Writing a Podcast

Hello, everyone. I’m Rebecca Robinson streaming live from my car on this 23^rd day of March 2009. Today we will be discussing the photo radar system in place on freeways in the Phoenix/Metro area and the pros and cons of the cameras. As I drive south on the I-17, a major interstate that cuts through the heart of Phoenix, there are several cameras on the side of the road, clocking the speeds of every car passing by. Some too fast and others at the perfect speed. However, I see absolutely no point in these cameras. They are a flagrant display of city spending when Phoenix continues to go into debt. It takes jobs away from the Highway Patrolmen and continues to effect citizens on a daily basis. Also, it was built using our tax dollars. Basically, we are paying for our own demise.

It is unfair as a tax paying citizen to see our police officers cut and these high tech devices put up. The cameras cause more harm than good. As I drive down the interstate, I continue to approach one of these cameras. As I come within 300 feet of the device, the cars surrounding me hit their breaks to come down to the posted speed limit. Not only does this instill fear in me while driving but it also causes some confusion. Confusion that causes problems especially when steering a two thousand pound moving object. These cameras only catch people who aren’t intelligent enough to read signs. Unfortunate waste of tax payer money.

This is a problem that needs to be resolved. The citizens of the Phoenix/Metro area need to speak out and rise against this issue. And persuade their elected officials to tear down the cameras and use the money for something else. It’s a waste of money and time. And no one wants to receive a ticket in the mail anymore.

Thank you for joining me on the drive for justice. I’m Rebecca Robinson and this was your daily conversation.

Legalizing Prostitution

March 4, 2009

Dear Congress,

Most people would prefer for their taxes to go to improving impoverish school districts, providing healthcare for the sick and elderly or assisting the homeless. Unfortunately, most tax money goes to busting victimless crime rings like prostitution. Prostitution is the oldest form of profession in the world to date and provides at least a million women in the United States with a steady income. As more and more police crackdown on this “crime”, more and more of our tax money goes to supporting these women in jail cells. I believe that the legalization and government regulation of prostitution would increase the value of these women’s lives, increase economic growth, and provide healthier options for prostitutes and their clients. Also, legalizing prostitution would prevent extra taxpayer expenditures especially on victimless crimes. Police would be more readily available to law-abiding citizens who become victims to violent crimes.

Legalization of prostitution would entail government regulations to protect these women from sexually transmitted diseases and sexual abuse. Most prostitutes fear being raped and brutalized as they walk to their secluded corner or jump in the strange white car without headlights. They literally fear for their lives every day. Regulating prostitution to strictly brothels or assorted parlors would prevent sex crimes and violence against these women. Also, the government would be responsible for enforcing continuous STD testing for both the prostitute and clientele which could prevent the spread of major diseases like AIDs. Regulating prostitution would empower women and make them feel in control of each situation they encounter. They would be given an opportunity to break from the cliché cyclical rut of drugs, money, violence and jails. Legalization and decriminalization would place value on these women as engaged, hardworking citizens in the United States.

It might be hard to let go of those puritanical ideologies that make this profession illegal. However, no one is sitting around critiquing your professional decisions as a politician. And allow me to point out, politicians are not the most honest, trustworthy valuable people in this world either. Before anyone judges these women, who were technically put in the position of desperation by welfare and government projects, I should suggest that you ask yourself a few questions. Have you ever been hurt or injured by prostitution? Did a prostitute try to maim you last night or step out of the street in front of your pricy Escalade? Has a prostitute ever tried to kidnap your child on their way to school? Does prostitution really affect you? Besides overspending citizen money to prevent prostitution (which it will never go away), how does it hurt you or hurt anyone else? It’s the woman’s choice to use her body or sell it to the highest bidder. Not yours. Not the governments. And it’s definitely not a politician’s place to say whether or not someone is morally secure or bankrupt.

I ask you to allow these women to rise from the slums, dark alleys, and brutal situations and legalize prostitution. As a political entity, it would be your responsibility to regulate these brothels and the clientele to ensure safety and development. Also, it would bring in revenue and economic growth to the cities and areas in which it is legalized. Women would be able to live without fear of discrimination, murder, brutality or a drug induced rut. It would be safer and healthier for all involved. And it would promote individuality among women and men alike.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Robinson

Educational Gaming Open Letter (EXTRA CREDIT)

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To Whom It May Concern:

As the world moves into the ninth year of the twenty-first century, it has evolved into a high tech reality with little limits on the virtual world. Gamers are now able to enter virtual reality through the WII gaming system, three-dimensional graphics and realistic simulations. All improving manual dexterity of the gamer along with coordination, computer literacy and physical activity. Children play these games actively with attentiveness and comprehension. Admit it. Your five-year-old child probably works the computer with more ease and comfort than you do. Children take better to gaming than most adults do. However, these young gamers can work through a difficult puzzle in an hour better than they can work through math homework in the same amount of time. Games involve physical, hands-on interaction to work through difficult scenarios; however, math is the same as it was forty years ago. Paper, pencil, brain. As the world evolves into a technology-based world with more sophisticated televisions, gaming consuls, automobiles, and music players, shouldn’t schooling evolve as well?

Education should employ video games and technology to teach kids basic skills like math, reading and writing. Children learn what they live and gaming provides life experiences that a piece of paper and a mechanical pencil could never provide. It improves function and stimulation of both sides of the brain as children learn to solve puzzles or attentively scan for “bad guys” throughout the screen. They enjoy themselves. Put plain and simply. How many times have you argued with your child to complete their English homework? Compare that to the number of times that you have argued with your child to complete the final stages of their video game. Point: Children are eager to play video games. In addition, children are inherently rewarded in each stage of the video game from gaining life “points” to being able to buy their Nintendog a new collar. Video games are rewarding and encourage use of visual and motor skills that are crucial to child development.

Schools should encourage educational games for children at home to develop important skills that could improve on their functions as a student and as a young person. Teachers and school should help parents develop a gaming plan that restricts times but encourages game play that promotes positivity and productiveness. Also, teachers should work alongside gaming developers to increase the gaming experience for their students and to provide intelligible input. It puts both the student and the teacher in control of the education.

All around, as gaming develops for leisure purposes, gaming should also develop as an educational resource for children. It improves their function as a student and as a growing child. If children are pleased and rewarded during learning, they will remember the interaction and experience better. In turn, students will become more knowledgeable and successful in their career as students. Hopefully, a positive educational experience will leave them with a positive outlook on their future. Gaming will give them exceptional resources, developmental and motor skills that could affect their future.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Robinson

Dracula: The Last Sanctuary and Female Gamers

In Dracula: The Last Sanctuary, Jonathan Harker embarks on an adventure to find and kill Dracula as his wife has become infected by the vampire. His wife, Mina, was a young schoolteacher who also knew shorthand and other skilled trades that women rarely knew. However, she was the obedient Victorian woman until she is bitten by Dracula and fed his blood. Dracula gave her what Jonathan Harker could not: knowledge, power and sexuality. With this, Dracula’s bite symbolizes the infection of modernity in a traditional society. Mina has turned into a new modern woman who is defiant to traditions held in the Victorian era and sexually powerful.

In the PC game, Harker traces Dracula to sewers, crypts, graveyards and abandoned buildings while his wife is supervised by a doctor. The scenes in the game when Mina is present are highly sexualized. Her dress is untactful and she is portrayed as daft and unsophisticated. However, in the book by Bram Stoker, she is the reason the men are able to fight Dracula. In addition, her intelligence and domineering personality is the reason why Dracula wants her as his partner. Without her intelligence and her ability to think quickly, the men would not have been able to kill Dracula. In the game, Mina is not as intellectual as she is portrayed in the book. The sexualized and weakened image of Mina might be unacceptable to women gamers who have knowledge of the book and knowledge of Mina’s actual importance.

It does make sense, however, for the women to be hyper-sexualized as Dracula’s bite creates sexual desire. It’s a part of the history of Dracula. Also, this image of women markets to male gamers as seen in various other video games. Mina’s character is weakened from the book to the PC game as she plays the damsel in distress. Her character is objectified, not classy or tasteful. For games like this one and many others, women typically don’t want to pay forty to fifty dollars “on a product that tells [them] that [they are] a brainless piece of trash and that any value [they] may have as a human being is to be based upon [their]sexuality” (http://spooky.ms11.net/index.html).

