This was the thing that stuck out most to me in this class. When you asked how many kids were abducted each year I was one of those who guessed in the thousands. There are several reasons for why I thought this. The first is I was raised in a pretty protective family. Especially my mom. She was very very safe conscious. I remember she would watch me cross the street to get the mail from our mailbox when I was younger and she would only let me go to other kids houses if she knew their parents, not know that their parents were there, but actually knowing and meeting their parents. Even when I got my license and didn't drive with her she would watch me pull out of the garage and the driveway and leave the neighborhood. I can't blame her or anyone like that because of my second reason which is media. Think of all the crime shows we watch on tv these days. All the Law & Orders and CSIs as well as NYPD, Psych, Burn Notice, Monk and the rest of all the detective shows. Of all the episodes think of how many of them had children cases from abduction to murder. When people watch these shows that are meant to be as real as possible it is going to lead to people worrying. And then real news what about the girls who go to the Bahamas and never come back. All the Spring Break cases we hear and see about definitely do not help the case. It's all under the phrase, "Better safe than sorry". What if your kid was the one who gets abducted, you'd probably feel a little embarrassed or upset or something because you didn't watch them but instead let them walk by themselves. There will always be this fear if just even one of these crimes happen and that's it. The other part of this that stuck out to me was how the clicker question about this said abductions not by other family members. I understand that family members are the most common ones to abduct but I am now curious how high that number is because if the number of non-family members are only 100 a year and family ones make it so much higher that we couldn't put the two together that seems like it's own problem. I think maybe some people should focus on ways to stop inter-family abductions because if it is in the 1000s if not more I think that is an even bigger problem than normal stranger danger abductions.

This has been my favorite class and the best class of the semester so far in my opinion. All the examples were easy to understand and were connected back to one point so it was also easier to follow along. This was one of the first if not the first thing brought up in this class that I don't think I ever thought of before, so that could be one of the reasons I really enjoyed the lecture. Like I said I never really dug deep into this so when he said why do we drink milk from cows and not goats or not humans, I didn't really know how to respond. I mean I'm not a big milk fan, and by that I mean I don't crave it and drink a glass every day but I enjoy a cold glass of chocolate milk here and there and it tastes good, especially from Berkey Creamery, but if goat or human or any other milk tasted like the cows milk we drink or maybe even better to me, I would probably not have a problem with it. Then look at the video about the Native American religious event, and how it compared to a college football game. That was really shocking to me because I am a die-hard sports fan and I never even thought those two were similar. I'm not going to lie, I find Native Americans very fascinating and its one of the few historical times I don't mind learning about in a history class because of their culture and the traumatic events that were forced on them, but their singing and dancing festivals from what I've seen in videos and such did kind of make me feel weird and were odd in my opinion. I don't know if it was solely the music because that was probably the biggest difference between the two parts of the video or if I just wasn't used to it. I started thinking and trying to put myself in people who don't like sports position and see if I would feel weird going to Paternoville and Beaver Stadium surrounded by a bunch of weirdos. The last thing from the lecture that stuck with me is when he said look at weed and look at cereal, why do we judge people who smoke weed and not cereal, cereal is worse than a puff of weed. Luckily for me I'm not a big cereal or weed guy. I like to have eggs for breakfast so.... But it was weird how they always advertise honey nut cheerios or fruit loops to wake up for school but they don't say anything about the sugar. The only defense I can have is why is weed illegal and why is cereal legal. I don't smoke weed and I don't really have the urge to so I of course don't look up the stuff behind it and such but if it's illegal I just assume there is something that is more harmful than sugar. That is probably a problem but it doesn't really effect me because I don't smoke weed nor do I consume much sugar. Soda and the juices I drink are where I get all my sugar from mostly, I'm not a big junk food fan. But going back to my point if sugar was made illegal and weed made legal who knows what would happen. It's kind of weird thinking about that though.

