Ohio autoworker guilty of helping kill Jews in Nazi death camp

John Demjanjuk, a 91 year old german immagrant was sentenced to 5 years in prison on Wednesday because of his involvement in the Nazi concentration camps. He was a watchman at the prison called Sobibor camp in Poland, and is accused of his role in the extermination of 27,900 Jews. At the trials, he remained in a wheelchair or lying down on a gurney becuase he is to weak to stand trial. It does not look like he will actually be attending prison due to his health issues and his old age, but he may have the potential to spend the next five years in his home under house arrest. His lawyers are appealing the case, saying that it was unconstitutional due to the fact that just two decades earlier he was tried and found not guilty in Israel for the same crimes. Also the fact that his identifaction card that sealed his fate in the fact that he took part in the crimes, is also supposed to be a fake made up by the Soviet KGB.

I dont think that this old man should be punished for something like this, so late in his life. Yes i can see it happening back when he was young enough to stand trial and actually spend the time in prison, but now at such an old age there is no way that he will be able to last even long enough to serve his five years of sentencing. Even if he did do it, most cases of people in the Nazi party were forced to go and kill the Jews, either that or they were shot execution style and killed or starved to death. So he chose life over death. Im sure that everyone would, even if it was to commit horrible crimes. But at the same time he was a watchman, and since watchman were on the lowest rank possible how could he have killed that many people single handedly, he obviously had accomplises who by the way have now all died. If they have all died, its not fair for him to be blamed for everyones involvement just because he is the sole survior.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43002291/ns/world_news-europe/

Jobs And Welfare

One of the current issues that jumped out at me was the fact that poverty is such an issues in America. I guess that people hear about it, but when it doesn't directly touch them it doesn't seem to take full effect. Over 12.6 percent of Americans live below the poverty line, that's almost 37 million Americans. I believe that the people who are impoverished, seeem to take advantage of the programs provided for them. Take food stamps for example, the people who use them take advantage of them. They buy chips, soda, candy and everything else under the sun that seems to be unhealthy. Why aren't they regulated? Its a proven fact that impoverished children are more likely to be overweight than children who don't live in poverty. Also another thing that people seem to take advantage of is the free programs given out to people in need, such as social security benefits. The benefits that people who have real jobs, and their having that money taken out of their checks so they might have something saved for when they retire. To tell the truth, no one will ever see that money. That money is given out to people who use it as their main source of income, and support their family off of it for decades. I believe that the poverty in America is an issue because all the programs that are at their finger tips are taken for granted and are used until they are bone dry.

I decided to read the putting Welfare to Work article because of the fact that my first point in this assignment was also about welfare. I believe that the people who are on welfare are there for a reason, whatever that it may be, its not right. It's a parents responsibility to take care of their children and provide for them. I understand that some people do not have the skills or the education to go out and find a job that pays over 28 dollars an hour but that does not give them the right to abuse the welfare system. I believe that the government was right to cut the deadline for how many months that your allowed to be on it, but at the same time its not fair to the people who are on welfare that have a disablity and depend on that for their main mode of income. I don't really think that there is a possibilty for a person to have an opinion on these issues when its not fair to the people who pay for welfare and those who recieve it when there are so many ways that you can look at it, and from so many view points. Ben Nelson a senator from Nebraska feels that the people who recieve welfare should also be finding jobs and have them as well, I think thats a good place to stand on the issues at hand.

http://bennelson.senate.gov/issues/economic_security/welfare_reform.cfm

Bin Laden's hosts were 2 Pakistanis from frontier

As the world was told of Bin Laden's death, they were not told of two others. The two men who had owned the house that Bin Laden was hiding out in were also killed on the night of the raid. They were Pashtun muslims who never gave any information to their neighbors about where they were from, and why they were there. They built a beautiful three story home 7 years ago, but the only difference abou this home was that they had built a high wall with barbed wire over the top so that they may keep their privacy. As by usual muslim tradtion they did not hire a gate watchman, the gate watchmans are the people who know all of the families secrets. The two men who were the courriers for him also have left 9 children between the two of them as well as two wives who are now widows.

I think that these two men didn't deserve to be killed along with Bin Laden. I think that they should have been tried against their crimes for harrboring a fugitive but i guess that doesnt really matter anymore. These two men, in my opinion, are probably some of the bravest men that i have ever heard of. They built a home, and harrbored one of the most wanted criminals of all time in their home. They had to put on a straight face and act like everything was normal, and that they just lived a typical everyday life of the pashtun muslums. These men must have been good people if Bin Laden trusted them with his own life, as well as his families lives. But i guess all good things have to come to an end.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42889172/42853295