Although there are moments of this game that demeans to women, the game is overall decently written and thorough. Historically, it does have it’s flaws but it is designed off a book from the nineteenth century. It needs to make appeal to the modern gamer of the twenty-first century where sex and gender aren’t quite taboo. Dracula: The Last Sanctuary is a decent game for all sexes although it does have its flaws.

Citations

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4440664.stm


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10907.htm


http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/doctrine/dod/fm8-9/3ch8.htm



http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-09-medals-fallujah_x.htm

White Phorphorus

White Phosphorus is a chemical weapon used by most major military units in the world such as the United States, Great Britain and Russia. It’s used in incendiary grenades designed to destroy equipment, buildings and as smoke screens to protect soldiers in combat. As most chemical weapons, these are designed to destroy any object that the chemical contacts. White phosphorus ignites in the atmosphere and burns until all oxygen is absorbed or it is extinguished with water or the anti agent, a copper sulfate solution. Often times, white phosphorus is used against enemy combatants who bury themselves in trenches or foxholes. Upon explosion, the smoke causes mild irritation of the eyes and nasal passages, making it difficult to see and breathe. It’s a well-engineered chemical in times of war that generates momentous gains for the military using it.

Recently, however, the use of white phosphorus by the United States has been under scrutiny by humanitarian organizations and the United Nations. The use of white phosphorus during the Battle of Fallujah caused controversy, as many died due to the adverse effects of this chemical. As white phosphorus explodes, it emits particles into the air, which ignite as they hit the atmosphere. When the chemical explodes during times of close combat with enemies, particles will lodge in skin, clothing and hair and continue to burn. The burn patterns are extremely large and erratic causing second to third degree burns. There is no doubt that the burns are severe and do cause death when not treated properly. However, this is simply a casualty of war. Imminently, people are going to die whether it’s caused by chemical weapons, bullet wounds or bombs. And unfortunately, I cannot and do not have sympathy for insurgents and terrorists who brutally slaughtered our own citizens. These combatants died because they waged war against defenseless Americans.

How can these organizations come after the United States for using a legal chemical weapon especially when we all witnessed in horror as insurgents in Fallujah immolated and slaughtered four American men employed to protect us?

In March of 2004, a convoy of Blackwater USA employees were on a mission to protect a humanitarian aid vehicle delivering food. The city was a hotspot for insurgents; however, it was pointed out as the fastest route for the mission. As they approached the city, the mercenaries were cut off by oncoming traffic and all routes were blocked. The next events were broadcast on live television. Insurgents shot the American mercenaries before the men had time to fire a single round. Their bodies were yanked from the SUVs, set on fire, and dragged through the city by towing ropes as insurgents as young as ten cheered and celebrated. Then, the charred and smoking corpses were hanged over the Euphrates River alongside the city as celebrations continued and the entire world watched in tears.

The United States Military was sent in to retrieve the corpses of their fallen brothers and to regain control of a city infested with insurgents and enemy combatants. Our military took control of a local radio station before entering the territory and warned the citizens to vacate the city or stay inside at all times. Ninety percent of the population flocked to nearby cities as the US military infiltrated the city in the cover of night and smoke screens.

The Battle of Fallujah continued brutally as the insurgents used guerilla and primitive tactics to engage combat. They ambushed our humvees and launched rockets into downed vehicles. Teams of thirty-five men were being ambushed by busloads of enemies and the enemies began to lure Marines into houses to their deaths. Incendiary grenades actually saved lives during these ambushes and allowed ample time for our military to regain control of the surroundings. However, surrounding hospitals began receiving burn victims in the morgues and in the operating rooms. The faces were sometimes unrecognizable and the flesh was absent on parts of the bodies. As bodies piled in, so did the United Nations inquiring about these burns. It was established that the burns were caused by white phosphorus.

The United States was then questioned on their tactics regarding use of white phosphorus and incendiary grenades. I believe such an inquiry was unnecessary considering that white phosphorus is a perfectly legal substance during battle. It’s not illegal under any international law or treaty. Unfortunately, it does burn people when used at close ranges and people will die from its effects. What about all our soldiers that have died by Napalm or being burned alive or slaughtered or beheaded? I haven’t seen the United Nations bring up an inquiry about the tactics of our opposition. It seems as though our soldiers and our military are trumped by terrorists and insurgents. Let’s think about our own military and how many we have lost before we begin to think about how a terrorist or enemy has died. And the entire reason we went into Fallujah was because of the brutality of the attack on our own.

