28. April 2010 by student.

We all love going to amusement parks such as Sea World and Busch Gardens. The last time I went to Sea World was in the 4^th grade. I was completely infatuated with the place. I loved the atmosphere and the people. I wanted to become a whale or dolphin trainer. How amazing would it be to be up close and personal with these beautiful and intelligent sea mammals? However, as I got older, I started questioning these places such as Sea World. I have not gone to Sea World since my 4^th grade experience. You may ask why? Well, I do not agree with animal captivity. Recently, the death of Dawn Brancheau, the Sea World trainer who was drowned by Tilikum the Orca whale has brought many questions back up in the air. Do animals belong in captivity?

Many people may not see this as a ‘social problem’, but I do. Though I do not agree with any animal captivity, I am only speaking on behalf of Orcas in this blog. Dawn Brancheau was a 12 year veteran working for Sea World. She spent those years with Tilikum. She had a very good relationship with the orca whale. Whales are one of the most intelligent animals on the planet; which makes it a little hard to comprehend the attack of his trainer. There have been more reports of attacks by dolphins and whales in captivity more than attacks in the wild. Research has indicated that animals do not flourish while in captivity. Whales and dolphins can travel up to 200 miles daily. While in captivity, they are limited wall to wall. They have to room to do the things they could do in the wild. Tilikum has been in captivity since 1983. He was captured off the coast of Iceland. The hunt for these animals can turn out badly. People who capture the animals can damage their fins and sometimes, even kill them. To capture them, a person jumps on the back of a whale to tire them so it is easier for the person to capture them. It is a very dirty business. Without Orca whales or dolphins, Sea World would be nothing. Because of them, they are a million dollar business. They are only in it for the money, not the well being of the animal. Yes, it is an educational for students who are learning about sea life, but the only way to learn about such a large animal is to go see it in the wild. It is a rewarding experience seeing a whale or dolphin in its natural environment, not in a fake tank.

“Male orcas can live up to 30 years in the wild, and 50 years for female orcas. In captivity, they are lucky if they live 20 years. 194 orca whales have been captured since 1964 and 2/3 did not make it past 10 years. Less than 30 orcas survived more than 20 years in captivity.” (http://www.orcahome.de/lifeexpectancy.htm)

Though the age expectancy in captivity is rising slowly close to the expectancy of those in natural environment, it is still not healthy.

I see this as a social problem because people are taking these animals for human entertainment and it is not right. If you take a perfectly sane person, put them in a padded white room with no explanation to as why you put them in that room, they are going to go insane, no matter what. You think these animals love getting treats thrown at them for good behavior, they don’t. Just like a human getting food at them as their meal when they are good. These animals have such strong bonds with their pods, which is their family and once you rip them of that, it is tragic. The family bond between families is much stronger than a human’s family bond. There have been reports of dolphins actually suffocating themselves. They close their blow hole and it constricts their breathing.  Sea World claims they are for educational purposes, but please enlighten me with the circumstances you take to capture these animals. They don’t care about education, they care about MONEY. And that is it! If you want to see the real animals and their true dignity, take a boat off the coast of Washington to see them live where they belong.

Posted in Social Problems | 3 Comments »

28. April 2010 by student.

Traditionally in this country, marriage has been defined as a religious & legal commitment between a man and woman, as well as the ultimate expression of love. Homosexual relationships are slowly gaining acceptance in this country; however, they are not permitted to marry. Some states have considered a new form of commitment called a “civil union”, which essentially is marriage without using the word “marriage”. The clause of the Constitution says that if one state makes a law, other states must recognize it. This in effect allows one state to make same-sex marriage legal in the entire country. San Francisco has performed marriage ceremonies in defiance of the law.  “Should we allow gay couples to legally marry?”

Pros for same sex marriage, benefits such as joint ownership, medical decision, denying the couple is against violation  of religous freedom. A gay couples marriage does not hurt society or an indivual, LOVE is why you get married!  more kids will be apodted after couples get married. It also encourages people to have strong family values.

Cons of same sex marriages, majority of relgions considered homosexuality a sin, it will weaken the defintion and respect of marriages,The gay lifestyle is not something to be encouraged, as a lot of research shows it leads to a much lower life expectancy.

My opinion is that if your happy and completly in love with your patner, you should have the option to get married or not get married if you want to. Society should not be able to take the happiness out of your life, if you are not interest in the opposite sex. If you want to get married to somebody as the same sex as you go for it , find a state that can give you the marriage license and live your life! I’m not opposed on the marriages but seeing same sex couples making out, hooking up doing whatever, needs to stay in the bedroom.  Everybody (gay/straight couples) should keep their sex lives in the bedroom, but NOT in public.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

28. April 2010 by student.

Im not sure if most of you will feel the same way about this critisism but the opportunity that the alumni at our school is able to work while in school, to make a couple of bucks maybe for gas or lunch is great and I totally appreciate the fact that we are able to do that. What I do have a problem with is the fact that they have most students working in the registrar’s office, financial aid, and advising.

