Abortion

While there have been many debates about the idea of abortion, there have only been so many laws to restrict how many abortions there are and how often they occur. I can tell you right now that no matter what, no person can tell a pregnant woman whether she can have an abortion, or not to have one.
      First of all people against abortion are not necessarily "Pro-Life," even though that is their generic name for groups that agree with them. The reason why I say this is because there's no group that supports "Pro-Death," as far as I know. This title can be very misleading, even though everybody seems to agree with this name and not really notice the problem with this term. Perhaps "Anti-Abortion" would be a clearer and better term for these kinds of people.
      I kind of don't really think that people have the right to tell women to have an abortion or not. Whether one thinks it's right or wrong, people shouldn't be told what to do, unless it is for the greater good for society. Abortion will do nothing but slightly deplete the population growth in America, which actually wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily. If a women feels that abortion is wrong, all I have to say is that's great. I'm glad she feels that way, and I'm glad she wants to communicate her opinion. If she ends up being raped, then she can let her life fall apart emotionally, and at the same time become pregnant.
      If a teenage girl is against abortion, while her mother is not, I'm more than willing to accept that, even if her mother does not. However, when that girl gets raped, and ends up pregnant, she can walk around school with that little shameful secret of hers, and be too stubbborn to the point where she will give it up for adoption. Think about how much of an education she will miss, especially if she is in high school. I don't feel obligated to explain to anyone if I feel one way or another because.... I am not a girl! Guys shouldn't really think for women, nor should they tell others what to do. Again, it doesn't really matter whether I'm against abortion or not, but it matters whether people are telling others to think that abortion is wrong, when everyone on this earth is capable of thinking for themselves.
      Many people in my Issues class have brought up the idea that religion has a huge impact on people's opinions upon the idea of "murdering babies." Specifically, these people are following some form of Christianity. Nobody can stop them from being religious, because that's great for them, but the people who are against abortion seem to practice their religion in all seriousness. In addition, Orthodox Jewish people can be just as much against abortion as anyone else. It is interesting, however, that no one mentions them.
      One thing I forgot to mention: When a teenage girl is pregnant, I would think she would tell her parents. However, if she decides to get an abortion, it is only fair if her parents are notified. I believe that parents have a right to decide for their daughter if getting an abortion is the right or wrong thing to do, only because they would be the ones paying for this expensive procedure. If the parents don't agree with the daughter's decision to get an abortion, there is really nothing that she can do unless she thinks she has enough money to pay for it herself. The reason why parents have the right to not only be notified but also make the decision for the daughter under age 18 is because again, THEY are probably going to end up paying for it, she WON'T. If the daughter is above the age 18, the parents still should be notified, but they can't make the decision for her. However, they can refuse to pay for it.
      Someone might ask though: What if the daughter doesn't want to get an abortion while her parents do? Well, in that situation, as unfair as it may seem, the parents can still have the right to pay for the abortion, as long as the daughter doesn't pay for it. I really couldn't see anyone in this scenario, because I don't think parents would really want to have to take care of their grandchildren 20 years early than they should.
      If there's anything you can pull out of the stuff that I said it should be this: Not everyone who is religious is against abortion, although it may seem that way. People who are opposite of the "Pro-Life" groups are not necessarily against abortion, nor are they for it. Pro-Choice is really more about letting the women decide what she wants to do. Either way, I could see things becoming emotional for a women becoming pregnant as a result of rape.

Gran Turismo 5 Review

Hello everyone. Gran Turismo 5 came out recently, and I must say that I was very excited to play this game. So let's get this review started.
Unfortunately, I was only able to start this game on a standard TV, so my view of the graphics may be arguable at times.


The first thing that I saw with GT5 was the into sequence. I'm sure it was really cool to watch, but I just did not care enough to watch the whole thing, so I skipped it. I really like this new interface overall, with the smooth menu scrolling, going between each of the modes. In GT mode, you start off customizing your home or "My Home." This is a cool feature that will interest racing fans who like to customize random stuff. I don't really care for this, but it's a good start to the game. Next I had to buy a car. Things are not as simple as going to the used car dealer and just buying whatever you can afford. There's a leveling system in addition to earning credits, and I think this is a huge change from previous GTs. At times, I feel that winning credits from special events can become too easy and in too much of one quantity, because when I play the real A-Spec events on beginner, I race around in a crappy car only to win 4000 credits for winning a gold medal. If any other reviewer who has not really taken enough time (IGN.com cough cough) to review this game thoroughly would say without a doubt that not much has changed. Well I'm pretty sure that a leveling system is a pretty big change, and having an online mode is also a big change. Also those annoying driving missions which were a huge fail in GT4 have been replaced with "Special Events" which as I mentioned earlier help you win more credits and level you up faster than regular A-Spec races. Speaking of A-Spec mode, why is B-Spec mode still hanging around? No one wants to use it unless it's for that 24-hour race thing that I haven't seen in GT5 yet. These special event races can be really fun, but at the same time really challenging. For example the special event race at the Test Track is more frustrating than fun, because even on beginner mode, I feel it would be very hard to win first place without being disqualified while racing against a bunch of really slow VWs. Spinning out is Lotus Elises is not very much fun either, while the car oversteers easily sometimes before the first turn. Maybe I'm just nit picking. The main career menu has the usual stuff, such as the custom shop, where I turned my 445hp Audi R8 into a 789hp monster.
If there's one thing I suggest to potential players it's this: INSTALL THE FREAKIN' DISC!
Without the install, loading times could take up to at least 45 seconds. This doesn't seem like much, but when you switch between license tests for specific licenses, it becomes annoying to wait 45 seconds between each test. I have played this game with and without the install, and I must say that the difference between the two is 45 and 15 seconds. This is kind of a huge difference.
Now let's look at the online mode. Recently (about a couple days after the game came out), there was a patch released to prevent the online server from overloading, so PD had to disable some of the more useless online features to prevent most of the common problems with the online. I didn't really seem to notice a difference. Anyway, the online mode is great, because there isn't noticable lag. My only problem with the online is that when there's a "nascar only" server, people don't know how to race properly. I ended up playign with about 4 or 5 other people in a nascar race; Two of them boxed me in when I tried to make a clean pass, and the third player spun me out. That gets annoying because I try to race clean while others do not. Also, there isn't much limitations on hp most of the time, so I could be racing with people who have faster and slower cars than myself. Then again, there isn't a drop in framerate at all, and the graphics online seem consistent with the regular single player.
Then there's arcade mode. They brought back the nice feature of split screen, now limiting only two camera views. It's a bit surprising, but I can't really complain considering that they worked hard on keeping the graphics good. This mode is most useful for practicing, and it is designed to allow you to dive right into racing Not much was changed between GT5 and GT4 in this mode. That being said, nothing was really needed to be changed, so overall it's pretty good.
Graphics. This is an amazing looking game. Even the standard cars look fantastic. For those people who say that the standard cars were imported for GT4, are WRONG. This game was made from scratch, and sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference between the standard and premium cars, other than (the lack of) the highly detailed cockpit view. Again,  I'm looking at this game on a standard TV, so you don't have to agree with me, but this is just my take on how the game looks. Yeah, there's that occasional jaggedness with certain standard cars, and backgrounds, but overall, this game is a huge improvement from GT4 (I don't count GT5P sorry).
Overall, this game is most certainly worth the wait, and definately a full $60. It offers the same content that GT fans have loved the past 4 games and offers some newer features that help keep the game up to par with the other competators, such as Grid and Forza. The damage is limited in GT5, but you shouldn't be bumping into cars anyway. As for the license tests and special events, bumping into someone generally disqualifies you, so don't bump in  the first place!
Overall 9.2/10
Thanks for reading this!

