Visiting North Carolina, Obama Again Focuses on Jobs

President Barack Obama on Monday continued his visits to companies across the nation that he calls examples of how new technology and innovation will help add jobs to the U.S. economy.  Mr. Obama also met with a special council composed of top corporate CEOs (chief executive officers), as well as labor and education figures, advising him on job creation efforts.

The president's visit to Cree, a company in Durham, North Carolina manufacturing LED lighting, was part of his effort to spotlight success stories amid a still-sputtering economic recovery and recent disappointing employment figures.

As he has done in similar visits across the nation in recent months, Obama toured the company's assembly plant, shaking hands with some of the factory's 1,500 employees.

Cree received a $39 million tax credit as part of the president's economic recovery stimulus, allowing the company to add 375 new factory jobs.

The White House sees Cree, which also exports products overseas and established a factory in China last year, as part of a "success story" made possible by administration stimulus funds and tax incentives.

It was a return trip for the president: he visited the company, which has 5,000 workers globally, as a presidential candidate in 2008.  He told employees Monday that they are setting an example, developing energy-efficient products and helping with broader job creation.

"So you are helping to lead a clean energy revolution, you are helping to lead a comeback of American manufacturing," said President Obama. "This is a company where the future is being won."

North Carolina is among states hard hit by the U.S. economic recession: its 9.5 percent unemployment rate is several points above the recently-reported 9.1 percent national level.  It's also one of several politically-important states for the president's 2012 re-election efforts.

Opposition Republicans tried to turn the visit to their political advantage.  A Republican National Committee news release cited the company's investment in China as part of what it called proof that recovery funds are flowing to a major economic competitor. 

The White House used the visit to organize the first meeting outside of Washington of President Obama's Jobs and Competitiveness Council, formed earlier this year to advise Mr. Obama on steering the economy toward a faster recovery and to help create jobs.

Headed by the CEO of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, the council includes business executives from major sectors of the U.S. economy as well as labor unions.

In remarks to the 23 council members, Obama repeated a description he has used frequently in recent weeks about the economy encountering "headwinds," but said there are reasons to be optimistic.

"It's important for us not to pretend we have fully recovered like we need to," said Obama. "There are a lot of people who are still hurting out there.  But it is also important to remember that we have got enormous assets, we have got everything that is going to be required to make these structural adjustments to make sure that we are competitive.  It doesn't require radical changes, it requires just some common sense approaches to problems."

The president said growing jobs and fixing the economy will not require "radical changes" but what he called "common sense ideas" to improve U.S. competitiveness, adding he hopes these will not be subject to "the usual political gamesmanship" in Washington.

As the president spoke in North Carolina, his administration unveiled the latest stage of an effort it says has identified $33 billion so far in federal government waste.  The new effort came complete with a four minute video in which the president and Vice President Joe Biden appeared.

OBAMA: "We're calling it the Campaign to Cut Waste, and I know Joe is the right man to lead it, because nobody messes with Joe."

BIDEN: "There is a new standard by which the government is going to function from this point on.  The American people are entitled to transparency.  By that, I mean they are entitled to be able to figure out where their dollars are going and they are entitled to accountability, to make sure that we are using the dollars for what we said it was for."

In his remarks in North Carolina Monday, President Obama said again that despite the creation of more than 2 million jobs over the past 15 months, many Americans continue to struggle.   But he said he is "absolutely optimistic" that the United States has everything it needs to succeed in the 21st century. 

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US Economic Woes Debated

A recent rise in the U.S. unemployment rate has rekindled debate on America's slow-growth economy and what can be done to spark expansion and create badly-needed jobs.

Historically, U.S. economic recoveries have gained momentum over time.  But a year and a half after emerging from the deepest recession of the post-World War II era, the U.S. economy is expanding, but only barely so. And even that anemic growth could be faltering. 

News that the nation’s unemployment rate shot up above nine percent last month intensified economists’ fears that tepid economic performance could persist for years to come.

According to Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary during the Clinton administration, America’s lackluster economy is easy to explain.

“The central problem is on the demand side. Seventy percent of the U.S. economy is consumers [consumer activity]. And consumers are hit with the equivalent of a truck," he said. "Housing prices are dropping like mad.  Wages adjusted for inflation are dropping.  Their jobs are disappearing. Under these circumstances, consumers are not spending.  And if they are not spending, then jobs are not going to be created.”

