The War on Drugs in America

     The war on drugs in America has been shown to be a huge failure. It has led to raised incarceration rates,  a militarized police force, human rights abuses, waste of billions of dollars per year, made drugs stronger, and has increased drug usage.
     In the last 40 years incarceration rates in America have risen faster then ever before. According to Time Magazines Fareed Zakaria, "Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase. More than half of America's federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions." Most of those being held on drug charges are nonviolent offenders who arguably  should not be held in prison.
     Since the beginning of the war on drugs, our police have become more militarized. With teams raiding peoples homes, killing inhabitants, and often harming children and other innocent bystanders.  SWAT teams can perform no-knock warrants claiming to be safer by surprising their victims and to stop them from potentially destroying evidence. However, by bursting into someones home without announcing their presence, sometimes the innocent homeowners mistake officers for intruders, and reach for a gun or weapon to defend themselves. This has lead to over 50 innocent people being killed by the police. Not including such cases that get covered up by planting evidence on the scene to justify the murder, or the opinion that the presence of marijuana shouldn't justify a murder in the first place.
     One reason many police units have been growing more militarized is because using SWAT teams has become more profitable. During these raids, Police are able to seize anything related to the crime regardless of wether or not the owner gets convicted of a crime. In that case the owner would have to sue the department to get their property back. An article from Business Insider titled Why America's Police Are Becoming So Militarized states that "Many police departments now depend on forfeiture for a fat chunk of their budgets. In 1986, its first year of operation, the federal Asset Forfeiture Fund held $93.7m. By 2012, that and the related Seized Asset Deposit Fund held nearly $6 billion." (referenced article)
     Law enforcement officials have cracked down on drug dealers and drug manufacturers, making the drugs more potent and making the dealers more professional. The crack down has forced drug traffickers to be able to fit more drugs in smaller spaces. This lead to stronger drugs and more efficient traffickers.  
     The price of drugs has also increased due to the war on drugs. Drugs will always be consumed by addicts and other users. As the law of supply and demand dictates, when the supply goes down the price goes up. Other people will see the need to fill the consumers demand and they will capitalize on the opportunity, creating more drugs and drug dealers.  The price of the drugs also increases due to the risks involved in making and selling the drugs.    
     The war on drugs has proven to be a huge disaster and it is time to put an end to it. If you have found this post useful, please comment in the section below and share it. Thanks. 

The Simplification of Maxwell's Equations

       As great as James Clerk Maxwell’s theories on electricity and magnetism were, they were also mathematically difficult and hard to understand. Almost nobody understood it during his lifetime and it didn't help much that his whole approach was based off of Michael Faradays theoretical vision. Maxwell did not attempt to verify his theory experimentally, and after he died his theory sat for some time, waiting for someone else to come and perfect it. 

Oliver Heaviside was born in 1850 and came down with scarlet fever at the age of eight leaving him partially deaf. Instead of attending a university, he spent two years at home studying on his own. Oliver later got his only job at the age of eighteen working with his uncle as a telegraph operator. He quickly mastered the art and within two years he got promoted to chief operator. 

One day while studying in the library he opened Maxwells’s Treaty on Electricity and Magnetism(1873), and was “astonished!” He became determined to master the subject and learn all he could about electricity. He became tired of his job and retired to his parents home to research the topic. Eventually he was able not only “to master the theory but also to re-express it in a form that was much easier to grasp.” (p246) 

One way he simplified the theory was by creating a mathematical language which he called, “Vector Analysis.” Maxwell used quaternions to represent his theory but Oliver found them useless and complicated. P.G. Tait had criticized Heaviside’s mutillation of quaternions by describing his vector analysis as “a hermaphrodite monster.” Oliver responded by calling him a “consummately profound metaphysicomathematician” (p.259)

  Another way that he was able to re-express  the theory was by concentrating on field forces and get rid of the potentials. This way he reduced Maxwell’s eight quaternions to only four equations(p247). His four equations became famously known as Maxwell’s equations.  

Should You be Required to Call Trans Gender People by Their Preferred Pronoun?

     Typically when you see someone walking down the street, you refer to them as him or her. There are some people (usually transgender) who prefer to be called by other pronouns such as ze, xe, and/or they. This may be new to many of you and it might even seem hard to keep track of all the possible pronouns that could be out there.  It is easy to find arguments for and against calling people by there preferred pronoun, but should it be required by law, to call people by the pronoun of their choosing?
     Pronouns can mean a lot to people in the transgender community, and it shows a level of respect when you call someone by what they would like to be called. If you don't feel comfortable using new pronouns or if you forget what to call them, you can still show respect by using the persons name when you talk to them.
     Non-transgender people often do not agree with calling someone by an unusual pronoun for any number of personal reasons.  They may even feel that using "him" or "her" instead of another pronoun, will help that person out in the long run by leading that person to accept normal pronouns.
     Regardless of what you think people should call each other, it is important to see how making a law requiring someone to use certain pronouns can be dangerous and would ultimately violate an individuals right to free speech.

Should Trapping be illegal?

     It is understandable to think trapping innocent creatures is horrible and that doing so is undesirable if not looked down upon.  Some people may even think of trapping as "cheating" when it comes to killing animals, but should it be illegal?

     In the 2016 election the state of Montana had a bill (I-177) on the ballot that was put forward to ban trapping in the state of Montana. The bill was not passed, which may be a good thing because the Fish and Game Department sets quotas and limits throughout the state in order to maintain and control the populations of different species of animals. Trappers help control these populations and contribute money towards game management, through buying licenses. 

     If trapping were banned, those animals would still need to be managed. The Fish and Game would have to hire new employees(on the taxpayers dime) to trap and/or poison  animals to maintain healthy  populations. If they had to resort to poisoning animals, this could lead to accidental poisoning of non target species, such as eagles and other non target predatory species.