Death Penalty: Clifford Bogess video response

The Execution was a video that regarded the issue of the death penalty. It followed a man named Clifford Boggess, a man who grew up in St. Joe, Texas, and committed two murders. He told his stories is they were, and he didn't seem to make up any details that would make him seem more inocent. This was something that I would consider to be a mitigating factor. I say this, because he was able to admit what he had done. Some could argue that based on the video he was almost proud of what he had done, but he had admitted that he regrets murdering both of those old men.
One thing that we should consider in a case like this was why he committed the murders. A lot of stories that I hear on the news involve shootings where a kid get shot to death on accident, or a man would murder his ex-girlfriend for revenge of some sort. Boggess murdered for different reason; It was to get money, and out of anger.
This seems like a silly reason to want to murder someone, and even Boggess started to realize the rediculousness of his story. The two murders were committed withinn two weeks of each other, but he stabbed each old man to death, rather than just shooting a bullet or two. He also felt no emotion, or tried not to during and after the two murders, and threatened his girlfriend if she had told someone about any of the two murders. These factors can easily be held against him, and would cause the relatives of the deceased men angry and upset enough to want Boggess dead.
With that in mind, Boggess seemed to make durastic changes in his life in death row. He started to become an artist, and decided to believe in his faith for forgiveness by God. This brings up an interesting point of whether a person can change or not. Maybe Boggess did change, but he may say that he would never murder again, but it could be all lies if he loses his faith and commitment to his religion. Whether people can change or not, they can become more or less religious at any time in their lives.
Clifford Boggess also made pen pals from all over the country and part of Europe to help him sell his art paintings and sketches. His art reflected feelings that he had about what he had done, and his hope to live as long as he could on death row. However, his ability to paint seemed to give him something to do while he was waiting for his execution date, which he knew would come eventually. He would have been happier to stay in prison for life, but he did his best dealing with his anticipated execuation date.
He seemed to value his faith more than anything, even though he loved to paint. When the families were interviewed that were not satisfied with what had happened to their mudered relatives, but it seemed that even his death didn't bring them peace either, because the locations of the committed murders where there to haunt them. The places where each old man died are still in existance, and that is what keeps each of the families and relatives from being satisfied by anything or anyone. Boggess thought that writing apology letters to each of the families would help them feel better, but both families disliked the idea that a murderer would be preaching to them. He did not expect forgiveness until he would be dead.
In addition his apology, his aspect on life, although changed through his religion allowed him to reflect on the muders that he committed, and his delayed execution gave him enough time to ask God for forgivness, or so he thought. This is where the question of whether he should have been executed comes into play. It didn't really bring anyone to justice, and no one forgave him after his execution, so why was he killed? Would it really have been a deterrent for other people not to murder?
To answer both of these questions, the only deterrent that was formed from Clifford Boggess's execution was for himself. He would not be able to murder anyone ever again, whether he actually changed or not, because he can't murder anyone if he's dead. It would have been better for him, and other's like him to be executed as soon as possible, so that he wouldn't have time to religiously be forgiven, and forgive himself. While we are all human, and make mistakes, commiting two or more murders marks the point of murdering not being any mistake at all, and while Boggess may have been a good guy before the murders, and during his time on death row, his second murder was no mistake, and action was taken upon him to bring no one to justice. He was too dagerous to let out of prison, but prison for life may have been better for a man who would be willing to admit what he had done.

