BP...A big mess

Lately the number one news story on every site is of course the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which occured on April 20th. For the last month this has been the top story on CNN's website and many other news sources as BP tries to save the environment and stop the oil from ruining all the wildlife in the surrounding area. Only recently was the oil spill upgraded to an "environmental disaster", as if before it was only a small mistake that they had made and that they would fix it. But now will the massive publicity and the fact that they have been unable to stop the leak from growing bigger. When the oil spill occured 11 men were killed, however in almost all the news reports almost no one is talking about the workers and how they were killed in unsafe working conditions. Recently in class we talked about how coal miners were in extremely unsafe conditions and were constantly at risk, but we didnt talk about how oil rig workers are also in very similar conditions. Although you would figure that the deaths of 11 men would be important to the nation, all anybody cares about is the environmental aspect of the catastrophe. Even though of course that is a very big deal, we should also be talking about how those 11 men gave their lives because a company had them in unsafe working conditions. What do you think about the oil spill? What do you the think BP should do?

Facebook, Over the Top?

Lately if you havent noticed, Facebook has become the new most popular site and best way for people to connect with eachother. But now a days everyone I know has a Facebook, and it is being used by older generations to "connect" with the younger generations. Such as Sarah Palin and other politicians having their own facebook pages in order to connect with young voters and get their ideas out to the public. But to my utter dismay today I learned that even my own Dad has a facebook, a fact which will forever change my view of facebook. This leads me to consider, what is the point of facebook? I could live my life without ever going on facebook and yet I still use my facebook. Facebook started out as a way for college students to connect with eachother, but now it is almost too big. Now instead of just being able to communicate with my friends, I am bombarded with hundreds of different events, or farmville invitations or many other topics. Things that to me atleast are completely useless. Many people view facebook as an ultimate website where so much is going on and its defining an entire generation, along with twitter, but is it really that important? I atleast do not think that how many people on facebook like a certain celebritys page or any of that stuff that TIME magazine recently deemed important in how "hip" the TIME 100 list was this year. In my opinion people are taking facebook too far and this will lead to more and more time spent on the site and more resources put in to a very flawed site. What do you think about facebook? What are your views on how facebook has spread?

Junior Theme Final

Recently I have finished my junior theme on gangs and police and will be turning it in tomorrow. After weeks of research and reading I have put together all of my research and finished my paper in time, although I never thought that I would be able to. Last week I had an interview with police Commander of the 13th District in Chicago. She gave me alot of usefull information and a new view on my topic, one that I had never even thought of resarching into. I am confident in the paper that I have written and hope that it is as good as I think it could be , however I am unsure of its quality. The hardest part of the paper was piecing together all the research and trying to put it all into an organized paper that made sense and didn't repeat all over the place. Since alot of my research said around the same thing it was hard not to repeat certain things and I looked for it throughout my paper in order to eliminate some of the repitition. Although it was alot of work and was very frustruating at times I am happy for it to be over but also happy that I worked hard to get it done in time and put it all together in a way that made sense and followed the thesis map throughout the paper (hopefully).

Junior Theme Update

Recently we have been writing our junior themes in class and spending alot of time researching. My junior theme topic is about gangs and how the police are trying to prevent the gangs. Also on why the police are often times unsuccessfull in dealing with and trying to solve the gang problems around the country. So far I have been doing tons of research and read two books on gangs and two authors experience with gangs both first hand experiences. One of the books is a story Always Running by Luis Rodriguez about his struggles with gangs in Los Angeles. The other book is Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh about Sudhir as a sociologist in the projects of Chicago and his experiences with a gang leader. Both the books were very usefull and put a good first hand and outside perspective of the gang problem in major cities in the United States. At first I had some trouble getting an interview however I got my interview with a Police Commander in Chicago. I am feeling good about my paper so far and it is a very interesting topic for me that I have enjoyed researching for the past month. In the upcoming days I will be getting all my topics organized and writing the rest of my paper so I can edit it and improve it in the upcoming weeks. The research I have done has been very interesting is hopefully going to be usefull in my paper.

Big People

In class we've talked about how corporations are now seen as people in the eyes of the government and last week I ran across an article about how a corporation, Murray Hill Inc, is now trying to run for office. This obviously is a political stance to mock the supreme court ruling that declared corporations have the same rights as individuals when it comes to funding political campaigns. This makes it so that corporations can give tons of money and backing to a political candidate and possibly sway the election because of the kind of money some of these corporations posses. As Murray Hill said about its campaign, ""But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves." They are making a joke out of how since the corporations are considered people when funding that the corporations should be able to run for office also. Many people including President Obama condemned the Supreme Court on the ruling and I also think that it is unfair to allow corporations to be considered individuals. This throws lots more money into the campaigns which are already bad enough with all the commercials and money being used. Nobody wants these campaigns to get bigger and more expensive as time goes on which it is on a track of right now. This gives an unfair advantage towards the people who spend all their time on fundraising money and makes the election more about money then actual politics. What do you think about this Supreme Court ruling? Do you think that it should be allowed?