The insurgents were warned to put down their arms. They had plenty of time to decide whether or not they were prepared to die or to live. And most chose death. It’s unfortunate that people are going to die, but should the US be exploited in order to appease pacifists around the world? I think not. If you’re going to play with fire, be prepared to get burned. These grenades protected our soldiers who were ambushed, shot dead or escaping from machine guns. The death of the insurgents should have been the least of anyone’s worries. They chose death and their death shouldn’t take any precedence over the death of our own men and women in battle.

A Defense for the Use of White Phosphorus During the Battle of Fallujah

****Disclaimer: This is just a draft and should not be judged for structure. It’s going to be fixed. To be solely judged for ideas. Thanks.

A four-man team of Blackwater mercenaries was sent into the city of Fallujah on March 31st, 2004 on a mission to protect a humanitarian aid vehicle delivering food. The city was a hotspot for insurgents; however, it was pointed out as the fastest route for the mission. As they approached the city, the mercenaries were cut off by oncoming traffic and all routes were blocked. The next events were broadcast on live television. The American mercenaries were shot to death before they had time to defend themselves. After, their bodies were torched and dragged by towing ropes through the city. Then, the insurgents hanged their bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates. The videos circulated to the families of the Blackwater Mercenaries.

The US military was sent in to not only retrieve the corpses, but to also regain control of the insurgent infested city. This city was surged by terrorists and one house was found to be the place where the journalist, Michael Burg, was beheaded. The goal was to reclaim Fallujah as a free territory and to allow the citizens to live without fear. The US military took control of a local radio station and warned the citizens of the upcoming attack. Citizens were allowed to leave and three hundred thousand, ninety percent of the citizens, flocked to cities outside of Fallujah. The military then began their attack on the insurgents of Fallujah.

During the combat, the military used white phosphorus as a smoke screen to protect the soldiers during their movements through the city. White phosphorus is used by most militaries in the world such as the United States, Great Britain, and Russia. Also, white phosphorus was used by the Israelis and Pakistanis in January of 2009 in the Gaza attacks. It’s used in most incendiary grenades and used as smoke screens to protect the soldiers and equipment during missions. However, the chemical does have adverse effects if it is exposed to the skin or eyes. It ignites when exposed to oxygen and burns until all the oxygen is used up. It’s a wax like substance that soaks easily into the skin and is hard to remove. Basically, it eats the flesh until it hits the bone.

As the battles of Fallujah continued, the surrounding hospitals were getting unidentifiable, burned corpses into the morgue. The corpses were burned to the bone and their faces were unrecognizable. As more of these bodies piled in, the United Nations looked into the deaths. They were caused by white phosphorus. So the United States was investigated for the use of this chemical. However, the use of this chemical is not banned or a violation of any international treaty. White phosphorus is used as a non-combatant chemical, but it does have adverse effects. It’s a known fact that people are going to die during war whether it’s by bullet wounds or by chemicals. People are going to die. White phosphorus has been established as a legal weapon during battles. When the military is in a city to regain its control and bring home the dead, exploited bodies of their comrades, it’s not appropriate to question their motives.

The military did not use excessive force to defend themselves as plenty of our own died at the hands of these radicals. White phosphorus is a legal chemical during war that does not violate any treaties or international law. The battle was actually exploited to prove a pacifist theory that chemical warfare is wrong. What about all our soldiers that have died by Napalm or being burned alive or slaughtered or beheaded? Let’s save our own military before we think about the deaths of terrorists who tortured. This is war and death is going to happen. These terrorists deserved death and that was our mission. It’s like saying that a rapist shouldn’t go to trial because he might end up being sentenced to death.

It’s a perfectly legal weapon in times of war, and no treaty is going to be signed against it. For all militaries in the world use some form of white phosphorus as a weapon. It’s an accepted use of a weapon. If you’re going to light a stove, be prepared to get burned.