Scribbles of An Ape

Recently there have been thoughts about drug testing people who receive welfare. In the article "States Adding Drug Test as Hurdle for Welfare"A. G. Sulzberger discusses the many views on drug testing welfare recipients. In my opinion drug testing welfare recipients is completely logical. You can choose to believe whatever you want when it comes to drugs and people who receive welfare. Whether you believe this or not, it still makes perfect sense to test anyone who receives welfare just to be safe. Just as discussed in the article I do believe that it is highly unlikely that people on welfare are doing drugs. Of course they don't receive much money as it is so why would they even think to do drugs. This statement makes a valid point but so does the statement if you can make ends meet you can find a way to get a fix. If people really are not doing drugs and receiving welfare it will still be okay. The article speaks about a 40 dollar fee for your drug test and being refunded that money if you pass. If this is really the case then you should be okay with finding the forty dollars to only be refunded it. However if you are using drugs then you shouldn't be on welfare at all. You can pay for drugs but you aren't capable of pay for food and a home. That in itself is ridiculous. The drug tests will allow for people who shouldn't be on welfare to be singled out. One article reads "Thirty-two applicants failed the test and more than 7,000 have passed, according to the Department of Children and Families"(Associated Press), when considering this text you'll realize that most people aren't on drugs. After noticing this you can understand why people can get over the fact of drug testing because they know they will able to pass. We as citizens should also be for this decision so we aren't paying tax dollars for some druggies. Testing welfare recipients should be mandatory because it could down on tax payers money being wasted and getting people out of the welfare system.

    In the article Us to Open Areas to Offshore Drilling by John M Broder the topic of oil drilling offshore is heavily debated. Environmentalists couldn't be more against this plan while the oil industries are jumping the gun to make this happen. When choosing the offshore drilling there are many factors that need to be thoroughly considered in order to make that decision. You should evaluate the oil spill of 2010, the costs to open up these sites, and whether or not this action is beneficial to the United states. First really realize the prior accident of offshore drilling.
    In the oil spill of 2010 things were horrific.Oil was everywhere and even the animals were being harmed. Obviously something had gone with the procedure of storing this oil and things got bad really quickly. When you analyze this situation you begin to realize that maybe offshore drilling is actually quite bad. At the same time you must realize that in the article itself it does say that there will be no such thing as no risk oil drilling. Accidents can and do happen just as displayed in the oil spill of 2010. With this being stated you as the reader should realize that no matter what happens oil spills are happening all around the world so the US isn't going to be alone. Rather than not going along with it you should accept the fact that there will be this kind of danger everywhere. Once you begin to except that oil spills are apart of life then you'll wonder about costs of opening up a drilling site.
    Now that you are wondering about the costs you may be thinking how high or how low. Although the prices of offshore drilling is not specified we all expect it to be a pretty penny. Though it may be a chunk of change it will be worth it in the long run. Just think of the United States being self-sufficient. We wouldn't have to pay as much for the gas to fill our tanks. We also wouldn't have to worry about importing as much oil as we do now. If we start opening up offshore drilling sites we can create more jobs in this poor economy. The economy would benefit from this and so would we. Next is the most important factor of all being whether offshore drilling is really beneficial.
    Oil drilling is absolutely beneficial given most of the examples above. Especially for the fact that we as Americans need to be more dependent on ourselves for oil. In the Pros/Cons of Offshore Oil Drilling wrtiten by a blogger named Mark Hutcherson who writes about daily news says "the United States needs to produce more of our own crude oil, so we are not so dependent on foreign imports".(Hutcherson) This statement in fact is so true. I could guarantee that if you asked many Americans where you could produce oil from in the United States they wouldn't even know where to answer. Then they would probably say someone where in the Middle East and ignore the state question. In realizing this you see that oil drilling is really beneficial. Especially if it will help lower gas prices because we desperately need that in the United States.