"Bridge to Nowhere"

The bridge was supposed to be built to get the residents of
ketchikan, alaska to their airport. The government promised it
over 30 years ago, in the form of an earmark. But
the governer there, who is now a running mate for McCain,
stopped it before it had even begun to be built. I believe
that the reason it's so famous is because Sarah downplayed the
demand for the bridge, like it was a pointless waste of taxpayer's money.
The writer is angry because it wasn't like the state of Alaska was
asking for something completely pointless. The resident's needed the
bridge to get to their airport. I'm sure that if they didnt have a way to get to the airport
in LA, the government would make a huge deal, and not take 30 years to do it.
I agree that the writer of this article had plenty of evidence to change anyone's opinion
on the issue. He had statistics about the population of their city that proved how needed the bridge was. For instance, i'm sure 1 million visitors deserve a bridge to get across to the city they came to see.

Zackaria's Premise

I would have to agree that Zackaria's premise, that we should save more and consume less.
Although the recession we're going through is hard and will only get harder from here,
we as a nation should have thought of the consequences of the way we used our money.
What i dont understand is why there was never a complete revamp of the entire economy after all of the minor recessions we faced before. Our economy has always been an unstable one, and
yet we just let it stay like that, with our all-american blind optimism.
I think when Zakaria said that this is better for us in the long run, he really got me. Because it is true, the only way we learned how to deal with our economy better was through experiences like the Great Depression. That was a mistake that our country paid for greatly, and although we changed things around quite a bit after the depression, we haven't changed them enough.
My greatest concern is that we get a president that is smart enough to make the right financial decisions for our country. I'm tired of america getting these power-hungry idiots in office, only waiting for their next big public appearence and hoping that the problems they face in office will lay dormant until the next idiot gets elected. What our country needs is another FDR to pull us through. Someone with the country's combined love and respect, with intelligence and wisdom, and someone who isn't backwards like the rest of our public officials.
I hope that our country learns a lesson and changes enough to not put our citizens through another great depression, because although it was a learning experience, we suffered a great loss over it, one that our country shouldn't have to face again.

Stephen King's Article on Prescription drugs

In all honesty i think that Stephen King has a major point. It's sad to me that
drug companies spend more time worrying about marketing than they do about
the side effects of their medications and how to make them any better. Nowadays,
many companies have no problem being crooked, backward, two-faced, or anything
you'd like to call it. As long as they make bank on their products, they dont care about
what it does to the consumers, as long as it goes unnoticed.
What bothers me is that people who watch these ads start turning into
hypochondriacs, assuming that they have that exact disorder, or illness,
and need that medication. Especially if it's a "quick fix" like Stephen King mentioned.
As Americans, our tolerance for pain and suffering has gone down to pretty much nothing.
I think that if anything, the Federal Government should start monitoring what these drug companies put in their medications a bit more closely.
What i dont understand is how they put some of these chemicals into these
drugs without considering the long term consequences. They're trying to get
rid of herbal remedies, when herbal remedies are so much better for you than
the lab-created crap they put in their pills. I think that drug companies are just like
oil companies, they'll stop at nothing to get as much money as they can, even if it means
screwing over all Americans in the process.

Sammuelson's Point

I think his point is that we need to be careful and take more action.
What i dont understand is how come we've dropped into so many recessions
and yet we've never done anything drastic to prevent another depression.
What i hope happens is that we get anothe president like roosevelt to pull us out
of this possible depression we may be having.
I think he feels this way because of all of the times he's mentioned
the differences and similarities between the problem we're having now
and the depression in '29.
I think he feels that although we're dangerously close, we are not in a depression
yet, and that there is still hope for us to pull out of this.