2. September 2010 by student.

M. Stands For:

• Management
• Mediator
• Mentor
• Moderator
• Moving Forward
• Merciful
• Married
• Mother

BUT, MOST OF ALL, MAKING IT HAPPEN!VOTE FOR MIGGIE CASTROI will lead us to a Better Future for Andosciaville.This message has been approved by Miggie Castro

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1. September 2010 by student.

Today when I go out into a public place like shopping or school for example.  I see this strange thing that is taking place before my eyes. What is that you might say? People are getting inked! The amount of people getting ink seems to have become a popular trend particularly amoung 18-30 age groups. It also seems to be in all economic levels in America and is even a trend with soccer moms no lie! What I do not understand is why this has happened and what will this trend mean in 20 or 30 years when people who have had a lot of body art no longer want it? I am old fashioned I cannot understand this trend and I like my body just the way it is and why mess with perfection. OK its true I am not perfect but I am amazed by how fast this trend has spread. When I was a teenager in the 80’s the only people in the Texas town I grew up in with tattoos were old Vietnam or Navy vets with a small Tattoo on their arm or shoulder, local rock stars, or ex-cons. They were the only people in the town I lived in that people accepted their body art as normal or acceptable.  If a teenager or soccer mom had ink back then she or he would have been the talk of the town. People would keep their distance like they had some sort of disease. I know this sounds weird but it is true no kidding. I grew up  in the Bible belt so that should have been expected right.  But today we have C.E.O’s of corporations, medical doctors, police officers inking themselves like Slash or Axel Rose. To say the least times have changed and in my opinion many people who are inking themselves will woefully regret it when this trend changes. And let me be clear I do believe it will fade away. But one thing is for sure it will define a generation and while time fades away the ink will not. And these generations will have to deal with this popular trend for as long as they live. What they have done to themselves won’t easily be hidden.I have posted some news articles about the topic below please send comments.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/lifestyle/2006-06/12/content_614236.htm

http://www.citizentelegram.com/article/20100826/MISC04/100829990/1002&parentprofile=1001

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29. August 2010 by student.

This weekend Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin held a rally in Washington D.C to bring about a conservative change in America. Beck and Palin have spearheaded an effort to return our country back to what they deem to be Americas “Traditional Godly Values”. Now look, I am all for change in America, after all we have been changing the way we do things in this country since its foundation. Change is and always will be occurring in a country where people are allowed to choose their leaders. This ability is a blessing and we should be happy to have it as many people in other nations do not. My beef with the Beck -Palin crowd is they seem to have defined for others exactly who “God” is. Both have expressed that they believe God to be the God of Christianity. The problem in doing this is that they are two very influential people who are taking  Christian values and attempting to bring them into the political arena. Its Ok to have whatever faith you wish. But, when you have such a powerful voice in Americas media and airwaves it should be your responsibility Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to not shove your idea of who God is and what he stands for down the throats of America. It is your job however to bring about dialogue which can bring about job creation, defense from our enemies and overall general protection to the common people of America. But for Pete sake! Keep religion out of it! Not everyone follows the God of the Mormons Beck! If Beck is unable to figure that out, then how should we ever trust him and Palin to give us solutions that will make a real difference in Americas economy and way of life? Please send me your comments on the subject.

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28. August 2010 by student.

In the past several months there has been a major effort by the Obama administration to show that for profit schools such as University of Phoenix and Kaplan University for example are giving students false information and hopes when recruiting them to attend their schools. Data from these for profit schools have recently shown that the students ability to repay the loans which they have borrowed from the Federal Government  are very often not repaid and in default. These for profit education schools are also shown to charge far more than that of a community colleges and public universities for the same courses. The for profit schools of this type often are only online and often charge more than private well recognized ivy league schools in many cases for credit hours taken. The Department of Education has recently stopped short of calling the schools fraudulent scams and are considering cutting their ability to receive Federal funds from the government. The schools state that they are being targeted and that they provide a necessary service to students who cannot attend traditional colleges. They state that if they are cut from Federal funding, which can often be 90% of the schools income that the government will perhaps in effect put them out of business. They state this would leave their current students without degrees and in deep debt with nothing to show for it, and may plan to sue if they are shut down for the loss in revenue. I want to know what others think about this dilemma please leave comments. I have posted some links to articles below on the topic.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1485280975/

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/09/opinion/la-ed-college-20100809

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12. August 2010 by student.

Is it a good idea that the school system is switching the way they used to serve food to more nutritious meals? Because of overly obese children, the school systems have decided to switch the meal plans to more nutritious food for students which includes more fruits, vegetables and whole grain. However, parents are saying the school are getting involves the children lives because they‘re taking out soda and snack machines. People are saying the students should have the right to purchase snacks and sodas if that’s what they choose. Those parents don’t think that the governments are trying to help due to the high rises of obese children who start to experience high blood pressure and juvenile diabetes at such an early age.  First of all healthy food is not cheap, if this is what it’s going to take to reduce kids obesity which can put our society at more risk of developing  illness such as cancer, diabetes, heart diseases let it be. After the all, parents will not blame their overweight kids to the school system.

Posted in Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »

10. August 2010 by student.

Dungeons and Dragons. In the 1980’s this phenomenon was considered dangerous for children to play, the belief that this game and others like it caused children to have unrealistic concepts of reality. Some children jumped off of buildings thinking they had the ability to fly, or would act out at church saying they can see Archa floating around in the room. Archa are invisble beings kind of like angels in these games, and you can only see them if you have the power of true seeing. We must also remeber the out cries against rock and roll music, and how it is the devils music, and it made kids commit suicide or go on killing sprees. They would even take the artist to court. I remember when Judas Preist was taken to court, and the parents stated that if you play the record backwards you can hear the devil telling you to kill your parents or to worship him. I was about 10 yrs old when that went into court and I remember that I had their tape. I then wanted the record to see for myself if the devil really was speaking to us on the record.  Anyway, Judas Preist was never charged with anything and the devil speaking to you if the record is played backwards was never proven. Blame in society usually gets pointed at things that are considered outside of the norm in society. Kiss in the 1970’s was persecuted for being outside of the norm, their shows were giant compendiums of fire, blood, and makeup, and the members of the band had such names as The Demon, and Star Child. Parents in the 70’s held protests outside of the concerts preventing kids from entering the shows.  They met in churches, and went to Town Hall meetings on the subject. They tried to ban Kiss from being sold in the stores, and some succeeded in doing so.

Dungeons and Dragons received sort of the same welcome in the 1980’s. Parents held protests outside of stores that sold it, they had town hall meetings on the subject, and were able to prevent the game from being sold in some cities. I played these games growing up, me and my freinds sat in our basements playing dungeons and dragons while palying records backwards.  I admit these games require you to be an active member of the game, and to use your imagination to its full potential.  D&D has benefits, it is not evil like so many used to think, the required use of your brain is benefitial to children, and the games help to enhance reading and vocabulaty skills, along with improving their abilities in math. Not just addition and subtraction as some may think, but percentages, multipliction, and division have big rolls in these games. I have recently introduced the world of D&D to my children, and they love it. My son prefers playing Dungeons and Dragons to playing his XBOX.  Some of you may be wondering how is it better than an XBOX. D&D is the original XBOX, what is good about this game is that you are in complete control. You create the game, you create classes of characters and put them in your own social strata, you can invent languages, currency, even governments, or you can use allready made up languages, you play your game and the dungeons and dragons community is more than willing to participate, you are able to transfer your leveled up characters to other campaigns, that you or other people created, the D&D world is a neverending one. “The only limitation is your Imagination”.

I am not saying that playing video games is bad, but it is limited to the parameters of the program, it’s graphics, memory, and the amount of characters they are able to have in one game. The worlds of D&D have no limitations, you can have thousands of different characters in one game, you can make the games as hard or as easy as you want to, you can go anywhere in the Universe you want to. You can invent your own characters, monsters, magic spells, weapons, planes,trains, and automobiles. Its all right there in your head, and the worlds of D&D can help to make it happen, by giving you tips and tricks to creating your own games, or you can play one of the many allready made games, you have complete Omnipotence.

Posted in Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

9. August 2010 by student.

Should a person under the age of eighteen have the right either to keep or to abort an unwanted pregnancy? Abortion clinics all across the U.S. make it possible for a minor to abort her unwanted child without the permission of an adult. In addition to clinics, minors are finding and using alternative ways to abort unwanted babies. Parents are blaming the government for allowing minors to make a wrongful medical decision. By allowing minors to have abortion, most minor will go out and have sex without protection and that can also increase their chances of catching STDs. If minors are allowed to make such a big medical decision without the consent of an adult, then they should have the right to do any other stuff such as buying alcohol, watch any movies, withdraw and enroll to school and the list can go on and on. THAT WILL NOT BE A GOOD IDEA. First of all, not everyone can have abortion for medical reasons, and sometimes abortion can be followed by medical complications. Some Doctors will not be concerned of finding out if the person is or isn’t a good candidate for abortion. For such reasons, I think Minors should not be allowed to have abortion without the consent of an adult.

Posted in Social Problems | 2 Comments »

9. August 2010 by student.

We all do it. What if using cellular phone while driving is banned all over the country? Several States across the U.S. has banned the use of cell phones while driving. Over the years the rate at which car accidents involving hand held cellular devices has increased. In attempt to lower accident rate, The Government has stepped in banning cell phone talking and texting.  They demonstrated on the Oprah show that anybody who uses their cellular phones while driving “especially texting” increased their chances of being in a car accident more than someone who’s driving while intoxicated. She said “make your car a no phone zone.”

 But is that a good idea? Right now most people barely have a house phone. Cellular phones are replacing home phones, that’s mean people will receive and answer call time anytime of the day. As busy as people are nowadays, most people make their phone calls, answer their phone, or listening to their voice mail on their way to school, to work, to the market etc. Even if the government tries to ban using cell phones while driving people will still do it. I think they should banned texting and driving NOT talking on the phone and driving. I believe 100% of a person’s attention should be focused on the road at all times,   and texting requires 100% attention, that’s mean it’s either your mind is focused on the road or it focuses in texting. I believe in order to prevent some car accidents, texting while driving should be banned period no question ask.

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5. August 2010 by student.

It’s finally happening. Eight to ten years ago students in Middle school and High school used to send back home or send to detention for dress code violation. Dress code used to create all kind of problems in school; such as fight among students, tension between clicks, also used to reveal students culture, ethnicity and social status. Some students used to get teased or attacked by bullies by the way they dressed. Even teacher used to criticize some students by the way they dressed “NOT” on based on their comportment. I remember back when I was in high school, many young boys used to send to detention because their pants were way below their waistline, or coming to class in undershirt, and sometimes some sort of logo or gang’ s symbol. Starting a few years ago, many public schools in Florida started to enforce students on wearing school uniform. I think not only wearing uniform to school will reduce school violence, but also parents will save time, money and will not be wondering if this “outfit” is appropriate for school. Imagine a mother of four without a job need to go back to school shopping for her kidz, she will have to spend at least $500.00, that’s if she buys cheap clothes.  School uniform will cost her way less than that and she won’t have worry what’s and what’s not appropriate for school. There are some cities where students don’t wear uniforms to school; I hope it becomes mandatory that all students should wear uniform to school.

Posted in Social Problems, Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

4. August 2010 by student.

One of many things I have learned in this country is American always ready to form a line when waiting for something without being told to do so. How many times you go an ATM and fine someone there asking people to get in a line “HARDLY EVER.” I have traveled to several countries, most of the people I have encountered will come and stand beside you, and the next one on your other side before you know it,  you’ll surrounded by stranger.  In America where ever you go, you’ll a see a waiting line is formed, whether it is in the cafeteria, at the Bank, at the fast-food, or to get in the train. I don’t think this good behavior in the American society was taught in school. It’s just one another AMERICAN conduct that is beneficial to the whole society.

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