12/7 Blog

Mom indicted in baby-microwaving case

In Dayton, Ohio, China Arnold (26) has been charged with the death of her daughter, Paris Talley.  The baby had been supposedly placed in a microwave oven where investigators say the high-heat injuries and absence of external burn marks were consistent with a microwave oven, which has also been confirmed by the Montgomery Country coroner.  Arnold’s Defense Attorney claims she had nothing to do with the child’s death in that the baby-sitter was to blame since they came home to the unconscious baby.

First of all, this lady is an idiot, never leave your baby behind with a baby sitter who isnt family or you trust with your own life.  And second, it was not the baby-sitters fault as I see it and how do you not find a better way to get rid of a 1-year old baby.  There has to be so many other ways to get rid of baby, sad but true.  People in the world are such idiots and they don’t know how to take care of certain situations the right way. 

Blog 11/30

Snoop Dogg arrested again

Snoop Dogg was arrested for illegal posession of a handgun and drugs after leaving his “Jay Leno Tonight Show” interview.  Arresting officer, Sargeant Gradalski, was arrested after being convicted of possession of a firearm, cocaine possesion, marijuana transportation, and having a false compartment in his vehicle.  Snoop’s attorney claims that “he is free of all charges” and he is to be arraigned on January 11th.  He was earlier convicted of possessing a deadly weapon, a collapsable baton, at an aiport in Santa Ana, for which he is to be arraigned December 4th. 

 We all know Snoop Dogg and other rappers are doing illegal things, because how else could they be bringing in loads of money to live their extravagant houses with 10 car garages that hold their Ferrari’s and Porsche’s.  A lot of people like his music, but what he does outside of his music should be ignored unless you to want to become a criminal and face time in jail.  Another reason why Snoop has stayed out of jail because he is a celebrity and barely ever do celebrities go to jail for a long time, becasue they seem to get through some loophole and have their attorney get them out of whatever they do.  It is pretty sad, but hey, you wouldn’t want to go to jail if you help it.

Blog 11/21

Peter Jackson dropped from ‘The Hobbit’

Peter Jackson, director of the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was dropped from the directing role of its prequel “The Hobbit”.  As New Line Cinama holds the right to produce “The Hobbit” and MGM has the right to distribute it, New Line will still go on with looking to hire other filmmakers.  The New Zealand native is also geting nasty and suing New Line Cinema as he claims he was underpaid and only making as much as $100 million.  20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures both pulled out on a plan for Jackson to make a movie version for the “Halo” video game.

I think its pretty poor how they do that to the guy that made the three previous movies for them.  Now “The Hobbit” is going to be so un-like the other movies because they have some random director doing the movie and they will not have the same ideas expressed in the earlier movies.  I dont understand what is wrong with these people and why cant they just give the man who knows what hes doing the part.  Hollywood is a dirty business and people like doing things their own way and usually its not the smartest.  But what do I know, im just a college kid who watches the movie and knows what I want to see.

Nickel & Dimed – Chapter 1

Through these first two chapters, we have seen how difficult a life it is when you have to live with a low budget and try to work dead-end jobs along with the dregs of society.  That way of life is endured by plenty of people in the United States, and every day it must drive them mad.  I have worked a job that was low-paying, but it was for my cousin and I was constantly surrounded by family.  The job was also incredibly easy where I would just stand in front of a slicer and cut up vegetables and meat.  It was not hard labor or any of this running around trying to get people’s orders and them back out in time so they can eat before it’s cold or they are complaining for other reasons.  The author has to deal with these kind of people everyday, and you know what they say, “The customer is ALWAYS right”.  I do not agree with this saying because there are definitely times when the customer is not always right and they try to use that saying to their advantage to either get a free meal out of you or complain about the service because it isn’t directly up to the potential that they thought it should be.   I have seen it plenty of times but have not just walked out on a business because all of the pressure at the restaurant was too much to handle like she did in her novel.  I stood around and weathered the storm, and didn’t get tips either even when the people knew that I was working hard and we were real busy.  The restaurant business is just annoying to be in, because everyone is un-patient and they want everything instantly, which is clearly impossible. 

Blog 11/14

Is It OK to poke fun at the Pope?

A new debate over whether or not it is politically correct to make fun of the Pope, particularly posed by Italy’s newspapers and television/radio programs.  In one TV program, a comedian sits behind a desk in the white papel robe and says “pax (or PACS) be with you” – symblizing the law which would give unwed heterosexual couples in Italy equal civil rights.  This controversy has escalated after the priest-secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, told an Italian news agency that he had enough satire about his boss.

People have free speech to make fun of anyone no matter how important thier status is.  In the United States, people consistently make fun of the President and anyone who works in the government, especially on the show Saturday Night Live and local newspapers all over the world.  But it is pretty messed up how Italy’s own reporters are making fun of their own Pope, when Italy is all about the religion and the Pope.  I always was under the impression that Italy backed up their Pope and all his decisions, so I dont understand why people would be doing these satrical jokes.

Planning, Advertising, and Consumption

In Wesley Shumar’s piece about higher education, he mentions college’s usage of brochures and bookstores to bring in well-needed students.  Colleges use almost un-seemingly real trials of students who go to that school and how wonderful their experiences at that particular college has made a huge difference in their life and helped them get to the next level.  His mentioning of Barnes and Noble taking over college bookstores seem quite a reach, since I have yet to see a Barnes and Noble at a college bookstore, since I have visited 5 to 8 of them.  It might even be just something that happens at the Ivy League school which are very high class and need more students to apply because of their high standards. 

My take on these tactics are that they can be seen since I do go to college and have seen these very same things on my quest to find the “right” college to go to.  The first college I had attended, Hartwick College, was picked on the basis that I was going to competitively play baseball there and get a great education.  The pamphlets I was given had slogans such as “The Hartwick Difference” and “Connecting the classroom to the world”.  The “Hartwick Difference” that I saw was that they would get rid of 5 to 6 sports programs, one that I participated in, just to focus on other sports that were more important in the president’s eyes.  And I was never connected to the world in my classroom, because we hardly ever talked to people outside of our country unless they were in my classroom.  Pretty much these colleges want to send out pretty slogans and beautiful pictures to pitch the college out to you so they can get your $40 grand, and then once your in the school, forget that you even exist.  At least thats what I saw at Hartwick College, a dump.

Class Identity and the Politics of Dissent

In her piece, Julie Lindquist proclaims that in certian social situations, people tend to act in different ways.  For me, when I am in social situations such as with my friends’ parents, especially a girlfriends’ parents, my “way of talking” is slightly altered.  Instead of my usual “potty-mouth” that I use around my peers, I shift towards a more polite “way of talking”, in the sense that I show the parents that I am actually a great kid, despite the foul language that I would use around my peers.  My dirty mouth comes directly from my family; mainly my father, my uncle, and their father, my gradfather.  They throw out a lot of “f-bombs” when I am around them, which is usually most of the time.  This is sort of what has been passed onto me, but I try to limit it to when my mother, sister, and other family members are present out of respect, because they don’t need to hear that type of foul language 24-7. I do not see anything wrong with the use of a lot of vulgar language when I talk, but I always try to limit myself from doing so around people that I know who are not too fond of swear words.  It is also not a good idea to speak any swearing around a friends’ parents, because then it does not leave a good lasting impression, which I am known for and thus I must be doing something right.  My parents’ friends always tell them how much of a gentleman I am to the point that they get sick and tired of hearing it.  This is because I know how to act properly around adults and my friends’ parents; leaving all the vulgarity to my peers or limiting it in situations when I am around adults.

10/31 Blog

HItman set to die in Texas for killing witness

In Huntsvillle, Texas, the friend of the drive-by shooting gunman showed up at the witnesses house, Stubblefield, and killed him out in the front yard by shooting him in both the head and the neck. Donell Jackson, was prosecuted and set for lethal injection Wednesday evening. Jackson, showed up at the home under the guise of the friend or a relative, where he asked to speak with him outside where he pulled out a gun and shot Stubblefield. David Smith, the earlier gunman, hired his friend Jackson for $200 to kill Stubblefield for being the witness who put him away for life in prison.

Achievement in Desire

Personally I can relate to the piece because I also did well, grade-wise, in school.  Although once I made it college, everything became a different story, with work being so much harder and more in depth from what I had earlier been doing in grade school and into high school.  Everything about school was just so easy back then, and unlike Rodriguez I was never solely just into books.  I had my own head elsewhere in sports in which I participated in one every school season from 7th to 12th grade (Football, Basketball, Baseball).   Books were only read when I needed to for a class, never for enjoyment like Rodriguez had shown in his story.  I always took it for that books did not really make you smart, but if someone wanted to know something about that particular story that you had read, they could tell you what happened.  Sports help in an educational sense because (1) it gets you working with a team to try and reach some goal and (2) gets you to memorize the certain plays that will effectively make what your doing successful.  Once I was in college and had more free time because I was only playing one sport did I begin to pick up books such as “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” or “The Illiad and the Odyssey”, to start filling up my free time spaces.  When I read any of these stories, I do not see myself getting smarter at all, just that I know a little more about mystery or I could tell someone about the “fall of Troy” if they have not already seen the Brad Pitt version. 

10/24 Blog

Cards say Rogers was also scuffing ball

USA Today has reported that the St. Louis Cardinals have retrieved balls in game 2 of the World Series that have been scuffed by the Detroit Tigers’ pitcher, Kenny Rogers.  They believe that these acts along with the pine tar on his pitching hand were signs of cheating.  After his eight scoreless innings, he denied any usage of pine tar, claiming that it was a mix of mud, dirt, rosin, and spit.  The San Francisco Chronicle has also claimed that Rogers had used a simiar smudge dring his previous victories over the Yankees and Athletics.  Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had also recognized that he had something on his hands after watching scouting report videos.