NIS agents post 1.2 mln tweets to intervene in elections: prosecution

The National Intelligence Service agents posted about 1.2 million Twitter messages for last year's presidential election and general elections, prosecutors said Thursday. The NIS has been investigated that the NIS intervene in presidential election when held last year Dec. 19. A special investigation team of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office showed that the alleged operation was not limited to comments on major Internet bulletin boards but extended to Twitter, with NIS agents allegedly posting and retweeting a total of 1.21 million messages ahead of the general elections and the presidential poll. "Of the 1.21 million tweets made by NIS agents, some 647,000 were about the election, and the other 562,000 were about politics," said a lead investigator. The prosecutors said that the 1.21 million posts were in violation of the election law and other relevant laws that ban NIS agents from intervening in politics.  The investigator said that the original texts were 26,550 tweets and these writings have been tweeted, retweeted and automatically retweeted to add up to some 1.21 million posts.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131121000691

Modest Proposal - Air Pollution in China

Modest Proposal

My proposal is that no measures are needed to solve for China’s massive air pollution problem. Air pollution is super common around the world. China is not the only one country who faces pollution problems. So China government does not have to care much and  to take measures to control citizens' behavior. 

Firstly, air pollution in China is not severe. It has not brought too much bad effects. The 1.2 million premature deaths caused by outdoor air pollution in 2010 is not a great number, compared with the overall population of China, which is 1.3 billion. Also, diseases will still come even without air pollution. People are likely to have pneumonia, lung cancer and heart disease as well. 

Secondly, it is impossible to stop everyone from polluting the air, since China is so large in both land scale and population. For example, the restrictions made by the government on road use for private cars with specifically numbered license plates do not matter at all. Restrictions on private cars make people too inconvenient to go to work. Indeed, it makes little contribution to pollution reduction, compared to heavy industrial pollution caused by coal burning of factories, as statistics show that vehicles account for 30% of all air pollution and industrial pollution accounts for 40%.

Overall, China does not have to worry much about the air pollution. People can still drive their own cars instead of taking public transportation. No caps on new coal-fired power plants are needed. We can face masks when go on road. If you feel sick, you can visit the doctor, and then you will be fine. 

Director Zhang Goes “Missing”

This is a piece of news claiming that Yimou Zhang, one of the best-known movie directors in China, could neither be found nor located during the past few days. The ground was that Zhang hid to avoid punishment concerning China's one-child policy from authorities. The warrant was that he had at least seven children and could be liable for a 160 million yuan ($26.3 million) fine! Then the passage backing that Wuxi Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission, a commission of his wife’s hometown, had done everything possible to contact Zhang and his wife. They dispatched a work team that rushed to Beijing to look for Yimou Zhang, and sent many letters to the Beijing Film Group and the Guangxi Film Group trying to contact Zhang, but they could not find the couple at all. A rebuttal of the claim should be that Yimou Zhang is a very accomplished director, who dazzled the world in 2008 with his Beijing Olympic ceremonies. However, the government responded that "No matter who is involved, illegal births will have to be dealt with in accordance with the law." There is only one exception on one-child-policy in China, which is that couples are allowed to have a second child only if one of the couple is an only child.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-11/21/content_17119771.htm

"Modest Proposal" - Obama Rules

Charlie Pray

Comm-1313W

Instructor D. Horvath

Modest Proposal

My proposal is that we support President Obama; especially in his move to force all Americans to turn their weapons over to our government so that we can fully support the Mexican cartel, the most dangerous community in the world. This is the just one of the great things about our president. He holds a personal relationship with Mexican cartels and is giving them a full stock of American weapons that we have paid for. Instead of keeping our private citizens protected and armed (which was placed in our bill of rights), it’s extremely obvious that it is in our best interest to supply drug lords and gangs with enough weaponry and ammo to start a small civil war. Why didn’t we think of this before?

But for now, lets totally forget about the current gun laws that keep weapons away from felons with background checks. We need to make the laws even more extreme, so that nobody is allowed to have a gun unless you work for the U.S. government. Because odds are you are an American citizen with a perfect shiny clean record, you don’t need a gun for self-protection or recreation; it is bad for your health. And while we are discussing health, Obama should also be implementing a law so that we are not allowed to own spoons or forks to eat because they are the reason America is obese.

Overall, I think president Obama is the best president ever. And although he sports the lowest approval rating of all time, I hear that now days if nobody likes you, it means you are doing it right. Chive on, brother.

Korea's economic growth to outperform Japan's growth for 15th year in 2013

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20131118000481

             This article addresses that South Korea's economic growth will continue to outperform Japan's growth for the 15th straight year in 2013. According to the author, the world's third-largest economy may grow at an average of 1.8 percent this year (fact claim). The Japanese economy grew 1.9 percent in 2012. Japan's gross domestic product, such as a gauge of economic performance, grew 0.5 percent on-quarter in the third quarter after expanding 0.9 percent (evidence). According to the author, however, the South Korean economy grew 1.1 percent on-quarter in the third quarter, topping market expectations (fact claim). The Bank of Korea predicts that Asia's fourth-largest economy would grow 2.8 percent this year and 3.8 percent in 2014 (argument by authority). I think that if the Bank of Korea's prediction is correct, Korea's economic growth will continue to outperform Japan's growth for the 15th consecutive year in 2013.

Define an Apology (CNN)

This article was about pointing out the difference between an apology and a lie while discussing President Obama's promise to lift troops from the war in Afghanistan. But as we know, they are still swarming the country through 2014. This is a combination of all three claims: fact, value and policy. The fact is that President Obama and Afghan president Hamid Karzai made several agreements that are being brushed aside. One of which was to end unnecessary home invasions, but U.S. troops are still carrying out. The value claim being violated is that the U.S. is not honoring the security pact between the two countries. Many feel that the U.S. owes an apology for violating the policy (claim) of legal jurisdiction. The author is careful to stay neutral by labeling the situation "a delicate dance of diplomacy." The logos (use of reasoning) referred to is most likely to point out circumstances, basically saying both sides have been at fault by betraying agreements with one another at one point.

Read Here:
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/20/when-is-an-apology-not-an-apology/?hpt=hp_t2

Don’t tell Muslim women what to wear

I read an article, “Don’t tell Muslim women what to wear” on CNN website. The article is about Amira Osman, a 35 years old Sudanes engineer woman, was arrested in Sudan last August and charged with “Indecent dress” A police officer demanded that she cover her hair, but she refused and said that “I am Muslim, and I’m not going to cover my head.” The author Frida Chitis claims that, the right to decide what one wears is a basic freedom even though the matter of whether or not to cover one’s hair may seem like a trivial issue. It obviously seems value claim. She says that, the strict rules by the government or religious authorities dictating women’s attire are almost always the tip of the iceberg. Through this statement, she emphasizes that coercion to cover hair cannot be ignored as trivial issue. This coercion takes away women’s right to make other important choices about their own lives. Frida uses emotional reasons by providing some Muslim women’s cases who charged by the Islamic rules. She points out that, the Islamic rules are strict but conveniently vague. Frida also acknowledges that enforcement to wear a headscarf can be a good way to keep the product of deeply traditional societies. However, she refutes that the societies are changing, and women are part of those societies. Many accept the restrictions, but not everyone is happy with the status quo. She provides evidence from the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, not all Muslim countries impose terrible restrictions on women, but the worst countries in which to be a woman are almost all Muslim-majority states in Africa, the Gulf, and South Asia. The author made value claim, and support her claim by providing evidence from reliable source.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/04/opinion/ghitis-muslim-women-rebels/index.html?hpt=hp_t4