Article on Political Campaign Story

Chris Browns Plea

This week Chris Brown issued a plea to his former fans to support him and revive his career after he plead guilty for domestic abuse after he beat his girlfriend Rihanna last year. An incident that was widely known and Chris Brown was denounced by many of his fans for his actions, some of the worst you can do as a celebrity in these days of no privacy. Chris Brown said to his fans, "Some radio stations aren't playing my records, They're not being that supportive and I wouldn't expect them to. But it's on the fans...It's in your power to bring me back." This plea to his fans is almost pathetic as he tries to save his career and make some money now that no one has respect for him what so ever. As a pop artist he depends completely on his fans coming to his concerts and buying his songs, unlike some of the other rappers who become more famous by staying as underground artists, he has to have lots of fans to be successful. Personally I never thought that he was a good artist and I never listened to his music, so I don't think that he deserves to come back after what he did. Regardless of whether we should know about his personal life, we do, so when I view him as a artist I take that into consideration. It used to be that artists were seperate from their personal lifes when dealing with fans but now they must be more careful and one mess up, such as beating your girlfriend, can cost you your career. What do you think about Chris Brown? Do you think we should forgive him and listen to his music now?

Heavyweights in Hollywood

Last week I posted a blog about how the U.S is becoming increasingly more obese by percentage in the total population and how it is bad for the country, so I was intrigued when I found a article on how the size of oscar nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe may affect her acting career. As many of us know she is a very big women who is clearly obese and many people are speaking out saying that her acting career is already over because she will not get another acting gig because of her weight. This brings up an interesting issue of Hollywood and the type of actresses that they always seem to put into their films, no matter who the director is. I don't think I've ever seen a movie in which a heavy set women was the main character, but I have seen many movies in which a heavy set male was, but the male is almost always a very funny character such as Chris Farley. But because of Gabourey's talent she has more opportunitys that any other women of her size has had before in the movie industry. If she succeeds she could pave the way for more women of her size to fill more major roles in upcoming Hollywood films, but will the public go to see her in the movies because of her talents? Many males around the country go to movies so see many of the women that fill up the majority of Hollywood roles, such as Jessica Alba or Angelina Jolie, and this is why many of their movies make money, because Hollywood plays off not how talented the women are but how beautiful they are. With the world becoming increasingly more fair for more people we see new boundarys being broken all the time and this may very well be the next one. What do you think about Gabourey Sidibe? Do you think she will be succesfull?

Milkaholic...Ridiculous

Earlier today I stumbled upon an article which was about how Lindsay Lohan is suing E*Trade for 100 million dollars. What? This is all about a commercial which featured the name Lindsay and then calling her a "milkaholic". Here is a link to the commercial. Of all the law suits that I have heard about this is one of the most ridiculous. Lindsay Lohans lawyers claim that the commercial is in direct reference to her and that her name is as big as Oprahs or Madonnas when coming to single names. Personally one of the last things I think of when I hear the name Lindsay is Lindsay Lohan, mostly because I know tons of people with the name Lindsay (considering it is a very popular name) and none with the names Madonna or Oprah. Also she is in fact an alchoholic or was one because she has checked into rehab multiple times, now it is questionable whether it was moral or not to put that in the commercial if it was even in reference to her. Where has Lindsay Lohan even been lately? I feel like I haven't heard her name or seen her in movies or tv shows for years, is this all a ploy so that she can get money because no body wants to hire her for any movies? Lastly how can she sue for 100 million dollars? That is an unbelievably large amount of money which she obviously knows she will not win, but most likely is for shock value for the case so more people know about it and E*Trade may give in instead of getting the bad publicity. What do you think about this lawsuit? Do you think that Lohan has a chance to win any money?

Evolution...Fake?