Playing Nightfire again

This past weekend I took a brief, two hour vacation from the next gen console games, an decided to play one of my favorite multiplatform shooters: 007 Nightfire. It has been such a long time since I played the Gamecube version, but I feel that this game in the multiplayer does things that most games have stopped doing all together.
1. AI bots. You don't always need online gameplay for a game to have good multiplayer. It was one of the last few games made by EA and what was probably Gearbox that still had AI bots in splitscreen mode. But the thing that I liked, especially on the Gamecube version, was the fact that you could customize 6 AI bots! That's actually a lot for  2002 console game. Sure, Unreal Tournament from the 90s had similar customization with up to 15 bots, but it was also featuring online multiplayer, as well as the fact that it was a PC shooter.
My favorite part about the game, however, was how it ran on the same engine as the original Half Life, which was probably one of the greatest shooters made in the 90s and possibly of all time. The hit scan for 2002 was seemingly realistic, and killing bots and other enemies was a lot harder when I turned off crosshairs, something that I would dare not do in an online multiplayer game.
The graphics were also still pretty good as well, and the Gamecube did the 2nd best job  of showing that. Everything was clean. It was no PS3 game, but it definately looks believable for it's time. That was when games were simple, and didn't try to depend on multiplayer to get some big bucks.

(Belated) MOH Review

So about a couple of weeks ago or so, the new game "Medal of Honor" came out. From what I hear, it didn't sell nearly as many copies as it could have, and EA is still planning on releasing DLC, dispite the lack of copies bought. I played both the campaign (and beat it), as well as the multiplayer. The campaign doesn't really have much of a storyline, nor does it have any sort of plot. This wouldn't be a bad thing, except all you do is kill the Taliban guys, who stick out like sore thumbs, and move up to the next checkpoint. The pacing is well done, but it becomes useless when everything else is not so good. Part of the reason why MOH's campaign is bad is because DICE (same developers and the Battlefield series) only worked on the multiplayer, but we'll get to that in a sec. The extremely linear level design, and invincible teammate AI didn't really help the game either. One of the better options (but not so original) is how you can turn off aim assist. This is more helpful in the single player, because otherwise, quickly aiming down  the sights no matter what distance automattically locks onto the near enemy towards the chest (sound familiar? hint: MW2).
This brings me to multiplayer. One of my criticisms towards the multiplayer, is how the aim assist between players is not consistant. One guy on the OpFor could have aim assist while an ememy from the Ranger's may not. It would have been better to have separate servers for people who want aim assist off, and people who want it on. Aside from that minor problem, the multiplayer mode has some pretty good variety. Every mode is team based, but my favorite is the team assult, where one team defends multiple parts of a base, while the other attacks. While you can only play certain modes at certain maps, the maps take a very long time to get adjusted to and learn, because they are not oversized like BC2, nor are they too small such as a Halo map. The prone mode was also taken out, which keeps people from taking complete cover, and the weapon class system only has 3 classes, and you progress through each class separately, just like BC2. There's an assult class, a class where you have a smaller machine or submachine gun (or shotgun), and then there is a sniping class. The physics of the sniping are very solid, but not much has needed to be done since BC2.
Many people prefer to compare this game to MW2, but quite frankly you can only do that for so long. It's a lot more comparable to the other game using the same engine, which is BC2. Both games look about the same, but the killstreaks taken from MW and MW2 add a nice touch, because the "killchains" are much more difficult to get, considering that standing out in the open will increase your chances of getting your ass shot by a sniper rifle from across the map.
Overall I give this game a solid 8.5/10.

Bullying: How is it started and how can it be stopped?

The idea of bullying has been around in schools for quite a long time, but I'm not writing this to make general statements. When a student takes his/her own life from the words or physical abuse of another student, that is when people start to question whether the other student was "bullying" or not. This is the scenario that we have been studying in IIMA.
First, let's take a look at what bullying really is. The way I think of it, bulling is when one or more student(s) engages in verbal or physical harm towards another student. The question that can rise from this definition is, "What would 'phsyical' and 'verbal harm' be?" "Physical harm" is obviously kicking, punching, slapping another person, but "verbal harm" involves a bit more than one factor. If one (or more) student(s) start saying offensive words to another, directed at a specific person, then it could be considered to be "verbal harm." But this goes just beyond saying offensive things DIRECTLY to another person. Cyberbullying, is probably one of the more specific forms of "verbal harm." If a student takes his/her life because one or more students are talking about him/her over the internet, where EVERYTHING is public, then those students could be considered the cyberbullies. There have been laws recently created to help prevent cyberbullying. As far as I know, they same to be working, but there need to be better ways to prevent suicide in students who were cyberbullied before it actually happens.                                                     
The case of United States v. Lori Drew involves 13 year-old Megan Meier, who had developed a relationship with 16 year-old  boy by the name of Josh Evans on Myspace. After 6 weeks, he told her via message that he didn't want to be friends anymore, and the world would be a better place without her. she then hanged herself on October 16th, 2006. The "Josh Evans" account was created and used by Megan's former friend's mother, who wanted to see what Megan was saying about her daughter.  This was a form of cyberbullying, because "Josh Evans" gained the trust of Megan, and then  turned on her, and started writing cruel messages. She was also battling depression but was "upbeat" by fall of 2006. The verbal harm, even over the internet can kill someone, if they have enough issues already. This is a problem because even if someone over the internet is joking around, soemone with depression can take it seriously and commit suicide. If that person is not joking around, however, it should be considered cyberbullying, because he/she is intentially harming someone
At DHS, I don't feel that there have been any significant issues with bullying. At least not in my class of 2011. The class a grade younger than my class, however had a minor case of one person posting in the school a letter about a guy who wanted to write a song for a girl that he had liked. This is a form of bullying, because one person was intentially causing verbal harm towards another. By "verbal harm," I don't just mean saying it out loud, but symbolizing it such as saying it over the internet in written form, or printing out a sheet that has it written or typed up. Other than that minor scenario, I have not heard of any problems at DHS, nor do I feel like anyone would have a reason to bully someone else. If people want to talk badly about their aqquaintance friends, then they would be smart enough (I presume).
What would be the best solution? Well, I think that the "Challenge Day" in the video that we watched in class the other day would be very suitable for a school that has a lot of problems with bullying, or with other issues.While not all schools in America have problems with bullying, "Challenge Day" is a great way for students to communicate with each other about what really goes on in their lives, even if they are not talking to one of their friends. "Challenge Day" is at least a great start to help prevent bullying. Another way to stop bullying is if teachers payed attention to how students behave in the hallways. That was something that did not exist in the film, Bullied. The homosexual student went through too much bullying, and it came to the point of abuse, but the school district did nothing to stop it. This was probably because they were against homosexuality. A principal of a middle school cannot just tell a student to stop being "openly gay." You can't tell even a straight guy to just stop "openly liking girls." Things just don't work like that. The thing that the school should have done was have teachers monitor hallways to make sure that there was no violence in any part of the school. My grade school, which was in the city, did not tollerate any form of physical harm, no did they tolerate anything like it, even if it was a joke. I wish that more schools were like that, because they could prevent a lot more bullying cases from happenig just like the case in Bullied.

Drug Testing in Schools: Is it constituational, or is it Necessary? Part 1

Drug testing, while it can help prevent much of drug use/abuse with adolescents in high schools all over the U.S., is not always the best method to prevent drugs. In sports at high schools, it makes more sense to have drug testing on the players, because they have don't have as great of an "expectation of privacy" as the rest of the student body does, because the players don't have expectations of privacy when changing into sports uniforms and showering, as stated in the case of Vernonia School District v. Acton. With other extra curricular activities, however, it is not a necessity to have students drug tested if they are not participating in a physical activity.
There is a large portion of students in high schools who do take drugs, but don't participate in any activity at all, probably because they would rather spend time smoking whatever than playing a sport or talking to other students in clubs. If there was a drug testing thing going on at DHS, then how would those students be tested. It would cost far too much money through donations from other companies to get every student drug tested, without forcing parents, who may not want their child to be drug tested, to pay money for the drug tests.
Furthermore, drug testing does violate the right parts of the Fourth Amendment. While there are rights from the Fourth Amendments from the Constitution that can be limited for students in schools, it is still required of teachers and school officials to have a "reasonable" cause for any type of search at a school.
It doesn't really make much sense for any student to be drug tested unless a staff member has a "reasonable" cause they is based on some sort of suspicion. A teacher of school official would have to actually have some sort of piece of evidence, such as a piece of paper with information about someone taking drugs, to be able to have a suspicion at all. It would be wrong for a teacher to rely on what one student says about another taking drugs.

Freedom of Religion

The issue of freedom of religion can and does extend to schools of all kinds, unlike some cases of freedom of speech. I recently read an article about the issue of freedom of religion and how it should be portrayed in schools. Some schools believe in the "moment of silence," which in fact was done for a couple of weeks at my high school. The problem with this is that a "moment of silence" on a daily basis can imply an integration of religious "slient prayer," even if that message was not originally intended. The way I see it, this "moment of silence" can essentially "disrupt the learning process" in schools if it is done every day, and forces students and teachers to pray, whether they believe in the same things or not. The problem that I immediately see with "moment of silence" is the objection by the minority of students and teachers in a single school who are athiest, and don't believe in any sort of prayer whatsoever. The question that should be asked by them, is why there would be a need for such silence every day. If someone doesn't believe in praying to a figure that a single person does not see fit to looking up to, how would they react to such slience? And what about people who don't want to share their religion with others? Do they hide it by pretending to pray? Perhaps prayer in a school setting is only a neusence,and just gets in the way of education. If that were to be
Another aspect with freedom of religion, is how it is expressed in schools.The article I read from http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/rel_liberty/publicschools/topic.aspx?topic=school_prayer said that the U.S. Deparment of Education made a statment in 2000 which said,

"Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the school.”

This statement means that students can express their own religious beliefs through certain forms of academic activities, but it cannot be in a discriminatory way. This is a very reasonable statement, because it does not restrict students from expressing their religious beliefs, and it prevents students from being judged based on their beliefs. The implication of how teachers should grade these adademic activites is vaguely stated, however, when it says, "Such home and classroom work should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the school," it specifies how it should be viewed by the viewers, but does not restirct whom should view it besides (the implied) educator. This can be good or bad, depending on how one may feel about expressing their relgious beliefs in a non-religious setting.

September 11th

My Issue's class at DHS watched an interesting documentary about September 11th. Keeping in mind the fact that my classmates and I were only in 3rd grade when the Twin Towers were crashed into, it was important and very informative to be watching a documentary that showed what really happened, and how the people in New York City changed, as well as how that didn't change. When film showed each plane crashing into the Twin Towers, it was extremely painful, even for myself to watch such a tragedy occur live. I remember watching the first attack on TV in my mom's room on that day as I was getting ready for school. The most significant thing about the film though was what happened when each tower was actually crashing down to the ground. I didn't realize that there was so much smoke and dust that caused everyone, including firemen and policemen, to have to wear masks. I did not ever think about the actual moments of when the towers were crashing down, I had just known that the planes crashed into each building. The other thing that I noticed today, as we were watching the 2nd part of the film, was how much pain New Yorkers were suffering through. There was a ton of debate about whether America should go to war or not. This debate, however, in the eyes of the filmmakers, was just a way to show how much pain everyone was in. Living in New York had to be tough, because many families had at least one familiy member or friend that died from the crash, inside the plane, or inside the building. The other small detail was how some people held hands on the top floors of the towers and had to jump to their death, probably because the crash was underneath them, and they had no way of escaping.
As sad as this whole thing was, though, the city became stonger and more united, sharing the pain rather than taking it out on each other. Children in NYC also knew what was going on, and it was impressive that an 11 year old boy knew about the decisions that the Government had to make about what kind of war America needed to get into. Of course, no one really understood the truth behind who was the real threat, but during that time, the kid knew what most adults didn't think about. It didn't necessarily make him smarter, but just more aware than most kids his age.

