DISCUSSION POST MOD 1 SCTY 315

Hello!

For this blog post/discussion, I will be discussing the necessity of intelligence and it's role in national security. As seen in one of our readings, the growth of what defined national secured evolved as our nation grew. They first established a department of war that, over time, created intelligence agencies within the military during WWII. We also see several acts passed in the early 1900's, notably the Espionage Act of 1917, which details how espionage against military activities to aid adversaries is damaging to our national security and is worthy of a maximum fine of $10,000 dollars and a maximum sentencing of 20 years in prison. (Benny, D.J. , 2022) This demonstrates an early recognition that intelligence can be damaging to national security and interest of a sovereign nation. 

This then developed further in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism act of 2004. The goal of this act was to expand on the capabilities of our intelligence agencies so they could better collect information that can help prevent and counter act terrorist actions. This provides insight that intelligence can help strengthen national security by preventing terrorist actions from being committed. 

Reference:

Benny, D.J. (2022). U.S. National Security and the Intelligence Services (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi-org.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.4324/9781003270843

Zone One Post Three

In this section, we meet the character Miriam Cohen Levy, or as we'll come to know her, Mim. Mim is the first person Mark really connects with and becomes close with in his current situation. He opens up to her in the toy store, and they become fast friends. So far this is probably the only section of the book that has caught my interest, as I liked the "get to know you" part about Mim. I find her character interesting as well as being glad that Spitz finally has someone he can truly connect with, as I've been wanting that for him the whole story leading up to this point. I felt bad for Spitz when Mim left to look for pepper, as he has become so accustomed to her and her absence was hard on him.

Zone One, Post Four

Even though I personally was not a fan of this novel, I did appreciate the overall writing style, as it was so different from anything else I have ever read before; this makes me think it was a difficult writing process that required effort on Whitehead's part, rather than a run-of-the-mill novel that he could have written. I also liked how we don't exactly know what happened to Mark Spitz, enabling us to sort of make our own ending of the book, filling in the blanks with what we imagine should happen to him. I can appreciate this writing style, as well as being entertained at certain parts, such as being engrossed in Gary's death and the happenings that took place leading up to and during it. I have always liked and appreciate irony, so the fact that a fortune teller ended up being the end of Gary's life struck me as being a great example of true irony. All this being said, I would definitely not recommend this book to a friend, because I found the process of reading this book to be tedious and required more effort to attempt to understand (and I never fully grasped the concept) than I thought was worth putting into a book written about zombies.

Zone One Post Four

In the last part of Zone One, The base has collapsed and Mark Spitz is making his escape plans. I notices that Mark has changed a bit from his tangents of his pass to where he is now. In the previous part of the book, he used to be kind of derisive of people who held on to the past. Now after Gary’s death we see him stuffing the picture of Corsica in to his back pocket. Maybe as a way to remember him or his time in Zone One? We also see him grabbing an armadillo helmet, which was something he always eschewed in the past. I think he is putting the forbidden thoughts behind him and plans on surviving the fall of the city.

Zone One, Post Four

I actually really liked the end. I liked that the it was kind of open ended because each person can fill in the blanks themselves. Personally, I saw Mark Spitz going into the sea of zombies as suicide.  The ending had me interested and entertained. I wish the first part of the book was that interesting. I started to actually care what the characters were doing. For example, I was really engrossed in the book when Mark Spitz jumped off the truck to check on Gary and Kaitlyn. I wasn't sure if he was going to find Gary eating Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn getting eaten by other zombies or Gary missing. I was also concerned whether or not Mark Spitz was going to be able to get back to the "safe point" when he went to check on them. Another example is that I really like Mark Spitz and Mim's relationship. I'd like to imagine that if somehow they both made it through the apocalypse they would have stayed together. Even though I liked the ending, I probably wouldn't recommend this book to my friends because the rest of the book wasn't as good.

Zone One, Post Three

I like the character Mim. This is the first time in the book that I've found a character that I like a lot. I'm not 100% sure why I like Mim, but her Last Day story really interested me. However, I'd like to know more about it. Was the mother of the party infected and attacked the children? Was one of the children infected? Was it one of Mim's children? Either way, she is on her own. I also liked that she got to have a safe place for a while with Taylor and others. After losing her kids and most likely her husband, it's nice to see that she got some peace during all of this. It's a shame Abel ruined it.

Zone One: Post Three

There were few of scenes, I thought were important in this reading. The first one, where Mark Spitz, Lieutenant and Kaitlyn talked about stragglers followed by Mark Spitz thinking about life as a straggler. I enjoyed, the part where he thinks about like as a straggler. Traveling to the place where the straggler enjoyed the most and, how the Lieutenant mused that they were the ones who had it right. I think, that scene is importing because, it seems that Mark Spitz or Gary was bitten which is a bit disheartening. The second scene, where we learn how Mark Spitz got his name due, to him saying he did not know how to swim. They nicked name him after a famous swimmer. I also think it is interesting that Mark hallucinates the ash in the rain, which to me reinforces the idea that he feels guilty about something. Maybe for killing zombies? I wished, we could have learn more about the other team members of the wrecker crew especially The Quite Storm.