I feel like I am more attached to the Boston Marathon incident due to the fact that I grew up just about twenty-five minutes from where it happened. My entire family lives there currently, which means both sides of my grandparents and all of my cousins. So when I heard about the bombings I immediately called my mom and she said all of my relatives were fine. It is really scary to think about the fact that something like a simple marathon can go up in flames with a random terrorist detonating a bomb. I am not sure what the brother’s reasons for doing their acts but I am sure we will find out with one of them that was taken into custody. When it comes to the 9/11 events I did not really know how to take it in considering I was in second grade. I always am intrigued by the videos and movies that are made about them. Every year I watch all of the documentaries and footage on 9/11. The reason why I do this is because those acts were so inhumane and the fact that humans can do that to other humans is absolutely awful. Now that I am more mature and can process things like acts of terrorism the Boston Marathon was an act of cruelty and mental insanity. The two brothers were something like Russian and Soviet group leaders or something weird like that, which to me is just crazy. I think that peoples’ views about Muslims or Saudi Arabians or anything along those lines will be permanently damaged. The reason is because the 9/11 terrorist attacks were so shocking and so cruel that people automatically blame those people for any type of problem surrounding terrorism in our country. Especially like when the bombs just happened people were automatically blaming Muslims or the Koreans off the bat just so that we could go to war with them. I think that it is so messed up that people think that way because they are innocent. Every person you see like that, you cannot just assume them to be a terrorist because it makes us look so judgmental and people. Like people of certain colors and races should not have to see the news and see a new story and pray that it was not someone from there specific race or color. The Boston attack was something that was random and had no purpose for it other than pure terrorism. I do not understand why people like this do these things. I think that is something that I really tend to have a lot of trouble with. It all goes back to the empathy of your enemy and it is hard for me to do that with these type of people.

Honestly I think that men do not tend to ask women whether or not they got an orgasm because men do not want to know the truth sometimes. If the girl were to say no then that takes a shot at that man’s pride in a way. It’s funny though because only twenty five percent of the girls reach orgasm after intercourse, which is a shockingly low number. Most women lie to their man because if they say that they did not reach orgasm they do not want to hurt the man’s ego. I thought that the needy penis lecture was very funny and shocking to me at the same time. The reason I say this is because not only is it a male centered world socially but also even with sex it is all about the man. The lecture I believe to be was symbolic to the fact that we do indeed live in a male centered world and we need to do something about it. The needy penis I took as the needy ego of a man and how we as men control everything whether it is sex related or in the workplace. I think that it is also really uncomfortable to ask the girl because it is all private matters. Guys tend to think that they are better at sex than they actually are which is sometimes why they assume that they pleasured the girl. I also think that society in general is completely misinformed about the female body. Sam said in class that a girl is like an oven where you need to preheat it before you bake anything. The needy penis discussed the fact that as soon as the male is finished in sex then it is all over. Guys are ignorant to the fact that girls also need to get off to but guys are blind to it. Also when it comes to one-night stands in college guys could care less about the girl. Since the guy does not care about the girl, he only wants to get himself off and then leave and go to bed. When it is a more serious relationship, the guy cares more about the girl and will comfort her and make her feel good. I think that people are mislead about the fact that girls get off more to oral sex than they do with actual sex which was shocking to me. The only thing that gets them off is stimulation of the clitoris, which does not really show up during sex. Overall I think that men should be a little bit more fair to women because the male dominated world is very sexist and bias, which is not good.