Halo Reach

Now I'm personally not a fan of the Halo series, but I have played it before. The times I've played it, I've sucked, but there are some modes that aren't quite as competative that I can enjoy at a friend's house. Obviously many people have been anticipating Halo Reach to come out, but I've also heard some rumors in the air about Halo coming to PS3. Owning 2 PS3s (one at my mom's house and one at my dad's house), I have found games like Killzone 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 to be very enjoyable, with a nice challenge.
Now that Bungie is no longer under Microsofts reign, my personal prediction is that Halo may not come to PS3. Why? Because I have a feeling that Bungie could come up with a whole new series for PS3 and 360, or better yet, as a PS3 exclusive. Yes, that would be a betrayal to Microsoft and Xbox fans worldwide, but,  if you think about it, the developers for Little Big Planet, tried to make a deal with Microsoft, and Microsoft turned them down because they feared the lack of success because it was not the violent M-rated FPS of 3PS (3rd person shooter) that they were looking for. When they went to Sony, without a problem, as far as I know, Little Big Planet became a "game of the year" a couple of years back, at least on the PS3.
The PS3 is far more powerful than the Xbox 360, and it will be interesting to see what Bungie does next. In the mean time I'm going to wait (and I've been waiting 5 years, not even playing GT5P) for the game I got a PS3 (and a 2nd one too) for, which is Gran Turismo 5.

Speech Code

While many groups at universities such as fraternities decided to engage in offensive behavior, such as taking pictures of themselves mocking blacks in America, it can potentially be a problem if the admististration of a university decides to get themselves involved too much with offensive behavior. Arguably the only thing that they could do is shut down the university, but that would create a case if that scenario worsened. A university could argue that such "wrong" behavior "misrepresents" what that school stands for, and that seems fair, doesn't it? Well the problem is that legally nothing can really be done, except for a chat with the students in charge of such racist behaviors. With the hypathetical case of Evan Earl, the only thing that the presedent of the university could do is chat with him and his friends, and make them "aware" of what they were doing. If there was talk about a specific student, then the school would need to get involved with what exactly is going on, and take action against Earl and his colleagues.
Now time to define what Speech Code is. Speech code can be described as a policy that restricts certain expressions of speech, that a school would find offensive. The issue here is that speech code usually restricts speech that is indeed under the protection of the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. If a student feels like insulting a race, or a specific group of people, eithnicity, country, etc, then they should not be punished by the school. Speech Code usually leads to a student or students who get in trouble for behaviors or things that they say that are protected as free speech. Usually the Supreme Court rules against a Speech Code, because they find those policies too "overbroad" or "vague" This means that a policy is too general and almost any expression of speech could fall into the category of "not allowed."

Analytical 3: Current Event Analysis

The issue that has developed more currently is the developing problem of urban sprawl. The term "urban sprawl" is used to describe cities where the people in a general urban area tend to move farther away from the cities over a long stretch of time. The reason why this could be bad is because of the risk of detroying natural habitats for many wild animals, as well as stretching out the amount of time to get from point A to point B. While some people like being more spread out, it can take a very long time to get to someone’s house if they live very far away to the cities, such as on a farm-like land. Living in a more rural area is not nescessarily a bad thing, considering the fact that people need farmer to help the production of milk and other food produce, but some people see it more beneficial if suburbs are more compact and closer together, while being very close to the city that they surround. The solution to this "problem" is what is called smart growth, which would, in the end, keep suburbs very compact and closer to the cities. This push to bring a city closer together has recently been seen as beneficial, because it would help reduce the exaggeration of people moving away from cities. More compact cities could improve the amount of time for alternate transportation, such as trains, which would make many people's lives easier, rather than driving to work. Others see the the potential solution as a way to cause more pollution, because of heavier traffic from more people and more car, even if it kept the highway system more compact. This isssue depends on the city, because some cities may have more spread-out suburb, making the trip from someon’s far-suburban home to the city a drag, especially when there is heavy traffic. Again, this heavier traffic would be a result of people refusing to take public transportation because of more crowded trains and/or buses. A city like Chicago doesn’t really have much of an issue, because there are suburbs like Skokie that are right next to Chicago, but extend farther out to separate themeselves, so that a person can choose whether he or she wants to live closer to Chicago, or closer to the neighboring suburb. A balance should be brought up as a potential solution, so that people stop fighting about this issue.

Analytical 2: Short Story Analysis

"To Da-Duh, in Memoriam" was a short story told in first person about a girl who started to get her grandmother interested in the technological advancements that places like New York City were starting to adopt. The grandmother did not like any kind of technology at all, and the narrator subtlely put in the grandmother’s tension when they walked on the streets of the 1930s New York City. Although this doesn’t directly relate to the growth of cities (population wise), it shows that there were still many people who were afraid of walking on the streets full of cars and crowds of people. The grandmother loved her granddaughter (the narrator), but still felt uneasy about setting foot in New York City any more than she did, and the narrator said, “As soon as we left Bridgetown behind though, she relaxed...." This was a very subtle way of implying that not everyone enjoyed any parts of a larger city, and she could be a reason that people could use to move out into the suburbs. The thing about more rural areas, though, is that settlers in the 1800s who developed a lot of these suburbs, including Deerfield, had to destroy acres of prarie, forest, and other places that were once the habitats of wildlife. Da-Duh didn’t really come from a suburb, though, but she didn’t understand why a city like NYC would have such hype to the point where she can make false and negative assumptions about what the people were like and how stupid technology was. The narrator spent a lot of time with her grandmother, and started telling stories about how the light switch was invented, and how people enjoyed the snow. The grandmother seemed to be somewhat-impressed by many of these descriptions, although she never admitted it. Near the end of the story, the narrator describes how tall the Empire State Building was, and the grandmother was in awe just based on her granddaughter’s description. By the time the grandmother would have gotten a photo of the Empire State Building, the grandmother died, from a tragic airplane attack on the island that she lived. The reason why this story was written was because the author wanted to show that while there is a lot of beauty in the cities, many people can still enjoy a more rural life, without the technology and big buildings, and it is important to experience both places.

