I thought that the episode was great, I think South Park is the best show on TV other then maybe the Daily Show. I just can't get my head around the fact that people are still getting upset about stuff like this, who cares if someone makes fun of your god, how does that affect your relationship with whoever your god is? People can say whatever they want, that shouldn't affect you, if you believe in something then believe in it, but the world doesn't have to subscribe to your idea of whats right or wrong. As far as this group that is threatening the South Park guys, Jon Stewart said it best when he told them to go f@ck themselves.

Why the hell does everyone know who Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are but so many people have never even heard of Noam Chomsky? Noam Chomsky is someone actually worth paying attention too, I me come on, Robin Williams mentioned him and his book Manufacturing Consent in "Good Will Hunting". Chomsky's speech was pretty shocking to hear but when you really start to think about it a lot of what he was saying is true. I was a terrible student in high school mostly because I was lazy, but I did have a couple of classes where I thought "this is absolutely pointless", I felt like we were just part of this huge system and you had to take part in it if you wanted to stay with your peers. But, at the same time I had a teacher who really did try to make us think for ourselves, and I had a teacher who was more about discipline and knowing where you stand in the pecking order, and he was my favorite teacher, he gave me a real appreciation of history. When Chomsky says "education is the indoctrination of the young" I believe that certain aspects of that statement are true but I don't believe it's as bad as he makes it sound. I really think that Americans in general are more free thinking and creative then a lot of other countries. I've lived in a couple countries that are really much more of an obedient society then the United States. When I was in South Korea I got the impression that people never talked back to authority figures or told their boss to go f@ck themselves. But at the same time when he says "people are willing to do it no matter how stupid it is" that really hit home with me. It seems no matter what you do in life, whether its going to school or working, you have to go through all the hoops, and once your through the hoops there are all these pointless exercises you have to do because some idiot that came before you has already lowered the bar. Some of things he said I can see in our society, like Wal-Mart, I actually don't hate Wal-mart and I do occasionally shop there, but when I walk in and look around it just feels wrong, there's something about the massing together of all the different things they sell that's unappealing to me. When he talked about how people think we should turn our schools into the Marine Corp that was really interesting, I think there has to be some level of discipline, especially in grade school and high school but why can't there be a combination of creativity and discipline? Once people get to college there should be a free exchange of ideas and creativity should be encouraged. So I guess I agree with most of what Chomsky is saying but I don't think its as bad as he makes it sound.

I think this is a good question, but I think he might be putting to much of a quilt vibe out there. Just thinking that you have more a chance to make a difference in the world definitely doesn't make you a racist. I don't think acknowledging that you are more fortunate then other people should make you feel superior to anyone else, its just happenstance. We do live a sheltered life in America and we do have more of a chance to make real changes in the world because we are basically rich. But I don't think enough people feel that its there responsibility to help. Sam really made me think when he was talking about how we don't really earn all the things we have in life. If more people acknowledged that fact maybe they would be more inclined to help people and understand that they were just lucky enough to be born with certain advantages.

I'm not against using the military to effect change in countries that need help, but we need to do it for the right reasons. We could help countries that are starving, or do more things like we did in Haiti, but stay for the long term. If we chose to we could change the way the rest of the world sees us, we could actually help people and not because we have an agenda. I really don't know how much oil we get from Iraq, I read someones blog and they said that we get most of our oil from Canada. Even if we don't get our oil from Iraq it doesn't change the fact that we went to war for oil, if we aren't taking oil from Iraq we're probably controlling who does get it. If we want to co-exist we need to drop our agendas and help people just because they need help.

Sams lecture was absolutely right, Most people knew the war was about oil but I don't think people fully appreciate how much religious bullshit is involved. I used to be indifferent towards religion, but as I learn and think more about it the more I realize how awful it is. Religion is really saying "I know something you don't know" I have real issues with that, first off nobody knows what happens when we die, and when people say they are absolutely sure that they do know what happens when we die I automatically think that those people are a little bit crazy. Secondly, religion is just arrogance and another way to separate people and create more classes. The Blues Brothers were on a mission from god and I think George Bush thought he was too! Invading Iraq was the right thing to do because a magic spaceman told him too, how did someone like this become president of the United States?! I wonder what gods thoughts were on tapping peoples phones and torturing people? I spent two years in Iraq in the 101st Airborne and when I hear Sarah Palin say that our military "is on task from god" it makes me sick to my stomach, the arrogance of that statement is outstanding. Sam was right on the money about Iraqis wanting to be safe, to make a living, and to be just left alone. It didn't take me long to figure out that people are people, regardless of our different cultures.