Honestly I think that men do not tend to ask women whether or not they got an orgasm because men do not want to know the truth sometimes. If the girl were to say no then that takes a shot at that man’s pride in a way. It’s funny though because only twenty five percent of the girls reach orgasm after intercourse, which is a shockingly low number. Most women lie to their man because if they say that they did not reach orgasm they do not want to hurt the man’s ego. I thought that the needy penis lecture was very funny and shocking to me at the same time. The reason I say this is because not only is it a male centered world socially but also even with sex it is all about the man. The lecture I believe to be was symbolic to the fact that we do indeed live in a male centered world and we need to do something about it. The needy penis I took as the needy ego of a man and how we as men control everything whether it is sex related or in the workplace. I think that it is also really uncomfortable to ask the girl because it is all private matters. Guys tend to think that they are better at sex than they actually are which is sometimes why they assume that they pleasured the girl. I also think that society in general is completely misinformed about the female body. Sam said in class that a girl is like an oven where you need to preheat it before you bake anything. The needy penis discussed the fact that as soon as the male is finished in sex then it is all over. Guys are ignorant to the fact that girls also need to get off to but guys are blind to it. Also when it comes to one-night stands in college guys could care less about the girl. Since the guy does not care about the girl, he only wants to get himself off and then leave and go to bed. When it is a more serious relationship, the guy cares more about the girl and will comfort her and make her feel good. I think that people are mislead about the fact that girls get off more to oral sex than they do with actual sex which was shocking to me. The only thing that gets them off is stimulation of the clitoris, which does not really show up during sex. Overall I think that men should be a little bit more fair to women because the male dominated world is very sexist and bias, which is not good.

I thought that when the teaching assistant stood in front of the class and told his story it was so interesting. I have always wondered what that process was like and to hear a first hand account was really astonishing. After hearing the man’s story I have a lot more empathy towards all of the immigrants since their journey across the border is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I do not think that we should really try to cut down on illegal immigration because they should be legal. Everyone complains about the labor force and all equal chances for everyone so it doesn’t make sense to kick them out to not let them work. Everyone has a fair chance to get a job in this country and when people say they are taking the American people’s jobs does not make sense. They complain about it but they were the ones who could have got those jobs. I believe that immigrants should be able to come through if they can pass a background check and a knowledge test because immigrants are helping our country. Many disagree because immigrants have come to our schools and then leave with the knowledge they’ve learned. When they cross over the border they should be able to register and become legal citizens. When the guy was telling his story and the fact that he just became legal a couple years ago just does not make sense to me due to the fact that he was going to class and school and his parents owned a home. There should be like a regulation of some sorts. When I say that I mean that like they should have a good reason for coming over here and not just for the hell of it. Lets say that one of the reasons is because they were unable to afford health care in another country so they came here where the prices were a little bit cheaper. Also if an immigrant was unable to find a job in their home country then maybe they could come over to find new work. I believe that with our borders open, we can have a better future because many of the greatest minds are from other countries. When he told his story it was pretty fascinating because when he got over he had to have connections with some Americans. They immediately had to go to Wal-Mart to buy new clothes that way they could look more American. Overall, I firmly believe that immigration should be legal after hearing that rough story that a young child had to go through. Just open up our borders and see what happens and it could be a lot better than we think.

The message that I would send to the United States people is to tell people to have initiative. I recently brought up this conversation in my recitation class on Friday. My point was that nothing in the country would get done unless someone has initiative. The problem with our government in today’s society is that bills and issues take such a long time to develop and carry through that no one has the endurance to continue to pursue a common goal. Also the problem with politics now a day is that people always end up with the same viewpoint that the started with. It is so hard to convince someone to change their opinion after they had already established it on one side. Someone take initiative with an idea to possibly give back some of the land to the Native Americans. This country was built off of big irony. We always say that America is the land of the free but yet we push people off of their land in order to conquer this land. A rule free country and Columbus comes over and deems to everyone that it is his land when it is clearly not. The government recently passed something about gay marriage and that was only because of the fact that Obama initiated it. I think that the problem with our society is the fact that there are too many parties and sides. George Washington said after his presidency that the government should not have more than one party because it causes conflict. This was his advice to us and we should have listened to him from the start. With so many different parties and groups it is too hard for everyone to side on one side and that is because we are too divided. My advice to the government is to get rid of all the parties and just form it into one big party. The House of Representatives and the Senate are already divided due to the fact that there are different parties. To have one majority party for the entire term or possibly two terms is not fair. If one party were to win by a slight margin, it would not be fair to the rest of America because they may not agree with all of the actions that may be taken in the long run. Also some advice that I would give to the government is that they should shorten the process to passing bills or laws because it takes too long and all of it gets lost in the process because important people begin to lose interest in it. It is unfair for those who want it passed to have to wait a year or two for it to even be considered.