Analytical 1: Background Analysis

One large part of Urbanization can be desrcibed as the number of people move in and out of the cities (A.K.A. urban growth), as well as why they might have moved between more rural areas and larger cities. A big issue with this specific part of urbanization is the excessive amount of people moving into the cities, which causes the cities to become either overpopulated or “large and in charge.” The 1700s and 1800s proved to be a time of more beneficial growth, because America was evolving constantly to get to where it is today. A place like New York City started off as a small town somewhere around time just before the American Revolution, then became a larger city because many Americans wanted to live in this growing city. This kind of situation is beneficial for both the city and maybe even the country, because it allowed people to gain more jobs and make money off of more people. These cities would later get much attention around the world if they became very successful in having attractions to give Americans a reason to move there. Towns are able to grow out because of the population growth. In fact Chicago was considered a town when it was first built sometime during the early/mid-1800s, but as it grew (dispite the Great Chicago Fire), it has become America's 3rd largest city. Frederick Law Olmsted, was a writer and an architech in New York City around the late 1800s, and wrote about the time between the 1860s and 1910 in his book/essay called "The Unplanned Growth of Cities." He stated, "Openness is the one thing you cannot get in buildings. Picturesqueness you can get. Let your buildings be as picturesque as your artists can make them. This is the beauty of a town. Consequently, the beauty of the park should be the other." He was saying that the beauty of the architecture in many residential buildings was starting to be taken away because of more people moving into New York City at the time, and the only way to keep the artisitic architecture alive was by creating parks. The significance of this book was that it discussed how the growth of cities can become very unstable. He was right, in quite a few ways, because there were larger scale fires that broke out because houses may have needed to be closer together to fit more people into the cities, and a number of epidemics broke out by the neighborhoods in places like New York City. Urban overpopulation can indeed become a large issue, but most people in America wouldn't notice an issue like this unless it was thrown in their faces. If overpopulation became a crisis, there would be far more homeless people than any American (or human for that matter) can imagine. A city that is too overpopulated can become a problem, and so suburbs and more rural areas are developed to spread out the population. However, when people general build suburbs farther away from these cities, there can be problems even with that, such as more money being spent on a highway system that can smoothly link those far-away suburbs to the bigger, overpopulated cities.

The Problems with Smart Growth

While smart growth could be a potential solution to reducing timing of traffic, and helping prevent issues with the environment, there are still many flaws with this idea. To start with, traffic could actually become heavier, which means that more fuel in cars would be reduced. One could argue that a public transportation system could help reduce the amount of fuel used by people who try to get to their offices, but the amount of money put into a public transportation system may not entirly be inexpensive, even with more people surrounding the cities. The article that I read said, "Smart Growth threatens the American Dream." I found this very interesting because the American Dream is a very large concept, but to make a claim that it smart growth threatens it is a huge statement, whether I or anyone else agrees with it or not.

Wendell Cox. "Smart Growth Is a Threat to the American Dream." Current Controversies: Urban Sprawl. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 11 Feb. 2010
source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=deer63488&version=1.0>.

What is Smart Growth

Smart growth is a potential solution to help reduce the outward sprawl from the cities to the suburbs. It helps create a new type of suburban environment, by staying closer to the cities. This would also reduce the amount of land that is used as highways between the cities and their suburbs, and as a result, more land could be saved for wildlife of forest preserves. There would be more compact neiborhoods, but the amount of polution would rise significantly from more compact and concise cities.


Cooper, M. H. (2004, May 28). Smart growth. CQ Researcher, 14, 469-492. Retrieved February 8, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004052800

Benefits of smart growth

Potentially, smart growth could be a good idea to base a solution on for urban sprawl. Urban sprawl itself has a lot of issues, and I think that smart growth could be a potential solution to this problem. The aritcle that I used addresses the beneifts of smart growth by saying, "Of course, suburban sprawl has been around for decades. But its environmental and cultural impact is becoming increasingly apparent as development expands farther from urban centers. Besides devouring open space and wildlife habitat, new suburbs degrade the quality of life in other ways, environmentalists say: By spending more time commuting, residents exacerbate both traffic congestion and air pollution. As runoff-absorbing trees and fields are paved over, stormwater that normally would have been absorbed into the ground ends up in streams, rivers and low-lying areas, often causing flooding or polluting waterways with salt, chemicals and microbes picked up on the way."

I see this as a benefit to reduce the amount of time and gasoline it takes to go from point A to point B. Since there is a global warming controversy, I think that this could help America become even more fuel efficient. Whether someone belives global warming exists or not, we can all agree that dependency for oil in the Middle East is and has never really been a good idea, because of all of the conflict and war that has gone on at least within the past decade. This concept is a good solution to at least consider, to reduce the amount of space that destroys forests and the homes of many animals.

Cooper, M. H. (2004, May 28). Smart growth. CQ Researcher, 14, 469-492. Retrieved February 8, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2004052800

Defining an Urban Sprawl

An urban sprawl can be defined as the spreading of people between the suburbs and the city of a rural area. This means that people from a city spread out over a rural area and develop the suburban towns. The problem that I see with that is the fact that people have been in the past 150 years and are continuing to take down the forests, which inhabit many species of animals. The article that I read that discussed some of the disadvantages to urban sprawl by saying, "There are the obvious environmental costs of sprawl—lost open space and natural habitats, increased air pollution from more traffic, depleted water quality caused by urban runoff." Obviously urban sprawl is not the greatest thing for cities, and for the environment, but there could be things that are a lot worse. I think it is important for a highway system between the suburbs and the city, but the problems come in when it costs a state millions of dollars to build an effecient highway system. Since the highways are not as effecient as possible, it is important to keep in mind that the gasoline that cars use is wasted when there is a lot of traffic because of rush hour or an accident. I believe (and I know I'm starting to drift away from the topic that was focused upon in the article) that we need to have more fuel effecient cars to be able to withstand bad traffic, even beyond just highways. Most states in America can't afford an effecient highway system because it would cost millions of dollars just to start it.

Fregonese, John, and Lynn Peterson. "Smart-Growth Policies Will Improve Urban Areas." Opposing Viewpoints: Urban America. Ed. Laura K. Egendorf. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 5 Feb. 2010 .

Response to "To Da-Duh, in Memoriam"

This short story reflected upon the opinions of people who were not accustomed to urban life. In this case, the grandmother of the narrator, named Da-Duh, did not like New York City, and it was implied not so subtly that Da-Duh was very uncomfortable with the cacophony coming from the streets. This was shown when the narrator described her grandmother after they left the city. She said, "As soon as we left Bridgetown behind though, she relaxed...." I think that this was a sign that she was very uneasy in even the slightest part of a city like NYC. I found it very interesting that Da-Duh had a stronger interest in different types of sugar canes to the point where she showed her granddaughter, the narrator, all of the different types of canes that were in her orchard. Da-Duh's orchard was outside of her house, and she lived in more rural environment that I don't think was in the US. Throughout the story, though, Da-Duh slowly starts to develop and interest in New York City after the narrator starts describing snow. I was really pleased when I read this part. When the narrator tried to send her a postcard of the Empire State Building, however, Da-Duh ended up dying before she could recieve it. Apparently the English sent low flying planes over her Island, and she was the only one who didn't really seem too worried. Of course I knew she was going to die, because the story was dedicated to her. I think that Da-Duh  represented one of many people who were afraid of the city, because of the major advancements in technology that occured during the 1930's when this story took place. Her granddaughter, the narrator told her everything she knew about all the cool new inventions that were made to make people's lives easier. Urban life was obviously very different from where Da-Duh enjoyed living and lived most of her life at. She enjoyed simple things such as sugar canes, and she was very opinionated on what people do to sugar to turn it into candy. Of course, candy started to become very popular during that time because people were starting to figure out how to make candy out of the canes that Da-Duh loved to view. I think urban life back then was a time when younger people were constantly evolving with the technology that was being made. Da-Duh's family obviously moved to the city, while she stayed in her rural town. Though she was impressed by how tall the narrator was describing the buildings in New York City, she still belived that she was safer away from urban life. The 1930's didn't really threaten the citizens of NYC, because people didn't really master flying airplanes; maybe for a small town, but not like a growing city as large as NYC.

Little Girl Get's Kicked Off Her School Bus 1 Mile Away From Her House

I was watching the news this morning as I was eating breakfast, and I was listening to a report about a little girl getting kicked off of her school bus a mile away from her house. Apparently, she called her mom right away and said "I don't know where I am and what to do!" The bus driver was a subsitute driver, which think is one of the most important and significant details to this case. The reason why this detail struck me was because my grade school in Chicago, Hawthorne Scholastic Academy, used a bus company called "Atlantic Express," and there were quite a few times where a substitute driver would go through my bus's route, but in a reckless and eratic way. She would make a sharp turn right out of the school, and many of the students on my bus would literally fall out of their seats! I'm not trying to imply that this substitute driver that I had 6 years ago is the same driver who kicked this girl off of the bus, but I wouldn't be surprised if the sub that I had a couple times was still subbing and was the one that kicked this little girl off. It would be even more coincedential if the girl actually attended my grade school! I imagine that being a school bus driver is a tough job and doesn't get a lot of pay, but being a substitute driver can be even harder if that person doesn't know what the route stops are. The sub that I had was absolutely psychotic, and I would hope she would never put childrens' lives in danger ever again.

DHS Bomb Threat

So 2 years ago there was a bomb threat at DHS, and I wondered if the threat was true or not. I can't say that I'm totally concerned because of what happened a couple of years ago. The problem is if they close the halls the way they did for the last threat, people wouldn't really get full enjoyment out of their free periods. I am planning on going to school, as much as I don't like it, unless my parents say otherwise. It would  be very nice to have a day off.  I imagine that if someone really wanted to bomb the school, they would do it without warning. The worst that this person would have done was put a stink bomb in the school somewhere, like a lunchroom. Obviously this person has psycological issues, and was willing to take such a risk to potentially get in this much trouble. I also heard they spelled "bomb" as "bom," which shows how quickly this person was trying to write it wherever it was.