I agree that it is very interesting why the white guy was called out but not the asain guy. It don't know where to start but it's always like this. If you're white and making fun of whites it is okay, but if you're making fun of blacks you're more likely to get called out for being racist. I feel like white people are always the ones to say they can't be offended and try your hardest to offend me because you won't and you'll only be wasting your time. I can say that because I feel this way too. I call myself gringo to make fun of myself, and tell people how my name: Mickey, is similar to the N-word fro Irish people. It isn't as offensive but it is a derogatory word for irish people and I think that it's funny that it's funny that Mickey, although not very common, is still a decently common name and it is a derogatory word. That would be like meeting a friend who is named the N-word or because Mick isn't a derogatory maybe a lesser common word for black people. In our discussion group we talked about where the line is and what is crossing it and such. I believe the line is different for everyone and kind of agree that intention plays a big part in this as well. If you are flat out trying to upset someone and pick on their race because you know it will piss them off and it is wrong than that is a problem but I have numerous black friends and I encourage them to make color blindness and tourettes jokes to me because I have them and I believe if you can't make fun of yourself you have a problem. And they let me make fun of them and I let them make fun of me, but we all know it is just in good fun and we are not serious about it. I mean look at Dave Chapelle. He created the blind racist and the N-word family which were both incredibly racist against blacks but because he is black he wasn't highly criticized, which if he was white who knows what would have been the end game. Then look at Daniel Tosh, he makes fun of every race including his own, but when he make fun of other races everyone bites their tongue because they don't want to come off as racist. I think if you want to laugh you should, if you have to fight the urge to laugh it is still funny to you, you just aren't showing it. And as long as it isn't harming anyone it's fine. When I say that I feel like I may be coming off as a little racist but would everyone say that if I laughed about how whites are awkward or those "That's so white" jokes? I find almost anything funny, I laugh at things in dramas that are a hundred percent serious because I flat out like to laugh. Now let's incorporate the video of the USC Asians or the black and white guy stealing bikes. The USC was obviously at least a little racist because they only showed asians who didn't understand what was going on and I'm not going to lie I laughed but when I think about it I don't think it was necessarily because they were angry, I think it was more because they didn't know the answer or what to say and they were confused. Then I thought about why I find Jay Leno's Jaywalking segments funny and its because they don't know the answers to simple questions and always seem confused. I personally, whether it's wrong or not, look at racism as the sticks and stones line. If it's just words such as jokes I don't have a huge problem with it but when it turns into life changing things like I won't hire you over him because you aren't white and he is or the whole bike thing where I will stop you from stealing because you're black but I'll walk on by because you're white that is when I have a problem. Or look at the Trayvon situation which I honestly feel like I don't know what happened because the only thing people are saying is a latino shot a black person for no reason. But going back to my point that is another example of what I think is going to far and is a problem that needs to be fixed. But when people are upset over jokes I typically just sit back and watch because I am not offended and I know others are so I just try to stay out of it instead of those that like to say it's a joke and explain why what they say or do is not or is racist because in my mind that won't help, and it will probably just add fuel to the fire.

Honestly the only things from this should be negative. No one should have to deal with racism like this at a young age because they shouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff at any age. Look at the Trayvon situation. He was a young black kid with no weapon, no criminal record, and he gets shot and killed for basically being black. There is no reason this should have happened. And what's worse is the person who shot and murdered him is still free. Now if someone was living in a bubble for their whole life and then saw this they would be incredibly upset, just like many who are aware of the racisms of today are/were but I almost feel like the world/country looks at this racist situation and say to themselves, "Well yeah it's horrible, but it has been like this for hundreds of years, so what can I really do?" While the bubble person I feel like might be a little more worried and confused as to why this isn't becoming more prominent of an issue despite the fact that it has been talked about on a national level, that's all it has been...talked about. Nothing has been solved with it. So on to the positives. The only positive I can think of and the only positive I think you can make for this situation is that preparing them for the racial issues at a young age can help them because the older you get the tougher it will be to understand them. As bad as it is I think it is very beneficial to inform those most likely to be racially judged at a young age so when they do start hearing things or becoming the target of something they aren't completely unaware of the situation and can handle it in the way they see best, instead of being confused, and acting on a whim which could be dangerous depending on who the aggressor is and how the person being assaulted is feeling. I really hate saying this because it isn’t right but the fact of the matter is that in today’s world being aware of the issue is half of the dealing process until somehow as a nation and world we end the race problems completely. Being aware of these issues at a younger age could help or hurt though. It could make some just that upset at a younger age before other people of that age which could ruin relationships with friends that may not know about these issues yet. I guess there are some ways it might be able to help a little although many probably won’t fully agree with it and that is to use it as motivation. What I mean by that is instead of getting upset which is much, much easier said than done, if the person can somehow get past it and use it a motivation to be the best person they can and to work just that much harder than others maybe it will pay off. Like Sam said in class that doesn’t happen the majority of the time like a white person with a criminal record will get hired more often than a black without won, but for the times it doesn’t work that way and the minority who worked harder and deserved it more gets it they could spread the news and because of their success more may try to follow in the path they went down. That idea is pretty childish in a way where we’re hoping this works out, and that these people hope this but on this type of issue it’s hard to really do much else other than just bring awareness to these problems which I believe with the Trayvon issue in the national spotlight maybe it will enlighten a few more people.