The definition of nepotism is giving someone within your family or a certain relative special types of treatment just because you are related. Most of the time the people are not qualified for that job that they are given. They are only given it simply because of the fact that they are related to the one that hired the person. Personally I have not encountered nepotism in my lifetime but I will as soon as I graduate from Penn State. My father wants to hire me as soon as I come out of college and personally I do not think it’s unfair. I think it is fair because someone needs to fill the position whether it is me or someone else it should not matter. In terms of nepotism versus affirmative action I do not think that one is anymore fair than the other one. The reason is because they are both showing preference for a certain type of person. Affirmative action the people who are recruiting for colleges of even hiring for a specific job they might give the job to a colored person solely on the fact that they are a certain race. When it comes to nepotism to me it seems like the same thing. The employer or the recruitment office of a certain school might give the position to someone who they know or are related to. I do not think that anything can be done about this because of the fact that people can lie about why they “really hired” the person. They could say the person possessed a certain skill when really it was only because the employer knew the person. Sometimes a family run business will have the highest-ranking positions be people within the family. Even if other people in the business may have a higher merit than the family members they will not be granted those positions. A family owned business makes more sense if the family members hold the highest positions. I can understand how it may seem a little unfair because of the fact that someone who does not get the job may have had a better resume or qualification but would not get the job. People may go through school without even paying attention then end up getting an excellent job because his or her dad owns a multi million-dollar company. Honesty, people who use nepotism create jobs that sometimes do not even exist. Nepotism helps create jobs so technically in the future and the long run it will help out the economy and benefit a lot more people. Some cases a person will get a job from someone using nepotism when that person may have never had an opportunity like this before.

I believe that America should stop giving aid to Haiti. The reason I think that is because we need to stop acting like the government for the entire world. I do not understand why we help all of these countries out when we clearly have problems of our own here in the United States. We already act as an enforcer across the world by the way we send troops out all of the time to maintain peace with other countries. Also we do it to reduce the amount of threat across the United States that way we can analyze and make sure no country is planning anything. So when it comes to donating and aiding Haiti I think we should stop it. Since when is it our responsibility to look out for another country because it is not. It should not be our responsibility to cover the problems of other countries. We need to spend that time and effort on our own citizens. Our citizens are here struggling below the poverty line. So lets take the money and help that we send to Haiti in order to improve our own society. Then we can use that and create more jobs along with improving our economy. Also when we donate a lot of money to Haiti, the people do not even know if their money is being put to use. For example, say that I donate one hundred dollars to Haiti. I do not even know how that money is being put to use whether it is for a new home or a hospital. So I think that people are also starting to reconsider donating because they don’t feel satisfied presenting their money to the people of Haiti. Also the reason why we should not give money is because the money that would be donated is not the government. The money would be from the citizens, which we should not be forced to give up. The reason why they are one of the poorest countries is not only from the earthquake that sank their economy, but it was from their incredibly high taxes from over the years that they charged for their citizens. Their country was already going down the garbage because of this so when people blame it on the earthquake it does not make any sense. They brought this problem upon themselves based upon the economy so no one should blame it upon the earthquake. Also they prevented true innovation within the economy so it didn’t make sense to donate money since nothing is able to get done within the country. Overall the only people who should donate are those who actually want to but not because they are forced to.

