Medalist leaves Olympics after racy pics hit Web

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/20/lago.snowboard.pictures/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

In the Vancouver 2010 olympics, bronze medalist Scott Lago in the snowboarding halfpipe competition volunteered to leave the olympics after the pictures, shown above, were released on the TMZ.com website. He was not entered in any events the following day. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt said that Lago needs to keep a "responsibility of proper conduct and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable". However Lago is not the first olympian to be in a situation such as this. In the previous years there have been a few athletes that have not meet the expectations of the USOC that monitors the athletes on and off competitions.

Do I believe that the olympics needs to keep order to the athletes? yes. But there needs to be specific details regarding what is and what is not acceptable for the athletes to do. I do not believe that these pictures should have lead to Lago having to leave the games. Some say that they are distastefull, and i do agree that to some people they may be offensive. However, I do not beleive they are as bad as they are made to sound by the press. I honestly would not have thought pictures like this would lead to the removal of an athlete from the games. Whoever asked Lago to leave made a mistake.

Two arrested in connection with Texas church fires

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/21/texas.church.fires/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

The article is about a couple of men that were caught and were being accused of starting the fire of a church in Texas. Officials did not think that this was the only incedent that the vandals were involved in. They are believed to have started 9 of the fires in churches around the area in the days leading up to their arrest. The officials have yet to identify a motive to their crimes. The fire starting duo was caught by the finding of DNA.

My initial reaction is bewilderment. Why in their right minds would anyone want to set fire to a church? I have heard of serial killers and such but never a serial church fire starter. It seems like a very pointless and disturbing act. I could perhaps see if they were unhappy with a particular churches doings but when it is 10 unrelated churches I begin to think maybe mental problems are coming into play.

Man has court date on rape charges

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/10/new.york.teen.rape.case/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29
The article is about a man that has kept a 13 year old girl locked in his house for the last 6 months. The police had been searching for the girl. However this is not a cut and dry case because there is a friend of the defendant that is saying he was simply helping the runaway girl. No one knows for sure if the sex was consentually, although still illegal, she may have been in a relationship with the man.I find this repulsing that a full grown man would keep a 13 year old girl locked in his basement for his own sexual pleasure.
I think there should be a more severe punishment for people like this than people that even murder people. Not only did this girl have to deal with the physical abuse at the time of the incident but will for the rest of her life be forced to deal with the past. Is this consentual? I do not think that at any point a full grown man should be allowed to have sex with a girl that is 13 years of age. No matter if the parents agree to it, that simply means that those parents should be inspected by a child endangerment agency of some sort. If the parents did in fact know of the whereabouts of their daughter why would they lie to the police and if they did they should be locked up for a long time.

Issue #2 Spending What We Can Afford

The issue is the federal budget. This is a subject controlled both by the president and the congress. First, the president develops a budget that will then be sent to congress to be overviewed. This budget decides where the money will go and how much will go to each program. However, excessive spending is currently threatening our entitlements. Now congress has passed a bill that limits spending to a pay as you go basis. This plan may also be known as "paygo". This plan will limit the borrowing of money that is going on and will only allow the spending of money we already posses. A benefit of paygo is that it will cause congress to open their eyes to the deficits in the nation. The downfall of the paygo program is that people are believing that it will just cause taxes to go up and not bring a solution to the debt. They believe that deficits can be taken care of by economic growth. Also there is a fear that in a time of need the government will not be able to recieve the amount of money necessary.

I do not believe in pay go. I am not positive it will work and I don't feel as though the government should waste the time, effort and more money on a silly way out. More important than implementing a program, should be a close monitoring of the dumb places our tax dollars are being spent. How do we only spend the money that we have if we are in debt and have no money? There is no logic behind this plan. What about when we need the money? If there is a major catastrophe do we need to wait until we have enough money to deal with the situation. Until we have enough money do we just put the problem on the back burner and move on with our lives. I'm not saying we can continue the ridiculous amounts of spending that we are doing now, I am just stating that paygo is not a good program, loaning money is normal and necessary. Jim Horney is the Director of Federal Fiscal Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he specializes in federal budget issues. This is a man who dissagrees with the new plan.

Issue #1 War Dollars

Issue #3 Social Insecurity