What to Wear When You're Halfway There

It's only Wednesday?! I don't know about you, but every Wednesday I hit this huge fashion wall. Lets be real, dressing cute on Wednesdays is nearly as hard as dressing cute on Mondays. But dressing cute doesn't always mean dressing uncomfortable! Leggings are the key in this outfit. I can't get through the week without them! What's your fashion necessity?

Is AIG really "too big to fail"?

AIG in 2008, received a 2 year loan from the federal government of $58 billion dollars to prevent them from going under. In the Federal Reserve Act the feds are granted the legal authority to lend to non-banks under unusual circumstances. Following this loan, AIG was criticized as "too big to fail". This is a company that is so essential to the global economy that it's failure would be catastrophic.

In 2014, AIG laid off 3% of its workforce which was equivalently 1,900 jobs. A month after, many of the department heads of AIG were granted major bonuses on top of their yearly salaries following their announcement of layoffs in 2014. CEO of AIG, Robert Benmosche, alone received a $6 million dollar bonus on top of his $2 million dollar base salary. Though this sounds ridiculous, in typical cooperate companies like AIG this occurrence isn't as uncommon as you would think. 

On January 7th, 2016, My dad, who is one of these employees, thought he was walking into the typical beginning of the year conference where they would discuss the changes that were to come in 2016. No one was expecting a change this big. Not even my dad's Regional President knew what was to come today. My dad and hundreds of other AIG Financial Network employees packed into an auditorium in Birmingham and were meet with an automated message stating that thousands of AIG Financial Network employees' jobs were terminated effective immediately and offered a severance. These layoffs excluded the offices in Baltimore, San Diego, and San Francisco because they deal with the Asian markets. Only the financial side of AIG was cut. The cooperate insurance survived. AIG has not folded completely. 

My dad has been offered a job by Trans America along with the majority of his recently laid off co-workers. AIG sales reps from the Huntsville, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa office are to go to a conference Birmingham tomorrow to hear what Trans America has to say. It seems their mission is to try and hire every recently laid off AIG worker they possibly can. 

Just yesterday on January 6th, 2016 it is speculated that AIG invested nearly $4 million dollars in a start up company. The exact amount of investment won't be released until tomorrow. HCS, a technology invention research organization and lab, states that the devise will incorporate wearable devices, artificial intelligence, building information modeling, and cloud computing. This product is designed for companies that have the highest risk for workers including those involved in manufacturing, warehousing, and construction. The executive Vice President and CEO of Commercial of AIG, Robert S. Schimek, stated that "this devise would make their work sites safer places for their employees and help reduce our clients overall cost of risk".

The stockholders of AIG want to see a profit in the company that makes their shares worth more money. Cutting the AIG Financial Network side of the company, on paper, will make it look more profitable by the money they're saving by not having to pay for those workers' paychecks, their work space, and other company expenses. This will for now make the stockholders happy. AIG Financial Network is still around to have independent insurance salesmen sell their products, but they aren't employees of just them. Independent salesmen, unlike workers who just sell under the umbrella of AIG Financial Network aren't going out and advocating the purchase of just their products. So isn't it likely that AIG Financial Network won't be able to continue to keep up these "profitable looking" numbers since they won't be able to grow at the rate they would with employees?

So if AIG is too big to fail, it might have been a bad idea to make things look better in the short term rather than looking at the big picture...and if the CEO of AIG knew he was going to be laying off thousands of employees maybe he shouldn't have given himself a $6 MILLION dollar bonus?

Obama's "Unconstitutional" Expansion of Gun Laws?

In his final year of office Obama plans to take care of some “unfinished business”. Obama seems to have set his sights on the issue of gun control following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 where 20 students and 6 adults were shot and killed. He has proposed a plan to expand the currently vague gun laws regardless of Congress’s cooperation. Through an executive order he is able to bypass Congress as he tries to pass his law. Not only his plan to expand gun laws, but also conservatives’ reaction to it has been plastered across the news stations.

Often times, dealers that go through unconventional medians such as websites, flea markets, and gun shows don't declare themselves as "dealers". In the past they weren't subject to background checks. Obama is proposing that these people be included in the dealer category because they are "in the business" of selling firearms. This is referred to as the "gun show loophole".

Obama proposed a plan to expand background checks to almost anyone buying a firearm from a dealer. This plan covers online purchases, gun shows, and other venues and excludes guns bought by collectors and gun hobbyists. To prevent firearm transactions from falling through the cracks, the FBI will hire 230 employees to conduct back ground checks on the buyers.