A Different View upon Urban Growth

Even though increasing populations of cities only made the cities larger and the factories closer, there were issues that were created with this dramatic increase in population. Frederick Law Olmsted was one person who discussed the issues of dramatic population growth between 1860 and 1910 in "The Unplanned Growth of Cities." Olmsted wasn't describing this population growth in a negative way, but more in a way that was backed up by statistics that he knew of. The reason why his interpretation could have been trusted was because he was an architect in New York City between the late 1800s and early 1900s, and he designed parks for many cities. He was famous for created Central Park, though, so he understood what was happening with the population that went on around him. He also understood very well the problems with transportation and buildings that were occupied, and one of things he said in "The Unplanned Growth" was this:
"Openness is the one thing you cannot get in buildings. Picturesqueness you can get. Let your buildings be as picturesque as your artists can make them. This is the beauty of a town. Consequently, the beauty of the park should be the other." His point with this statement was that people in New York City were just beginning to become crammed in residential buildings because of the growth in population.

Frederick Law Olmsted " The Unplanned Growth of Cities," Annals of American History.

[Accessed February 1, 2010].

City Migration and Urban Growth

The migration to the cities did not necsessarily overpopulate the cities and towns, but increased the population in such a way so that the area of the cities expanded, and became larger. Henry J. Fletcher had described annlyized the growth of cities and the loss in population of small towns by saying, "It may be declared to be the general rule that, wherever the land is fully occupied, all the people not actually needed to cultivate the soil are being drawn into the towns, while the productive industries of the towns, together with those identified with them, are being transferred to the largest cities. For a certain number of years the country steadily grew more and more densely populated; this process came to a standstill, and now the tide is running swiftly in the opposite direction." He emphisized the idea in "Migration to the Cities" of the suburbs being developed because of the factories that exisited in the outer reggions of cities were able to become closer to the cities because of the increasingly dense population. Fletcher's anlyization mostly described the esrtablishment of the suburbs, but he discussed how the population grew in many American cities.

Henry J. Fletcher " Migration to the Cities," Annals of American History.

[Accessed February 1, 2010].

Research I Found on Urbanization

This article I found gives a great overview of what urbanization really is. America's first cities started with New York City in 1626, then Boston was founded 4 years later. Many Americans during the Colonial Period seeked a desire to move out to rural areas, rather than enhabit the early city life. After the Revolution, New York City became one of the most dynamic cities in America. By 1810, it become the largest cummunity that spoke English. The 1800s allowed European immigrants to move to the urban areas and occupy jobs that were needed in those cities. There were some dangers to living in these cities, which included epidemics, and fires. The main reason for these cites to be built was because it was a great way for America to have success with trade. The Mid-20th Century proved to be a time where African Americans moved up North to Northern Cities, rather than only staying in the South. At the same time, many cities lost the number of people because of suburban growth. During the late 1940s and the 1970s, cites developed renewal programs. Renewal programs were created to provide "aesthetic and practical improvements," which means they wanted to improve city turrain.

"urbanization." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

"urban renewal." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

My Topic is Urbanization

Urbanization is a very detailed and complicated problem that is based on the condition of the economy. As Obama implied in his State of the Union Address, the rescesion is over, and jobs will be created. However, if these jobs will not be available, then the number of families will continue to lose their homes. It was interesting how Obama talked about children writing to him and asking when they will be able to have a home. People living in homes is a big part of Urbanization, and a city or town is judged based on the type of housing, and how expenisive the housing is. In my mom's building's neighborhood in Chicago, for example, there a nice Target Greatland that was supposed to be built. Then the alderman was remored to cancle that project and create low income housing over the land. About a year ago, they decided that the Target will indeed be built. If the low-income housing were to built, this would impact the nieghborhood surrounding the intersection of Montrose, Sheridan, and Broadway Ave wouldn't be able to improve, and any crime that would occur in that area would continuem, if not increase. That is the last thing that a city like Chicago needs at this point, especially since the South Side is infested with gang shootings, where inoscent pedestrians get shot and killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

State of the Union Address

Well Obama delivered it... I liked how he was very focused and knew what he wanted to be said. He said it with confidence. I'm glad that no one yelled out in the middle of the president's speech, because last time it was very rude. I did see someone in the chamber texting, which I was surprised to see. I think that if both parties work hard and work together the goals that Obama presented tonight will be accomplished.

I deleted most of my Youtube videos

First of all, I compose music on the piano and my computer the but my compositions weren't getting a lot of views, and the people who were viewing either didn't feel comfortable enough to rate and comment, or they didn't actually have youtube accounts. This was very annoying to me, so I decided to not keep them on my Youtube account. Also, people would argue with me if I accidently posted a comment without thinking carefully about it, and then they would lower my ratings before I could block them. That is the last thing I need. I am thinking about creating a new youtube account, though, because "composer14" is a little weird.
But in the mean time here are my few videos, right here all of which feature myself, as well as 2 videos featuring myself playing the 1st and 3rd Preludes written by George Gershwin. I actually messed up the rhythym, though for the 3rd Prelude, so I have to repost a newer performance without that major mistake. Of course, no one except for myself and some George Gershwin "experts" would be able to notice the mistakes I made .

New iPad from Apple? What is next?

I know that they announced this today, but when they say "unbelievable" prices, I think they mean unbelievably expensive. It's cool that they finally have something new, but they should have some new apps that come with the iPad right away, rather than being able to purchase it from the app store. I think that Apple is running out of ideas, and this is to get people who have the iPhone/iTouch to waste their money on something that is pretty much the same thing, but with a different external design and name. I bet that the next product will be the iScream or the iShake (which would be a newer iPod Shuffle) or the iHumidifer. $500 is very expensive, and even something like the Playstation 3 is only $300 for 120Gb and $350 for the 250Gb version. Although I clearly shouldn't be comparing a new Apple product to a Sony entertainment system, I hope that this iPad thing will go way down in price, because it seems like it can do everything that the iTouch can do and nothing more or less. Plus 3G doesn't seem that great to me anymore because Verizon Wireless (cell phone company) seems to have a successful 4G network for their expensive phones.