The average length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest since government began tracking this data in 1948.” Even though our economy and unemployment is dismal, minimum wage is increasing to $7.25 an hour on July 24, 2009. I feel that this article is important to read because it summarizes the current unemployment and makes the reader realize how abominable our economy is.