Black Friday: The Death of Thanksgiving

So, I was just informed by my girlfriend who has a cousin that works at Best Buy, that customers were lined up outside their building since 9:30 am Thanksgiving morning. This just brings me back to the comment I made in the Discussion Board the other day. Capitalism and Consumerism is killing the holiday spirit. Instead of celebrating with their families, people waste an entire day just to be the first in line at some mega sales event, which is put on just so the corporations can make tons of more money than they already have. It's like the don't even care about the holidays, or the fact that these corporations and business are forcing their employees to lose out on their own holiday's with their families, so they can be up early on Black Friday, or in the case of Kmart,who was open yesterday, miss out on thanksgiving day.

Instead of lining up outside at early morning hours, people should boycott so those employees can still have a holiday, and see their families. Its not their fault that they have to work minimal wage jobs just to get by in this expensive world, which only gets more and more expensive each day.

Balloon Boy

So I was sitting in Crimson with my roommate earlier tonight waiting for him to get his dinner, and I saw on Fox News an update on the Henne Family. The ones who had claimed that their child was trapped inside a weather balloon that was flying away. Apparently they had fabricated the entire story just so they could get some sort of reality show deal. Which really pissed me off. You call in this fake emergency that gets nationwide attention, causing tons of emergency responders to search in vain for a missing child, who wasn't even missing. This is the problem with society today, and this is the problem with what is put on television. All these stupid reality shows about the stupidest things, and about the most ridiculous people. It is sad that this is what our entertainment has come to. The sad thing is, once they serve their sentence, if any, they'll probably get a tv show anyway.

“Hispanic students aspire to higher education but face barriers”

So I finally managed to find sometime to read that article that Dr. Ingvoldstad sent us about Hispanic students. I found it to be very sad news. I myself believe that education is very important (though I will admit at times I do not put my full effort into it, something I am striving to change) and I wish that there was a way to help these students. I can't really see grants being that helpful since they often enough do not provide enough money, but maybe if we had a system similar to Sweeden or other European countries where higher education is free. Though that would require people to pay more taxes, which no ever seems inclined to want to do. Granted I myself bounce back and forth on the taxes thing, but there are times when I feel it would be more beneficial as a whole for the people who have a hard time taking care of themselves, such as Hispanic kids who can't afford to pay for school. Anyway, you should take a look at the article if you haven't already, see what you think.

Limbaugh Again

Alright, so I know that I already blogged about this guy this week, but he is really pissing me off. I was reading an article on NFL.com about his response to being dropped from the (I was very happy when I heard about this part). But apparently on his show Thursday he was giving his reaction to this situation and among one of the things he said was "what happened to him was an illustration of 'Obama's America on full display.'" Now this quote really pissed me off when I read it, it is so blatantly racist it is disgusting. It angers me that this man has such a following, and that people actually respect his opinions. I mean I am all for the Bill of Rights and normally I am not one to stop someone's free speech, but I really wish someone would take this guy off the air. His words are poisonous to the country, and to all of his listeners who take his word as fact. Anyway, I thought this was relatively pertinent to class discussion, since it was a very racist remark, made by a racist man.

Communications Panel

So I don't know if any of you were able to attend the panel of communications majors in the RCC today. My Business and Professional Communication class with Dr. Litvin attended instead of the regular class meeting, and I must say it was very interesting to listen to all of the cool stuff these majors were doing. It really made me wish that I had not chosen skewed path I had, going from Poli Sci to History, and instead chosen to be a Communications major instead. The graduates seem to be enjoying what they are doing, and I must say they're careers do sound fun and enjoyable. I wish I had been smart enough to do try an internship somewhere, because from what a couple of them said, especially the recent grad who is with the chamber of commerce, they are very helpful when trying to get your foot in the door. I also found it interesting and slightly amusing, that it was unanimous among the panel that they suggest keeping your text books, I never really thought some of them to be that interesting or useful, but they are damn expensive.

Anyway, just thought I'd say that from listening to this panel and from my own experience with my unofficial minor in Communication Studies, I think you guys have a pretty cool and enjoyable major. I just wish I hadn't been foolish, and thought more about that decision, so maybe I could have partaken in it more. But oh well, no point living in regrets.

Racist Rams?

So I guess Rush Limbaugh has made some nasty comments about the NFL, a lot of them borderline racist. Apparently he compared league games to watching the Bloods and Crips fight, just without weapons. Yet for some reason he still wants to buy a stake in an NFL team, saying that he loves the NFL and the St. Louis area. I personally really hope that he is not able to buy into the league, I feel like this would be a bad reflection of the NFL's values, especially considering the racist remarks he has made. The good thing is that there are players who will refuse to play for the Rams if he is able to buy a claim, hopefully this will help affect the current owners decision.

SNL

So I was browsing CNN and I came across an article about an Obama skit on SNL, and apparently it's caused a bit of a stir among the political community. I guess the current Obama impersonator in a sketch was responding to the criticism of the Republican party that Obama was "turning the country into something that resembles the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany." His response was that he wasn't actually doing anything.

I find it really amusing that CNN is reporting on this, and that anyone finds this sketch to be a big deal. Sketch comedy, and comedians in general always take shots at politics and presidents all the time. John Stewarts been doing it for years, but no one really thought it was a big deal. I guess however it has sparked some discussion in the political community, which again I found slightly surprising. I never really thought that SNL held much influence anymore, personally I never really found it to be enjoyable since the early to mid nineties, guess I'm in the minority there.

So I've just watched the video link Dr. Ingvoldstad posted on Cornel West talking about Barack Obama and Colorblindness. I must say I found it a very interesting speech. I like the way West criticizes people for calling themselves colorblind, because it is very true, there really isn't any way to look at a person and not notice the color of their skin. A person can choose to ignore it, or not care what color it is, but they still know the color. I think it makes a very interesting point, one that I interpreted, to show say that some people are just afraid to acknowledge racial differences at the risk of being tagged as a racist, when instead they should just choose to acknowledge another person's skin color and then move on and accept the difference.

I also enjoyed West's critique of all those who celebrated the first black President even though they claimed to be so called colorblind. I thought that this made a good point on whether or not people actually make political choices on qualifications or upon race.

I just wish that I had been able to hear more of what he thought of Obama, since the video seemed to skip over that part. It would be very interesting to hear what his view of him was, considering he is a big figure in racial equality.

History Department

So I realized something today that I found rather interesting. The is a vast difference in ratios of minority to whites in the History department, at least as far as I can tell. Bridgewater may not have a very high population of minorities, but I do believe that the differences aren't that extreme. That being said, their are not a lot of minority students in the History Department, or at least in all the History classes that I have taken as a History Major, which are quite a few. For that matter, I can't remember a high population of minorities when I was Political Science major for a year and half either. I wonder why that is. I am assuming that the majority of the students in our Comm 300 class are Communication majors, so let me ask you what proportion of minorities you find? Am I totally wrong about the population of minorities at Bridgewater? Is the ratio that different?

Non-Dramas

I would like to again touch upon a post by my friend Mike Mullen. In one of his recent blogs, he started talking about the treatment of women on television, and also the treatment of women in the workforce. This caused me to think a little bit, and I realized that, you do not see a lot of situational comedies on television where a woman is cast in the lead role. Sure they are all over the place in drama tv, but not in situational comedies. The last one I can think of is Ellen's show, back in the nineties sometime. I mean I could be wrong on this, and if I am feel free to point it out. But I thought it tied into our class a bit. I mean I really don't know off the top of my head what the nation-wide ratio of man to woman is, so I can't say if they are in fact a minority, but they do still sometimes get treated as such, and under-represented. And I just thought that was interesting.

Facebook and twitter

Why do people constantly feel the need to update their status on facebook and twitter to tell people what they are doing every second of the day? It seems entirely unnecessary. Is it the people are afraid that they are not connected to others without this? Or is it simply the fact that sports-stars, and music stars started to do it that it became a trend?

Also, what are with all the apps that facebook now has. It used to be such a simple site where people could connect with old friends from high school or college. Now it has turned into this craze where you get 12 different requests a day asking for either silly Mafia Wars, where you "kill" people, or even fake food fights. It all seems to pointless, and quite sad that people spend so many hours a day on this site, that they can't find anything else to occupy their time with. Will it eventually come down to us never leaving our computer chair, and we just communicate through the internet and experience life through it as well?

Something I just don't understand

Television and other media outlets, have portrayed African Americans in a poor light. They have shown them to be poor, and unfortunately ignorant. Yet for some reason, certain groups of people seem to idolize it. They wind up copying their style of dress, and their language. Which if you ask me, perpetuates the problem. What further boggles my mind is when people who aren't even from poor urban areas decide to follow this style as well. What is so appealing about it all? Why aren't people more individual?

The Ticking Clock

Time is the cruelest and most fickle thing. It's only been a week and a half into the semester, yet I already feel like I have been here for a month. Four and a half years at college is a semester too long. The college scene no longer holds any excitement, it no longer holds any thrills. It just something that's dragging along, making me wish for a change of scenery.

It's funny too. Because the first four years flew by, always too fast, and it was the summers that dragged on. Now it's the exact opposite. The even more cruel twist is the fact that my grandmother was just diagnosed with cancer of the spine and has 6 to 12 months left. And of course this means that at the same time that I want the clock to spin faster, so I can leave the monotony of college, and move on with my life, I don't want it to move at all so my grandmother won't pass on. Then again, now that I think about it, it would probably be better for her, because she is probably in a lot of pain.

Life is a cruel sometimes.

Problems persist

It came to my attention tonight while watching a movie, that the problem of minorities not being represented in the media is still prominent, despite what some might believe. A lot of the hit movies of this decade and previous decades, do not feature minorities as the main characters. And if they do, they are from lower class families and from the poorer sections of urban areas. Also they tend to be hooligans in some sort of dance movie as well, or part of a gang or something. Now I realize this is the whole point of the class I am taking, but I thought that maybe we had progressed some. Unfortunately it appears we have not, and it is very similar to when minorities were stereotyped as being lazy and foolish in those old television programs when the color line was first being crossed. It is really a shame that we have not progressed further than we should have.

A Cry for the Weary

First I would like to start by making a correction in my last blog. Apparently Richard Seymour becomes a free agent after this season, on that account I was wrong. So I suppose that the trade makes a little more sense than it did before.

I would like to blog a little about what Mike Mullen blogged on earlier. Healthcare reform is something that this country has needed for a long while. And people seem to oppose on principle, just because they are Republican and Obama is a democrat. That is not to say that the Democratic Party has not been guilty of such things in the past, which is wrong as well. People need to realize that this country is in rough rough shape right now and its time for stupidity like that to stop. We need to stop and actually think through the problems and solutions proposed and figure out what's best for the country overall, rather than just a select few. We are all citizens of this country, and the welfare of the country rests on all of us. Even the poorest people of this country matter, they wind up doing the things the rich would be appalled to do. They are the invisibles who support this country with their blue collar work, yet people don't seem to care about them, and think they are worthless.

It is very sad to see. Hopefully it things will turn around and the country will start to work together to repair itself. And hopefully, if that doesn't happen, it won't collapse upon its self with a horrible outcome for all.

Crap I am so far behind

I can't remember a time in my four and a half years at BSC where I have ever fallen behind so quickly in any of my classes. I have just had so much to do in this first week that I've been having trouble keeping up with it all, which is why this is my first post. Hopefully I can catch up and keep up because I do not want my last semester to ruin me, nor do I really want to fail and stay another semester.

I might be one of the few who recommend this, especially at this time, when the economy is horrible but I would recommend not attending more than four years. It is so weird being on campus when all of your close friends, that you've known for four years, have all graduated and moved on with their lives. And I always feel so old when I'm walking around campus thinking, "wow I'm in my ninth semester," especially when I see all the freshmen around campus, and man there are a lot of them.

Anyway, as I finish up my last blog, I would just like to make a rant that I think many New England sports fans can share. What the heck is going on with the Patriots? They are making horrible decisions without Scott Pioli. They made a horrible horrible deal with Kansas City, Cassel and Vrabel for what was it? A second round pick, disgusting, Vrabel is worth much more than that, and Cassel showed a lot of potential last season. Now what do they do, they trade Richard Seymour for a first round draft pick in 2011? I mean, I realize that this opens up cap room they are worried about, but I mean come on, They could've waited a season, he doesn't become a free agent until after next season. But I could be wrong on that one. Anyway, hopefully Bill knows what he is doing.