Since the discovery of evolution by Charles Darwin it has been an extremely heated debate between the Church and creationism and science. The church firmly believe in it's 7 day theory of how God created the earth around 6000 or so years ago as the bible says, but of course science completely disproves this theory. However there are many people out there who don't believe in science and evolution and all the evidence that carbon dating and research has shone, but decide to believe what somebody wrote down 3000 years ago as complete truth. Not only do they believe in this almost completely proposterous story that has been disproved but have for years fought to keep real science out of school and instead teach kids creationism. I and many other people believe that religion has no place in public schools in our country other than to educate people about the general ideas of it. But now these anti evolutionists have put their bill together with a logical bill which states you should have to teach both sides of global warming, because with this there is actually somewhat logical arguments on both sides of the issue. A bill introduced in Kentucky which states that teachers should be encouraged to discuss, "the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories". This almost shocked me when I read it, that these people want to completely eliminate the fact that religion is kept out of government, in this case education, and teach both sides of issue when one side is science and one side is not only not proven but has been disproven. People cannot handle the fact that now science can fill the void that for thousands of years people tried to fill with religion, one of those things being how the earth was created, a common story found in almost every religion. These people are angry because they believe science is "overstepping their bounds" and researching in areas they should not be such as religion. Their fine with medicine and other areas of science but just not an area that disproves a belief that has been held for thousands of years but now is not relevant. Although I believe the creation story is a good lesson I think that it has no relevance today as fact and should not be in our schools for any reason espeically as a dissenter to evolution. What do you think about the bills that are being proposed? Do you think creationism should be taught? Here is a link to an article on the matter

Where in the world is Osama?

Nine years ago a deadly attack happened on September 11 where 3000 people died, the man who everyone pointed out as the "mastermind" behind the entire plot is still to this day at large, who we all know is Osama Bin Laden. Just two days after the 9/11 attacks George Bush issued this statement, "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." So why don't we have him in custody now? Wouldn't you think that if we spent eight years with all the intelligence people we had looking for him that we would have found him? Many people say that the best chance we had to catching Osama Bin Laden was just months after we started the war in early October 2001. Regardless of whether or not he is dead, how can we not still be out there looking for him? How did our main goal for the past eight years to catch him and to "not rest until we find him" change? Some people argue that it would be messy if we catched him and would not be worth it, however I believe that that is completely false. Everyone in the country was led to believe that Osama Bin Laden was the worst man who had ever lived and were convinced to go to war because of his actions, a war that has been a complete failure, so we as citizens should atleast get the satisfaction and trying him in court and condeming him for his actions. Nobody is saying that they know where he is, but somebody out in the world does and one day he will be brought to justice for those who died on 9/11, unless of course the U.S no longer considers him a priority. What do you think about Osama and the way the U.S. has handled his search?

Obesity, A Major Problem

In America today we like to consider ourselves the best athletes in the world and in lots of sports we are, however the reality is that in America now a days almost 1 in 3 people is overweight or obese according to Medical News Today. To me at least that is a staggering number to have, how could it possibly be that high? While we glorify the athletes that are in amazing shape, we do nothing about our own physical activity in this country. The United States has the highest rate of obesity at 30% in the entire world, compared to South Korea and Japan who has a extremely low number at only 3% of the total population. We are not even talking about being overweight but obese which means that you have a Body Mass Index of over 30 percent. The number of obese people has been steadily rising in the last couple of decades and now it is completely out of control. We cannot have a third of our country being obese and be okay with it, it is a serious health concern that can be easily curbed with a few foundations that we have to put in place. This includes making physical activity mandatory and not just the easy physical activity we do in gym but rigorous activity on a weekly if not daily basis. People also must be more responsible about how they eat and what they choose to eat, because fast food itself will not make you fat, but if you eat fast food and then do not exercise or eat healthy later than you can become fat from the food. You cannot blame fast food restaurants for these obesity problems because plenty of people eat fast food all the time and do not get fat, but it is because they eat fast food and do nothing else. As a country we need to be more responsible about the well-being of our people and lately Michelle Obama has started the "Lets Move" campaign to try and curb child obesity. According to the San Francisco Chronicle,"The country spends $150 billion every year treating obesity-related diseases, most of which are preventable." I say that we need to start getting people into shape and eliminate the obesity craze that has struck our country. What do you think we should do about this problem? Who's fault do you think it is, if anyone's? Read more about Michelle Obamas "Lets Move" campaign here

Killer Whales

Earlier this week a trainer at Seaworld was attacked and killed by a killer whale after a show that she had put on. This clearly brings up the issue of animal captivity and which animals should be kept for multiple shows like the killer whales are. As many people know killer whales are not friendly animals in the wild and they are very dangerous, so why are we keeping them in captivity and putting them infront of hundreds of people for lots of shows everyday? I can understand dolphins as they are way less aggresive animals, however killer whales are known to killers, as their name suggests. Animals such as this should not be kept as they are with tons of opportunitys to attack their caretakers if they so choose. While many do not believe the killer whale was intending to hurt the trainer, that does not mean that later on it can happen. It is hard to take the instincts away from an animal no matter how long it is in captivity, these animals are meant to kill and are built for it and are very capable of it. These animals are subjected to daily shows for money for the owners of Seaworld and are there purely for entertainment and nothing else. Where as in a zoo it is a informative and sometimes free process, that is not meant to be a money making enterprise off of the wellbeing of animals. What do you think about the captivity of the killer whales? Do you think that they should be allowed to continue the shows?

