The Return of the Prodigal Son
The year 2000 was publicized as the start of the new millennium and many people feared the implications. But the new millennium actually started in January 2001, and has the potential to be more like the Christian catastrophe that the prophets predicted.(alliteration)
On the heels of a controversial election (personification), the prodigal son(metaphor) has swept into the White House like a plague sweeping down on Egypt.(simile) While the Republicans chant the tax-cut mantra, the environmentalists scream Armageddon. Will a GOP-run government be rapture or The Rapture?
Bush's tax-cut plan was largely responsible for his entry into the White House. An early headcount (synecdoche) indicated that people would vote for a man who offered tax cuts. But as more details become known about the plan, people are starting to question its fairness.
Early figures indicate that fully 43% of the tax cut would be dedicated to the richest 1% of Americans, while most would receive a mere pittance. Those making less than $39,000 a year would receive only 12% of the overall cut. And as the waters bloody with tax-cut morsels, the sharks are beginning to circle. Business and special interest groups are all fighting for a share of the Republican chum. War.
In the final days of the Clinton administration, Slick Willy pulled a fast one on the incoming oilman. He locked up 5.6 million acres of federal land as national monuments using his power of Executive Order. The executive orders are reversible but most feel it would do irreversible harm to the Bush administration. In fact, since the days of Teddy Roosevelt when this practice started, an executive order concerning national monuments has never been reversed by an incoming President. This gives the environmental groups a lot to cheer about.
But Bush has his sights set on these lands as the future oil wells of America. By creative use of 'land management plans', he hopes to open this area for exploration and eventual drilling. The Green Party is appalled.
One of the primary targets of George W. and his merry men is ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Bush professes that he's not a robbin' hood, but a Robin Hood.(antithesis) He would like to steal from the oil rich north and give to the energy poor people of the south (read California). After 200 years, the cowboys are still after the Indian's land.(irony) His critics point out that California gets less than 1% of it's power from oil fueled power plants and that the amount of oil in ANWR would likely amount to little more than a 6 month supply.
My opponents 1st/2nd/3rd contention was the drilling in the ANWR will harm the environment. This is absolutely incorrect. Lets put this into perspective, the ANWR is 19.6 million acres out of Alaska, which is 240 million acres. The proposed drilling in the coastal plain will be 1.5 million acres. Now, with the new technology we have today, we can tap into the 1.5 million acre oil supply with an oil area that is 2000 acres. 2000 acres is 1/10000 or .0001% of the ANWR. 1.5 million acres of oil and a minuscule possibility of harming at max, 1/10000, I repeat 1/10000th if the ANWR. (Arctic Power)
In the short story “The First Born Son” by Ernest Buckler a father named Martin has an objective to have his son David live and grow up on a farm like he had. Unfortunately, as David grows up, he soon realizes that he is not suited for the farm life, and develops a wish to live in the city. David struggles with the farm life and Martin finds himself having troubles living with his son when he discovers David’s wish to live the city life rather than the farm life.
The environment needs protecting because even before the drilling started hunting was rapidly decreasing the amount of animals in the area. So if drilling occured in Alaska the animal count would go down even more. Drilling is gonna need space, and because Alaska is a mountained and woodland area they will have to make space by destroying trees etc. Destroying trees means destroying animals’ homes. According to document E ‘just look 60 miles west to Prudhoe bay- an oil complex that has turned 1,000 square miles of fragile tundra into a sprawling industrial zone containing, 1,500 miles of roads and pipes’. Also the document states that the would be
Though ‘Reaganomics’ was successful both at controlling “stagflation” and promoting economic growth, it has and always will be an extremely controversial topic regarding the redistribution of wealth. Immediately after being sworn into office, Reagan implemented the first of many tax cuts. The Economic Recovery Tax Act passed in 1981 took 20% off taxes from top income levels and 25% off taxes from all lower income levels. Additional tax cuts, enforced in 1986, lowered taxes for those with high incomes by another 28% and those with lower incomes by 15%. These cuts were enacted based on the principle that tax breaks for the upper echelon of society would encourage investment and spending, creating new jobs for lower income individuals.
Whether or not to keep or discard the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, give tax breaks to the lowest tax bracket, and even throwing out the entire current tax code and replacing it with a simpler version, tax code and tax law has been a very controversial topic for the past few years. As it stands, the current tax code has over seventy two thousand pages, compared to the four hundred pages it had in 1913. There are many different stakeholders in this debate including taxpayers, corporations, businesses, etc. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is an organization that was “founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan”(.N.p.). Their goal is to create and advocate for a simple flat tax,“...on the belief that they will provide a strong stimulus to investment, employment, and output” (Stokey 1). They promote their organization and represent taxpayers in all fifty states. Along with tax reform, ATR also advocates for individual health care, free trade, and spending transparency (.N.p.). Using very simple and easy to understand images, ATR is able to convey their goals and get information across to the general audience that visits their website.
