9. April 2009 by student.

The History channel has some very interesting shows on and some can be very shocking. One of these show just made me wonder how they built all of these massive pyramids, obelisks, and stone hedge. All of these things were built from stone and they have millions of them stacked on top of each other in perfect angles. If you look at these pyramids they are perfect squares at the bottom and when they go up the angles on all of the sides are exactly the same angle. People come at visit these sites and do they ever wonder how they even built these things? Researchers and scientists have been investigating these pyramids and are also baffled by this. These people were just as intelligent as us, but they did not have the technology that we have today. They did not have cranes or bulldozers to move of pick up all of these huge stone that some can weight tons. The scary thing is that still to this day we cannot duplicate the pyramids. With all of the technology we have today we still cannot make them as straight and perfect as they did. This just make you wonder if they were really the ones that made them. Some actually believe the aliens from outer space actually came down to help them build these.

For everyone that does not know what an obelisk is, it is a huge piece of solid stone that is rectangular and at the top it has a point. These massive stone were over 100 tons and somehow they were able to get these rocks off of the ground and set them straight up in the air. There are some theories on how they accomplished this but they have never been tested. Stone Hedge is an interesting set of stone too, due to the fact that there are huge stone set on top of each other. No one knows how they got these stones on the top of the others without any machines at all. All of these things that were make thousands of years ago are astound us because we cannot even do some of them or we do not know how they make them. This just make you think if they were even the ones that actually make them.     

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | No Comments »

9. April 2009 by student.

            Late at night on MSNBC I came across a story that was very interesting. The story was about slavery that is still going on today in our world. It might not be what it used to be, but there are still slaves. These slaves consist of women that pleasure men in secluded places. These women are sex slaves that are located in some massage parlors. They went in to investigate these parlors to see if they are actually true. They have an ordinary man go into one of these parlors with a hidden camera on his hat to get an inside look at how this parlor works. The people working there cannot speak of what they are going to do to the men. They just tell you how much it is and when you pay them, they take you to one of the rooms and they give you a “message”. After watching what goes on the police decided to raid on the theses places. When they barge in they know that it is a sex parlor by the mass amount to camera’s on the walls and that the massagers are not wearing the proper attire. They have so many cameras in these places because the massagers are the slaves and they do not want any of them to escape and go to the cops. When the police went deeper into the parlor and when they went into the laundry room, they noticed something behind one of the washers. When they moved it they was a big hole in the wall that lead to a room. This room had around 12 to 15 beds on the floor and clothes spread around the room. This is where the slaves sleep every night. They never get to leave to parlor and never will. These slaves come from Asia or China that were persuaded that they will have a better life if they come to America and take this job.

                There are many of these massage parlors all over the United States. The police are trying to shut down all of these places so these poor young women can leave and get a better life for themselves. These places need to be stopped because these women are trapped and are forced to perform acts of sex unwillingly. The police are trying these best to shut down as many of these massage parlors as they can.      

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

9. April 2009 by student.

            I recently read about a court case that involved the separation of conjoined twins. The shocking part was that the decision to separate the two girls who were joined at the pelvis was not made by the parents, but instead it was made by the court. The parents apparently had no say in the matter because the judges invoked something known as a “utilitarian rationale”. This basically means that because of the serious medical issue at hand, the separation had to be done; even if this meant causing the immediate death of one of the twins.

            “The specialists agreed that there is an 80 to 90 percent chance that the strong and alert Jodie could not survive more than a few months if she continued to support the weak heart and lungs of Mary, whose brain is underdeveloped”. As understandable as the situation is, I ultimately believe that it should have been up to the parents to decide whether or not the separation should take place. After reading about the situation, I found out that they were completely against the surgery. They did not believe that one of their children should die to enable the other one to survive. They believe that everyone has a right to live and no one has the decision to take away a life except for God.

            However, as much as the parents fought the case, the court’s decision still overruled their beliefs. Due to the “medical calculus” the twin’s fate was decided by the court. Apparently Mary’s’ life was futile and they didn’t believe Jodie should suffer because of it. Some people argue the principal known as the “double effect” which states that the loss of a life when it is an unintended consequence of saving another is permitted. However, in this case the decision of ending Mary’s life was deliberate, not unintended.

            In the end the surgery was performed and Mary’s life was lost. The ultimate question still stands: Is it ever okay to take one life in favor of another? I believe this answer is no. If the parents didn’t want the surgery to be performed I believe the court should have upheld their wishes. This leads me to wonder about the coercion that is going on in today’s world when the court can overrule a decision that was ultimately not theirs to make.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | No Comments »

9. April 2009 by student.

Dosent this bohter u?

I know most of you can read that, but what I want to know is how and why there are people who have graduated from middle school and still cannot manage to get many simple grammar rules down. I know, I know, I’m a grammar nazi, for lack of a better term, but going through all these blogs makes me seriously frustrated. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of emphasis on our educational system, or just the fact that people today can simply type into Microsoft Word and every spelling error will be automatically fixed, so they have no incentive to try to get it right the first time, but the little effort seemingly put into the grammatical quality of these blogs makes me upset. I mean, it’s to take the grade of your final exam, don’t you want to put your best work out there?

Of course, this isn’t a new issue. Grammar is obviously a tough subject, and apparently so is spelling, but there’s a difference between someone typing a “j” instead of “h” and someone who looks as though no one ever taught them about their, there, and they’re.

As I began to think about this blog, however, I thought about recent times and the amount of typos we see all around us. I’ve seen signs on buildings spelled wrong. Notifications I’ve gotten at work had misspellings by my manager (and yes, I did go into the office and let him know). I mean, what is happening to our society’s integrity?? I’m not sure if this is something that has been a continual occurrence in the past few decades, but I feel as though we have let the importance of proper spelling slip below the importance of how to make your Facebook default look “so cute” with Picnik or whose relationship just ended over the internet. Obviously, the world isn’t going to end because our last president couldn’t say “nuclear” and because we have typos in our textbooks (again, here and there is fine, but I have one that has at least 4 or 5 per chapter, ugh!), but come on, have some pride in the integrity of your work! Someone invented Spell Check for a reason, and Microsoft Word is pretty good at spotting most of those sentence fragments, but as far as “too” and “to”, and “a lot” vs. “a lot”, come on world, it’s not that tough. If elementary school children can figure it out, so can you!

Posted in Introduction to Sociology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

9. April 2009 by student.

Why do each society’s rites of passage differ? Some occur at different ages, and different life stages, and of course the type of change to the person’s life. For example, we’ve all heard about the rituals performed in the African tribes. To us, these rituals sound absurd, not to mention usually painful, but for the members of the tribe, it is a mark of distinction and provides them with more respect within the tribe.

                Regardless of the type of ritual or event marking this important time in the individual’s life, there are always high emotions surrounding the event. Those less-socialized cultures may find that the individual has heightened fears about the upcoming event or process leading to their maturation. But what about our civilization and society?

                In general, men and women of more developed countries do not undergo as painful or scarring rituals as their rites of passage, but seem to find life events more relatable. Being a college student, I know that already I have experienced many of these important events, and that there will be more to come. I’ve been through birthdays, first days of school, graduating high school, and getting accepted into college and moving away from home. All of these events bring up very strong emotions, some good and some bad, but all memorable, and that’s the point.

                The function of our society is to produce individuals adapted to the society, as quoted by Mr. Andoscia early on. It is a process of learning skills and acquiring status, and doing so through agents of socialization such as family, peers, religion, and media.

                So no matter what country you’re from, you’ll most likely find yourself within your culture gauging certain life events as more important than others, and these events will differ within each social group around the world. The reason behind this is the socializing of the individuals within the society to live up to standards and acquire status.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

9. April 2009 by student.

Often in television, movies, and books, you can most certainly find the main character helping others in a do-good “white knight” fashion, but almost never will you see this in real life. 90% of what you find on the news will certainly be depressing, because if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be news and it doesn’t bring in ratings. So what has happened? Not even 50 years ago chivalry was considered the trait of ladies and gentlemen, to always be courteous and helpful. And now walking down the street you will be lucky if anyone makes eye contact with you. Greed has always been a part of human nature, but it seems our generation has become apathetic to everything around us. How much longer will our society hold out for now that socialism has become a bigger part of our lives? I for one will hold out my hand for weak to grab on to, but if they do so is entirely up to them.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

9. April 2009 by student.

In today’s society Racism still continously occurs. Though in past times  much segregation and racisim accounts have been less reccurant than in comparison to our times today. One of the many laws, such as the ” The Equal Rights Act, ” have bettered our workplaces, schooling, and even job oppurtunities available to all. Although many thank Martin Luther King Junior for all of his great preachings and practices, there still are and always will be the few ungratefuls. Racism will always exist, even with preventable measures this is a sociological issue that will always exist. Whether you are black, white, hispanic, or even asian racism applies to all types of races. With me being a Black, Male dating a white female, in past times i would be frowned upon by many. This would be considered unexceptable, but in todays society things have changed, it is now considered “the norm.” Crime rates have risen over the years due to racism. This is because of deliquent children fighting simply because they’re not of the same ethnic background. Gang violence is also a factor of racism. Many children today are joining gangs for acceptance within different groups or “ethnic backgrounds.” Stereotypes are also leading factors of racism, many have beliefs due to what others may think, such as parental influence, television shows, or even friends of families. Racism is a cruel and punishing word used towards people to hurt them, inspite of pure ignorance.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

9. April 2009 by student.

We all sit around talking about drugs and how good or bad they are. Of course, we all have different perspectives as well as different opinions about the use of drugs… But are we really doin anything about it? I believe not… And now with the decision of legalizing marijuana, the world is turning upside down. To many maybe this is not considered a social problem, but to me it’s an extremely big social problem that needs to be taken care of immediately.. I mean in today’s world marijuana is one of the most common drug in the United States, as well in other countries. Last year, more than twenty million Americans had smoked marijuana and more than seventy million had tried it. I do not believe people know the damage that marijuana can do to them. In some hospitals doctors prescribe marijuana to patients for some illness, but for that reason it does not make it right to legalize marijuana. By legalizing marijuana it could bring many problems to our country. I believe it should not be legalized because marijuana causes premature cancer, a number of mental disorders and is very addicted to those who get hooked on it.  

Opponents of legalizing marijuana say that it does not cause cancer. They believe that using marijuana reduces lung cancer and that they deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana. At times, they even argue that the government should not tell individuals what to do as long as they do not harm others.  However, marijuana contains hundreds of chemicals that are harmful to health. Also marijuana is much stronger now a day then it was years ago. Since marijuana smoke is inhaled more deeply and holds longer in lungs, it could lead to severe lung damage. If it gets legalize more people would be harmed and that is something not many understand.  

While there is always a certain group who believe marijuana can be used as medicine, because it helps to stimulate appetite and relieve nausea in cancer and AIDS patients. Research has shown that the use of marijuana to treat medical disorders may cause the acceleration or aggravation of the very disorders it is being used to treat. Most of the time consumers do not pay much attention to the damage they are causing to themselves and those around them. That is why they always give the argument that,   countries have a responsibility to respect individual free will and the right of self-determination. Though, they do not know the government has a right to limit those choices if the individual’s actions endanger someone else. 

In sequence to all the arguments mentioned above, the addiction problem is one of the biggest concerns when thinking about legalizing marijuana. Most people who think that the legalization of this drug is right, will argue that legal prohibition does not stop consumers from consuming drugs and that it does not stop trafficants from producing and selling it. But many don’t know that now a day there are more drug test’s than ever. This test can identify if an individual is under the influence of any kind of drug in just minutes. Therefore, as much addictive as marijuana can be and even though kids and at times adults do anything and everything to get it. It is not recommendable that they keep harming their lives or messing up their future just to get one of these drugs. Since the powerful effects of drug addiction causes users to commit crimes in order to fund their addiction. 

In conclusion, it seems that the potential dangers presented by the medical use and the other effects mentioned above of marijuana may actually contribute to the dangers of the diseases, which it would be used to fight back and forth. Therefore, I suggest that marijuana should not be permitted as a therapy or be legalized for any kind of reason. At least until a good deal, more conclusive research has been completed that proves marijuana can actually be good for something. In other words, those small arguments that everyone is free to do whatever they want, are not precisely good arguments due to the fact there are so many reasons why marijuana should not be legalized under any circumstances.

Posted in Social Problems | 2 Comments »

9. April 2009 by student.

Our society today revolves around physical appearances, and unfortunately there are people out here who have the misfortune of being born deformed in whatever way. These people can live out normal lives, but daily ridicule by knowing you’re an outcast in society can really take its toll. I cannot blame a person for staring at someone who has no legs because I do it too. Its something different that we encounter on a daily basis and it makes us thank whatever higher power that we have legs. But do we ever stop to think that the person we are staring at ever thanks god for being alive? They know they are different and they know we stare at them. I wonder how they feel about being physically deformed in society. I don’t know if the physical deformity is the social problem or the fact that we make it one.   

Posted in Social Problems | 3 Comments »

9. April 2009 by student.

Im sure everyone has encountered someone who has a lot of money and thinks they are better than everyone else because of it. You might even be one of them. What the problem I see here is a matter of a class issue. I feel that people who think they are better than others because they are better of causes a lot of trouble in society. A perfect example would be Paris Hilton.  From what ive seen of her I can assume she thinks money can buy everything and she is untouchable. Obviously that is not the case. Remember when she went to jail because of drunk driving? She did that because she thought daddy could bail her out and it does not matter if she got in trouble. I know it seems like a hate Paris Hilton but in truth ive never met her so I really cannot pass judgment. Im just going by what ive seen on TV and such. Im just trying to give an example. Rich people do step on the poor all the time in their own ways and they do think they are above everybody else mostly. I just don’t appreciate that at all.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | No Comments »