Egyptian Protests

Currently in Egypt, citizens are protesting because they want the president to step down. He has agreed to have another election in September, but citizens are still not happy. Egypt is blocking media and beating anyone with a camera. They beat a CNN reporter, and CNN has resigned not to go back to Egypt. The U.S. has not yet stepped in because we are supposed to be on the side of the people, but we give Egypt 1.3 billion dollars a year in financial aid. Baisically we do not want to lose an ally.

Lawboy-

If We Didn’t

What if we didn’t have the Bill of Rights or any amendments to our country’s constitution? Do you think we would be the same county or not? First, if we could not legally bear arms, there would be tons more illegal weapons, creating an unsafe environment. Citizens would fear authorities because they could be searched at any time and African-Americans would still not be accepted as full citizens. Women wouldn’t be able to vote, and poor men might not be able to either. With all of these problems, we would probably go back to our old form of government. Bottom-line, without the amendments and a process to change the constitution, we probably would have kings and a monarchy again.

Lawboy-

Will You Have a Will?

Wills make many problems. But, it is not the wills themselves; it is more the lack of wills. A will or testament is a legal declaration that is opened upon a person’s death and gives instructions on how to settle their estate. In other words, it tells who gets their belongings: it is usually their children, spouse, and sometimes charities or colleges. It also states in some cases who is to take care of their children, if they are not there to. If people don’t state any one of the above clearly in their wills in most cases will be arguments, big arguments, regardless of the amount of money involved. The gift of money or clarity of intent is replaced by competition among piranha for the carcass of a water buffalo. Maybe there should be a requirement to have a will at a certain age or with a certain amount of wealth. For example, if you renew driver’s license at age 40 or more you have to have a will.

Lawboy-

It's My Jersey and I’ll Sell It If I Want To

Occasionally, sports players will sell their trophies or jerseys. The question is: is it legal? If a jersey must be returned to the team at the end of the sport’s year, clearly it is not legal to sell it. I agree with this law. But, what if the item sold was an award or trophy? The way I understand it, this is legal, but against the unwritten rules of the game. A football player, Terrelle Pryor, and others from Ohio State, sold some of his jerseys and awards and was suspended for five games. I agree that it was wrong of him to sell, but he probably needed the money. Also, I think that if it is wrong for the seller, it is also wrong for the buyer, but they cannot punish the buyer because most likely he is not a sports player.

Lawboy-

To Cap Or Not To Cap

Transaction fees are a minimal price to pay for the convenient use of credit cards, although the government is now saying that these fees are too high and should be capped. The government thinks they should set these caps/limits to about 12 cents per transaction. But, credit card companies like VISA, MasterCard, and American Express want to be able to choose fees. They charge, say, 3 percent of each transaction. I believe there should not be a cap on credit card fees, but the government should reserve the right to put one on in case one company gets a monopoly or companies collude to made fees go up very high.

Lawboy-

Inflation, Lies and the Inevitable Bankruptcy

The currency of the U.S. that the government prints used to be backed by gold and silver. The U.S. left the gold standard in 1933 when President Roosevelt was in office. The government saw that others countries that were not our allies had most of the gold, this was a threat. Also, the U.S. wanted to spend more money than it had in gold or silver. Going off the gold standard seemed like an easy solution to prevent running out of gold reserves, so the U.S. left the gold standard. Since then, there has been a lot of inflation. Year after year, the government just keeps printing money. It seems it prints as much money as it can. This is bad for citizens that try to save money because their savings is worth less and less every year. If the government keeps spending money like this, it will eventually result in bankruptcy for the country. Then everybody’s money is worth nothing.

But now we can’t go back to the gold standard. There isn’t enough gold and silver. The solution is for the government to not print so much money. Everybody has to pay for the things they want or need with money that they have worked for.

Lawboy-

Bail Outs

The US government gave the banks (e.g. Bank of America), insurance companies (e.g. AIG), and car companies (GM, Chrysler, and GMAC) billions and billions dollars to get them out of the tight financial spot they were in. The US government gave a bail out to the banks for them to loan money to small businesses and home owners, but instead the banks loaned the bail out money back to the government with about 4% interest profit. This worked for the banks, but not really anybody else. The US government gave a bail out to the insurance companies so that they wouldn’t go out of business and other businesses could continue to operate with insurance, this worked. The US government gave a bail out to the big US car companies for the same reason as the insurance companies, this worked too but in my opinion it was pointless. The Japanese, Korean, and German car companies could have sold cars just as well as GM and Chrysler. So, I think the government is 2-1 in bail outs which is a not bad soccer score.

Lawboy-