I honestly don't know why people always get so upset and act like they need to defend something when they go on the attack and it's one of the 3 major reasons why I stray away from politics and debates. The other two being that it almost always seems to turn into an argument which never seems to be solved and is always left you believe that and I'll believe this which means the whole debate was a waste of time and the second comes from that which is I don't know enough to really get into the debate which is usually because I don't care enough to read up because I would feel like a hypocrite if I started debating since I don't see how there will ever be an end to all of the discussion between liberals and conservatives. To answer the part about why everyone was saying he is anti-american is because he kept talking about how an American was saying they were worth 29 lives and he wasn't saying what other country people were saying. I thought he said something about 1:1 but I have trouble believing that if that is what he was saying especially with all the international hate going on in the world today. On his "anti" american rants from class I don't completely disagree with him either. I have a lot of problems with American logic. I do feel like many Americans think they are better than other countries and it is annoying to me. Especially how people trash countries that help us a great deal like Canada. And I'm not talking about jokes like Frostbacks, I'm talking about people who talk like Canada is loser and anyone from there is second class and things like that. Now I don't know what it is like in other countries so for all I know it could be the same or worse, but in that case I think all of these countries need to change then. On to the topic of war and soldiers I guess I would also be in the category of anti-war. I think that we should only be stationed in countries that if we weren’t it could be highly dangerous and countries that ask for us to be there. The fact that we have them in countries who we haven’t fought against in decades and who aren’t dangerous for our safety is stupid. In our discussion group we talked about how there seem to be two images that come to mind when we think of soldiers and one is hero and the other is murder hungry criminals. What I mean by the second is there seem to be several people who decide to enter the military so they can kill people and those are the impressions of the people I hear about in stories when they are peeing on dead bodies and doing other disgraceful things to dead bodies from other countries in the middle east. I understand sometimes we need to go to war and defend our country but I feel like we are abusing that right and just going into countries to be the big man on campus and intimidate sometimes.

What can we do? I think as just general citizens all we really can do is try to bring out awareness of this and make sure we are not contributing to it ourselves. Like Sam says some people that aren't white, will be treated fairly and will get the job but on average most will not. The fact that people of exactly the same education and experience are being turned down compared to others because of their race is absolutely wrong. Now I don't know the testing rules for that and how the found it out but if the number was so big and noticeable I'm assuming that they took into account that maybe one person was more outgoing than the other and for that line of work maybe outgoing was the way the company wanted to go. I'm just playing devils advocate with that one. I honestly don't know what to say because it is clearly a problem but it is so widespread and high up that as just a citizen that I/we am/are other than not contribute to the problem all we really can do is make people aware of the problem. Now I hate politics and don't pay attention to the debates and news about rulings and all that stuff because quite frankly it bores me and some may call it ignorant I call it stubborn, but at my age and where I'm at right now it hasn't seemed to affect me anyway yet. Literally it has, but my knowing of it has not. Like they say don't whine about who wins if you didn't vote, my answer is I don't and I won't but please shut the heck up about it because I am sick of hearing people saying how people whine but don't vote. You will not hear me whine about politics and debates and all that. However, I have heard of affirmative action and while I don't know the whole shabang about it, I am curious now to know a little more about it since from what we've heard in class kind of makes it seem irrelevant almost like it isn't making any difference. I'm sure when I'm older and start paying my own taxes I'll be more likely to take time and listen to some of the debates and what presidents are saying but to me all it is is bringing out the positives for each side and right now after what I hear the republicans say about their views and the democrats say about theirs all I hear are plans that will be good, and it confuses me because they aren't telling the downside so I don't know which has the least negative effects. I also don't worry about the politics too much because I believe that the people in office are there for a reason and they will do what they think is best, and that too my be naive but right now like I said before it's okay with me for the time being. So I got a little off track but it was basically to help show why I feel the way I do in case people were wondering why I believe that there isn't all that much that I think we can do as common individuals.

