The article that is the most interesting to me would be, "Is Honest Labeling the Best Policy."
I chose this article because I happen to be a person who would like to know what it is exactly that Im eating.

Whole Foods announced that they would be the first retailer in the country to label all goods containing genetically modified organisms in its 339 stores by 2018. Whole Foods co-chief want its customers to know what's in the food their buying and putting into their body. While I like this idea, I think their too expensive, they need to not only have honest labeling but be more affordable. People who cant afford expensive healthy food deserve honest labeling too. I agree that honest labeling should not be mandatory as it will only mislead consumers over ingredients that have been deemed safe.

While I may be against GMO labeling, here's a list of a few company's that are all for GMO labeling:


People have a right to choose wether they want to know what their eating or not. I choose not to know because I feel, i've been eating the same stuff since I was born. I don't want to be confused by all these labels. About 70 to 80 percent of processed foods sold in the United States are made with genetically engineered ingredients, including corn, soybeans, sugar beets and cotton oil. Many of these crops have been genetically altered in the laboratory to make them more resistant to pests and invasive weeds, reducing the need for chemical pesticides and making the crops better suited to survive periods of bad weather. Genetically modified crops also significantly increase per-acre yields, reducing the demand for farmland.

The Chron  quotes UCLA molecular biologist Bob Goldberg, who told the paper, "Bioengineered crops are the safest crops in the world. We've been testing them for 40 years. They're like the Model T Ford. There is not one credible scientist working on this that would call it unsafe."

We have been eating GMO's for decades, why now is it such a big deal?

A website: (http://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html) Is all for GMO labeling and gives reasons why its a good thing, such as:

GMOs are often genetically created artificially to tolerate herbicides, made by Monsanto and others, that kill weeds. The herbicides contain glyphosates. Monsanto's Roundup weed killer is meant for Roundup Ready GMO crop seeds. It's an extremely toxic glyphosate agent.

Glyphosates greatly harm grazing animals and pollute the wells and groundwater of farm areas where they're used.

They create sterility and birth defects among animals and humans. Most of the honey bee die-off, or colony collapse, is attributed to glyphosates. If enough pollinating bees disappear, our food chain is endangered further.

Glophosate's chelating capabilities remove minerals from the soil where they're sprayed. So crops get increasingly worse while increasingly abundant Roundup resistant weeds, or super weeds, force farmers to add more toxic materials to Roundup.

It's a vicious cycle for farmers who, conned by greater production promises, unwittingly signed on to Monsanto Roundup Ready GMO binding seed contracts. Monsanto uses patent laws to litigate against farmers whose non-GMO fields are contaminated by GMO fields, forcing smaller farms out of business.

Most farmers fold because they cannot afford the litigation. American farmers are attempting to organize against mostly Monsanto's GMOs. European farmers have managed to resist thus far.



Here's why I believe they are wrong: The public is divided among individuals who believe that GMOs are bad, others who think they are valuable, and many who are basically indifferent. The last group may not see the damage of requiring labeling of GMOs since they do not see the big loss. However, labels make a difference. A labeling requirement creates a stigma effect that will reduce the demand for GM products and may reduce investment in new GM traits. The net effect will be to slow the development of agricultural biotechnology, and this in turn may negatively affect health, the economy, and the environment. It is actually counter-productive to the many environmental and social goals that we cherish. Therefore, labeling of GMOs will be a step in the wrong direction.

The new information that I learned from this class is how to understand politics which I never did before this class. I learned to fully hear both sides of a story rather than just going from what I believe and think. Im a more open person now.I don't believe everything I hear or see in the news or tv. I make up my own opinions about certain articles I see rather than believe what they want me to believe. I have learned about the troubles we are facing with finding a better source of energy that is also cost effective, as well as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ive become more aware of whats going on in the world around me.


The new skills that ive learned from this class is to how to blog now..lol. Ive learned to have conversations about the world around me rather than shrugging it off and acting like its not my problem. Ive become more informed thanks to this class.

Because of this class ive found that I am a smart person when I actually try hard enough. Ive found that I am an independent which I wasn't sure of till this class. I understand politics a whole lot more now. I find myself have serious long conversations about politics now, which is weird because I never cared to know about, let alone speak about politics. I cant say too much about my performance as a student other than, I wish I had more time to really get into the work I did and to not miss any assignments.




I have to say, I wouldn't change anything about this class, everything was presented to us in a clear understandable way. I understood all of the assignments and questions, we also had plenty off time to get our assignments done. We also had a great instructor.

The knowledge or skill I will take from this class is to always listen to another persons point of view and not to be closed minded. I also will make my own opinions about the things I hear or see and not believe everything I see or hear on tv in articles. I will aslo take with me my awesome ability to research like crazy (never knew i could do that..lol).



My favorite topic to write about was the Boston marathon bombing, simply because it was close to home.Im only 30 mins from boston. Those poor people did not deserve what happened to them. The war on terror is deffinatley not over.



Thank you so much for giving us your time. I really enjoyed this class and only wish that I had done better with getting the assignments done. This class has taught me a lot and I will continue to use it in the future.

On Monday April 15, 2013 the day of the Boston Marathon there were 2 explosions that resulted in 3 people dead and 264 injured. When I heard about this I was so shocked, I was sitting at home with my 2 children and watching the Fox 25 News like I usually do. All of the sudden there was breaking news saying that 2 bombs had just gone off at the marathon in Boston. At first I didn't want to believe it, I tried to convince myself that maybe a small gas pipe blew and everything was fine, but then it was confirmed that they were in fact bombs. I then got tons of phone calls from family and friends telling me to watch the news and asking if my fiancé Joe was okay, due to the fact that he is in the army and they were wondering if he and his unit got activated, which they had. I never thought something like this would happen.


What the city, the nation and the world can learn from the Boston Marathon bombing is complacency is dangerous, you should never stop paying attention to your surroundings because the world is such a dangerous place, we should always keep in the back of our minds that unspeakable acts of hatred and violence can and do take place, also the war on terror is far from over.



In order to become stronger from this atrocity and move on from it, we as a people must not show the world that this is going to keep us down in any way. We must make sure next year's Boston Marathon is even bigger and better than this year's, and embraces a stronger sense of pride and love for the city of Boston than ever before. We must stay strong in times like these and make sure the world audience sees how professional and competent our authorities are in dealing with messes like this one, and we must also provide the world with the truth that no matter what happens we as Americans will always overcome anything that anyone tries to throw at us to slow us down.
I feel like the next step we should take is to bring swift justice to those responsible for this hateful statement. Whatever we ultimately decide to do to these cowards it should come fast and hard, as we certainly don't want people to think they can commit a crime on our sacred soil and get away with it with a light sentence. Our criminal justice system is a fair one, but it should by no means appear soft to the world or else I fear that more events like this one will be inevitable in the months and years to come.
I learned that the people of Boston, both citizens and the public safety officials alike, are way prouder and stronger than I ever imagined, and that's an amazing thing to be able to claim. I also learned that no matter how long we attempt to eradicate terrorism and the extremist beliefs of Muslim Jihadists, it is near impossible to do so, because whenever we make any progress in eliminating the higher-ups or organizational structures of certain clans or sects of these animals another one always seems to pop up somewhere else at some time or another. The world is an extremely dangerous place, and although unfortunate, it's a fact that there will always exist in the world a number of people or groups of people who want to do us harm. We cannot, by any means, ever become comfortable and think that events like these won't happen again, because they probably will.