The conservatives, especially the GOP candidates, have been extremely vocal in their backlash against Obama’s proposed plan and his means of accomplishing the change. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, stated that Obama knows good and well that there are already laws on the books requiring the license of all dealers regardless of the transaction’s venue and that this will “no doubt be challenged in the courts”. Florida Senator, Marco Rubio, believes that “this executive order is just one more way to make it harder for law-abiding people to buy weapons or to be able to protect their families.” Following the San Bernardino shooting, Obama is believed by conservatives to have diverted the focus away from a terrorist to a gun control issue.

Obama, who has already enacted nearly two dozen gun laws, argues that his newest plan is in line and consistent with the second amendment. He thinks this could “potentially save lives”. 

The "Basics" of ISIS

Numerous poles find that foreign policy is the #1 priority in American's minds especially in the upcoming election. Foreign policy is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as the policy of a sovereign state in its interaction with other sovereign states. For example, how we "handle" the troubles in the middle east has been a major point of contention displayed on every news channel. It seems that within the first 5 minutes of watching the news you will more than likely here something about ISIS and the "war on terror".

Who is ISIS?

The rise of the militant terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been a point of concern with the American people for longer than you may realize. ISIS didn't recently assemble in their war on the infidels. ISIS was originally known as the radical Sunni terrorist organization al Qaeda in Iraq before re-branding in 2004. They hold many similarities to Osama Bin Laden's al Queda and were even allies before they disowned the group in 2014. Both groups are radical anti-western Muslims whose ultimate goal is to eliminate the infidels, or non-Muslims, and establish an independent state in their region. They also believe in killing off moderate Muslims who don't agree or join in their quest for elimination. In June 2014, the group declared the establishment of a caliphate". This is a state governed in accordance with Islamic law, or Sharia, by God's deputy on Earth. They called for Muslims from around the world to follow their lead in their war against the infidels and swear allegiance to their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. They welcome fighting against the US-lead coalition and view it as the first step in the inevitable end-of-times showdown between Muslims and non-Muslims described in Islamic apocalyptic prophecies. ISIS has proven to be the more violent of the two terrorist groups and relies on social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, to recruit their members from around the world and even from the United States. 

Why is ISIS so strong?

What ISIS doesn't realize about themselves is that they resemble the Western civilizations they hate so much. They have governors, financial advisers, and legislative bodies similar to the United States. They have these governing structures to govern the lands they seize. Their power base is located in Raqqa in eastern Syria. ISIS controls more than half of 
Syria's oil assets as well as some in Iraq. The profit made from the sale of oil funds their terror. They seize these lands so successfully by armed expertise and unimaginable terror and raids against the innocent people inhabiting the land they desire. 

ISIS was reported by the US Director for National Intelligence James Clapper to consist of anywhere from 20,000 to 32,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria. Nicholas Rasmussen, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Centethere, told congress in February of 2015 that in the past year 20,000 foreign fighters joined ISIS's efforts from 90 different countries and roughly 150 of these foreign fighters have come from the United States. 

They have also called for Muslims in western countries to lead attacks at home. ISIS is known for drawing in westerners to train in their camps in Iraq and Syria and bring back the things they've learned to their own countries. The San Bernardino shooting is a prime example of this. They reach the masses by recruiting through social media.

Why do they hate America?

ISIS and other radical jihadist groups hate everything America stands for: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, equality of men and women, and so on and so forth. The Qur'an, which is interpreted literally by the radical Muslims such as ISIS, to say “slay them [infidels] wherever ye catch them” (Chapter 2, Verse 191). ISIS believes they are the only "true believers". They use this logic to justify killing non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike. 

Are all Muslims terrorists?

No absolutely not! This is a very common misconception. There are two main branches of the Muslim religion, Sunni and Shi'a, but there are also many subsects to the religion much like Christianity. Westerners, often times, generalize the Shia Muslims as the more moderate group and the Sunnis as radicals due to al Queda  and ISIS being Sunni terrorist groups. But at the same time, the west views Iran as being inhabited with radical terrorists despite the fact that they are predominantly Shia. Saying that the Sunnis are radicals and the Shias are moderate would be too simple. There are radicals in each group. According to a pole conducted by Gallup, Inc. 93% of Muslims are non-violent moderates. These peaceful Muslims denounce ISIS and other radical Muslims who scar the face of the Muslim religion.