Torture

                The United States has been known for its freedom for everyone along with fair trial and punishment, as said in the constitution/ bill of rights. This week, huge allegations and information about the CIA shows torture was used on suspects for the thing we crave the most, information. Many allegations have been made, most have been confirmed and it is really sad that our country has these terrible things happening within it. Torture is the worst things you can do to another human being, it’s monstrous and I can’t believe our country would do it, especially in the manner that we preformed it. People defend torture and say that it provides answers, solutions, and vital information to save lives, but it’s not worth it. Torture is the worst, it doesn’t provide answers, and it just provides what the person who is torturing wants to hear. Torturing doesn’t give more information, it gives false hope and conformation of being correct, when really one little lie can stop all the pain.

                The government has been hiding a lot of things from the general public lately. The NSA, spying on us to know our every move and they are doing all of this without anyone knowing about it. There is probably so much more we don’t know about our government and what goes on behind closed doors. Snowden really showed us how much in the dark the public really is.  Sure he revealed government secrets but he showed how much we don’t know about the people who are running the government for us. We had no clue that our calls, our internet searches are all being monitored, everyone is being watched and yet, the public had no clue this was going on.

                The people in power keep secrets, things that they don’t want everyone else to know. It’s the people in power, the people who allowed the torturing with the CIA to happen that we should be mad at. The president, congress, people in power allowed this and approved of it, the people in power have the power to torture anyone without the public knowing about it. It’s really unsettling how much the United States can do, especially without the consent from the rest of the public. The secret cy and power of our government is a serious issue in my eyes and something has to change. You want to know more about what’s going on in our country but you don’t want riots, chaos, or security secrets to be realized to the world, so this whole situation is a double edged sword. 

Royalty

                This week, the Dutch and Duchess of Cambridge came to America, home of the free, rebels of the unjust monarchy, and rulers of the free world. It surprised be really, the hype behind this special couple coming here.   They were at a pro basketball game, went to major fund raising events, and William even had an interview with the president. We (Americans) seem to care a lot more about the royal family than British people seem to.  The publicity they get here is ridiculous with the magazine covers, TV coverage, and “analysis”.

                Today, the British government functions mostly on a democratic level with the parliament and the prime minister having all the power. The queen has little to no say about the running of her country today.  She meets with the prime minister to talk about politics once a week, that’s about it when it comes to running the government.  They shouldn’t even be called a monarchy anymore; she shouldn’t really even be called the queen anymore when she has no power or controlled over the Kingdom.

                So why is she still the queen?  Why is there still so much publicity and hype for a family of people who do absolutely nothing all day but suck up money in some fancy palace? Well one of the answers is they do attract tourists. Millions of people a year go to see the beautiful Buckingham palace to try to get a glimpse of the royal family and feel like royalty. Millions of people buy up the magazines and watch all the media coverage to see and listen in on the gossip of the royal family.  I think women love all the information the most because it takes them back to their childhood when the wished they were a princess or the queen. The royals are such an iconic symbol of the United Kingdom that it seems like they won’t ever leave, no matter how much they cost. It still infuriates me though that people actually care about “what the royal family is up to” or what “Kate Middleton is wearing”, who cares really, in today’s society they are just regular people with a little bit more money. There is nothing special about them as sad as that might be. 

Argh Argh

                Black Beard, Jack Sparrow, and all the other pirates have been long gone for hundreds of years. But now there is a new group of rebels out there, the pirates of the technological age.  They are burning CD’s, taping and recording.  The internet has made stealing from the world so easy. Taking people’s ideas and money has become as easy as looking through a few links and some downloading then whamo - free content from the internet.

                The world is now starting to address this stealing of content. Movies, TV shows, and many other things have been shared and downloaded all over the world. This week, Pirate Bay, a major piracy website that hosts millions of torrents for downloading has been taken down by the Swedish government. Hours later the site was up and running again just as it used to be, it’s scary how these sites can just reappear so quickly and there is nothing government agencies can do about it. It is always said that nothing can be taken off the internet and this is true, especially for torrent websites and major pirating links.

                Piracy is something that won’t go away.  It’s been here for years and it will be even harder to get rid of as technology advances. It’s sad really; creative ideas that deserve attention and money get nothing because people can steal it with little to no work and have to pay no money. It could turn into a serious problem where music, movies, and entertainment become unprofitable due to so many people stealing.  Change is in the making if piracy isn’t somehow stopped.

                Just taking down websites like Sweden tried to do will not work; you can’t just get rid of pirating. People pirate because they want the content without having to pay. Some of them I don’t blame to be honest, cable can cost hundreds of dollars a month just to watch a few TV shows with a bunch of commercials, and it’s ridiculous. Things like Netflix, Cracked, Spotify, and Hulu have changed that, low prices with a lot of content make viewers and the general public happy. It gives people a reason to quit pirating because they can get a lot better quality content with little fees. People need to realize though that pirating isn’t ok, it’s stealing, people deserve the money and the respect for their hard work and that can all be taken away by downloading it for free.