Political Cartoon #4

http://politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/b68c1aae-4b68-4b7b-9350-8cd59b2e9032.html

I chose the political cartoon called "Santa Obamas Lap" drawn by John Cole. It was published on 12/18 by The Scranton-Times Tribute.
This cartoon is talking about how much Obama has on his plate, and how there are still many people looking for jobs. In the cartoon, Obama is dressed up as Santa and there is a boy asking for a job for Christmas. Obama is saying that he will give him a health care bill, military escalation in Afghanistan, and legislation to combat global warming, but never says anything about a job. The cartoon is showing that Obama is doing things for these other issues, but forgetting one of the most important ones.
I agree with this message in the fact that Obama does seem to be working more with these other issues than unemployment. Unemployment is a very big issue, but I don't know how much Obama should be getting criticized yet. He still has time to fix this problem. It's a hard problem to be fixed, but I think he is trying. He obviously has a lot of issues to handle right now and I think he is just making his way down the list, even though unemployment should probably be higher on it.

Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday would have to be Christmas. I love the season, it seems to last longer than any other holiday. Everyone is so happy and giving during this time. I love finding gifts that I know my friends/family will like, and I enjoy getting presents on Christmas day for myself, too. I like how there's special music that you only get to listen to once a year and it seems to brighten people's days. Also, we get out of school for a while for this holiday. For Christmas eve, we go to church and my family comes over and we eat a yummy dinner. Then the next morning we wake up pretty early and all open up presents together. Can't wait, only five more days!

Holiday Decorations in Public

Well since I'm Christian, I personally don't mind all the religious symbols/decorations that are displayed in public. Most of the symbols displayed seem to be Christian, considering it is the largest religion in the world. I don't think it is a bad thing to display these decorations because Christianity is a universalizing religion that anyone can be a part of, its not singling a certain type of people out. People should respect what others' believe, and if they don't agree then they can just ignore it. I don't get offended when I see menorahs or Jewish stars around, I respect the people who think these things are holy. There haven't seemed to be any major problems because of the publicly displayed symbols and they don't seem to be hurting anyone so I think they're okay. It probably wouldn't harm anyone to throw in a couple decorations from other religions just to include more people, though.

Politican Cartoon #3

http://politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/80c768ea-5509-4008-a95d-b10d75c688e7.html

I chose the cartoon "Obama Recieves the Nobel" by Adam Zyglis. It was published by The Buffalo News on 12/10/2009. This cartoon deals with Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday. He is the third president of the United States to win this prize. The committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Obama said he viewed the decision less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as "a call to action."

In the cartoon, it shows Obama looking at his prize, and the Nobel Prize is crossed out to say NoBush Prize. I think this cartoon is trying to say that we might be giving this prize to Obama just because it's not Bush in office anymore. We now have a good president who seems to be taking our country in a positive direction, where a lot of people did not feel this way about Bush. We might just be so happy that it's Obama and not Bush, we decided to give him the prize.

I kindof agree with the cartoon's message. I think that Obama will eventually deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, but not quite yet. I don't think he's been in office long enough or made enough changes to deserve the award yet. People might just have a sudden rush of happiness that we're starting off with a good president after Bush that he deserves some recognition. I think the Nobel Peace Prize is more of an honor for what someone has accomplished, not a "call to action", they should have already performed the action. He shouldn't get the prize for his efforts but more for the results.

Political Cartoon #2

http://politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/86b4a9d5-7b8b-4f91-9b9c-85e50eca86d5.html

This cartoon is called "Obama Job Program". It was drawn by Jimmy Margulies and published by The Record of Hackensack in New Jersey on 12/4/09.
This cartoon deals with two different issues, Obama's efforts of creating job programs and sending more troops over to Afghanistan. It's saying that Obama has created 30,000 job opportunities...they're just in Afghanistan. The cartoon shows a long line of people going into an unempolyment office, waiting to try to get jobs by getting sent over to Afghanistan.
I agree with this cartoon's message, because I think we need to be focusing more on the jobs we can create for people here in the United States rather than in Afghanistan. I don't know yet if I think sending so many troops over is a good idea.

Question 2: Health Care Bill

The Health Care Bill is currently being debated in the Senate. It has already been passed in the House but has been under debate for the past four days in the Senate. There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed in this bill, and I don't think everyone will be able to agree on it. I don't think this one will get passed and we'll have to try to get another one passed.