Conspiracies in High School?

A lot of what we are talking about in class revolves around conspiracies and assumptions. The 

funny thing is there are so many conspiracy theories we face on a daily basis that we don't even 

realize. The definition of a conspiracy is, "a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or 

harmful". Well when you think about it, cant rumors be considered conspiracies? It is usually 

two people talking about another person of something they heard. Well it starts from one 

person telling a friend of something that may be true or false. Overtime, this rumor spreads 

like a wild fire and people all have heard this rumor that they have to consider if it is true or

 false. Usually, these rumors end up hurting the person who it's about and causes drama. High 

school seems to be full of conspiracies, and unfortunately, I don't think it will ever stop. From 

the smallest rumors to life threatening rumors, they all seem to affect us in a negative way.

Part 2

So I recently came across a video of a Donald Trump rally, and someone got kicked out. Just guess who.........that's right it was a Muslim woman who was standing in silent protest. Rose Hamid and several protester were escorted out for what she said had " intentions to stand up when he said something that was offensive, not just for Muslims but for anyone".  Trump had made a suggestion that refugees fleeing war in Syria were affiliated with ISIS so when she stood up a chant began that eventually got Trumps attention. Once he saw the Muslim Woman and a fellow protester wearing yellow patches that resembled what was forced on Jewish people during the Holocaust. He had security escort them out. I couldn't believe the things that were being yelled at this woman , people even accused her of having a bomb. The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a call to the campaign of the GOP contender to apologize about Hamids treatment Friday night. Trump never responded.  The next day how ever, Trump didn't address the apology but did defended his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country during the first rally in Ottumwa. He said his call had changed the dialogue and drawn attention to radical Islamic terrorism, which he described as "a very deep-seated problem that we have in this country and throughout the world.'" He made similar comments later in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Just watch: http://www.9news.com/story/news/2016/01/11/muslim-woman-talks-being-kicked-out-trump-rally/78653670/

Response to Armenian Genocide Documentary

We just finished a documentary on the Armenian Genocide. I was curious as to what response Turkey would have of this documentary. There was a column written about the response to this documentary on the PBS website that I found. Interesting enough, 93% of 340+ PBS affiliated programs showed this documentary around the country when it first aired. The amount of people who watched this documentary was slightly above the average number of people that tuned in for programs at that time.

After this documentary, PBS commissioned a follow up, which included the American and Turkish scholars in the documentary discussing if they was a genocide or not. This became controversial because it seem that PBS had took a public stance that the Armenian Genocide did occur. Interesting enough, only 60% of the PBS affiliated programs aired this, and in major city with bigger stations and markets such as LA, NYC, Boston, Washington DC, etc did not air this follow up discussion. The viewer audience rate for this also went down by 50%.

There was two Ombudsman column before this current one I'm commenting on right now. In the April 14 column, one of the letters was from David Saltzman, the Counsel for the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. Saltzman reminded PBS in his letter that PBS must follow CPB's mandate to ensure "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." He talked about how PBS's standards is to assure "that its overall content offerings contain a broad range of opinions and points of view, including those from outside society's existing consensus, presented in a responsible manner. . ."  However, in his opinion, PBS failed to met the standards "in the case of controversial Armenian allegation of genocide"

You can read more about this here: http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/04/documenting_and_debating_a_genocide.html

The April 14 Column is also very interesting if you want to read about actual people's opinion and response to the column.  http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/04/the_ombudsmans_mailbag_2.html

Derek The Homeless Man, and How I Felt Obligated To Him

Today in Global we discussed the idea of Universe of Obligation, and how many people feel like they will do deeds, but often will not ever complete those deeds. Here, I would like to talk about a time, my girlfriend and I felt obligated to help someone in need. We were in Downtown Mountain View, nearing an ending street, just outside of Tapioca Express (a dive that serves pearl tea and a variety of different cuisines). As we were about to enter the building, we were accosted by someone who seemed to have been waiting out in the cold for hours, and presumably had no one to talk to. He said his name was Derek, and that no one had even stopped to talk to him at all since he was waiting outside by himself. The man, standing in front of the rather minute but well furnished establishment, was not asking for money, or any sort of handout. Instead, he was asking merely for a meal, something he said he had not had in a very long time. I don't think I could be able to quote him exactly, but It was something like; "People have been walking by me all night, all I needed was a bite to eat man...". Seeing him in his condition, my girlfriend and I decided to take him into the warm eatery, and buy him two bags of mild crispy chicken, and sat and ate with him for about an hour. As it turned out, he was kicked out of his apartment recently by his housemate, and had been living on the street for about a week or so, but very rarely within the week had had a decent meal. As we were leaving, he hugged both of us, and said that we were true blessings on his life. I believe that is what really stuck with me about Derek, maybe I do not know his full story, but I still wonder why no one felt the obligation to help him. I do not speak for all homeless individuals, or any homeless community in general. But, if someone is asking for food, and an hour of your time, why not change their world, just for a little while?

Bill Cosby

READ THIS 
What the fuck does it matter how long it took a rape victim to tell their story? Regardless of how long ago it was it is a traumatic experience and no one has the right to dictate the time frame in which it is appropriate for these victims to come out. OJ was portrayed as this nice loving person on media just like Bill Cosby played a loving character in his shows BUT that does NOT make either of them good people. Bill Cosby may or may NOT be the same person that Cliff Huxtable was and people need to understand that before they begin to use his career as evidence as to why he could not have done certain things. This case is being dismissed as unfair because it took these women some time to speak out but is it too hard to understand that a woman whose body had just been violated might NOT want to walk into a police station to talk about what happened reliving the details, then have that same violated body poked and invaded for tests?

Don't get me wrong I understand that you need sufficient evidence of rape for this to be a fair trial but I just feel that people are so insensitive to this entire case. I just feel that most people are trying to determine Bill Cosby's innocence simply because those women took a few years to speak out.

How the justice system is handling this case is different story. People are outraged that Bill Cosby is not being treated fairly. Why is it that when a black man is simply accused of rape with no concrete evidence, his bail is set to one million dollars and his entire career is tarnished, and his shows taken down, but Charley Sheen walks free even though he hides his HIV and has sex with women without telling them? Why is it that Woody Allen who molested his seven year old daughter is free, and I can go on Netflix and find some of his movies still playing? Maybe race has nothing to do with it, but maybe it has everything to do with why the severity of these punishments are so different. 

Pros and Cons in the NFL

During the first semester, we talked a lot about concussions in the NFL and the effects that many NFL players face later in life. The question is do the benefits of the NFL outweigh the chance of concussions and your mental health. The average NFL player lasts 3 to 5 years in the league and the average football player makes 1.9 million according to Forbes. If you were to play 5 years of football, that would end up being 9.5 million dollars. Also, a lot of players end up running football camps, starting businesses and may even get into sportscasting. There are many different careers that open up for professional athletes. However, there are also many side effects. In extreme cases such as Junior Seau, he ended up killing himself from the impact of football over many years. Although football is a passion of many, would you give up your family life and mental health for money and fame? I guess that is up to you all to decide.

The Idea of Senioritis

In the last couple of days, many people have been talking about being a second semester senior and the work ethic that comes along with it. The funny thing is that I've heard this from all different types of students, from your average student to a student that takes all AP classes. Why is Senioritis a thing all across the country? Throughout our educational career, we've all been competing to hopefully get into a good University and as some students have already gotten in and a number of us haven't. So why give up know? I believe there is a psychological standpoint to this and as one student begins to emphasize this idea of Senioritis, it acts as a domino effect. I believe it can also be looked at as a tradition overtime. It has seemed as my parents have also talked about their last semester of high school and the fun that came along with it. I'm just curious in the idea of Senioritis and it's effect on students around the nation.