ENOUGH

If you have never seen the movie "Enough" starring Jennifer Lopez, it is about a woman, Slim, who meets the perfect guy or what she thinks is the perfect guy; they fall in love, get married, and have a beautiful daughter together. A few years later she finds out her husband is sleeping with other women when she gets a call from a current mistress looking for him. When Slim threatens to leave her husband he starts abusing her and threatens her, using their daughter to make her stay. Slim then plans her escape to leave and take her daughter with her. She escapes but with her husband nearly killing her in the process.Throughout the rest of the movie the husband tracks down Slim and his daughter causing them to take up different identities and change their appearance constantly. Slim eventually has 'enough' and learns how to defend herself with the help of a trainer. She later traps him in his own home and with her training manages to kill her estranged husband so that her and her daughter will finally be safe. When her husband is finally out of the picture, Slim and her daughter can live a happy life.

This movie depicts the justice issue of domestic violence. In this movie, Slim was threatened and beaten by her husband and almost killed her on more than one occasion. She had to take up a different identity for herself and her daughter because she feared for her life. Many women deal with domestic violence and feel that they cannot escape because of the fear that their spouse will come after them and abuse them more leaving them to be stuck in a relationship. In the movie Slim went to the police and got a restraining order but that still did not help. She asked the cops what was she supposed to do when he came after her? Throw the paper at him? This is a problem with restraining orders because even if a woman, or a man, gets one there is still the chance that a person could violate it and come and harm them. This movie ended with the victim overcoming her abuser but in many cases this does not happen which makes domestic violence a terrible justice issue among others.

PURE COCAINE

Drug enforcement is one of the biggest issues in America today. Should we legalize drugs? Should we reduce the punishment? It seems that drugs have been on the topic of discussion a lot lately in the past couple of years. This song by Yo Gotti is about the drug cocaine mostly with small mention to marijuana. The song talks about the sell, benefits, and process of doing and selling drugs. It would seem in this song that there is nothing wrong with cocaine which would raise brows on most occasions. But I see the song just like any other controversial song or TV show, just because the artist talks about it does not make it true or make someone feel the need to try it. A portion of the song also talks about making a "run" for drugs and how the person is dressed in a suit with a bible beside him and driving slower like an old lady to prevent from getting pulled over; if he does get pulled over the suite and bible may prevent an authority figure from stereotyping him and searching the vehicle. The "War on Drugs" will never end and I think that the more people discuss ways to improve legislation on different types of drugs there will be an extreme change in the justice system.

 

*There is no official video for the song, but here is the Youtube link for the song. It is just a constant picture in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXMPvE1Hd4&feature=related

 

[Chorus]
Pure cocaine, pure cocaine [x2]
All I ever served out in these streets is pure cocaine
[Chorus x2]

[Yo gotti]

Remember me coca'ina you like my best friend,
When I was down and fucked up you got my ass in
Far as I remember my nigga my life is full of pain,
I posted up in the snow I stood out in the rain
I laid that white on the table I watch em catch a drain,
I knew right then right there that I would never live the same
I'm like a bird myself nigga wrap me up and move me,
I got a stamp in the middle the whole hood approve me
But you can't break me down (down) you gotta sell me whole (whole),
It's a drought on real niggas you already know
I'm that ether nigga that fish scale,
You that oil base homie you don't cook well
I'm yo gotti the king and I got that young cash,
New money in a muthafuckin dufflebag
All hundreds in a sour creme ruffles bag,
Young money bitch I keep a couple hundred stashed

[Chorus x2]

[Gucci Mane]
Coca'ina heavily cooking dope excessively,
Heavy risk activity my god given ability
Hid the bricks in the 6 wait 'til they get low to???,
Shawtys start a lotta problems let her start it off wit bricks
Gucci mane the dope boy point me where the jays at,
Heres a 50 slab watch my'74 to payday
Shawty want some hardball baby want some powder,
I'm so high I see stone mountain
Gucci got da birds I aint talkin bout da falcons,
Gucci slangin birds also known as a dragon
Hundred pounds of midgrade stash that in my magnum,
Roll it to the country then them country boys I tax them
Gucci mane bastard cook dat dope faster,
Make that dope stretch like a 80 inch plasma
Coke skank dope skank smokin on my airplane,
80 in the air man bricks over here mane

[Young Cash]
Yeah, I never thought I would be ridin dirty on i-10 just reup and flip again,
Rent a car from enterprise license proof of insurance
Speed limit 65 so I'm goin 62,
Both hands on the steering wheel drivin like a old lady do
Crackers pull me over they aint got shit gotta let me dip,
Purple haze is all I smoke but she couldn't make it on this trip
Usaully keep a pistol too one in the chamber clip full,
Not today on i-10 it's nothing but me and redbull
Collared shirt brown slacks lookin like a business man,
Bible on the passenger side yeah I'm a christian man
Yeah I pray to god let me get these bricks back lord,
Please don't let these crackers try to search this lil ol' honda accord.
Shit I'm wide awake, I aint sleepy so I aint gon swerve
Told you I like the traffic when it rain I call em thunderbirds
I'm the only one touch the work so I know it's all good,
Cause I don't move nothing but, nothin but, nothin but

