Carl Crossman

The administration of President Barack Obama keeps telling us that the economy will soon recover. This is despite recent news that the private sector has been cutting jobs instead of creating them. We learned today that over 10,000 jobs were cut in august by private companies.

This trend is threatening to extend the recovery and possibly throw us back into the mess we were trying so hard to get out of. I hope that these big companies will find a way to hold on to the workers they have and maybe even hire a few more. It sure would be good news.

Since the giant oil company BP finally capped the leaking well, many experts are saying that the oil is disappearing from the gulf. The problem is that many local people who are at the scene are saying that this is just not true. A look from the air says too many that the oil is still there and coming ashore with every wave.

Bp has wanted to scale back its cleanup operations, they say the oil is gone and will no longer be a problem. Scientists say that the oil is still there but were dispersed by the millions of gallons of dispersement put into the water by BP. I personally believe that there is still plenty of oil to be cleaned up and I hope BP will do so.

Throughout history, religion has been a contentious point. It remains so in today’s world and here is another example of that. The country of Syria has long tried to remain a secular country. The Muslims have tried to influence its politics because of its large population there. The government is determined to keep freedom alive for the populace as a whole and has banned the wearing of veils at universities.

The niqab is a form of dress that only allows the eyes to be seen. This form of dress is representative of conservative Islam. Headscarves will still be allowed under the new rules. Other countries are considering implementing similar rules in order to protect women who feel degraded by the usage of this dressing style. I applaud the move and hope that women around the world will gain the respect they deserve.

Censorship can be a very dirty word. People in America tend to want to know the truth about our world and what’s in it. That’s why some are worried when we heard about the Italian judges who found three Google executives responsible for a video. The video contained images of an autistic child being bullied by his classmates.

Google says that it was unaware of the content of the video and took it down after complaints were heard. The whole incident leads to a question of whether Google is responsible for the information on its site and whether or not they will have to start censoring material. I hope this won’t be the case and free speech is allowed to reign.