Recruiting

Recently while surfing the web I came across a article on a 13 year old boy who committed to the University of Southern California to play football. Now almost everyone knows USC for football, but not for how young they recruit, but because they are one of the nations top football teams and have been for years. Just this year they hired a new coach, Lane Kiffin, who offered the scholarship to the 13 year old boy. This brings up a very important question of, how young is too young to be recruiting kids? This boy would not be attending USC until 2015! Thats 5 years away, which to me is ridiculous. No kid who is in 7th grade should be being recruited by college coaches let alone being offered scholarships. No one can know whats going to happen to this kid in the 5 years before he gets to college, he could become a superstar or be one of the biggest busts ever, but either way he's going to USC for free because he can throw the ball well when hes 13. Now you may say that it's the coaches choice if he wants to take the risk on the kids at that age, but it puts a huge burden on the kids to succeed when they are recruited at such a young age. The recruiting can also cause the kids to have a big head and become extremely cocky and stop working. You must also consider the lack of morale code the coaches who recruit at this age have, as they manipulate a young mind into committing to them early by tempting them with a scholarship. This creates an unfair advantage for coaches who stoop low enough to recruit this young and others who choose to wait. What do you think about this recruiting style? Do you think it should be allowed?

Sarah Palin...A joke

Lately their has been one conservative figure in the news regurarly other than Dick Cheney, and that is of course Sarah Palin. A women who as we all know ran for on the ticket for John McCain as the Vice President. It is almost ridiculous that now many people are considering her not only a quality politician but maybe even for Presidential elections in 2012! As a good looking women she represents almost everything that Hilary Clinton is not to the conservatives. She is not a "braniac" who studied at an Ivy League, but a soccer mom who didnt even know what the role of the Vice President was when she was running for it. Conservatives are using Palin as their tool as she flip flops on every issue to please who ever she is speaking to at that moment, never forgetting however to insult our current political party in power, the Democrats. Recently a new book has come out by two aides of John McCain during the election which bashes on Palin and how her new book, Going Rogue. As a citizen who is 1 year away from voting, I find it absurd that a women who has almost no definite outright views on issues and who has been found to repeatedly lie and just completely ignorant comments. Although I do not think that she is extremely dumb, I think that Sarah Palin is a uneducated and ignorant person who should not hold any politcal office let alone the presidency. What do you think about Sarah Palin? Do you think shes as bad as she seems? All I know is that if she wins the presidency, I'm moving to Canada....

Tim Tebow Ad...Ethical?

This weekend as most people know is the Super Bowl, where the the biggest event is of course the commercials throughout the game, it is the reason that many people watch the Super Bowl. But this year instead of the usual funny commercials that we always expect, CBS has approved and even worked with a commercial featuring Tim Tebow and his mother talking about how abortion is wrong. This is a very controversial ad that has no place in the tradition of the super bowl ads. On top of this CBS denied a bid by ManCrunch.com, a gay dating website. Now although I have not seen the ad, it is known that in the ad Tebows mother talks about how if she had gotten an abortion like the doctor told her she should, Tebow would not have been around to play football and become the star that he is. Now although I do not disagree with the right to free speech but there is a time and place for everything, and using an star athlete to manipulate the public in the biggest American sporting event of the year does not seem ethical. The Super Bowl is meant to be a fun sporting event that the entire family can watch and many around the country do watch, this event should not be taken advantage of and used as a political booster, and then also for CBS to censor other views is wrong. What do you think about the ad? Do you think its fine to air the ad during the Super Bowl?