So the question is what I would do if I ever found out that there was no god and it had been proven. I honestly do not know what I would do at that very moment. I would probably still continue to believe in what I had already believed. I would continue to support and participate in the catholic religion. I have been supporting my religion ever since I was born so for me to just stop just because it had been proved fake does not make sense to me. I think that a lot more people would turn to evolutionism like we discussed in class. This is the theory that we evolved over time from like monkeys and Neanderthals. I am catholic and I even believe in that because the science supports all of it. Then again it brings up the whole debate about science versus religion and that is a giant mess. I think that this whole entire hypothetical accusation is impossible and not really right to talk about it. To say that there being no god is impossible to prove. I think that for those who do believe in a god, would continue to still believe in it. The reason that I say this is because you “believe in it”. No one has ever proved that god one hundred percent exists or anything like that but you as a group all believe in the same thing. Also I think that if that information had ever been proven, the media would never reveal the information. It would touch way too many families and societies who base there lives all on a religion. I am not a firm believer on my religion and what I mean by that is that I am not a hardcore church person. I do not go every week and some people think that makes me a terrible Christian but honestly who has the time for that being in college. I consider myself to be a catholic just because my family raised me that way, but do I really believe in that? I am not sure because I grew up listening to teachers talk about evolutionism and I started believing in that whole theory. I had no idea that was a religion in way by itself. So when I talk about my religion I say that I am catholic but I also believe in the theory of evolution and us progressing over time. So overall I do not think that this could ever happen mainly because people would always believe in their religion even if it some how was proven false. It is a huge accusation to say this and I think that religion will always be around.

I thought that video chatting with the guy from Iran was very interesting. He brought up a lot of good points about the country Iran in general. It was intriguing to think about the fact that we were on live video with a guy completely across the globe. I also looked up what the time was there and it was one thirty in the morning over there while it was only five o’clock here eastern time. One comment that really surprised me was when he said that in America you are more likely to get shot off the street than in Iran. Maziar was very persistent about the fact that Iran is a safe place and I started to believe me and he began to sway my opinion. After watching that video of Iranian nights and clubs it looked a lot more like New York City than what I pictured. I think that Sam really tried to teach us something here and that is that no one should ever judge a person or anything before you experience it. The media portrays Iran terribly so we have a reason to believe as a public audience that Iran is actually a bad place. The reason why I am a little on the edge when it comes to Iran is the government. That government is way too strict since I am used to a more open and democratic for of government. I was confused in class when one of the students asked a question about the Iranian government. Sam immediately tabled that question and said I can answer that later. I then realized that the Iranian government monitors everything people do on the Internet. I find that to be very invasive on my privacy and would not like Iran for that. The media talks so many bad things about Iran who would even want to go there after hearing that? That is why it is important to learn before you jump the gun to judge a country. The media takes any political situation and just makes us look like the good guys every time, which is not always necessarily the case. I think that this type of class was one of the better ones because the role of empathy really started to play a role in real life. Understanding where and what Maziar is coming from is a difficult challenge but it is necessary. Also another funny fact that Maziar brought up on the live feed was the fact that most Iranians like Americans. It is just a big misconception that they hate us but it is not true. Maziar really convinced me about Iran and I think that it would be cool to visit one day.

In class the question about joining the military was brought up. The question was, raise your hand if you would join the military and no one raised their hand. For some reason all of my life I never had the desire to join the military. I think the reason is because I don’t think I have what it takes to put my own life on the line. I know it is kind of wrong to put the lives of others on the line but someone has to do it. Joining the military is a huge commitment and I believe that a lot of people including myself do not have what it takes to do it. From the discussion in class about empathy and really understanding your enemy seemed extremely hard to do when you’re in the moment. Those guest speakers in front of the class were very good at what they did. I could not understand my enemy like they did because when an encounter occurs and both are at gunpoint, I do not know what the enemy’s intentions are. Also I thought when Sam asked the class about who is military or veteran ex military was interesting. Two out of seven hundred students were a part of the military. I think that percentage proves a point on its own because no one really wants to step up and put his or her lives on the line. I give much respect to anyone who is in the military or ex military because it is a really hard thing to do. Me not wanting to join the military has absolutely nothing to do with the pride and faith I have for my country. It is more of a personal choice. If there were to be a draft then I really do not have a choice about joining the military. I still do not understand why you do not have a choice about the draft. Why am I required to go into the military if there were to be a draft? It just does not seem fair to me but no one is willing to step up and defend our country so it has to be done. I think a lot of people also have the wrong perception about the military. They all think that its like the movies where everything is fast paced and nothing ever goes wrong but it’s not true. Also I think that people act like it is call of duty and other video games where all they want to do is shoot the guns but it is not like that at all. All in all I give a lot of credit to the military but I just do not think I have what it takes to do it.