Suicide Guest Speaker

The guest speaker talked about something that no one really likes to talk or think about, well at least I don't. Suicide is death. Death is sometimes suicide. I really liked the speaker in that she was pretty broad in her topic and gave us some of the signs, signals and ways to help people that were thinking about suicide. I never thought about how someone could be happy when they have decided to commit suicide. But it does make sense that once they have made the decision they feel a lot better. However, you would think that if one sat and pondered about committing it, they would chicken out? I don't know, I have never thought about it. Another thing I found amazing was when she talked about survivors who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. All of the survivors said that going down they wished the hadn't of done that. So one can only assume that the people who did accomplish suicide on the way down to their death were thinking the same thing. So in that split second when you want to back down you cant. Suicide... there aren't enough words to explain it. 

My brother and I were talking about this last weekend because our cousin just came to us and said that she thought about doing it. We were shocked of course but she said that it was a while ago and she is better now. When my bother and I were talking I was telling him how this 20year old kid died because he was on the top of a tower recording a football practice in high winds at some university I heard about on the news. The tower collapsed and the kid died. I told him that I couldn't imagine dying at this age, I am not ready to die and for some freak incident like that to happen to someone that is my age you can never be too safe. Whats going to happen is going to happen, but I would never, never, think about ending my life because times are bad. I do understand that some people feel depressed and don't have people to go to like me, and I cant fault them for that; but I always say that if things are as BAD AS THEY CAN BE today, then you can be sure that tomorrow will be better. Don't tell me that people have mental or emotional issues and its not that easy because I know the facts, we just had the speaker. I am only saying that I can see no reason what so ever to take your own life... crazy topic... gets you thinking.

TRICK OR TREAT... OR THE POLICE??

Police in Mecklenburg County visit sex offenders a night early this year. The county has made it a habit to go door to door and visit registered sex offenders on Halloween night to "raise awareness" from what they say. They have decided to do it a night early this year because Halloween falls on a Sunday and said it would be more of a surprise. Although a lot of registered sex offenders are allowed to hand out candy on Halloween the visits make sure that the offenders are following the terms of their parole and that their contact and address information is correct.

Although I think that this strategy is a good one to protect people, I think that it may be a bit speculatory to only check on the sex offenders around Halloween. What about all the other days of the year? Sex offenders are expecting police around the Halloween season every year and can easily prepare. I guess it is better safe than sorry. This particular news station actually rode around with a policeman and got statements from sex offenders. If I were them I would not want to be recorded for the nightly news. I am assuming they had to get permission but the sex offenders did not seem too excited to be on the news. Overall however I guess it is an okay strategy to keep children safe, I just think it is a bit strange to do it everyday on Halloween.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/25580822/detail.html

"BLACKOUT IN A CAN"

A new, but fairly popular alcoholic drink has been dubbed "blackout in a can". Four Loko is an alcoholic energy drink that blends caffeine and liquor. If you haven't heard of it, or even tried it yet, it is fairly new and has been over the news all day today on various news stations. It is currently being evaluated by the FDA for safeness. The producers of Four Loko said that it sells its products to people of age and people have been mixing caffeine and alcohol in products for years and have been fine. One can of Four Loko is equivalent to six beers! So if you drink two cans then you have basically just drank a 12-pack by yourself. The product grew attention when college students in Washington state went to the hospital and the hospital though that they had been a victim of a date rape drug but later found out that the students were only drinking Four Loko. The drink has hospitalized 12 students and nearly killed one. Many Universities as well as some states are looking at banning the product. This shows that the copy cat effect is not only suitable for individuals but for states and institutions as well. Because I can bet that if one University or state bans this drink, there will surely be those that follow.

My opinion on the situation? The can clearly notes that the drink is 12% alcohol which is a lot more than most canned drinks with the average wine cooler having only 4-6% alcohol content. If you are old enough to drink I think that you should be able to judge how much you can handle. However, a specialist that was interviewed said that the mix of caffeine and alcohol makes it hard to judge how much you can handle and slows your reaction time (like every other alcoholic beverage). I say the students should take it as a learning experience. Personally I've tried it once, yes I'm 21, and it had a disgusting taste and I never want to try the stuff again. For those of you that do, and are 21, it comes in nine flavors, so pick your poison (literally). But please be careful! It packs a mighty punch and will probably leave you with one heck of a hangover in the morning if you don't watch it.

COPYCAT FILM

People will try almost anything and after watching this copy cat film, I know this for a fact. The things that not only children imitate but adults as well is ridiculous. As a society we should be able to tell the difference from what happens in a movie or on TV from what happens, or should happen, in reality. The guy that said he went on a killing spree and did it just like they did in the movie had to of had some sort of mental problem because one would think that you can understand in a movie a person is not really getting killed. I mean if a person would do that just because they think its okay to cut someone down the chest has a problem from distinguishing fact from fiction. The woman who gathered the girls to stage a bank robbery like that in "Set It Off" was actually kind of funny. I think it is because no one got hurt and it is just so ironic. I think that if one of the girls had not told her friend about the idea they may have gotten away with it. But more heinous crimes should not be blamed on movie producers. Their job is to provide us with entertainment and if some people can not distinguish what should happen and what is just fictional then it is the individuals fault and not the entertainment industry. If movie producers stop giving us horror and action films on the base that they don't want people to copy them, then America would produce an uproar about how its not fair. Yes, movie stars are sometimes depicted as being cool when they are actually doing violent things but it is all in the plot of the movie and most importantly of all fiction. The film was an eye opener of how crazy people can be, but no one can control the acts of a select few in society.

Kids Will Be Kids... Adults Will Be Dumb...

I grew up with two brothers, so I was around guys all the time and was a big "tomboy". We would always act out different things we saw on television although most of them were just like fighting like Power Rangers or Ninja Turtles or something of that sort. I even tried to jump off of the monkey bars with an umbrella like Mary Poppins, like a lot of kids, but fortunately did not end up getting hurt. One of my most memorable memories from my childhood however was not done by me although I got to witness it. My brothers and I liked to play with fire and gasoline, terrible I know. We never caught anything major on fire, although now that I look back we could have done some serious damage. I remember a Tom and Jerry episode where Tom lit a ring of fire around Jerry and my brothers and I had been watching it one morning. So during the week when my parents were at work we had gone out to our little "houses" we had built in the woods behind our house. My brother got mad at my oldest brother for some reason and decided to pour gasoline around his "house and set it on fire. Thank goodness my brother was not in the house (and he knew he was not in there) because we just sat there and kind of laughed knowing that our older brother would be really mad when he came outside to see his house area was ablaze. We eventually put the fire out but we always joke about it and say "we could have caused a huge fire because of all the trees and dead leaves around!" I just think it is crazy that he got the idea from Tom and Jerry, which was a pretty violent show if you think about it. The incident could have turned out a lot worse and I can only imagine (and now I really don't have to since we read stories in class) how many kids tried to mock cartoon shows and movie scenes that were purely fictional. I guess children don't understand the relationship fully between fiction and reality.;

There may be an excuse for children, but when adults try and copy things they see on TV, like Jackass and Wildboys, it is just plain stupidity. An instance that I remember that turned out to almost end in a trip to the ER for a guy I knew. It was wild when it happened but now we laugh when we think about it. Basically he had seen on TV where a guy lit his shot on fire and drank it and he thought he could do the same. I don't know the logistics of how to drink a flaming shot, but when he did it, it did not go down like it did in the movies. Instead he threw the shot back and his entire mouth had blue flames coming out of it! He jumped around yelling and screaming but made his way to the sink where he was able to put it out. Amazingly he didn't have any burns but it was still dumb. If people try things like this I can envision the people who think it would be cool to do all the other stuff that they see on different media sources; maybe even kill.

WARNING!!! GRAPHIC PHOTOS! VIEW AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION

VERY GRAPHIC
 
If you look at this, you'll never text or use your cell phone
While driving again!!!  

                        
THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BE TEXTING OR USING YOUR CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING. 
This is the last few feet of a car that hit a semi head on!!


This guy was texting a friend when he crossed the center
Line!!!!

THIS IS WHY...

AND THIS ....

AND THIS....





AND THIS ...



AND ESPECIALLY THIS ...



WE'RE NOT DONE YET... But If you have a weak
Stomach you might reconsider scrolling any
Further.  

 This is not the way you want your picture to be taken.  
Every time you make a call or pick Up the phone while driving,
think about how this guy's day ended.

STAY OFF THE PHONE! HANG UP
AND DRIVE!
OR PULL OFF THE ROAD!!!!

SAMOAN WEDDING

           The “Samoan Wedding” was a film made in 2006 that focused on a group of friends. The friends were depicted as a group of men around 30 years old who still acted like they were teenagers. There was Michael, the handsome ladies man, who was a bike riding delivery boy; Albert, a timid business man; Stanley, the one that met various women through chat rooms; and Sefa, who loved to party and had a girlfriend he always left at home. In the beginning of the movie the group of friends was called to a house where most people in their community were and they all looked upset. The men were sown videos of previous weddings they have spoiled in different ways and told that they were not allowed to Michael’s brothers wedding who they all looked at as a little brother. The preacher decided that if they came to the wedding with female dates then they could go because they would be too busy with the women to mess up.

                The movie then basically shows them on a quest to find dates. The group even land in jail the night before the wedding but got bailed out in time. Michael got turned down by many of his girls because the relationships were mainly sexual. Albert was going with his cousin but lost her to Michael because she seduced him and had sex with him; she then told Michael after the wedding that it was only sexual giving him a taste of his own medicine. Albert ended up going with a woman he worked with and had liked for a while; they turned out to be a great couple and would keep dating. Stanley who met people in chat rooms never found a date because he kept getting stood up by Latifa. However, Alberts mother told the preacher that he was with her and that he was a “good boy”. Stanley met Latifa in the wedding because she was a server and they agreed to start off as friends. Sefa had his girlfriend leave him but found out that she was pregnant and asked her to marry him.

                So in the end, all of the men basically found themselves during the process by either finding a girlfriend or realizing that they only like to date white women. It was a very good movie and I definitely recommend going to see it if you missed it.

"Mis-Information"

             Mis-information. The first thing that comes to mind when I ever hear this word is that someone was basically lied to or lead to believe something under false pretenses or mis-guidance on the informers part. The articles mentioned some various aspects that all deal with mis-information that I find unethical. The first is the Bandwagon effect where people believe things that others do, simply because others believe them. I think that if you are subjected to this type of information you deserve it because i feel like people who conform to this effect are followers. I can understand if you are misinformed and agree with a person, but if you don't have your own thoughts and feelings about a situation and don't express them because you want to follow the crowd it is terrible. Confirmation bias was another one that I take interest to. I think that people who are subjected to this are somewhat narrow minded and maybe a bigot at times. This is because most people who conform to this are will not accept others ideas or try to look at a topic from a different point of view. If someone wants to make their argument stronger, I feel as if they should look at the other side of an argument and find ways to argue against it instead of dismissing the ideas and finding information to support their own beliefs; instead of finding arguments only for you idea, find some valid proof that would falsely the opposing idea to make your argument stronger.
            The article that we read had a lot of information that I agree with included in it and one that I found particularly interesting that I wanted to touch on before describing a personal instance where I, and most of America, was misinformed is what the author says about free speech. The author posed the assumption that many may believe that limiting information may deny us our first amendment rights. However, he makes the valid point that a man who yells "FIRE" in a theater is not protected under this amendment. This, I feel, is true for media sources that falsify information. I agree that there are times where maybe the media source itself was misinformed and report falsely, but this may be the same as a man yelling "FIRE" when he truly believes that it really is a fire. For media to misinform their views, readers, or subscribers so that they may have the view point that would benefit them or a political standpoint, whatever it may be, is extremely detrimental to America in my belief.
              One time that I remember I was misinformed was after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Shortly after this tragedy that was imposed on all of America the United States invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Former President Bush made the report that the reason we were invading Iraq was because of "weapons of mass destruction". Surly most citizens felt it was necessary to go in an remove these weapons so America could feel safe. However, after a few months the story came out that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in the country and it is assumed that there never were. The speculation was that President Bush, and I am sure other members of his staff, wanted to invade Iraq, as well as Afghanistan for terrorism, was to find the person that was believed to be behind the 9-11 attacks, Osama bin Laden. After finding out that Osama was not even in Iraq but hiding in Afghanistan the invasion was targeted at rebuilding Iraq and its government. The war in Afghanistan was a legal war against terror, whereas the war in Iraq was illegal (according to the UN charter) and not approved by the United Nations. The misinformation led me to believe that we had a legitimate reason for entering Iraq and I was not as opposed to it before I found out that there were never any weapons of mass destruction. However, once the troops were in the country, they were not going to be deployed as easily. Many people are misinformed everyday whether intentionally or unintentionally. I think that the cycle will never stop but needs to be improved in media sources.

^^^^Misinformation^^^^ =)

Glee Endorsing Drug Abuse, Masterbation, and Burlesque.... Really?

             First let me start off with the disclaimer that I am in no way a Britney Spears or Glee fan; I have never even seen Glee. Although I have heard interesting things about the show, a story that I came across on the internet surprised me when I read “Britney Spears's Glee show blasted by parents for endorsing 'drug abuse, masturbation, and burlesque'.  From what I had heard about the show it was a show about kids in a high school show choir so I was interested on what was going on.

              Apparently, Glee aired a tribute show for Britney Spears in which she played herself and there were various times where the Glee cast performed acts to some of her songs. One included her past hit I’m a Slave 4 U in which some of the cast wore “skimpy outfits” and did “sultry grinds”. This did not sit too well with parents because Parents Television Council (PTC) has approached FOX and said that it was inappropriate for the young audience it is directed towards because of the sexual content. There was a tribute to Madonna that the PTC said had plenty of “girl-girl bumping and grinding”. The group felt as if Britney Spears was not an appropriate role model because of her troubled past. The PTC said, “Considering her stints in rehab, her very public breakdowns, and her questionable parenting skills, there is absolutely no way Spears should be considered a role model.” Britney was apparently not fazed by this because she has yet to comment and continues to go on with her normal living.

            If the PTC tries to promote this issue further the issue may grow because it may make parents think about the “so-called” sexually explicit content on the show when they may have not thought about it before. Media usually tries to exaggerate instances and I feel that this is one of them. Although I have not seen the episode, I am sure that what was featured was not anything that the children have never seen before in a music video or PG-13 movie. I think that people take things out of hand and tend to amplify situations to unnecessary levels. I also think that if the media feels like this would become a bigger story and draw attention to the majority of the public, they may pick it up and make it an even bigger story.  

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978590226

The Whale Rider

The Whale Rider is a film mainly about a little girl who grows up with her grandmother and grandfather in a broken tribe. Her father left after the girl’s mother and twin brother died during her birth. The grandfather resented the girl at first because she was not a boy but still loved her although he would not let her do the things boys were supposed to do. When the girl tried to fix the boat motor and participate in sacred teachings of the tribe, the grandfather yelled at her and told her that she could not do these things. The girl secretly watched the tribal teachings that she was not allowed to attend and learned how to fight by her uncle teaching her. When she beat a boy in the tribe with the “sticks” her grandfather told her that she ruined everything and sent her away to live with someone else. When the grandfather took the boys on the boat for a final test, none of them could come up with his whale tooth. He was disappointed and spent days in bed. One day the girl and her uncle, with some of his friends, went out in the water looking for food and the girl asked where her grandfather had thrown the tooth. She dove in to get it and stayed down in the water for a long time causing her uncle to jump in to look for her. She came up behind the boat with her grandfather’s whale tooth and a lobster! The girl’s uncle showed it to his mother and the mother said that the grandfather was not ready to see this because it meant that the girl was the prophet.  When the girl invited her grandfather to her school play where she had dedicated a speech for him, he did not show up and she cried while making her speech. However, the reason that he did not show up is because whales had washed up on the shore and he was trying to save them. The girl had called them because apparently they did not hear her grandfather. The tribe spend all night trying to save the whales and when a huge whale washed onto the shore the grandfather said that if they got him back in the water the others would follow. He did not want the girl to help because he said she had did enough already. They could not get the whale back in the water and the tribe got tired and needed to rest. The girl went down to the water and climbed on the back of the big whale and the whale amazingly got back into the water with the girl on her back. The family screamed for the girl but she said that she was not afraid to die. The girl did not die however, she was put in the hospital and when she awoke her grandfather was by her side with his whale tooth around her neck that the grandmother had given him when the girl left on the whales back. It then cut to a scene where the tribe was together in what seemed like a ritualistic ceremony and in the end it was the girl that brought the tribe back together.
                Thinking in relation to my understanding violence class, it is a theme of violence that occurs in the movie. The violence that occurred mostly is institutional and structural violence. The violence was institutional in the family because family is one social institution. This was mainly by the grandfather because he may not have accused the girl physically, but abused her mentally and emotionally causing her to question what was wrong with her and to go sit on her father’s unfinished boat and cry. Structural violence can be found in the culture. Girls were not allowed to be involved in sacred teachings that boys experienced and her grandfather would not even let her help fix the broken boat motor. The girls grandfather yelled at her and made her feel guilty for wanting to participate in the rituals. Interpersonal violence may be seen in this film too in regards to the whales. The girl called the whales when they did not hear her grandfather. She thought she was wrong because she called them at the wrong time causing them to wash on shore and have some of them die although in the end it turned out that it may have been the correct time to call them. This film is a good example of violence that is not physical in an institutional or structural sense. But overall the film was a story that showed that although someone may not think you can do something, if you have it in your heart you can accomplish anything. If you haven’t seen this movie, I would highly recommend it.

EASTERN AFGHANISTAN ATTACK LEAVES 25 OR MORE KILLED

The story that I found was about 25 militants being killed when there was an attack on a NATO camp from MSNBC. An attack in Eastern Afghanistan killed around 25-30 insurgents according to this news story. Troops returned fire with their attackers but there were no civilian, NATO, or Afghan troop casualties. There was no mention of why the troops were attacked; it only says that the attacks were coming from the Pakistan side of the boarder. However, when looking at the articles from CNN and Fox, they both reported different casualties. CNN reported that more than 30 insurgents died and Fox reported that exactly 30 insurgents had died and 3 NATO militants, unlike MSNBC that said not NATO personnel was killed. The articles were basically the same in regards to the insurgents being attacked and killed and they all gave very brief general information on the subject. What I did find interesting was that all of the news stories did not only report on the insurgents being killed although that was the title of their article, they also reported on different things that were going on in Afghanistan. All of the news stations had a different story integrated in this main article about NATO troops being attacked. CNN also reported about ISAF deaths in a bombing and also about coalition forces conducting a precision air strike that killed a Taliban commander. FOX did mention the killing of the Taliban commander but also reported on the elections inside this story. They mentioned that there were rocket attacks and bombings at polling stations in Afghanistan. MSNBC reported the casualties of Denmark and Scandinavian troops and also included a story about the helicopter crash that remains a mystery. This only goes to show me that although news stations may report on the same topics, they take the importance of it differently and may have other stories they feel important within it as well. I think that we should know about this story, but the only problem is that more “important” things are happening that overshadow it. So although these stories are being reported on, they are only small in comparison to other stories that Americans find more important, such as Americans dying in attacks and things that are happening in the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/25/afghanistan.violence/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/25/nato-afghan-journalists-freed-outcry-detainments-alleged-taliban-propaganda/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39315622

Indiana Kids Died After 10 Hours in Closet

A woman has recently been arrested for locking her five children in a closet for a minimum of 10 hours. The police who did the investigation said that the time period may have been longer and she more than likely did this on more than one occasion. The woman's children consisted of a seven-year old and five-year old girls, as well as a five, three, and one year old sons; This is a total of six children.

