Did You See That?!?!?!

            One particular blog post that caught my eye was one about UFO’s, which was written by Pakou Thao. I honestly have never put much thought to this subject, but when I did stop and think about it, I was somewhat undecided.

            My realistic, scientific, not wanting to be called crazy, side tells me that there is no way that a life form that advanced could possibly exist in our solar system. It took eons and eons for just the simplest life forms to develop. To this day there has been no concrete evidence to support that aliens do exist and are thriving on another planet. Steve Mizrach, of Florida International University, explains how the media has brought about the hype of UFOs. He believes that UFOs are now just a part of our culture and will really never go away, but they should not be regarded as factual or real. I agree with what he is saying, with TV and especially the Internet, news of UFO sightings can span the globe in a matter of minutes. Whether it’s for the attention or the person honestly think they saw a UFO, the pressure of our culture definitely plays a big factor in the number of UFO sightings.

Now in saying all of that, I can believe that there are some forms of life out there. On Mars there could be a very primitive form of a potential cell of a bacterium. This could someday develop into human-like beings, unless humans interfere and totally screw them up. The facts behind UFO’s just won’t let my mind believe that there are such things as advanced as humans out there.

            So in a way I do agree with P.K. in the fact that there could be very simple life forms out there on other planets, however I do not believe that there are anywhere near as advanced life forms as humans. The probability is just too small and there is no evidence to support the thought. 

A Final Look At Healthcare in America

The debate over healthcare is quite controversial and Americans can’t seem to find a solution that the majority agrees with. Honestly the solution, that I think is the best, is universal healthcare. Money is a huge factor in this debate and as sad as it may seem, I believe it’s the factor that American citizens weigh the most in their decision. On average the government and insurance companies charge an uninsured citizen $1,103 each year. On the flip side, they charge insured Americans $3,809 each year, making the costs of health care three times larger for the insured versus the uninsured (Kang, 2009). Obviously by doing this insured Americans are having more of their hard earned money taken away because of something that is almost entirely out of their hands.

  Of course there is always an opposition to any argument. People not in favor of a universal healthcare system say that nothing is free; Americans would just be paying for this new system through taxes, instead of their insurance premiums (Wilensky, 2009). Statistics do show that industrialized countries that do have a universal healthcare system do have higher income taxes than the US. These statistics were given in 2009 by Marcia Clemmitt portraying the percent of income tax for each country: US 28.3%, Canada 33.3%, Germany 36.2%, England 36.3%, and France 43.6%. By these numbers countries pay a higher income tax as compared to countries without a universal healthcare system, but what these numbers don’t show is the amount of income spent on healthcare, which would be very interesting to see (Clemmitt, 2009).

Please help the passing of universal healthcare in the United States. One thing people can do is contact their local government officials. A few people you can contact in the Madison and Wisconsin area are:

 

Mayor of Madison

Dave Ceislewicz

608-266-4611

210 MLK, Jr. Blvd.

Room 403,

City-County Bldg.

Madison, WI  53703-3342

 Wisconsin Senators 

Russell Feingold

202-224-5323

506 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

Feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.html

 

Herb Kohl

202-224-5653

330 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm