My Blog

Current Event

bxmok — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:52:19 +0000

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

The U.S. Intrepid, an old warship that used to terrorizes enemy oceans, was freed from the mud today. According to CNN, the now World War 2 museum ship was stuck in mud and unable to be moved for renovations. Millions of Americans visited this historic and interesting vessel which including hundreds of different tanks, planes, and other paraphernalia that showed what it was like for U.S. troops during the war. The museum on water was a living ghost of a ship that was trully apart of history and valuable in showing things that younger generations of today would never expect compared to today’s methods and technology. The ship was unable to be moved from the mud, off the shores of my hometown, New York City, on the west side of Manhattan. After many different, powerful tugboats worked on moving this never-ending ton of steel, it finally jerked out of the mud it sunk into, and was pulled downstream to a place where it will be worked on so it can still be the wonderful showcase it is today

I think it is very important to have this unique piece of history. I have beenthere many times and saw tanks and other types of vehicles they used during the war, invaluable today because they are no longer around. It was a fun way to get to know more about history, both with stunning models and hand-on activities. Now with its new renovations, millions of more Americans will adventure through the ships long halls.

“The Culture Of Argument in a Chicago Neighborhood Bar”

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 21:50:30 +0000

This reading is the result of an observation of a Linguist/Bartender who served drinks all day at a local Chicago Bar. She recorded what she saw and took notes on how the “regulars” of her bar talked and acted. She suggests that by doing so she could determine a person’s class role by noticing the way they spoke or acted. The main character of her piece seems to be a man named Jack. Jack was a man who was always in the bar stirring up some sort of conversation. In this particular case, he expressed his political views in a rather unique way. “His position at the bar is analogous to that of patriarch at the head of a dinner table” expresses that he has sort of taken the role of the leader of his group. He gained this by always being the one to stand up and talk, usually about what the people of his class could relate with, but outsiders could not identify with.

I enjoyed this piece alot and I can definitely relate to the barroom setting. I feel it was a perfect place to identify classes, since there are “hole in the wall” bars that usually attract lower and middle class men, as well as nice and fancy bars that usually attract upper class men. Jack is the stereotypical man at the bar who feels that everyone wants to hear what he has to say, but it is his comfortable zone and the people around him know where he is coming from. I think if he was in a higher scale bar, he would be seen as an annoying drunk and be ignored. One thing I did not like about the piece was that this “scholar” was very judemental about what she saw and sometimes demeaned them. You can not tell how a certain class group is by sitting at the end of a bar and taking notes on them. The only way you can is by being in their shoes, or being the person who sits in the stool next to them everyday, being “one of the guys.”

4:52 P.M.

Current Event->Girl Almost Raped at Brubacher Hall

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:24:47 +0000

October 31,2006

According to StRose.Edu, a girl was sexually assaulted last saturday in her dorm room at Brubacher Hall. The girl returned to her room to find two men searching through it and stealing things. When the men saw her they reportedly hit her and tried to rape her, but they ran out and fled. The men were not caught and are still out there.

This news of what happened in Brubacher has made me very angry. Being that it is my own dorm hall, I do not feel as secure as a I first did. The security is very minimal, with only one guard at the front door. The fact that men could slip into this poor girl’s room, nearly rape her, and then not even get caught is insane. It makes me think what if I was the person who walked into my room and saw this? They could have felt alot more threatened and tried to kill me. This girl is now traumatized and will probably never be the same. I do not think the school realizes how easy it is to get into our dorms and do not realize that we are innocent college students who shouldn’t have to worry about where we live. I do not see an increase of security since then, except that now we have to walk a different path when we first come in. Also, the suspects are still free and are able to do this again to other victims. Something has to be done and I hope the parents are ripping into the school.

Richard Rodriguez-”The Achievement of Desire”

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 08:53:44 +0000

This is the story of a man who found himself through education. His whole life he was eager to read books and learn more and more. He was the kid in class who always raised his hand, and would always be caught reading a book at home all by himself. He came from a middle class Mexican family that had struggled to make it to where they were in the social structure. His parents were somewhat educated, but worked hard to make a living. His siblings were also smart, but Richard always felt like he was by himself. He had great parents but hints that there was never that special bond between them, that his family and school were two different worlds he had to learn to live with. He states “But withheld from my mother and father was any mention of what most mattered to me: the extraordinary experience of first learning,” (p. 623) and he shows how he would not just open up to his parents when they asked what was new. He would just reply with the “same old stuff” answer. His education had culturally seperated him from his parents, the same education that has made him realize this fact and speak out about it.

I did not really like this piece. I felt that Rodriguez was sort of putting his family down. Sure it was not his fault that he had a hard time relating to his parents, but I dont think he tried hard enough to do so. They were not bad parents and pushed for him to be successful. He was sort of spoiled by not giving due credit to his parents and not trying to understand where they were coming from. If not for them, he wouldn’t have even received the education that divided them.

Current Events->Seperate Sex Classrooms

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:28:29 +0000

October 24, 2006

For the first time in a while, public schools have been given the right to seperately teach boys and girls. The New York Sun states that the Education Department announced that it will become easier for the public school system to start seperating boys and girls classrooms. Research suggests that boys and girls would learn better if they werent together in the same classroom. Sexes were only allowed to be segregated in classes such as gym or phys-ed, but the new law might change the way schools look. The rules allow schools to create single-sex classrooms whenever they think it will make the boys and girls learn better, but they must be equal to eachother. Districts can even build a school for one sex and no another, as long as there is a co-ed school that is equal too it. Officials believe this rule would stop the issue of a boy or girl from not learning as affectively when they become too concerned on what eachother thinks.

I do not agree with this new law. Growing up in co-ed schools my entire life, i think the best thing i experienced was the interaction with girls. I feel it is important for a boy to grow up with girls around him. I could not imagine being in Kindergarten through twelfth grade with only boys in my class. All the relationships with girls that I have had would not exist. How would we trully learn about life if we were put in an enviornment with only the same sex?

Current Event->Football Stadiums Targeted by bomb threat

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:32:17 +0000

October 19, 2006

SportsIllustrated.CNN.Com reports that The National Football League was the victim of a bomb-scare that was posted on the Internet stating that it’s stadiums were going to be bombed the coming weekend. The threat was posted on a forum site and stated that a truck with radiological bombs was going to be delivered to New York, Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Cleveland and Oakland, California. Although never to be believed as credible evidence, it obviously was a huge scare throughout the United States. The suspects were caught and questioned, and the FBI stated that they were bogus claims and the result of a competition between two men who were tying to make the most scariest threat. After investigation, they were found to have no ties with terrorists groups and deemed a hoax. The NFL continued with their games that Saturday, with heightened security.

I think these two men should receive the full punishment that a real terrorist would have gotten if they were caught. They are morons who deserve to be in jail for thinking they could play around with such a delicate situation. It is not funny to joke around with something that has resulted in the deaths of thousands in our country, overseas, and all around the world. The thought of these men thinking up this prank truly disturbs me. This threat probably stirred up many old emotions to victims of terrorism and is a slap in the face to troops who are fighting overseas for this reason.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:57:31 +0000

This story is an autobiography of a slave named Frederick Douglass and his experience. An African-American who was brought to the
United States to be a slave in the 1800’s, he never knew his true age. His mother Harriet was also a slave who he only saw very few times in his life, and only at night. She would journey twelve miles to see him at after working all day in the fields, but not enough to know who each other truly was, and she died when he was very young. Secrets were told to him that his father was a white man, but it was not definite since the man would never admit to it. He tells of numerous accounts in his life where he was beaten and tortured, much of which he could not understand. He traveled to different plantations and overcame dangerous and tedious work. In one instance, he was almost killed twice in one day. A mental turning point came in his life when he fought back with his master, and although he was beaten after, he discovered his manhood and self-respect.

This was not one of my favorite stories in this class. I thought it was long and talked of things that I could not identify with, although I do believe it is a vital piece of literature. I say this because I think it is important for African-Americans to be able to have personal accounts of what their ancestors went through. I love to read about my heritage history, and if I was African-American I think I would definitely enjoy having this piece as a way to discover where I come from. Douglass’s stories are inspirational and will live on to show generations and generations of people the struggles he went through.

Love Letters

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 04:58:17 +0000

October 5, 2006

“Love Letters” by Megan Foss is the autobiography of a woman’s struggle in life to become the writer and person she is today. Megan was once a heroin-addicted prostitute who lived in a car with her boyfriend. Her only goal in life was to get money to get that next hit of heroin and live “great” for a few hours until her next one. When her boyfriend was arrested and put in jail, she found herself alone and began write long letters to her boyfriend. But the irony is that she never mailed the letters, feeling that once she did she would finally realize he was gone and that she was by herself. The letters were sort of therapeutic and let her express her emotions and feelings while no one could hear her.She herself went to jail and began to mail the letters, although the boyfriend claimed to never recieve them. Then, her whole life took a change when she found an english class. She became completely interested in what writing did for her. She started to focus on living a straight life after jail and took all the necessary measures to do so. After her sentence was up, she attended college classes and now even teaches herself.

This story is one of my favorites that I have read in class. It is trully an inspirational story and amazes me how a deeply troubled person could do a full turn-around and get their life on track to this extent. I also like the way she writes her literature, with the slang of how she talks. She uses coulda and woulda instead of “could of” and “would of” and states that she feels it is necessary to understand her full experience,and does not care if literary scholars criticize her for doing so. I feel this is a totally true and affective belief, and shows who she is and where she comes from. I myself often use slang and see how it shows who I am, especially in college with people from all over the country, also using slang of their own. This work was perfect for this class, since it is “expository” and tries to help us uncover who we really are.

Current Events->Hewlett Packard spies on its employees

bxmok — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 04:26:32 +0000

October 3,2006

According to a news source named PublicRadio.Org, the very large computer empire, Hewlett Packard was caught spying on their employees and board members. The company hired a business to obtain phone records of its workers, and also tried to plant software on a reporters computer to monitor his actions. The company’s bosses were trying to find out who was leaking important information into the media about their business. Alot ot businesses today are using these methods to check their employees,but usually just to see how much time they spend playing on their computers instead of actually working. HP definetly took the new “fad” of private investigation to a new level.

I think private investigation has become a huge and developing controversial business. Today, with such laws as the Patriot Act, the government has a drawn a line where people can spy on others. I do believe these strategies are very helpful to society, such as tracking fugitives or catching terrorists, but I also think it has gone too far and innocent people’s privacy is being invaded. Our country was built on the foundation of liberty to do what we want (legally) with out having restrictions and people judging us, but now we have the government monitoring nearly everything we do. The laws should clearly state that innocent people’s private lives can not be looked into. I also believe that businesses do have the right to see what their employees are doing while their “on the clock” and being paid, but not who they call when they get home and what they do off-hours. It is none of their ‘business’.

Current Event->More Violence Overseas

bxmok — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:54:26 +0000

According to CNN.com, terrorists stormed a television station in Baghdad earlier today, leaving nine Sunnis dead. The television station was not even running yet, when men jumped out of six cars and began shooting guns. Employees as well as guards were killed in the attack.

Eight other people were killed in various attacks throughout the city. Bombs were detonated leaving many injured and dead. Another attack including a motorcycle full of explosives which targeted police officials. Police also found forty different bodies of people full of bullets, showing signs of torture. Over 400 bodies have been found in the same way this month, and it is believed to be happening because of increasing violence between Sunni and Shiite arabs.

These attacks show that civilizing Iraq is far from over. Who knows how much longer the fighting will go on.

(this post was created Oct. 12th at 4:44 p.m.)