Saturday, March 31, 2007
15 sailors in Iran
What the hell are they thinking? The whole world is looking at them, and they hold 15 sailors captive? That makes plenty of sense... Are t hey trying to start WWIII??? I mean seriously, that has to be the worst idea Irann has had since teh nuclear powerplant incident earlier this year, I just cant grasp it. WTH???
Friday, March 9, 2007
The FBI obtained information illegally? NO WAY?!?!
The PATRIOT Act was signed shortly after this nation fell victim to terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 2001, 6 years later reports of illegal information gathering have been piling up, however, I find it interesting that only the FBI is releasing a report about misconduct.
The Act itself gave allot of power to the government's intelligence agencies and marginalized our civil liberties, and even Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor commented on the loss of our civil liberties "We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedoms now than has ever been the case in our country."
The article "FBI obtained records 'illegally' "in the BBC news states that "22% of the cases it investigated contained one or more possible unreported or unidentified violations." It also mentions that there were 47,000 requests of national security letters, which means that if they investigated 47,000 different cases, about 10,000 mistakes happened. Thats a bit scary no?
Then to save face (I think) the Attorney General, condemned the FBI's director. Every day I am finding more and more reasons why I don't trust our government. This is saddening and getting really old now.
The Act itself gave allot of power to the government's intelligence agencies and marginalized our civil liberties, and even Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor commented on the loss of our civil liberties "We're likely to experience more restrictions on our personal freedoms now than has ever been the case in our country."
The article "FBI obtained records 'illegally' "in the BBC news states that "22% of the cases it investigated contained one or more possible unreported or unidentified violations." It also mentions that there were 47,000 requests of national security letters, which means that if they investigated 47,000 different cases, about 10,000 mistakes happened. Thats a bit scary no?
Then to save face (I think) the Attorney General, condemned the FBI's director. Every day I am finding more and more reasons why I don't trust our government. This is saddening and getting really old now.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
"Politically Correctness Means Always Having to Say "You're Sorry""
I can't really grasp why people are so hurt by others being not politically correct. In fact, I really dislike the whole idea of rephrasing things because certain words have negative connotations or what have you. Moreover, the fact of the matter is, we are supposed to be saying what we mean, and meaning what we say, but when this whole political correctness idea came about, we essentially chose to censor ourselves. Being politically correct means always having to say your sorry, I'M NOT FUCKING SORRY!!! I don't want to be sorry either. Why should I feel guilty about expressing my opinion. It's not a thing about tact, or being polite, it is not fair to speakers, where is the equality?
In our discussion today, (which was centered around public education and teaching about homosexuality) we brought up terms like "Fag" or "Dyke" or phrases like "that's so gay" and so on. I believe it should be understood by everyone that these terms, need to be looked at in terms of context. If no one is gay in your proximity, and you say "that's so gay" generally speaking they are saying it is "dumb" but WHO CARES? (it was brought up that making this stament belittles gay people by saying they are dumb or insignificant, not the case at all). I'll tell you who cares. The Gay community, wait, that term is no longer PC, are they the "Homosexual Community?" What do we call them, wait I can't say "them" because that implies they are different, or not part of the rest... BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT! That's the point of establishing the community isn't it, seperating yourself from people who are different from you and identifying yourself with people of like minds? Aren't "they" trying to fight back and protect themselves (wait, themselves, I can't use that term either can I ?), against all the bad things that have happened to LBGT people.
Let me take this time to say that I really don't care who you choose to be with, if you are gay, or whatever, I JUST DON'T CARE. There are some great gay people out there and there are some terrible gay people too, I bet. The question of whether or not gay people are second class citizens or not, I don't think they aren't, however thats my opinion. This community needs to assert themselves. Isn't that the whole free speech and responsibility idea? PROTEST, pass out pamphlets, educate people, don't let yourself be oppressed. FIGHT BACK.