Reich spoke on ABC’s This Week program. He advocated additional federal stimulus to spur economic activity.

Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama sharply disagreed.

“Stimulus basically does not work. We have tried that," said Shelby. "I think what we have got to do is create the conditions [for economic growth]: tax reform, incentives for manufacturing. The market grows the economy. We have grown the government, but we have not grown the economy.”

But former Labor Secretary Reich insisted that, when the private sector is lagging, the government should intervene.

“When consumers and private investors are pulling in [withholding spending], then government has got to fill the gap," said Reich. " We have done this for the last 75 years.”

Under President Barack Obama, an $800-billion federal stimulus package has been approved, income tax cuts have been extended, and the amount of money taken from workers’ paychecks to fund Social Security for retirees has been temporarily reduced. In addition, the U.S. central bank has kept interest rates at historically-low levels and sought ways to pump money into the ailing economy.

Senator Shelby says there is only so much a heavily-indebted federal government can or should do, and that a new stimulus package, if proposed, would not pass Congress.

“What we need to do is create some certainty, some conditions for people to invest, to grow [the economy], to have some confidence," he said. "There is not a lot of confidence in the economy right now.”

President Obama has urged patience, arguing that the economy needs time to heal from a deep recession and the 2008 financial crisis. Republican presidential hopefuls vying to challenge Obama in next year’s election have been quick to proclaim that what is truly needed is new economic leadership.

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'The Book of Mormon' Dominates Tony Awards

Photo: AP

Andrew Rannells, left, and the cast of "The Book of Mormon" perform during the 65th annual Tony Awards, June 12, 2011 in New York.

The American Theater Wing gave out its annual Tony awards on Sunday, honoring plays and musicals staged on Broadway in New York - considered the highest level of the U.S. theater industry.

 

Broadway is an industry known for glitz and dazzle, and the Tony Awards, stage acting's premier event of celebration and congratulations was true to character right from the start.  

The Book of Mormon, an irreverent show about Mormon missionaries in Africa, had 14 award nominations and became the top winner with nine wins, among them Best Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. It was the first foray into live musical theater for two of its writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are better known for creating the long-running, boundary-pushing animated TV series South Park. 

Nikki M. James won the Tony for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for her role in The Book of Mormon.   

AP

Nikki M. James accepts the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical for "The Book of Mormon" during the 65th annual Tony Awards in New York, June 12, 2011.

"This is… I can't … I didn't expect to be standing here tonight," an emotional James said. "And I tried to write a speech but I felt silly. So I just have to say that I would love to thank Tray and Matt and Bobby for running the most beautiful show, the most beautiful heartfelt musical that is changing the face of American musical theater."

High marks were given for Norbert Leo Butz, who showed a touching humility after beating out four other Tony nominees for "Best Performance for an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical."  His work as an FBI agent in Catch Me If You Can impressed critics and audiences alike. 

AP

Norbert Leo Butz accepts the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for "Catch Me If You Can" during the 65th annual Tony Awards, Sunday, June 12, 2011 in New York.

"This award doesn't mean I am the best at anything," joked Butz. "But it does mean that I might be the most grateful man in this room tonight."  

But it was the five Tonys awarded for a revival of The Normal Heart, a  powerful 1985 play about New York's gay community in the early days of the AIDS crisis that seemed to move the night's audiences the most viscerally.  Playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer seemed to speak for many.

"I could not have written it had not so many of us so needlessly died," Kramer said after accepting the Tony. "Learn from it, and carry on the fight. Let them know that we are a very special people, an exceptional people. And that our day will come."

AP

Larry Kramer, left, is hugged by Daryl Roth after they won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for "The Normal Heart" during the 65th annual Tony Awards, June 12, 2011 in New York.

War Horse garnered its fifth Tony of the evening for Best Play.  They praised the artful way the drama used life-size horse puppets and human actors to tell a dramatic story of love, loss and redemption before and during WWI. And audience members seemed visibly delighted when Anything Goes, Cole Porter's 1934 musical, clinched the Tony for "Best Revival of a Musical."

The Tony Awards, named for actress and director Antoinette Perry, have been given out annually since 1947. The ceremony is broadcast nationally and features appearances by stars of both stage and screen.

