New Principal

I think a principal at Herndon needs to be a very likeable person who has no problem gaining respect.  I think a big issue with our last principal was that he tried to implement too many new policies that students didn't respect or see the need for.  It's going to be important that our new principal is able to encourage the good things already happening and let them remain at HHS while trying to work with the things he thinks need work.  

Political Cartoon-11/22

This political cartoon was drawn by Mike Keefe and titled "Health Blockage". It was published by politcalhumor.about.com on 6/11/09.  The cartoon is dealing with the effects of health care reform on the health insurance industry and the lack of reform on U.S. citizens.  The message is that the health insurance industry is blocking reform because it will significantly decrease its own income because insurance will become more affordable for everyone. The resistance to health care reform  by the health insurance industry is hurting the american public. I do agree with this cartoon's message because finding a way for the health insurance industry to not resist the reform so much could result in being able to offer americans affordable health care.

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/politicalcartoons/ig/Healthcare-Cartoons/Health-Blockage.0yfv.htm

Personal Response

The separation between church and state is something that I think is absolutely necessary in our country. There is absolutely no way that any one religion could apply to our diverse nation and there is no reason it needs to. Religion revolves around personal beliefs and is often shaped by your upbringing and parent's beliefs. Therefore, there are so many varying ideals here and they should just be left to the individual to decide. A nation doesn't need any religious foundation in order to govern its citizens. In the U.S. I think we make the separation more difficult than it needs to be.

Current Event #6

House health bill ready for its closeup-

The house's health care bill was revieled at 10:30 am on thursday. The bill includes and government insurance option and significant expansion of Medicaid. Drug makers are facing somewhere between $125 billion and $150 billion in cuts. That is almost twice the $80 billion they agreed to under the White House Deal. The bill covers 36 million additional people and comes in at just under $900 million. It would require everyone to sign up by 2013 through their employer, the government, or an exchange. Lawmakers say there will be a temporary government program to help people turned down by private insurers during the transition period. The bill will also include a "millionaire's tax" which would tax couples with a combined income over $1 million and individuals with incomes over $500,000.

The revealing of the new bill doesn't necessarily mean that it is ready to be signed or is believed to have majority vote already. Instead it presents information with the hope of persuading enough people to have majority by next week. I think this bill has a better chance at receiving majority vote than the bill that contained the proposal for public option and Medicair rates favored by the left.