Court Rules in Favor of Facial Hair

The article, "Ban on Prison Beards Violates Muslim Rights, Supreme Court Says", discusses a recent Supreme Court on a Muslim's right to grow a beard in prison for religious reasons. The prisoner is in an Arkansas prison and was denied the right to grow a half-inch beard. In its defense, the prison stated that the rule was for security issues as they were concerned that the prisoner may hide weapons or a SIM card in his beard. When examining this case, the Supreme Court first looked to see if the ban was burdening to a religious practice, which they deemed it was. The Court then had to see if the defense had a compelling reason for this rule. Justice Alito struck down any notion of a compelling reason by stating that the contraband would have to be very small to keep in a half inch beard while making sure that it did not fall out. Justice Alito also noted that the prison does not have a rule on the restriction of haircuts for the inmates, so a prisoner would be more likely to keep contraband in his long hair instead of his half inch beard. After all of this debate and discussion occurred, the Supreme Court came to a unanimous ruling of striking this prison law down.

In my opinion, I agree with the Supreme Court on this ruling. A man should be able to practice his religion to a reasonable extent while incarcerated. The request of the inmate was reasonable as he did not ask for a full, ZZ top like beard (Picture), just half an inch. It would be nearly impossible for the inmate to hold anything harmful in a beard of that length. Arkansas is one of the few states who still has a ban on short beards for inmates. Shockingly, all of these states are in the South. In conclusion, the Supreme Court made right decision concerning a reasonable matter of religious liberty.

Taxes never go away

In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama discussed the tax situation of our great nation. The article, "Tax Loopholes the President Left Out – for Now", discusses President Obama's proposed tax plans in economic terms. In very general terms, President Obama mentioned closing loopholes on taxes for the wealthy and big end corporations. By closing these loopholes, the President claims that he will be able to lower the tax rate for middle class families since the upper class will be paying its correct amount. According to the article, it will take a lot of tinkering and adjusting to fully close these loopholes. If President Obama's plan is put through, the projected tax revenue will increase from $1.4 billion to $320 billion over the next ten years.

My analysis is mostly positive for this plan. Our country does need more revenue in order to decrease the national debt. However, I feel that it is unfair to overtax the wealthy just because they are successful. If this plan is just closing loopholes that corporations and wealthy people use to get out of what they really owe, I am fine with that. I would have a problem though if they are just raising taxes on the wealthy just to cut those of the middle class. Income inequality is an issue, but I do not believe that increased taxation is the correct answer.

Diversity Comes to Congress

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When a person looks at a new Congress for the first time, a person will first look at the party balance. After that, a person should at the backgrounds of the members themselves. The articles "Most Diverse Congress in History Poised to Take Power" and "The New Congress is 80 Percent White, 80 Percent Male and 92 Percent Christian" outline the demographics of the 114th Congress. The latter headline does not make this new Congress seem that diverse, however, this Congress is, as the first headline stated, the "Most Diverse Congress in History". The highest number of female members in Congressional history will be in the 114th Congress. Another landmark can be found in the election the first African-American Republican woman, Mia Love (Utah). Concerning race, the Congress is mostly White (442) with minorities of African-Americans (46), Hispanics (33), Asian-Americans (12), and Native-Americans (2).  As for the aspect of religion, the Congress is, once again, overwhelmingly Christian. There are, however, some other religions represented including 28 Jews, 2 Buddhists, 2 Muslims, and 1 Hindu.

In my opinion, increased diversity in Congress is a good thing. It shows the reflection on modern times and advancing society. Increased presence of minorities in Congress will hopefully strike a blow to the systemic racism in America (which does exist Vlogbrothers Link). I also like the new ratios between certain demographics as I feel that they proportionally represent the population as a whole in these demographics. All in all, let us all, as citizens, hope that this new, diverse Congress can help advance America and keep Her great.    

Countries actually agree on something!

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The article, "With Compromises, a Global Accord to Fight Climate Change Is in Sight", relates the recent event of 196 countries coming close to reaching an agreement concerning fossil fuel emissions. This is currently happening at a global climate summit in Lima, Peru. The treaty contains achievable goals as each country must publically enact policies that best fit their own situation. However, this brings up the major drawback of this trearty, the standards will be set by each country instead of using global standards. This is supposed to lead to a global deal to be signed in Paris next year with each country bringing its own pledge including the United States.

