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?

Crazy People

After watching the movie in Wednesday's class, I was surprised how some people think. Being a small town, like the one in Montana, I did not think they had issues such as the one dealing with environmentalists. Granted I have never heard of this town, but it is odd that once the public is introduced in to it, it is simply because of the supposed "terrorist" problem.
When I was watching, I just sat there thinking how much power the one radio announcer had over the town. His following seemed more like a cult, rather than just the normal society. When they burned the green Nazi symbol and would basically verbally abuse innocent people, I feel that this could be something that could progress, into more violence.
In the violence factor, I do question the environmentalist woman who died by drowning in the shallow lake. I do not know whether to believe that it was an accident or not, but I do think the town needs some limitations to what can be said to jeopardize a person's safety. For example, the lady with the two daughters who received the phone call about killing her piece by piece, which made her teach her daughters how to shoot guns, I think that is something a mother should have to teach her children.
Some people may find this radio broadcast free speech, but I think that once it endangers someone, then it is an entirely different story. When people get on the radio, they should think what they say before they say it and that many people are listening.

Troops in Darfur

As everyone knows, Darfur has been a place that has been suffering for quite sometime. On Yahoo, I read an article that stated how the U.S is urging the U.N to get "3,600 new peacekeepers on the ground where there is conflict in Darfur by June." I just want to put this out there and ask, do you think this will really help? The article continued to say that the U.S wants contingents from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.

A few weeks ago, I went to a lecture by Benjamin Ajak and Dr. Ashis Brahma. Benjamin Ajak was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and Ashis Brahma discussed what is going on in Africa. He really opened my eyes to the terrible things that are going on over there. I just wish things would be able to get better for those people in those conditions, who know the true meaning of sufferage.