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1. Sumber Alam

Sumber alam dapat digolongkan ke dalam dua bagian yaitu sumber alam yang dapat diperbaharui atau sumber alam biotik dan sumber alam yang tidak dapat diperbaharui atau sumber alam abiotik.

2. Penggunaan Sumber-Sumber Alam

Manusia memandang alam lingkungannya dengan macam-macam kebutuhan dan keinginan. Manusia bersaing dalam memenuhi kebutuhan dan keinginan hidupnya. Berbagai cara telah dilakukan manusia dalam menggunakan sumber-sumber alam berupa tanah, air, fauna, flora, bahan-bahan galian dan sebagainya.

Kerusakan lingkungan oleh aktivitas manusia yang makin meningkat yang mengakibatkan sebagian besar wilayah di dunia sering mengalamibencana. Sementara itu air hujan semakin asam sehingga merusak lahan pertanian, hutan dan biota lainnya. 

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MANUSIA DAN LINGKUNGAN

1. Pengertian Manusia dan Lingkungan

Manusia adalah mahluk hidup ciptaan Tuhan dengan segala fungsi dan potensinya yang tunduk kepada aturan-aturan Tuhan. Sedangkan lingkungan merupakan suatu media dimana mahluk hidup tinggal, mencari penghidupan dan memiliki karakter serta fungsi yang khas.

Relasi manusia dan lingkungan adalah hubungan yang timbal balik dan simbiotik mutualisme, karena manusia hidup di alam lingkungan hidup dan alam sebagai lingkungan hidup juga membuthkan manusia untuk pelestariannya. Jadi manusia butuh alam untuk kehidupannya dan alam juga membutuhkan manusia untuk pelestariannya.

Dalam konsepsi Islam, maka terdapat dua fungsi manusia di dalam kehidupannya. Pertama, manusia sebagai hamba Allah. Dan yang kedua, manusia sebagai wakil Allah di bumi.

2. Lingkungan Hidup Manusia

Manusia hidup, tumbuh dan berkembang dalam lingkungan alam dan sosial budayanya. Dalam lingkungan alamnya manusia hidup dalam sebuah ekosistem. Dalam ekosistem terdapat komponen abiotik (tanah, udara, air, cahaya, suhu) dan komponen biotik (produsen, konsumen, pengurai). Selain itu di dalam lingkungan terdapat faktor-faktor seperti rantai makanan, habitat, populasi, komunikasi dan biosfer.

3. Pengaruh Manusia pada Alam Lingkungan Hidupnya

Perubahan lingkungan hidup manusia akan berpengaruh baik secara positif ataupun negatif berpengaruh pada manusia karena manusia mendapatkan keuntungan dari perubahan tersebut dan berpengaruh tidak baik karena dapat mengurangi kemampuan alam hidupnya untuk menyokong kehidupannya.

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1. Iptek dan Peradaban Manusia

Sains dan teknologi adalah intitusi manusiawi (karya yang dilahirkan manusia). Sains merupakan hasil abstraksi manusia dari sumber alami melalui berbagai fenomena yang diamatinya. Kemudian fenomena tersebut di presentasikan ke dalam berbagai model yang membentuk suatu paradigma. Maka kebenaran sains adalah bila dan hanya bila suatu fenomena alami dapat cocok pada model-model dari suatu paradigma yang berlaku. Oleh karena itu berbagai kebenaran alami yang terhimpun dalam sains merupakan temuan. Namun tanpa manusiapun kebenaran alami tetap beroprasi sebagai sumber dari sains.

Berbeda dengan sains, teknologi sepenuhnya bersumber pada manusia. Oleh karena itu tanpa manusia, tanpa masyarakat, teknologipun tiada. Teknologi adalah suatu cara untuk teknik memproduksi atau memproses membuat sesuatu yang lebih mengembangkan keterampilan manusia.

2. Pengaruh Perkembangan IPTEK terhadap Pola Kemasyarakatan Heteronomi

Heteronomi adalah prinsip pembiaran sesuatu selain hukum moral untuk menentukan apa yang mesti dilakukan. Ini mengganti kebebasan dengan sesuatu di luar akal praktis, semisal kesukaan.

Dalam masyarakat dengan teknologi maju cukup banyak contoh yang menunjukan betapa heteronomi bisa mengakibatkan munculnya berbagai perwujudan perilaku menyimpang, bahkan bersifat ekstrem yang bisa berakibat pertentangan antar lapisan dan antar golongan dalam masyarakat.

