Leasing vs Buying

I have leased a 2009 Chevy Trailblazer for the past 3 years. It has served my family well. All five of us fit in it comfortably, with only a few arguments from our daughters that ones foot or elbow was invading their personal space. It carried all our sports equipment to and from softball games and tournaments. It has served its purpose. My only issue with leasing the blazer is it's cost, while we have friends who have purchased cars and are paying less than $200. a month. We have spent the past three years paying nearly $400. a month. When we decided to lease the trail blazer we looked into buying one and it would have cost us more. However in the past three years the prices of automobiles have come down so much that now we could buy one and have half the payment. The blazer is being returned tomorrow and we have already bought a new vehicle to replace it. I personally would not lease another vehicle. I found myself constantly worried that we would scratch it up or the carpet would get stained. Every mile we drove I was adding up how many more miles we could go before we reached our quota and would have to pay extra. Worrying is one of my flaws, I worry way to much, so between the cost and the worry I don't feel that leasing a vehicle is worth it.

Controversy Sells.

In class Friday we had a discussion about violent video games. I am not much of a gamer. The only games system my family owns is a Nintendo Wii, and the most violent game we have is Lego Star Wars. I personally don't believe that my daughters will become violent if they are exposed to violent video games. My husband and I do our best to raise them to know right from wrong, we hope that someday they will be responsible adults that can make the right decisions on there own. I don't believe a video game, a book, a movie, or music can turn you into something your not. However I do believe that everyone is entitled to an opinion and every adult has the right to make decisions for themselves. The government should not have the power to tell us what we can read, listen to, watch, or play. The government should never tell us that something is not good for us and there for should be banned. The best way to sell a video game, a book, music, or a movie is for the government or anyone else to tell us that it is bad for us. As adults we have the right to make that decision on our own. In being told that we can't be trusted to make that decision and that we will not be able to buy something because its banned makes that object so much more appealing. For example look at the popularity of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. I personally probably would have never picked up the first Harry Potter book, The Sorcerers Stone, if a mother of one of my daughters classmates would have never asked me to sign a petition to ban the books from the school library. Instead of signing the petition I went out and bought the book. I finished reading it in a week and went out and bought the second and third books in the series. Now I own all of the books and have read them a few times, all because I was asked to sign a petition to ban them. The people who put so much effort into trying to ban the Harry Potter books are the ones who made them so popular. I believe its the same for video games, movies, and music.