Garret Gilbert: Hero... nearly

Last night during the first drive for Texas during their championship game, Colt McCoy was knocked out of the game, during the most important of his college career. In comes a true freshman, Garret Gilbert, and almost everyone who was watching the game thought the game was over, that Alabama was now really going to run over Texas. During the first half Gilbert was exactly what everyone was expecting, awful and he even managed to throw an interception with 15 seconds left of what was an awful play calling situation putting Alabama up 18 points. Then all of a sudden Gilbert grew up and brought back Texas to within 3 points. I had gone from feeling awful for him, to predicting that he would be the hero of Texas fans everywhere, and drive Texas 90 yards to the win with 3:12 to go. As I was predicting this and feeling as if I was really smart, Gilbert was blindsided and lost the ball and along with it Texas' chances of winning the game. I sat dissapointed as I thought how great of a story it would have been if he hadn't fumbled the ball at that point. Gilbert however through the game grew noticeably more confident as he fought to keep his nerves down infront of the millions fans that he had never played before. In the end I am excited for what will come from Gilbert as in the next years he matures, even though he's a championship short of where he should be.

Don't tase me bro!

Stumbling through the internet today I found a video that I found very interesting and which some of you may already know. It's of a Florida student who was tased by the police at a forum for Senator John Kerry. The student who had waited in line to ask a question for 2 hours started yelling at Kerry to answer his question. In the video the police started escorting the student out as he protested, and then attempted to arrest the student. The student was resisiting arrest and this is when the police tasered him, while he was yelling, "Why am I being arrested?" and "I will escort myself out". After watching the video I was torn between whether the polices actions were justified or not. I think that arresting him was wrong and tasering him was also wrong, but that the student should have been made to leave the building. This is an interesting situation of whether free speech should be allowed in a forum like this when it against the interest of the forums directors. He had a right to his free speech and also to the police telling him why they were arresting him, which during the whole incident they did not once. It's a clear mistake on both parties involved in the incident, but do you the think the police had the right to taser the student? Were they restricting his right to free speech in this incident? Here is a link to the video

Targeting Kids

Today in class we talked all about advertisements and whether it is right to target them at kids. This reminded me of some videos that I had seen a couple of months ago by the Mormons in California. These commercials were about Proposition 8 in California back in 2008 and these commercials were not only targeted at kids but used them as an excuse to pass the Proposition. For those of you who don't know, Proposition 8 was initiated to ban same sex marriages in the state of California which had previously legalized the marriages. At the head of the support for the bill were the Mormons, all of which the bill didnt affect what so ever and many of the support coming from people who did not live in California. This is the video paid for by supporters of the proposition 8 legislator. I find this video and many others almost exactly like this disturbing. They are using kids to not only influence you but saying that the bill most directly affects them more then anyone else. Instead of stating their actual opinions they use a child to manipulate others into voting for what they want. What do you think about this advertisement? Do you think they should be allowed to show this?

Blackwater

Recently in the news a hot topic has been the dismissing of the Blackwater (a private military organization) murders in Iraq by a U.S judge. As stated in this article by CNN the five guards who were accused of the murders have been released after the prosecutors case was dismissed. Of course all around the world people are upset over the verdict from the trial. Especially the Iraq government who has issued a statement that they will be searching for any former employees of Blackwater in their country and if they find them they will be charged by the Iraq government. The five guards were released after mistakes made by the US Government and the federal prosecutors. I personally find it ridiculous that they can get away with murder because the prosecutors messed up. They get away with no legal punishment because they had ammunity in the country that they worked in which was Iraq. I agree with Iraq that these men deserve to be punished for their actions which cost almost two dozens lives after they killed them unprovoked. What I personally don't understand is how these men are granted ammunity from legal persecutions in the country that they are in, how can Iraq not charge them themselves for the crimes committed in their country. I would understand if Blackwater was part of the military but they are a seperate organization and thus should be liable for their actions in another country. Do you think that these men should get off with no punishment?

College Athletes

Nowadays our college athletes are becoming more of an athlete than ever before. Those who receive full scholarships are practically being paid to attend the universities (mainly basketball and football players) and it is becoming less and less about the academics. In basketball many top players choose their school based on the basketball or whether they can get into the school or not, such as the case with Derrick Rose and Memphis. The stars nowadays are being treated as the future NBA or NFL stars they will become, but they are not their yet. The NBA and NFL put in the age restrictions for players so they would not be hurt in the pros, but they are instead being paid for by colleges to attend for one year before they go to the pros. I love watching these athletes however you have to consider that they got into that school at the expense of another applicant. They also take lots of money out of the school and are treated as the schools number one priority students at many colleges. I realize that these athletes have worked very hard to get where they are and play at the Division I level but is it fair for others who worked just as hard if not harder in school to lose money and tons of perks in college because the athletes are being treated as if they are a higher social class. I'm not sure if the pros of treating these athletes as stars outweigh the cons, but as a society we are allowing it to happen and supporting it. What do you think? Do you think the treatment the college athletes get is fair?