debatechick's blog

Today the UK finally launched it's FBI based national law enforcement program called "The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)" SOCA will function like the US's FBI agency, but will specifically focus on "people-trafficking, drug smuggling and fraud," according to Reuters. SOCA will visit and train with the United State's FBI and DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) before standing on its own two feet. UK prime minister Tony Blair told reporters that he and the British government believe that organized crime has gotton out of hand in the country and it is time that the government put a cap on it. "We know this organised criminal activity takes place," he told reporters. "The level of sophistication, the level, frankly, of brutality, with which many of these gangs operate today, means that we have to (operate) differently."  Read More »

In the largest study to date on the subject of prayer and its power to heal patients, or speed up their recovery, scientists found that prayer did not increase patients' survival rate. The study was conducted on patients who underwent heart bypass surgery. Ironically, prayer had the the exact opposite effect on the patients.

Researchers divided patients into three groups with six hundred patients in each group. Two groups were told they might or might not be prayed for. One of those two groups was prayed for, while the other was not. There was no significant increase in the recovery rate of those patients who had been prayed for.  Herbert Benson, a physician at Harvard Medical School in Boston stated,"We were not studying the relaxation response in this study. We were studying the extension of that. Could external prayer perhaps do the same thing? In this particular study, we did not find that was the case."  Read More »

This does have a vailid point. Please read until the end before giving up! One aspect I hate about public schools is that when you want to have an intellectual debate it is almost impossible. I am not trying to say that I am smarter than everyone else, but rather that most of the students at my school do not care about their studies or politics. They boys are going to junior colleges for sports, and most of the girls are going to cosmetology school. They do not strive to be better or to do their best at all. In English we are currently working on an academic essay. It is college preparation english, and the essay is supposed to prepare us for the types of essay which will be required at four year colleges. We have peer revison groups that are randomly picked by the computer with five people in a group. Its sounds like a great idea, students working together, but it is not. Half of the students in my group sit around and talk because they are not going to a four year college. Which leaves only two of us actually trying to accomplish anything, which is hard when so many people are talking, and eventaully we too give up and are drawn into their conversations.  Read More »

Today the United Nations Security Council "urged" Iran to halt its nuclear-enrichment program. The International Atomic Energy Agency will report back on Iran's compliance within the next thirty days. While "urged" is not the word I would have used in the resolution, beggers cannot be choosers. At least the Security Council is taking a step in the right direction. Originally, the documents called Iran's program a "threat to international peace and security," however China and Russia refused to pass the resolution with such accuasations included. In other words, China and Russia do not want the council to pinpoint their nuclear-enrichment programs next, so they are against even mentioning the word "sanction" when speaking of Iran.  Read More »

Yesterday during his long awaited trial, Zacarias Moussari confirmed the government's suspicions that he had been involved with the Al Qaeda and was supposed to be the "20th hijacker" in the September 11 plane hijackings. Moussaoui told a federal jury that his aprehension beforehand prevented his participation. He also claimed that Richard Reid, AKA the "shoe bomber" was also to have been a member of the hijacking team. Moussaoui justified his previous denial of affiliating with the Al Qaeda so that the atrocities planned for September 11 would occur regardless of his arrest. Prosecution is now trying to charge Moussaoui with capital punishment claiming that his scilence led to the deaths of over 3,000 people.  Read More »

 As a fellow blogger of mine observed in the blog, Whats Next For Politics?, it seems as if we, as in us progressive u bloggers, have run out of controversial topics to talk about. I have two responses to this. First, the lack of controversial issues is a GOOD thing, not a bad thing.  Not for our personal blogs neccessarially, but for the nation and the world it’s a miracle! But I cannot blame anyone for expressing this depressing sentiment. When I was in policy debate, I used to get really mad when the government fixed the problem that I was proposing fix in my case. I would have to start all over and write a new case. I envied the debaters whose problems never got fixed and thus their case stayed alive all season, until I realized one day how selfish I was being. I was actually hoping bad things happened in the world so I could have a good debate season. That’s SO horrible.  Read More »

Im not sure whether to feel sorry for Bradley's basketball team or not. On one hand I really do feel their loss. Its amazing that as a 13 seed they made it to the third round of the NCAA tournament, and I would have liked to see a 13 seed upset a 1 seed. Plus, being the huge KU fan that I am, I wanted to see Bradley make it to the top to justify KU's loss to them in the third round. Bradley's win against Pitt sort of avenged my beloved team's loss, but not as much as seeing Bradley beat Memphis would have. On the other hand, I'm glad to see Bradley get a taste of their own medicine!  Read More »

Last year, Terri Schiavo's medical trial, which finally came to a head after a Supreme Court decision, caused a wave of uncertainty regarding the adequacy of the guidelines used to decide whether or not a person should be removed from life-support. Schiavo's husband, Micheal, wished to take her off of life-support; she had been unresponsive for over a decade and her doctors provied evidence stating that she was clearly in a vegatative state and could not be revived. However Terri's parents wished her to remain on life-support because they believed there was still a chance she could recover. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that the decision laid in Terri Schiavo's husband's hands and not her parents'. There was more to the story, or shall I say drama, but Terri Schiavo is not the highlight of this post. Her story is merely meant to serve as a reminder of a recent court decision with regards to removing persons from life-support.  Like Schiavo, Haleigh Poutre, 12, appeared to be in a vegetative state beyond recovery. State legislature, supported by medical staff at the institution Haleigh was being held at, battled to have her misery ended. Like Michael Schiavo, they won their case. But before their plans could be carried out, Haleigh awoke, causing a ripple of hope for other unconscious patients around the world and more questioning of the unsatisfacory requirements used to determine whether to remove persons from life-support.  Photo found in The Boston Globe's report.  Read More »