In several occurrences I have ran into conflicts trying to get the right answers and getting the right information from student body personnel. It has occurred that I have signed up for the wrong courses or even just mal-informed. Being  freshman and trying to just get used to college in general is pretty frustrating but asking someone working for your school and them giving you the wrong instructions is even more of a stress.

I beleive that we should have trained well qualified employees to be working in these offices. I can relate this to a sociological problem in our schools organization and interaction. We must be able to all be well connected and informed about our personal choices guiding us to our future.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 6 Comments »

28. April 2010 by student.

So it basically comes down to one thing….Dental Insurance sucks! In the 1980’s dental insurance covered at least an annual maximum of $1000.00 per insured patient now, they merely cover $1500.00 per insured patient. Almost 30 years later and still almost no coverage or atleast about the same, yet the cost of dentistry has inflated a whole lot. 

 It used to be that if you needed a restoration like a crown or a filling the insurance would cover 50% of the expense, but the claim submitted for the expense was close to nothing like $500.00 for a crown and maybe $75 for a filling. Do the math if you needed Four crowns the insurance would  pay $1000.00 for the four crowns and yes you would have to pay the rest out of pocket but nothing is free so that’s o.k. but yet you were able to restore 4 teeth within one years maximum coverage ! Don’t know of what importance your teeth are to you but I tell you what in this society is important to have teeth,  nontheless ”pearly whites”.

 What i’m getting at is, now the cost of a crown is close to $1000.000 just ONE,  insurances only cover 50% still of major restorations, that tells us that nothing has changed we would have to pay even more out of pocket and only restore One maybe Two teeth.

The conclusion is we pay all this money a month/year for dental insurance and can only fix so much at a time because our dental insurances dictate the yearly allowances that since the 1980’s hasn’t changed! What kind of irrational choice is that? Yet these CEO’s of these major insurance companies get paid millions of dollars a year to get dressed drink coffee and get chauffered to work everyday!!! Meanwhile patient’s teeth and health are in the line everyday.

And if you didn’t know gum disease and plaque our one of the leading cause of heart disease!

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

28. April 2010 by student.

       In recent years we here in the United States as well as people throughout the World have been seeing the very real results and effects of fundamentalism. The 9/11 attacks were carried out by a network of individuals who are generally considered to be fundamentalist in nature. While the hate and war mongering that took place in the United States immediately afterwards was propagated by evangelicals who saw the epic clash with the Muslim world as a “New Crusade.” This fervor only working to the benefit of those they sought to demonize, as they could present the western campaigns against the Islamic lands as an effort to spread Christianity through destruction and bloodshed. Bush even referred to the war as “this Crusade” subsequently shocking the World and enraging the Muslim World. The immense amount of evangelical missionary activity in Iraq only made this point even clearer. It is a bit suspicious when you bomb a country into the stone age and then you send in numerous Bible thumpers to preach Cross Worship. As well as writing on those shells you use to bomb that country “If Allah doesn’t listen try Jesus.” On top of all of that the individual who initiated this bombing and invasion is someone who says he was “born again in Jesus Christ.” That individual also receiving huge campaign contributions from evangelical organizations.

      Now of course one could argue against this and say “they hate us overseas and they use religion to justify it!” And of course you have individuals overseas that do simply hate the west because they feel they have a religious obligation to simply hate a disbeliever just because he or she may disbelieve. The one who only believes in hatred is wrong no matter what religion he practices. But when a technologically sophisticated superpower is waging war on a population and they allow that population to be preyed upon by people that call that population’s religious prophet hideous names and spit upon their Holy Book, then this is a serious error. Especially when you consider that power likes to call itself the beacon of freedom and tolerance. Because ultimately a nation with as much power as the United States will influence the actions and thoughts of people all across the globe.

     Ultimately we have to wonder what causes a person to become a fundamentalist. Are they trying to fill a void? Is the modern human being deprived of that spirituality that was for such a long time as natural to it’s existence as shelter and nourishment? Do they feel that their belief systems are being compromised by modern secular ideals? Does the individual find in the religious congregation that warmth and understanding that cannot be found in the repetitive and digital modern world? Is there something wrong with our society that causes people to increasingly turn to extremism because they feel hopeless?

