News Week 3: Alcohol vs. Marijuana
     Some say alcohol is worse, some say pot is more dangerous, in this article experts chime in and explain the different effects it has on our bodies. Experts touch on topics such as, addiction, influence on driving, weight studies, the dangers both long and short term, and lastly death. The addiction rate for pot is lower than alcohol and there have been less accidents per year regarding driving accidents.There also less deaths per year for people that use pot.
     This article really sheds new light on marijuana. The article talks about the way the two effect people's weights. Studies show that people who smoke at least three times a week are skinnier than people who drink at least three times a week. This article shouldn't justify the actions of using marijuana as a recreational drug, and that we still don't know enough about the drug to decide if it's really safe or not.
Citation: "Is Marijuana as Safe as -- or Safer than -- Alcohol? - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/health/marijuana-versus-alcohol/index.html

News Week 2:

ISIS Executes More Christians 
     This is not the first time it's happened. Yet again ISIS has managed create a more horrific headline than the last. Two groups of what are believed to be Ethiopian Christian's were ruthlessly murdered in two different locations in Libya. Not only did they killed the men, ISIS video taped them reciting verses from the Quran, about the how people who don't follow Islamic beliefs need to pay a tax; this is all stated in Quran's Surah 9:29. The speaker continues to talk about the many chances the Christian's were given to cooperate, and how each time they refused.
     Religion has always been a conflict, no matter how much society progresses, but the execution of innocent men is wrong, and nobody seems to be doing anything. This isn't the first time it has happened, and we all read the headline like it's no big deal. ISIS is terrorizing s many innocent human beings. They haven't only stripped these men of their lives, but they put it on the internet like it's a game. The fact that people can do this to other human beings is sickening. This has to come to a stop, where is the U.N.? Who is trying to stop them? And lastly when will ISIS be stopped?
 Citation "ISIS Executes More Christians in Libya, Video Shows - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/19/africa/libya-isis-executions-ethiopian-christians/index.html



Teens Arrested After Suspected ISIS-Inspired Attack
     Five teens in Melbourne, Australia were arrested after suspected of plotting a terrorist attack which is thought to have been ISIS-inspired. Three of the teens who were of 18 or 19 years old were released, while the other two were held without bail. Australia has about 100 people fighting the middle eastern terrorists, and 150 others that support and provide funding and recruiting for them. Australia has taken multiple measures to stop the increase of terrorist activity.
     The age of these young men is appalling. The fact that people that are still practically children can plot and want to murder innocent people in cold blood is just awful. The growing support is also becoming a problem, because now they are reaching the young impressionable minds. If this continues to grow what will the outback look like in the next 2-3 years? Could Australia be looking at new internal problems that can't be ignored?
Citation "Australian Teens Held after 'ISIS-inspired' Plot Foiled - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/17/asia/australia-terror-arrests/index.html

News week 1: Iraq Claims Control of Largest Oil Refinery

Baiji Oil Refinery outside Tikirt, Iraq.

  

  ISIS announced the their control of several buildings of Iraq’s largest oil refinery.

The group claimed it launched attacks on the Baiji Oil Refinery on Saturday afternoon and had control of multiple buildings by Sunday. Iraqi government has denied the groups claims and says the government still has full control of the facility. This is not the first time ISIS has claimed to have control of the refinery, but the claims also can’t be verified that they don’t have control.

   Many problems can come from ISIS’s control of the oil refinery. The facility refines much of the oil for Iraqi’s private use. If during any of the attacks the machinery was damaged it could hinder the refinery’s production, and lead into bigger problems with the consumers. Being the oil refinery is so large it could affect many of the trading transactions going through the facility. The refinery has been battled over before, seeing that it supplies much of Iraqi’s domestic users. The oil refinery is also only 25 miles from Tikirt, which Shiite militias just took back from ISIS a little over a week ago.
Citation: "ISIS Targets Iraq's Largest Oil Refinery - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/12/middleeast/isis-assault-iraq-baiji-oil-refinery/index.html

"Where is God?"

Miami, Florida Holocaust Memorial

     First of all I interpret the photo as God's hand and his followers grasping for his help, but no one can reach safety. This photo really helps visualize Weisel's loss of faith. "Akiba Drumer had left us....we forgot to say Kaddish." (76-77 Weisel) is the passage I feel it best connects with. The men in the camp have just been chosen for selection and Akiba Drumer has accepted his fate. "He just kept repeating that it was all over for him, that he could no longer fight, he had no more strength, no more faith." (76 Weisel). Weisel is using parallelism to show the loss of strength and emotion, as well as the way he writes it he is very blunt and too the point, that Akiba just cannot do it mentally or physically. As you read further into the passage Drumer says "It's over. God is no longer with us....How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of mercy?" (76-77 Weisel) Drumer can't even bring himself to believe in his God anymore, he begins to question his once unquestionable God is no longer an answer. The God in the photo doesn't have answers either, he has left his followers out to dry, those who still cling to him forget to recite Kaddish for Akiba.

  The people who are still grappling with God's mercy are the ones represented on the arm. Weisel says "if only he could have kept his faith in God, if only he could have considered this suffering a divine test..." (77 Weisel). Using parallelism again helps to enforce the idea that if one clings to God they have the chance of living another day. All of Akiba's friends promise to day Kaddish the day he faces his demise, but they never do, "There followed terrible days. We received more blows than food. The work was crushing. And three days after he left, we forgot to day Kaddish." (77 Weisel). The way Weisel explains themselves is short, blunt and that was that. Akiba was one of the fallen, never reached the safety of God's finger tips.