A lot of thoughts in this one blog so hopefully I don't leave out anything. First off if someone who doesn't believe my religion says it's wrong without knowing what the beliefs are is flat out stupid no questions asked. You can't say something is wrong when you don't know what that something is! It doesn't make sense, so you are just ignorant scum if you do that. If they say I heard a few things and I believe it that too is ignorant and stupid. Onward State heard that Paterno died, but he was in fact still alive. Just because you hear something doesn't make it true, and that is another thing that we shouldn't even have to say because anyone above the age of let's go with 10 should know that not everything you hear is true. Now onto what I know about the "other side". I honestly don't know much, but I'm not the person who goes out and brings up religion in a conversation or who tries to debate with others on who is correct or who tries to convert someone. One of my favorite sayings is to each their own. You believe what you want to believe and I'll believe what I want to. I am a Roman Catholic and went to catholic school for 12 years. During my high school years at my school the teachers really, really pushed it on the students and I don't want to say it hurt but it kind of just became a little annoying and didn't help much if anything. One of those 4 years we covered briefly other religions but I honestly don't remember the major differences in them so I can't really say anything there. We also watched several debates between Christians and Atheists where they critiqued the atheist. I'm not going to lie the critiques they were making made sense and really gave christians some more faith if it was ever dwindling but my problem with this is that I feel this debate will never end and if there isn't going to be an end to the debate, I really don't want to start it in the first place which is why I tend to just sit back and watch when it comes to religious debates. The best and brightest of atheists and christians and other faiths are always going at it but they not only can't agree on who is correct, but it seems like they don't agree on a single matter and that usually ends with them getting pissed at each other and just arguing like kids in grade school. On to the last topic about people tend to believe what their parents believe and I am one of those people. I was raised in a roman catholic family and if I really had a problem with any of the beliefs I would not consider myself one but honestly there aren't enough things they believe that I don't or that are so serious that I want to leave that faith. Sure there are some details that I think are a little over the top but it isn't something that defines the faith so it isn't a problem for me. I know people who I went to the catholic schools with that's parents were very religious but they consider themselves non-Christians or do not have the same views as their parents so it isn't all christians.

I watched a couple of these videos but I'm primarily going to talk about this one because I have the most to say about it. I might go a little off topic and briefly mention the one two videos before this though. Anyways I classify myself as white because that is what I've always done since I can remember and I think of myself as white more than I do any other color or race. If you want to go in depth about this I would say I'm European and furthermore I'm Irish, Italian and Slovak. My mom's 50% Italian and 50% Slovak and my dad is 100% Irish from what they've told me. I have blond hair and blue eyes and pretty white skin, I am not very tan at all so I am most associated with Irish ethnicity. My mom's side always used to joke about how I wasn't Italian at all and I would go with it to piss them off even more and just tell them I was Irish, because I loved giving people a hard time if they were trying to give me a hard time. A couple weeks ago Sam said something like he had some kids do some ancestry thing that it said what exactly their ethnicity was and they ended up being quite black. I find that strange because if your part black or white or indian or whatever and a decent amount which is what Sam made it sound like you would think that you would see it. I mean whether it be your skin darker than most white people or your hair or facia feature are different. I find it hard to believe that he didn't know that he had some black blood. Heck maybe I'm just stupid and I'm part black and my cowlicks are actually just little kinks in my hair. :) Here's where I go a little off topic. In the other video I mentioned the kid said that his mom was white and his dad was black and that because he was so dark he considered himself black. I don't have a problem with that, and if you asked what color he was to 100 strangers I bet 99 would say he was black. But what struck me is when he was asked how his mom felt about that and he said she didn't care. I didn't feel bad for her or anything because if she didn't care, she didn't care but if that was my kid I would want him to be part white or whatever race I would be hypothetically. Just like how I want to raise my kids with some of my culture and some of my wife's culture. I don't want my in this case "whiteness" to just end. I want my kid to be proud that he is part white or whatever trait you are focusing on.