Back to the PC idea, how and when did it come about? Wikipedia defines it as "Political correctness (often abbreviated to PC) is a term used to describe language or behavior which is intended, or said to be intended, to provide a minimum of offense, particularly to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. A text that conforms to the alleged ideals of political correctness is said to be politically correct." The history they give states that this movement started about "in the 1990s, the term became part of a conservative challenge to curriculum and teaching methods on college campuses in the United States (D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998). In a commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1991, President George H. W. Bush spoke out against administrators and academics who would "declare certain topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits" (Glassner 1999)." However they state that it can be traced back to 1793 in a US Supreme Court case of Chisholm v. Georgia."
(Wikipedia reminds me of Starship Troopers, remember how the Propaganda Commercials always said "Do You Want to Know More?" Then in another window it goes on in more detail and gives back story... Wikipedia is the same way, I mean look at all the hyperlinks in the paragraph I copied.)
Back from that tangent, in the end, we as a people need to stop letting people with thier own agendas tell us how we are supposed to express ourselves, no one should be able to decide what is and is not ok to talk about. NOTHING OUGHT TO BE OFFLIMITS! (Well thats where freespeech and responsibility comes in again.) I don't want to contradict myself, and I fear this statement will do just that, however, I would like to say it anyways, somethings shouldn't be said at certain times, so the Supreme Court's time/place/manner limitations on free speech makes sense.
In our discussion today, (which was centered around public education and teaching about homosexuality) we brought up terms like "Fag" or "Dyke" or phrases like "that's so gay" and so on. I believe it should be understood by everyone that these terms, need to be looked at in terms of context. If no one is gay in your proximity, and you say "that's so gay" generally speaking they are saying it is "dumb" but WHO CARES? (it was brought up that making this stament belittles gay people by saying they are dumb or insignificant, not the case at all). I'll tell you who cares. The Gay community, wait, that term is no longer PC, are they the "Homosexual Community?" What do we call them, wait I can't say "them" because that implies they are different, or not part of the rest... BUT THEY ARE DIFFERENT! That's the point of establishing the community isn't it, seperating yourself from people who are different from you and identifying yourself with people of like minds? Aren't "they" trying to fight back and protect themselves (wait, themselves, I can't use that term either can I ?), against all the bad things that have happened to LBGT people.
Let me take this time to say that I really don't care who you choose to be with, if you are gay, or whatever, I JUST DON'T CARE. There are some great gay people out there and there are some terrible gay people too, I bet. The question of whether or not gay people are second class citizens or not, I don't think they aren't, however thats my opinion. This community needs to assert themselves. Isn't that the whole free speech and responsibility idea? PROTEST, pass out pamphlets, educate people, don't let yourself be oppressed. FIGHT BACK.
Back to the PC idea, how and when did it come about? Wikipedia defines it as "Political correctness (often abbreviated to PC) is a term used to describe language or behavior which is intended, or said to be intended, to provide a minimum of offense, particularly to racial, cultural, or other identity groups. A text that conforms to the alleged ideals of political correctness is said to be politically correct." The history they give states that this movement started about "in the 1990s, the term became part of a conservative challenge to curriculum and teaching methods on college campuses in the United States (D'Souza 1991; Berman 1992; Schultz 1993; Messer Davidow 1993, 1994; Scatamburlo 1998). In a commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1991, President George H. W. Bush spoke out against administrators and academics who would "declare certain topics off-limits, certain expressions off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits" (Glassner 1999)." However they state that it can be traced back to 1793 in a US Supreme Court case of Chisholm v. Georgia."
(Wikipedia reminds me of Starship Troopers, remember how the Propaganda Commercials always said "Do You Want to Know More?" Then in another window it goes on in more detail and gives back story... Wikipedia is the same way, I mean look at all the hyperlinks in the paragraph I copied.)
Back from that tangent, in the end, we as a people need to stop letting people with thier own agendas tell us how we are supposed to express ourselves, no one should be able to decide what is and is not ok to talk about. NOTHING OUGHT TO BE OFFLIMITS! (Well thats where freespeech and responsibility comes in again.) I don't want to contradict myself, and I fear this statement will do just that, however, I would like to say it anyways, somethings shouldn't be said at certain times, so the Supreme Court's time/place/manner limitations on free speech makes sense.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