I don't really think this guy is a bigot, but he does represent a lot of peoples views. With that said, I think this guy is a typical scared American. I did agree with him that American soldiers should be brought home from places like Japan and Germany. But the idea that we should build military bases around the borders is really ridiculous, we don't have to defend ourselves from the British sailing up the East River! And why do people think we can stop people from coming across the border with Mexico? Its over a thousand miles long! And the part about the President not saluting the flag, give me a break! This is the kind of non-sense issue that distracts people from actual problems, besides the President is a civilian, he not a member of the military, he doesn't have to salute the flag.

Step two is Government cracking down hard on corporations who contribute to the problem, they are the people to blame, they made the choice to buy slave coffee or chocolate beans, they made the choice to move their production facilities to India or Thailand where they can pay people next to nothing or nothing at all. This idea that the free market is all knowing and that regulation will bankrupt America is ridiculous. The lack of government regulations has aloud these companies to run wild. A business's main objective is to make money, they don't care how they do it, that's why the government or essentially us have too.

While we were watching the video in class on Thursday we all knew where Sam was going with the two pieces of chocolate, and too be completely honest while I was watching the video I was thinking what am I suppose to do? Whats the right answer? I thought that after the video nobody was going to eat the second piece of chocolate because they would feel the pressure to do what is right, or because they didn't want to be perceived as cold-blooded. I thought that if I didn't eat the second piece of chocolate that I would just be lying to myself, I'm not going to stop eating chocolate or buying Penn State Football jerseys because they may have been made by slave labor. I don't think people should necessarily feel guilty about this problem. The average person doesn't have control over where Wal-Mart buys their produce or where Nike sews basketball shorts. The idea that individual consumers can make a difference is ridiculous, we all know that enough people will not change their ways of consuming. This problem needs much bigger solutions, the United States government needs to start taking drastic steps to stop American companies from producing their goods in third world countries and or at least hold companies responsible for how their products are made. We aren't helping poor people by moving American corporations to cheap labor countries, we're just hurting ourselves. If the government forced these companies to stay in America our economy would just get stronger and maybe we could actually make real strides to help poorer countries. I know if we started to try to make companies produce their goods in the states people like Sarah Palin would call the President a Communist and the corporations would go crazy, but who gives a shit if Wal-Mart only profits 10 billion instead of 20 billion! Now I know this might be a little off topic but every week we write these blogs and every week I read that people are offended and shocked by some of the things Sam has talked about in class and we should be shocked. And their are so many people who want to do something to help, myself included. But what happens when we graduate? It seems like once people graduate that's it, now it's time to make money and pay off college loans and watch "Dancing with the Stars". And Sam was right about how unbelievably rude people are, has anybody else noticed all the people who just leave class when there is at least a half an hour left, not too mention that there is a person speaking at the time, is it really to much to ask of people to sit down and be quiet for 75 minutes. Back to the issue of chocolate and other commodities that are produced by slave labor, if the government were to make this issue a priority I would certainly make sure that my representative was supporting real change in how we do business and if they didn't support change I would vote for the person who did want to make things better. This is the only way that I see things changing for the better.

To me this idea of just ending the welfare system is pretty crazy. It sounds like that old idea of everybody for themselves and survival of the fittest. This country is suppose to be the example for the rest of the world, so what would it say about us if we just decided to let the most vulnerable members of our society suffer when we don't have too? For a country with so many "Christians", that wouldn't be very "Christian" of us. This issue is much bigger then the idea that people on welfare just don't want to work, it's about education and more importantly its about the fact that the United States doesn't produce things anymore, we just consume from countries that do make things.

I'm glad to see so many people writing on their blogs that they feel this is being blown out of proportion. I think way too many people in this country think that their unique and they must constantly express their uniqueness. Yes, in some way everyone is unique but that doesn't make you special. I keep coming to this idea that people want to be perceived that they are offended by things that aren't offensive. The overwhelming majority of people in this country compared to other countries are spoiled rotten, a lot of people need to come back down to Earth and realize that everything doesn't have to be about them.