Last Blog

As the semester comes to an end, this is my last post. I just wanted to discuss some highlights and general information about the past few months. Even though I am extremely happy to be done with another semester, I do think this class was a good learning experience. Ending the semester with the group projects/presentations was a good choice. We got a break from reading and was allowed to hear and input our own ideas into a whole class dedicated to each of our own groups. I think that one of my favorite things about this class was the blogging. Though it may have been tedious at times, having to remember to post and comment every week, it was still a good exercise. It allowed each one of us to discuss different topics, whether it was something we did in class or what we thought was interesting outside of the class. I just hope that people found this class as helpful and interesting as I did. Granted I did know what free speech is, but I did not know all the factors that came along with the term. This gave me an insight about free speech and all the positives and negatives. Hopefully, I will be able to greater my knowledge of this and allow others to be informed.

Still in the race?

When I was browsing the internet today, I came across an article that was about the presidential race. It was about Hillary Clinton and her abilities to win the democratic candidacy. The headline read, "Why is this woman still smiling?" I was just wondering if any of you could answer this question. I am a supporter of Obama and think that she should just drop out now. The longer she stays in, the battle between the two of them, the longer this drags on. The article stated that his delegate count is rising, so why doesn't she just drop out? She obviously is not going to catch up in the month or so left of the country's primaries, so there is really no reason for her to be wasting her time and money. Hopefully she will soon come to her senses and realize there is no way she will catch up.

For the Women...

This is mainly directed for informative reasons towards females. However, that does not discourage the males to read this as well.

While in one of my earlier class, my friend brought my attention to the dangers of a supposedly "helpful" vaccine that is meant for women. The HPV vaccine, also known as Gardasil, may do more than prevent HPV in the young teenagers who are meant to get it. There is an article on NaturalNews.com, that discusses the dangerous side effects that could occur from getting this vaccine. The first part that stuck out in my mind was the story of a twelve year old girl who got the vaccine. She was always considered athletic and then after she got Gardasil, her legs became weak leading her to collapse. Now she suffers with disease that inflames the brain and has left her having to rely on aides and a cane in order to successfully walk.

The article continues to talk about everything related the HPV vaccine and I believe this is something everyone should be informed about. From the commercials and maybe doctors make it seem like a life saver, but there might be things the FDA is holding back from the general public. They maybe making money off of the vaccine, but it may be causing others to suffer.

Media and the War

After yesterday's class and the movie "Buying the War," I think that there is a certain opinion I hold on the media. For instance, whether the journalists should cover things more emotional or critical, I think it really depends on the situation. Like in the circumstance of 9/11, I think that they covered the tragedy in a good amount. I think they played plenty of emotion because from what I remember the media covered 9/11 for many weeks. I do not think that people wanted to know somewhat what was going on with the attacks, but if that is all we plastered on the television was the faces of the terrorists and the weapons they used or whatever, that might just cause a disturbance further than what it was.

While watching the movie, there was one thing that really bothered me. The scene where there was talk about how Bush has a list of people he called in on that press conference. Not only that one, I am sure that still happens. I just think that is not the way those press junkets should be run. He shouldn't be allowed to prepare the answers for the questions he knows will be asked. Part of being the president is to answer those questions that are difficult to answer. Even now, the presidential candidates are not being told what questions to answer.

This also got my seminar group to thinking about Bush will be remembered in the future. The majority of us thought that he would be remembered as one of the worst presidents, whether he is forgotten or not. While discussing this in our seminar, Dave came around and informed our group of this website that had historians rank how Bush would be remembered. Even though I never found this part of the website, I did come across numerous comics about Bush and his administration. Some of them were hilarious and others were kind of disturbing, so much to the point that they were true. Look for future posts, since I do not remember the exact website.

Today's Class

When we were in class today, and watching the video, I was extremely taken aback. In the past I have watched Fox News, but have not always relied on them. I have known got myself thinking about if I ever payed attention to how conservative Fox News was. I know that I always thought all those news channels had the same news, but never saw how they were supportive of the conservative view point. Also, there was one quote that stuck out in my mind about how "Fox News is a 24 hour political ad supporting the GOP." Now that I look at the clips presented in the movie and watch the station, I have noticed how right on that quote is.

Another thing that made me angry was the O'Reily conversation with the son who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. I just could not believe how Bill O'Reily could be so verbally abusive to someone who had lost their father. Part of being a talk show host, or whatever his title is, is to let people speak their own thoughts, but in his case he thought it was ok to cut him off at any chance and also personally attack him as well as his family. Watching his insensitivity reminded me of the radio personality in the little town in Montana. Both men have their followings and they are completely out of line in to what they say.

On another note, I am currently watching the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania and then looked on AOL. Even though that is probably not a good source of news, I saw the headline stating: "Clinton Says Obama Can Beat McCain." The first line of the article said how Clinton actually said that Obama could win the White House in the fall. I just think that if she thinks this, she should just drop out and cut her losses, but that is just me. What do you think?

Different Post

Aside from the normal posts of regular issues, I would just like to post about part of my weekend which was amazing. First of all I got to make my return to the San Jose Earthquakes soccer team which they have been missing for a couple years. Anyway, the game was in Oakland and I went around to a couple stores away from the colisseum and met some people, and they were all extremely nice. It seems that whenever Oakland is talked about, it is in the negative sense of gangs and violence, but so far I have only seen good side.

Next thing is that I got an internship for NBC 11 news station, which is amazing and I am so excited for the summer. Hopefully, I will be an intern for the sports section, but we shall see. Any experience is good experience. I just wanted to share that with everyone and hope they had as good a weekend as I did.

Free Speech in TV

I am always surprised when I am watching television and the factor of free speech shows up. For example, I was watching a show the other night called "Without A Trace." For those of you who don't know, "Without A Trace" is a series based in New York about FBI agents who focus on missing persons; a great show to watch. Anyways, the other night there was an episode about a high school cheerleader who went missing, and the FBI chose to question a boy who used to date her. When they brought him in, they asked him about his blog that verbally abused this cheerleader. When one of the agents asked him about the blog, the boy simply replied, "Haven't you heard of the first ammendment?"
This isn't the first time that I have seen this happen in television. But with this specific circumstance, I ask, would the words written on a blog be able to be grounds for suspicion of a crime such as this?