3. Pengaruh Perkembangan IPTEK terhadap Pola Kemasyarakatan Hedonisme

Hedonisme adalah pandangan hidup yang menganggap bahwa kesenangan dan kenikmatan materi adalah tujuan utama hidup. Pola kemasyarakatannya telah menyebabkan iptek dikembangkan untuk memenuhi kesenangan-kesenangan materi dan mengorbankan alam semesta. Menjamurnya produk-produk mainan yang melampaui kebutuhan merupakan bukti pemenuhan hedonisme tersebut.

4. Perkembangan IPTEK dalam pembangunan dan Lingkungan

Perkembangan IPTEK telah membawa kemajuan dan kemudahan bagi kehidupan manusia. Berbagai manfaatnya dapat terasa pada era sekarang ini dimana semua perlahan beralih dari sesuatu yang sederhana menjadi sesuatu yang lebih modern.

5. Perkembangan IPTEK dalam pertimbangan nilai etis dan religius

Mengembangkan nilai-nilai dan budaya iptek dasarnya adalah melakukan transformasi dari masyarakat berbudaya menjadi masyarakat yang berfikir analitis kritis dan berketerampilan iptek dengan tetap menjunjung nilai-nilai agama, keimanan dan ketakwaan terhadap Tuhan, serta nilai-nilai luhur budaya bangsa. Secara umum, etika menuntut kejujuran dan dalam iptek ini berarti kekejujuran ilmiah. 

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MANUSIA, SAINS DAN TEKNOLOGI

1. Pengertian

1.      Sains

Sains adalah ilmu pengetahuan yang teratur dan dapat diuji kebenarannya.

2.      Konsep teknologi

Teknologi merupakan keterampilan manusia menggunakan sumber daya alam untuk memecahkan suatu masalah yang dihadapi dalam hidup. Teknologi ada tiga macam yaitu teknologi modern, teknologi madya dan teknologi tradisonal.

3.      Seni

Seni merupakan keahlian membuat karya yang bermutu.

2. Makna Sains, Teknologi dan Seni bagi Manusia

1.      Perkembangan teknologi

Perkembangan iptek dapat mendatangkan kemakmuran materi.

2.      Iptek dan nilai

Perkembangan iptek bergerak cepat, sehingga perlu ditanggapi dan dipersiapkan dalam menghadapinya sesuai kebutuhan bangunan. Teknologi dapat membawa bencana dan dapat juga membawa manfaat, tergantung orang memanfaatkan teknologi tersebut.

3.      Manusia sebagai subjek dan objek iptek

Dengan adanya kemajuan iptek manusia dapat menciptakan perlengkapan yang canggih untuk berbagai kegiatan sehingga dalam kegiatan kehidupannya tersedoa berbagai kemudahan.

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Langkah-Langkah Berpandangan Hidup yang Baik

1. Langkah-Langkah Berpandangan Hidup yang Baik

Manusia pasti mempunyai pandangan hidup walau bagaimanapun bentuknya. Kita seharusnya mempunyai langkah-langkah berpandangan hidup karena hanya dengan mempunyai langkah-langkah itulah kita dapat memperlakukan pandangan hidup sebagai sarana mencapai tujuan dan cita-cita dengan baik. Adapun langkah-langkah itu sebagai berikut:

1.Mengenal yaitu suatu kodrat bagi manusia yang merupakan tahap pertama dari setiap aktivitas

   hidupnya yang dalam hal ini mengenal apa itu pandangan hidup.

      2.Mengerti, disini dimaksudkan mengerti terhadap pandangan hidup itu sendiri

3. menghayati pandangan hidup kita memperoleh gambaran yang tepat dan benar mengenai kebenaran pandangan hidup itu sendiri. Menghayati disini dapat diibaratkan menghayati nilai-nilai yang terkandung di dalamnya.

4. Meyakini ini merupakan suatu hal untuk cenderung memperoleh suatu kepastian sehingga dapat mencapai tujuan hidup. Dengan meyakini berarti secara langsung ada penerimaan yang ikhlas terhadap pandangan hidup itu.

5. Pengabdian merupakan sesuatu hal yang penting dalam menghayati dan meyakini sesuatu yang telah dibenarkan dan diterima baik oleh dirinya dan orang lain. Dengan mengabdi kita akan merasakan manfaatnya.

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