According to police reports the woman, who is an immigrant from Somalia, locked the children in a closet that was six feet wide and 18 inches deep and pushed a large bed in front of it so they could not get out. Apparently the accused woman only went over to a neighbors apartment in the same complex and when she returned she found two of her children, the 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy "stiff and unresponsive". According to the mother she took them out of the closet but did not call 9-1-1. She said that she was not in her right mind when she locked her children in the closet. The children were found when a neighbor grew suspicious because the mother would not let anyone in her house and called an uncle of the children. He would not let her in at first but he saw the bodies on the couch and called the police. Police say that the two children were"in full rigor mortis" when they arrived with no pulse. The father of the children had went to Somalia to see his parents and is currently back on the way to the U.S.

As we continue to see growing stories of child abuse, I can't help but feel sorry for the children who are in this predicament unwillingly. Although they are now in protective services the siblings will more than likely get split up during adoption processes. It makes you wonder what kind of "monster" could treat children like this. And for this woman to have a total of six children you would think that she would care for them in some way being that they are her own flesh and blood. Why keep reproducing if you are going to treat your children like this? The youngest of the children was a one year old, and to leave a one year old locked in a closet with children who don't even know how to take care of themselves, much less a one year old, it an outrageous act. I personally hope that this woman gets locked underneath the jail and that the father of the children had no speculation of the way his children were being treated by the mother of his children so that they may be able to live a better more productive life than they did with their mother.

To view the entire news story, please visit the ABC website:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=11693350

The Grim Sleeper

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/grim-sleeper-serial-killer-nabbed-arrest-made-la/story?id=11109240

As I searched for recent serial killers, the vast majority of them were from past decades and centuries ago. Not many were from the recent years although there were few. One that I came across that I found interesting was the ‘Grim Sleeper’. This was an unidentified believed serial killer who was given this particular name because of the period in between the murders they committed. A suspect and who police believe to certainly be the ‘Grim Sleeper’ was just recently arrested in July of this year, 2010. The now 57 year old, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., is suspected of committing 10 murders and one attempted murder. All of the victims were young black women and the attempted murder was the only man involved in this crime spree. The ‘Grim Sleeper’ committed murders from 1985 through most recently 2007. Franklin is currently awaiting his court date where he faces up to life in prison or possible execution for his crimes.

The article posted above, from ABC news, does a fairly good job of blending the profile of the serial killer as well as the crimes that he committed. There is also mention of how Franklin came to be arrested and hypothesis of why it took so long for this man to be captured. The article does not go into much detail about the different murders but does mention the case of the “blue van” that was cited in other articles that I read. All of the killings were actually done around the same area, so as far as statistics, there were few except that they were all young black females within his community. Ages or descriptions of the victims were not given in any articles that I read although some articles, not this one, listed two names.  The main law enforcement agency that assisted in the capture of the ‘Grim Sleeper’ was the LAPD who also had some assistance from the California Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement personnel.

One of the most interesting things that I found about this case is that it took so long for police to apprehend Franklin and he lived within a two-mile radius of all of the killings. This apparently is not uncommon because the “Myth and Murder” article suggest that most serial killers find and kill most of their victims in a small area or one city. The case of the “blue van” that was mentioned in almost all of the news stories about this killer was less than a mile from his home. People in the community say that Franklin is a nice guy, although a “ladies man”, he was always apt to help people whose car was malfunctioning because of his occupation of a mechanic. Franklin came into contact with the law on some occasions but was never asked to produce a DNA sample so that it could be on record. The news article also says that the police were only three doors down from Franklin when they were investigating one of his murders but never came across him as a suspect. Since Franklin was just recently captured there are no further details about the investigation of the crime but during Franklin’s trial some old mysteries may begin to unravel.

You can listen to the 9-1-1 call made to the police at ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7025116

DISCOVERY CHANNEL BUILDING TAKEOVER

I decided to follow a story that has just recently occurred, the Discovery Channel building takeover by James Lee. I followed this story using three different sources. The first is from ABC news on a webpage (http://abcnews.go.com/US/gunman-enters-discovery-channel-headquarters-employees-evacuated/story?id=11535128&page=3) , the second from a MSNBC television broadcast (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38957020/) , and the third from the Washington Post newspaper (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/02/AR2010090202259.html).

All three stories painted virtually the same picture. However, ABC did not label James Lee, the culprit, as deadly gunman like the Washington Post and MSNBC had him labeled in their stories; ABC’s headlines read, “Environmental Militant Killed by Police at Discovery Channel Headquarters”. This title would make one think that the police killed a man whose only crime was loving the environment and trying to protect it. IN the bulk of the story ABC did tell of his gunman status and how he held three male hostages just as the other news sources did. The other two sources however made it seem like James Lee was a dangerous gunman from the start and may have been a way to boost their ratings or sales.

Another thing that I found interesting about the three articles on the same story was that one of the stories describes that when the gunman was shot, one of the explosives that was tied to him, went off one of them did not mention an explosive going off and the last dwelled on a more detailed description of what happened. The Washington Post did not mention an explosion going off when the gunman was shot and MSNBC simply tells us that when the gunman was shot one of the explosives went off. By reading this, I asked myself, “how powerful was the explosive I wonder?”, assuming that it had to be some sort of “boom” that had to occur. However, reading ABC’s story, it simply says that “one of the canisters popped”. This statement falls short of an explosive going off and made me wonder why I had not heard about this before. It seemed like ABC was trying to give an overall detailed description of the situation that was at hand.

All of the stories mentioned that James Lee was an environmental militant and that he was against the Discovery Channel for not trying to save the earth and even pitched them a reality show on saving the environment. Lee had been arrested outside of the Discovery building before and all stories mentioned this fact as well as the game show. The sources also said that Lee said that the earth does not need humans and we need to try and save the animals before we start having more humans.  

DEVIANCE - HOUSE OF THIN

http://www.houseofthin.com/entrance/mission.php

The above website is entitled, “House of Thin”. This site is devoted to being pro-bulimic and pro-anorectic. It supports women who have eating disorder such as bulimia and anorexia and tries to form a close knit support community for the women and men with such eating disorders. The purpose of the site is to have a place where people with eating disorders can come and be themselves and not be judged. The mission statement on the page quotes, “Pro-Ana works by allowing the individual to proceed at their own pace in a loving, caring environment in order to gain and/or regain self-acceptance and not to be ashamed of who and what they are. It's truly one of the most accepting close knit communities of any on the net.” They continue by saying that they are not a cult and do not encourage eating disorders or deadly eating behaviors, it is just a place where people can be themselves.

This site actually has a lot of useful material even if an individual does not have an eating disorder. It provided many forums, and education library that describes the many disorders and statistics, and a section to calculate your BMI & BMR as well as height and weight charts so that a person can know their healthy weight. They also have links to other pro-ana websites and news links dealing with these disorders as well as ways that people can improve or relieve their “eating disorders”.

As far as the question of whether this activity should be considered deviant, I do believe that it should be labeled as deviant. Not simply because the majority of society does not conform to these types of weight loss strategies, but because it is very dangerous to the individuals that pursue these lifestyles. Yes, there are many activities that are labeled dangerous but not deviant, but purging and not eating is not healthy for your entire body. Your body runs off of what you feed it and was meant to eat. It is up to an individual to maintain a healthy lifestyle and this is not one of them. Of course some people fall into this lifestyle and find it hard to get out of, but there is help. The fact that there are websites out there that promote the behavior and gives you techniques to slowly kill yourself is outrageous. People pick up this disorder trying to fit in society physically on the outside but do not always see how it can affect them inside. I do think that bulimia and anorexia should be labeled deviant simply because it is so dangerous. Although everyone has different opinions on what they actually consider deviant there is a clear and present danger that looms over eating disorders along with many other disorders.

You can see a video link to a news story about three girls facing the struggle of eating disorders and why they chose to conform to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDY1pws-kOE&feature=player_embedded#!

Media Criticizing Media

http://www.jobmonkey.com/realitytv/criticism.html




This article that I chose is entitled “Reality Television Criticism.” The author criticizes reality television for being something that it is not, real. It suggest that these so called reality shows use scripts in some cases and heighten the sense of drama to make the shows more appealing to audiences. This online article is critical to self because it is trying to unravel the facts that all reality television is anything but real. The author also draws on some criticism of not only held bythe site, but by others such as actors who criticize this form of media because it involves no real acting skill and programmers are basing show times more on reality series than on produced television series. This is in most part because according to the author, “drama sells”.

This article is criticizing reality television as a whole and not one particular program. I think that the article does not do a very good job at this considering that there is no supporting evidence included in the article for any of the claims that they make. The article however only list many widely held views by many Americans that are common sense to many educated people. It says that people are attracted to the drama but never mentions the idea of reality television to be purely entertainment or taken seriously by people. I think that if the argument went a little deeper into suggesting the reasons why people watched, or did not watch reality T.V., other than drama, the point that they are trying to make may come across better. The fact that the author mentioned that although there are criticisms about reality T.V., there are also people who love it makes the argument a bit more sound, although this does not come till the very end of the article. So although it may not be the epitome of reality, it is still a popular and growing industry.

Lastly I found it interesting that there were no suggestions for improvement. Although the article constantly criticized the form of media, it did not make any suggestions on how reality TV. could become better. There was only mention of why it was not truly reality and how people should not view it as such. The reading by Postman, ‘Media as Epistemology’, at least offered the suggestion that although reality television may be seen as “junk”, that is the reason people watch it; people can be amused by the “so-called reality” television. Even though it may not be the essence of reality, it is an over exaggerated version that many Americans watch to “unwind”, instead of playing a sport or having a craft hobby of some sort.

MEDIA E-FAST

I decided to start my fast closer to night time; I figured that it may be a little bit easier than starting in the morning. At 7:00PM I turned off my TV and sat down to do some readings for my class. I actually got a lot done. I checked my phone every once in a while to look at the time because it the only clock I have. Around 9:00PM I got tired of reading and lay in the bed for about an hour (it felt like) until I went to sleep. I usually fall asleep with my TV so I had a little trouble going to sleep on this particular night.


I got my roommate to wake me up at 8:00am on this morning because she leaves for a class around the time I have to wake up and I didn’t want my phone to have to wake me up. Not watching the news in the morning was a terrible experience, I always watch the news in the morning. I felt as if I was lost; how am I supposed to know what happened while I was sleeping? I decided to take my ipod out of my book bag so I would not be tempted throughout the day to listen to it throughout the day. I actually whistled on my way to the bus stop because I did not have my music I usually listen to. Riding on the bus all I could hear was other people talking and it was actually kind of annoying. I realized why I always wanted my music in the morning. Being in class was not so bad; I had my phone in my bag since I left my apartment so I would not be tempted to look at it. I knew I would be even more tempted to use media today because it was Friday and this was my only class so I did not have any distractions to keep my mind off of it.

I rode with a friend back to my apartment and turned off their radio as soon as I got in the car. Needless to say they looked at me funny when I said, “Let’s talk”. Ha-ha. I then proceeded to tell them about my assignment that I had to put them at ease. When I got home I convinced my boyfriend to go to the park with me so I could be as far away from any form of media. When I arrived back home I did get online to comment on three people’s blog for this class. I thought about hitting the link to facebook after I finished; I could already hear my mind telling me, “no one will ever know”. But I stayed strong and continued my e-fast. When we got back to the house I decided to take a nap since I couldn’t find anything else to do that did not include media. My dad called and woke me up to ask if I heard about the guy who took over the Discovery building in Silver Springs Maryland because he operates a crane right beside it. I told him I had not because of my current assignment. I then grabbed a book that I had to read for class and read until I became tired and went back to sleep. When I awoke, I convinced my boyfriend to play card games with me for an hour. I asked him what time it was and he said 5:45PM. Only an hour and fifteen minutes and I will have gone 24 hours without media, aside from talking to my father and commenting on blogs. The time creeped by extremely slow. We left and went for a ride around Harrisonburg; radio free, for about half an hour. As I waited for 7:00PM to come time seemed to go by slower and slower. I kept asking what time it was and when 7:00 PM hit; I immediately picked up my phone and read all of my text messages and emails. It was actually kind of fun reading the text because people were asking where the hell I was and why I was ignoring them. I spent about an thirty minutes answering text and emails as well as checking facebook. However, after that, I didn’t even turn on the T.V. I went outside on my balcony to read for class… weird. I then went out to eat, listening to the radio on the way there; it was a nice change to the silence earlier. I found that I did not even look or play with my phone as often as I usually do during a normal day. I think that I will calm down with my media use considering I got a lot more school work done. But needless to say I do LOVE my media and I am glad I was not born in the Stone Ages and I have my blackberry :)

My Obsession with Media

I woke up this morning around 6:30am to the sound of the alarm on my cell phone. I then immediately turned on the T.V. to watch the news for about an hour as I lay there and proceeded to get up and get dressed. I went through my cell phone to see all of the 8 emails, 4 text messages, and 2 bbm's that I had received while sleeping and answered them accordingly. After turning off my TV I immediately put my Ipod earphones in my ear and listed to that for about an hour while I worked out. After I got back to my apartment I got on my computer to check facebook, turned on some music and go got ready for classes. While leaving to catch the bus I found myself turning my ipod back on and listened to it while riding the bus to campus and walking to class. I sent numerous text messages the entire time I was on my way to campus. I was free from media for the 55 minutes I was in class but then put my ipod right back in as I walked to the library. I used the computers at the library for about an hour. My mom called and I talked to her on my cell phone for about 15 minutes. I received a text from a friend to make plans to eat lunch and also responded to about 3 emails I had received in the short period of time that I was talking to my mom. During lunch I watched the USA play Iran in basketball in PC Dukes. Other than sporadic text messages and phone calls I did not encounter much media after lunch and when my next class started. After class I put my ipod back on and waited for the bus while I read the breeze, another form of media; still sporadically texting throughout the day. When I got home I turned on the TV to see what was on, nothing good. So I got on my computer and was on the Internet for most of the afternoon. Later that night I got in my car and turned on the radio as I went to get dinner. As I waited for my order I played Brick Breaker on my blackberry. Going home I listened to the radio more and when I arrived home I sat down with my food and turned on the television. I fell asleep with the T.V. on thinking, "I really do use  and come across an insane amount of media daily."