Although industrialization revolutionizes America, it possesses devastating effects on nature. In 2003, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was threatened by plans of oil drilling and the construction of roads and pipelines. In response, former United States President Jimmy Carter crafted a speech, found in the foreword to book written by Subhankar Banerjee, with the intent of protecting the reserve. By utilizing diction, imagery and pathos, President Carter was effective in convincing America to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The largest component of the bill was the $288 billion allocated to tax cuts. Businesses as w...
The powerful word choice of Carter shows his opposition to the idea of an oil drilling industry in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As an illustration, Carter uses phrases like, “... windswept coastal plain where polar bears and caribou give birth …”, “... the migrations of tens of thousands of caribou with their newborn calves”,
They have many more things in life going for them that makes their life easier in a lot of ways. These elite ultra rich individuals should be known as the .01%. Everyone agrees it is negative when such few people have such a large control of the wealth. However, they are at another advantage because if we tax them they can take their profit to other countries to better their assets. All of these advantages relate to the bigger picture of one’s socioeconomic status and how influences their success. In order to solve this problem once and for all we must make it easier to move up and down financially by extending opportunity and making the American dream, more than a dream. We can do this by relieving the tax strain on the middle class to help them afford job growth and expansion of their businesses. Furthermore, they will spend more money strengthening and growing our country’s economy. Just like the super wealthy’s investments, our investment in capitalism will take time to
Krugman points out how despite the obvious and ever growing gap between the rich and middle class in terms of wealth increase, Republicans tend to vote for tax cuts for the rich and for decreases in funding for programs that benefit the middle and lower classes of society, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Cutting funds for these services puts the middle and lower classes at even more of a disadvantage than they already were. Meanwhile, the rich receiving more tax cuts means they receive more money, furthering the economic wealth gap and increasing the money they can spend to influence politics. Krugman suggests the solution to the problem is increasing taxes on the
After reading The Next Christendom by Philip Jenkins I found that this book reminded me of a memorable passage from the movie Apollo Thirteen: a military man in the tense Houston control shares with a political figure his forewarning that the tragedy before will be the catastrophic moment for the space program Mission control flight chief Gene Kranz overhears their conversation and addresses it: 'With all due respect, gentleman, I believe this will be our finest hour.' This summarizes the book quiet well as the apparent demise of the western church (when the day comes) is forecasting on its fate over against the perceived adversaries of secularism and post-modernism. Jenkins reminds us that when view through a wide-screen lens so to speak, the inherent threat often yields to a broad outlook of opportunity, painting a clear picture of the future of Christianity in colors unaccustomed to American thinking, outlining the characteristics of the fast growing Christian churches that are outside of Western Europe and US. Jenkins also shows the possibility of conflicts between Christianity and other major religions (such as Islam or Hinduism). Speculating what affects this will have on established churches of having a Christian majority outside the west. The basic premise of this book I think is simply: the heart of Christendom has moved from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, what is surprising about this premise is that the northern hemisphere did not see the move, and still deny that it is moving.
The term millennium does not appear anywhere in Scripture. The idea originated from a thousand year period of time that characterizes the reign of the Messiah. In fact, the phrase “thousand years” is stated six times in Revelation 20. There are three main schools of thought based upon one’s view of the thousand-year reign of Christ. These views are: Amillennial, Postmillennial and Premillennial. Over the centuries these prophetic differences have caused conflict within the body of Christ and are still currently widely debated. Instead of the book of Revelation being the basis of comfort (1 Thess. 4:18) among Christians it has become a bone of contention. However, this controversy should not deter Christ’s disciples from receiving the blessings that Revelation has to offer (Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14). Rather, one should study prophecy under the Spirit’s guidance and look at the data provided within the full context of the Word assessing each of the views for correct motives and presuppositions. Therefore, this paper will examine the nature, timing, and duration of the millennium as well as the occupants of the millennial kingdom and the relationship of Israel and the Church to the millennial kingdom. The aim of this paper is to address “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, ESV).
Now the clock ticked on several fronts: The gradual loss of religious freedom, whisked in a one-world church coupled with global governmental rule already firmly established as wars broke out all over the world. Although these and others were biblically implied events, the looming killer microbe (from the heavens) readied itself for pandemonium. Could it be that they were about to experience a ‘pestilence’ in biblical proportions? Not enough time remained to worry about being cool in the delivery of such an urgent message.
In comparing the book of Revelation to the apocalyptic themed movie Contagion, it is important to realize that Contagion’s plot revolves around an event that causes widespread havoc and could have ended humanity, but never actually does. Revelation, on the other hand, speaks of God destroying the earth and then creating a new earth. The movie Contagion is about the threat posed by a deadly, highly communicable, flu-like virus that spreads a disease with no known cure, kills within hours of the onset of symptoms, and results in mass casualties. As you can imagine, this causes widespread panic and global ch...
Tax cuts are only benefiting the richest people, and will widen the inequality gap between the rich and the poor. A recent report from the Congressional Research Service states, “as the top tax rates a...