8 reasons against using Drones (and 2 for using Drones)

 Here are 8 reasons to morally oppose President Obama’s Counterterrorism strategy of using drones (remote controlled robots) to target and kill people.

1. Violates International Law which prohibits targeted assassinations outside of a legally declared war.
2. Violates other Country’s Sovereignty. Pakistan has asked us nicely to cut it out.
3. Little transparency or accountability. Attacks are remotely controlled by the CIA in Air Force bases in the United States.
4. Sets a dangerous precedent. “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword” principle
5. Perpetuates constant warfare.  No risk of troop loss makes it easier to use violent force to respond to conflict like in episode 23 of Star Trek “A Taste for Armageddon”.
6. Kills innocents.  Hundreds of innocent people have already died in drone attacks even though they are alleged to be very precise.
7. Promotes the idea of the global battlefield. A borderless battlefield renders just war meaningless and exit strategies impossible
8. Creates anger “Al Qaeda’s best recruiting tool”

 

2 reasons to use drones:

1. Defense against monster aliens – If monster aliens attack the Eastern Rim we will be prepared to fight them with giant robot clones.
2. Keeps terrorists on their toes and watching their backs instead of preparing new terrorist attacks. 

Notes: the 8 points are from an article from Duane Shanks (p 19 Sojourners July 2013) which I thought were worth memorizing in my own words. The 2 counter points are by me.

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9)

Elizabeth Coli found in an under cooked hot dog (or the toy store)

The reason that giving massive amounts of antibiotics to farm animals is dangerous is not because the antibiotics may remain in the meat and we humans might get too much antibiotics in our system. It is because the antibiotics will kill all but the most dangerous and most antibiotic resistant bacteria in Mr. Cow. The antibiotics will not kill us, but the super antibiotic resistant bacteria that we eat might make us sick.

Here is a Consumer Reports Petition about it: http://notinmyfood.org/

more information: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/04/17/177601237/in-meat-tests-more-evidence-of-human-illness-tied-to-farm-antibiotics

Robots are replacing migrant workers

Migrant workers who pick lettuce, strawberries and oranges are being sent back home, and there are not that many Americans who want their jobs of kneeling and picking in the hot sun all day for subsistance living wages. Farmers are watching the fruit rot on their trees waiting for somebody to pick them. What to do?  Well they are beginning to use robots. At first this was a very slow and tedious process, but there is a company called Vision Robotics that has figured it out. You use 2 robots working as a team – the first robot is the eagle-eye scout. Mr. Eagle Eye scans the orange tree and draws a 3D image of where all the ripe oranges that need to picked are, and calculates the most strategic way to pick all the oranges. He sends this image to his eight-armed octopus robot friend who strips the oranges off the tree, 8 at a time! Problem solved!

Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers

 They also have a strawberry plant sorter robot as we head to the fully automated Farm of the Future!