My opinion on this event is quite positive. It is about time some action was taken to stop the slide of global warming before it becomes a catastrophe beyond repair. It will be hard for the necessary legislation to be passed in the United States because there are still some government officials who do not accept global warming for the fact that it is. Over a decade of scientific research has show that the planet is undergoing an abnormal change in temperature. This is the consensus among the scientific community, and some scientists even consider us to living in the midst of the sixth great extinction in the history of the Earth. The current die off of species is due to gloabl warming and its effect on the environment. All in all, I am glad this legislation has been so that the human race will force itself to advance to more sustainable forms of energy.

Cyberattack with Larger Implications

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The article "Everything We Know About the Massive Sony Hack" describes how the massive technology corporation Sony has been under heavy cyber attack in the past few weeks. The Sony Movie division has been specifically targeted with upcoming movies being leaked, communication systems being shut down, and twitter accounts being taken over. This is really bad news for the company since box office totals significantly drop if the movie is leaked online before the release date. There is suspicion that North Korea is behind the attack because of The Interview, an upcoming movie where Kim Jong-un is portrayed as a target for assassination. North Korea has stated its disgust with this movie and its producer, Sony. The FBI and several United States government agencies are looking into this hack and treating North Korean involvement very seriously. This whole event may lead to even icier relations between North Korea and the United States.

In my opinion, North Korea needs to learn how to take a joke. The movie is a clear comedy that has no deeper, political meaning behind it. I doubt that James Franco and Seth Rogen are high international experts who purposely put subversive political agendas inside a generic, modern comedy. What it really boils down to is another situation where North Korea is going to whine until it gets what it wants from the outside world.

14th Amendment Strikes Down Photo ID Law in Badger State

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While this event may not be as new, I found it to be quite intriguing. This past April, a federal judge, Lynn Adelman, struck down a Wisconsin law that requires state approved photo identification in order to be able to vote. The case was initiated due to two lawsuits against officials on the behalf of residents of Wisconsin (mainly minority groups). Judge Adelman cited both the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act as a basis for her decision. In her decision she stated, "Blacks and Latinos in Wisconsin are disproportionately likely to live in poverty. Individuals who live in poverty are less likely to drive or participate in other activities for which a photo ID may be required (such as banking, air travel, and international travel) and so they obtain fewer benefits from possession of a photo ID than do individuals who can afford to participate in these activities." This will hurt the majority party in the state, Republican, since many of these minority voters are Democratic.

I thought that it was a well written article. The topic was fully covered, and it was nice to have direct quotes from the judge's decision within the article. I am of the opinion that photo identification should be used in all elections in order to help prevent voter fraud. However, I do see how photo identification could lead to the disenfranchisement of minority groups. I can not think of any clear cut solution to this problem at this time because any online program is liable to being hacked, documents of residency can be easily forged or stolen, and government issued papers with a photo on them would be costly and inefficient. Hopefully, a viable solution to this conundrum will appear in the future. 

Key Senate Spot Lost for Democrats

The race for the senate seat in Colorado has been called (Link). Republican Cory Gardner defeated the incumbent democrat, Sen. Mark Udall in a very close election. Gardner's campaign took off in Colorado when he was able to easily put down political attacks against him concerning abortion legislation by Udall. Gardner's campaign was also helped by an endorsement from The Denver Post which helped to propel him to a victory.

The article was well written. However, I believe that it may have been published too soon. The precincts in Colorado are still only at 96% reporting (I was trying to wait until they reached 100% before writing this. Link). This means that, at the time of the publication of this article, the election could have drastically shifted gears. Personally, I am surprised that a Republican won Colorado considering that it is typically seen as a more Democratic state with the recent legislation that it has passed.  On the other hand, looking at the views of Gardner expressed in the article, one can see that he is not a conservative but a more moderate Republican. All in all, the Colorado senate race was a key race that helped the Republican party take control of the senate.