I absolutely do not think that we should spend millions of dollars to try and keep spanish and other foreign language speaking people out of the country and keeping only english speaking people. However, I do believe that with the primary language in America and most businesses and their workers using that language to communicate with each other to keep the business going that not only is it what some might call the "courtesy" to learn the language but I think it will greatly help foreign speakers right now. Sure the spanish language is on the rise in America, but how many businesses in America have a spanish speaking communication majority? It can't be many. When I think about itI think it's a neat process of how a language steadily rises to become more and more popular. I don't know how it works exactly whether it be from more schools teaching spanish each year or just a huge increase in spanish speaking immigrants and people but with all the talk about how we should learn spanish and it will make us richer in the future if we do I don't know whether I should believe it. I know Sam keeps saying it but I feel like I should be stubborn on this point. I want to see what it is the people who say this are seeing because if it is just that more people are speaking it that doesn't necessarily mean it will overcome the english language. I mean everyone is already talking about it and while in some places, most likely down south, it is causing some problems I have yet to be affected by it. I have not once had someone come to me only speaking a foreign language where I could not communicate or help them. Sure, it could be my American ignorance which would make me a little bit of a hypocrite because I can't stand Americans sometimes but there is a part of me that if it isn't affecting me in a very negative way I don't find it as my problem. If or when it does become a problem that I don't speak spanish I'm not quite sure what I will do, but if this does happen I'm sure it will be quite a while down the road from here, because I don't think a change in language happens that fast. On why I don't think it has caused a huge problem yet I think has to do with the type of jobs the spanish people are doing. I'm not very knowing on this topic but from the videos we've seen in class and just from what I have seen on tv or wherever it is most likely manuel labor jobs which don't heavily rely on communication. When big businesses and everyday communicators start changing their preferential languages then this could start to become a problem.

What the Connecticut mayor said during the interview was obviously wrong and as he said later inflaming the already serious problem. Right away I thought that for him to say that really made me question how he could have been in this high of a position. Maybe he wasn't serious and just got a little wound up but to say that in an interview on the record shows me that he doesn't always think before he speaks. The taco comment was something I'd expect to see in a Saturday Night Live skit not an actual interview with a political figure. Now on the topic of why Americans citizens seem to be so rude to illegal immigrants I really think it stems from whether you call it jealousy or annoyance in the fact that they are getting away with not paying taxes and being here illegally. Another reason many citizens might be upset could be from hearing stories like the one about the firefighters in Oregon that was blogged about last week. I don't have a problem with people coming to America looking for a better life but when they cause captains and other firefighters who have been there longer, to be fired that is pretty unfair. Especially when there are several things that can be done to put one bilingual person on a team so that it doesn't cause people to be fired for non-work related reasons. I believe that if you take those previous reasons/situations out there won't be too many problems with the immigrants. If people are still being racist against them then I'm not quite sure what they could be upset about, because if a legal immigrant comes into America and works hard to better their lives I can't see a problem with that. Especially when a lot of jobs they fill in America are ones that most Americans do not want. Some people believe they are too good for those jobs too. In that case there is even less of a reason to be angry with immigrants. Think about what Stephen Colbert joked about in his video from an old blog, why can’t there be soil waist high so it doesn’t hurt my back to pick berries. To me it seems like Americans are “too good” for this tough manual labor or too weak, so why do we continue to pick on the people that do in fact do it, and for not that much money in the first place. Sure I’m sure that some Americans would do it given the choice but that doesn’t mean that we should make fun or call immigrants who are mostly known for doing that type of manual labor animals or other names.