School Shootings

The latest school shooting occured at Northern Illinois University, leaving 5 students dead. When are people going to learn that this is unacceptable in today's society and needs to be stopped? The epitamy of school terrorism occured last year as Virginia Tech had numerous students and faculty killed and injured. I remember reading stories of the student who committed the shootings. He was a loner, that had no direction in life, even his teachers noticed his unstable state of mind and wanted him removed from their classes. In the retrospect of the VT incident, many videos and images were found of the shooter. This proves that the student was trying to make a life for himself by getting noticed in a negative manor. Seeing how the media portrays criminals in the news, he must have known that he could have a reason for his existence by making the newspaper at every doorstep. My arguement is that unstable people in society are beginning to display themselves in a modern "kamikaze" to make a name for themselves. Take the criminal from the VT shootings, as he deliberately left videos and numerous pictures of him holding guns and other miscellanious weapons. I feel that anyone that is at such an unstable state of mind should have moments of calling for help. People just need to notice that and help them as you would help a friend, in order to prevent disasters such as the NIU shootings or the VT shootings. I would end on the quote of "Life is too valuable to waste.

Response to "Video Games"

In response to Beth's article on video games, which can be found at http://ejones1.blogspot.com/

The statistics she provided from CNN, are extremely accurate! Men are easily 3 times more likely to get addicted to video games then women are. From an individual aspect, how many of your friends that play video games are males? Personally, I know only a few women that enjoy to play video games, and no offense to the women reading this but they are not very good at it. The arguement is what makes men have more competitive drive and ease of addiction compared to that of women? She described that men have more brain activity that senses the competition that they feed upon due to the MRI brain scanning results. Could it simply be that women are not interested in flashy video games therefore the tests are altered? Typically women do not take interest in things that are aggresive and "guy-esque" such as cars, alcohol, or drugs as much as men take interest. In today's society men are trained to have aggresive behavior, the same aggresive behavior could lead to the possible addiction to alcoholism, drug addiction, or even video game addiction. Women are by the basis of society, to act in a complacent manor which could lead to less reports of addiction. However, they do get addicted to shopping quite easy(just kidding).

Valentine's Day

Most women in this material world would state this as one of the best holidays there is, due to the fact that it somehow brings them and their "lovers" together. For the men it's considered (this year) as the worst thursday of the year because if they even have a significant other, they have to go out and buy numerous items or for the ones that don't they wallow in self pitty of being single. My point is whether Valentine's Day is being created into another materialistic holiday where massive amounts of presents and love are to be exchanged between lovers. Is Valentine's almost as materialistic as Christmas? Isn't it a day that should be focused on proving your love to someone not buying them presents to make up for the lack of effort. Personally, I've been on both ends of the spectrum. I've been the single guy that notices I need to find someone to make me happy, and I've been the guy that is infatuated with my special girl. I found that either way it's not about the presents you buy for them or the chocolate you eat. It's about what you do to impress them and how creative you are. Another thing about this holiday is that it's not just to be focused on your boyfriend or girlfriend but on all the people you care about, that means your parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters. It shouldn't be a materialistic holiday but a rejoicing holiday of love.

The Clemens vs. McNamee Trial

As everyone probably already knows, the trial between Clemens and McNamee has been clogging the airways for the past couple days. Due to the speculations of the trial, I chose to bring up this discussion to the class through my blog. For background purposes Roger Clemens is arguably the best picture in baseball, winning the coveted Cy Young Award a remarkable 7 times, while still reaching into his late 30's. The defendant is Brian McNamee that was Roger's personal trainer who worked with the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays (both teams Roger played for). When the Mitchell Report was released McNamee gave a statement saying he injected Clemen's with anabolic steriods and human growth hormone (HGH). The awkward thing about the incident was McNamee saved the guaze pads and needles from the supposed incident that occurred over 7 years ago. Testifying in a court of law McNamee stated that he injected Roger with those needles, however in prior years to this scandal, McNamee has been known for lying. Is this another attack on "America's favorite past time" game called baseball or could it be another scumbag trying to cash in on one man's success that is known for having a great work ethic and even more talent? What makes it justifiable? What credability does the game have left?

Death Penalty

The oldest form of punishment, the Death Penalty (aka Capital Punishment). It is highly debated in America and is thought to be cruel and unusual punishment. Some states in America don't even support the death penalty. New York didn't support capital punishment until in the early 90's. Even then few people have been executed from death row. My senior paper was on this same article. Originally I felt that the death penalty was something that makes America great because it serves as just punishment for the sick criminals that live in this world. Therefore I absolutely supported it, but after looking at statistics of the court cases I was disgusted. If i remember correctly, it costs roughly $100,000 to have an average criminal serve a life sentence under the highest security, but yet the average court case for capital punishment is around $2 million. The money is paid by the taxpayers providing the criminal defense in his case. Would anyone want their money being used for that? That means supporting the defense of a man that could have molested children, raped young woman, or shot an innocent man on the street. I stand by the death penalty but the flaws in the system need to be fixed because there is too much of the citizens money being put into the defense of criminals that deserve to die. Yes, I feel that any man or woman that has a sick enough mind to commit horrific crimes and kill or severely harm innocent people, deserves to die. It's harsh but it's the truth! How would anyone not support the death penalty?

Respone to Why 21?

Original Article located at http://bhaywood1.blogspot.com/

In response to the original article I agree that the United States are harsh on the drinking age laws. It's almost as if the lawmakers are claiming that young adults in America are too immature and irresponsible to handle drinking beer. Other countries have ages such as 16, 18, or parental consent. Why determines the age of 21 to be a mature age? An individual can go across seas to die for his or her country but they can not drink alcohol because they don't have the responsibility? Isn't there a lot of responsibility given to an 18 year old when they are given a loaded gun? It just doesn't make sense! In high school my school had the opportunity of foreign exchange kids to learn from our country. One thing most of them didn't understand was the drinking age. He knew that in his home country the age was 18 (Germany) and it was respected. The interesting thing is he noticed that in America people have people obssessed with underage drinking because it's a revolt against the governments set of laws, and in college everyone does it. In the United States we constantly have alcoholics that develop from waiting to the age of 21 then going crazy with binge drinking at parties which leads to serious injury or death. Compared to overseas where people develop it into a steady habit instead of instantaneous binge drinking, and it is respected overseas also. What is holding the government back from changing the age to 18?

Response to "Nicked and Dimed"

The following post is a response to Seth's evaluation located at http://bhaywood1.blogspot.com/ .
In his post he expressed the aspect of being "nicked and dimed" in which money is taken for every little thing that is used. There is a large consensus, if not all, that people at this college believe that Ithaca College does charge lots of fine fees and expenses compared to other colleges. I know for a fact that at other schools that charge less tuition are given free cable and internet. The only downfall is that they have to pay for laundry. Here at Ithaca we have the benefit of laundry but what most people don't know about the laundry is that tuition rose dramatically when laundry became free. A lot of things at this college have additional costs that add up constantly. Personally, I have lots of small expenses that I've already occurred such as being warned and fined, at the same time, for having too many connecting lights hung up in my room. How do you get a warning and a fine at the same time? I agree with the prior post the this college does take advantage of our money but what could be done to change it to make it better?
I know this is a highly debated topic on campus and everyone has an opinion

First Post

For my first blog post, I took a simple argument that occured this weekend with a group of college kids evaluating a picture of a controversal issue in today's society. Over in my friends room there was a playboy centerfold hung on his wall, as girls began to pile into the room a mixed discussion about whether it was acceptable or disguisting began. Obviously the guy's view of the picture were more than acceptable, due to the pleasure aspect. The real evaluation of this argument exist within the women who split their decision. The accepting group of girls welcomed the picture because it served as motivation to look as fit and beautiful as the girl in the picture. The opposing viewpoint of the other girls was the exact opposite, the girls were disgusted a woman would let herself be viewed like that and were disgusted that it was allowed in today's society. This brings up the point that in today's society is it socially acceptable to have pornography pictures visible hung up? Would be interesting to see this classes views between the girls and guys.