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

28. April 2010 by student.

Tabacco Scam , Stanton Glantz PhD, USCf School of medicine

American Medical Association  

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28. April 2010 by student.

      I won’t be popular with many, but I agree that smoking should be banned from the entire campus. Its a persons choice to smoke or not, but check out these statistics.

     Breathing secondhand smoke for twenty minutes has very negative effects on the heart, blood and blood vessels.

     -5 minutes of exposure stiffens the aorta.

     -20 minutes of exposure makes blood platelets as “sticky” as a smokers’(based on the one-pack-a day smoker)….You don’t want sticky blood…it increases the chances for a heart attack or stroke, damages the artery lining.

     -30 minutes of exposure can damage a non-smokers arteries to the same extent as a smokers. The coronary arteries (blood vessels that supply the heart) are extremely sensitive to sensitive to seconhand smoke toxins. This much exposure also compromises the ability of the blood to manage the LDL cholestrol (this is the bad one). This effect lasts for several hours after exposure to the smoke. Build up of the LDL in the arteries leads to heart attacks and stroke.

     The exposure to second hand smoke increases risks for developing heart disease, but also increases the immediate risk of heart attack. Second hand smoke causes other health problems such as asthma, wheezing, and other respiratory problems. If there were bottles of a pollutant randomly placed around the campus and were causing these same issues, they would be removed.

     People certainly have the right to smoke , but those of us who don’t smoke shouldn’t need to take evasive action when others are smoking.

     -

     _

 Passive smoking increases the risk of cardiac death or morbidity about 30% compared to the doubling or quadrupling of risk associated with active smoking.

“The effect of passive smoking is as high as one third the effect of active smoking even though the dose of at least some of the constiuents is much less than what the smoker inhales ( Stanton Glantz, PhD and William Parmley, PhD, American Medical Association)”.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

28. April 2010 by student.

First of all, what is peace? It is not just simple the absence of war. No, it stems deeper than that. Verbal tensions can break peace. Many solutions have been offered as to how we as a planet can have and maintain peace. Sadly, none of them are even remotely close to being upheld. Take, for instance, the Active Peace Theory. It states that peace is part of a triad, which also includes justice and wholeness (or well-being). It does make sense that if we had peace, we would all enjoy other benefits that come along with it, such as lower prices for our everyday goods, or even a cleaner environment. So it also makes sense that in order to obtain peace some effort has to be put into other areas. What the Active Peace Theory is saying is that world peace is something that will come after. Only after we as a society include truly live with “justice” and humbleness. Are we anywhere near that right now? Definitely not. Are we ever going to get there? Probably not.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

28. April 2010 by student.

“Bullying is a form of abuse.” It is defined as an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. In the past few decades, this has grown to be a serious issue in public schools, and even some workplaces. Although the word does not have a clear definition in the UK, the US actually has states that have laws against it, and rightly so. The effects of bullying can be very serious or sometimes even fatal. Recent studies have shown that loneliness, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem issues can directly be related to the stress of being bullied. These can either be verbal, psychological, or physical bullying. There is a very strong link between bullying and suicide. It is estimated that between 15 and 25 children commit suicide every year in UK alone, because they are being bullied. These are alarming statistics for something that can very easily be prevented.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

28. April 2010 by student.

    Drinking and driving, texting and driving and just not paying attention while driving are some serious problems that contribute to fatalities on the roads. The problem that isn’t talked about a lot but is starting to be noticed is old aged drivers. Old age drivers include senior citizens from the age of 65 and older. Nothing pisses me off more than old people driving under the speed limit in the fast lane going down the highway. Its as if they are completely unaware of whats going on around them let alone they cant read the speed limit.

Its not just that they piss people off but they are a liabilty to the lives of drivers around them.  According to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, fatality rates for drivers begin to climb after 65 based on data from 1999-2004. From ages 75 to 84, the rate of about three deaths per 100 million miles driven is equal to the death rate of teenage drivers. For drivers 85 and older, the fatality rate skyrockets to nearly four times higher than that for teens. The numbers are particularly daunting at a time when the U.S. Census Bureau projects there will be 9.6 million people 85 and older by 2030, up 73% from today. Road safety analysts predict that by 2030, when all baby boomers are at least 65, they will be responsible for 25% of all fatal crashes. In 2005, 11% of fatal crashes involved drivers that old.

There is really no way to stop this problem beside prohibiting older people of the age 65 and older from getting their liscence. Which isn’t really fair. The only measure scientifically proven to lower the rate of fatal crashes involving elderly drivers is forcing the seniors to appear at motor vehicle departments in person to renew their licenses, says the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »