We are all so used to seeing the videos of the North Korean army marching in perfect synchronization on the news. But what scares me about the whole Jihad thing is that they aren’t an army, they aren’t in uniform, and they have no remorse in harming innocent civilians. I understand not all Muslims hold these beliefs, but it’s hard to not have prejudice when in the media the Islamic religion is always mixed with negative actions and words. In my Soc 406 class with Eric Silver we learned about suicide bombers in the Middle East and their mentality behind it. I understand that they believe they are doing something good for their family and community and that it is one of the few means they have to attack the enemy, but harming innocent civilians is wrong no matter what religious affiliation you claim to have. I don’t understand how any group of people can justify taking thousands of innocent lives for no good reason. What did September 11th, 2001 accomplish for the Islamic perpetrators? It did nothing to further their beliefs or make them any progress. I noticed that even the Muslim students in our class found this video scary, which means jihad isn’t a universal Islamic goal. Being Catholic I know martyrdom exists in Christianity as well as Islam. But it’s more about giving your life for your faith in God, not taking lives for God. No country is perfect and no religion is the only true religion. It’s scary to see the signs and quotes shown in this jihad video because they all portray the goal of a complete Muslim world. And they plan on making that Muslim world happen through violence and death. The “Behead those who insult Islam” reminds me of a South Park episode from last year. They had Muhammad on the show, but never showed him because many Muslims believe his image shouldn’t be depicted. The writers of South Park consequently received a large amount of death threats from angry Muslims. Comedy Central quickly intervened and prevented them from actually depicting Muhammad. This shows how scared some individuals actually are of a jihad and Muslim reaction to a simple joke. South Park makes fun of everyone, even Jesus, so why were they scared to poke fun at Muhammad? I find the double standard very interesting here, and is a huge indication of how effective terrorism is.

What I find interesting about this video is that in the first moments of it they talk about how President Obama wants to expand our armed forces. Many people liked and voted for Obama in 2008 because they thought that this guy can change the way America thinks and behaves. Whether it is actually Obama’s decision to do this or him conforming to the politicians around him, it is still happening. From what this video is saying, we are pouring so much money of ours into an obsolete weapon like the F-22. They are spending money to make a weapon relevant to the war in Iraq. This is a pretty aggressive action for a war that is being fought in the Iraqi people and our defense. The bases that are shown in the video that the United States doesn’t include in their count, they look like five star hotel resorts that are for customers, not employees. Our budget is so focused on “protecting” us from all the dangers in the world that we spend $100 billion annually, and are in 130 different countries. We have such an aggressive defense policy, yet we portray ourselves as the good and responsible country that can do no wrong in our foreign policies. There is such a disconnect between what the public believes and think they see, and what is actually going on. I’ve always been a firm believer in isolationism, but since WWI we have only built upon our image as the world good doer. I understand that the United States wants to remain as the world superpower and military is a way to definitely accomplish that, but when is it enough? We contradict ourselves time and time again. We have the largest military budget in the world, but were the first to sign a nuclear weapon treaty. Americans support the wars we get into because we think they are for the good of us and others. But I’m sure if they saw that the United States was getting involved in wars to keep a select few pockets full, they’re opinion on the war would change. The United States is the superpower right now, but we won’t have that title forever and it will be interesting to see how they react being in others countries shoes for once.

What I find interesting about this video is that in the first moments of it they talk about how President Obama wants to expand our armed forces. Many people liked and voted for Obama in 2008 because they thought that this guy can change the way America thinks and behaves. Whether it is actually Obama’s decision to do this or him conforming to the politicians around him, it is still happening. From what this video is saying, we are pouring so much money of ours into an obsolete weapon like the F-22. They are spending money to make a weapon relevant to the war in Iraq. This is a pretty aggressive action for a war that is being fought in the Iraqi people and our defense. The bases that are shown in the video that the United States doesn’t include in their count, they look like five star hotel resorts that are for customers, not employees. Our budget is so focused on “protecting” us from all the dangers in the world that we spend $100 billion annually, and are in 130 different countries. We have such an aggressive defense policy, yet we portray ourselves as the good and responsible country that can do no wrong in our foreign policies. There is such a disconnect between what the public believes and think they see, and what is actually going on. I’ve always been a firm believer in isolationism, but since WWI we have only built upon our image as the world good doer. I understand that the United States wants to remain as the world superpower and military is a way to definitely accomplish that, but when is it enough? We contradict ourselves time and time again. We have the largest military budget in the world, but were the first to sign a nuclear weapon treaty. Americans support the wars we get into because we think they are for the good of us and others. But I’m sure if they saw that the United States was getting involved in wars to keep a select few pockets full, they’re opinion on the war would change. The United States is the superpower right now, but we won’t have that title forever and it will be interesting to see how they react being in others countries shoes for once.

You know things are really out of the public’s hands when the president the majority of them voted for, Obama, has less power over controlling taxes than the oil and gas companies do. Year in and year out, taxes for the average man continually rise while the tax breaks for large gas and oil corporations remain the same. The same companies that make billions a year are working so hard in Washington to keep themselves free of the taxes they deserve to pay. I would put money on the fact that the gas and oil industry has dollars in the pockets of many congressmen in our federal and state governments. Of course they vote in favor of the oil companies, they are the ones who paid for them to get elected and the ones that will be giving them money for their re-election. Sam is very right when he calls our system of government legalized bribery because that’s exactly what it is. How can we honestly expect the people elected to make the best decisions for the average citizen when they have obligations to the people who contributed large amounts to their campaigns? Of course the people with large bank accounts who give money to candidates who are elected and expect a few favors in return. It is just a shame that they are given the priority over the tax payers. We are all affected by the federal deficit which trickles down to the state deficit. Maybe if our government actually decided to stay tough and tax those who are making trillions, then we wouldn’t have as huge of a deficit as we do. If we actually regulated our banks and investment firms we would have to bail them out with huge packages brought to you by the average taxpayer. At the end of the day, there is a huge disconnect between our lawmakers and our voters. Whether it is socially or economically, we are electing people out of our social class to represent us in government and make the choices that best fit us; however it’s usually not that case. Most of the time they look of their kind of people and their backers, not the ones who actually need help or tax relief.

Whenever there are large crowds, the responsibility to act is passed down the line. For example, riots get so large and out of control because normal, sane people have an increased sense of anonymity and they dont view themselves as responsible for being there. I recently read an article about how most of the time in an emergency situation, people dont panic and trample people to save themselves. So in regard to the New York Times article, people will evacuate without selfishly panicking, but there must be a well balanced evacuation plan to keep people moving and get them to a safe place as quickly as possible. This is similar to what we see with the budget cuts to state affiliated universities. Everyone doesnt like it, most people arent panicking, but we have no structured plan to actually do something about it. The larger the classroom, the less of a duty I feel to participate in class and the same people participate over and over again. But, if there was some sort of way for a teacher to grade participation in a large classroom, then you bet more students will be having their hands raised each class. When there is something on the line, such as a grade, we are much more inclined to take action in a group and not pass the responsibility. A lot of times we assume others know more than us in a situation and we think were doing the right thing by letting them act instead of us, but what we dont know is that most people think this way and its rather ironic. There will always be free riders and over achievers, that will be constant, but we can limit free riders and in turn limit over achievers because we would have more people involved and acting. If people have something truly personal at stake, then I believe they will take action. If I knew I wouldnt be here next year because tuition prices are going up, then you bet your ass I would be knocking on the governors door. Our whole lives we are taught to follow the crowd, but in situations like this we need to be prepared to do the opposite and take action.

I come from a family that is very conservative, so I guess you could claim that if my parents saw a gay couple with a child they would say that it’s wrong. It’s good to see this guy so clearly orate how well he was raised, and how he was raised by a same sex couple. When it comes to same sex couple raising children I think one could argue they are better fit parents. They don’t have the child as a product from sex; they choose to raise a kid because they want to, not just because they had too. My parents had their first child when they were still in high school, and it’s pretty obvious that high school students aren’t fit to raise children. Same sex couples don’t have that option. They aren’t forced to raise a child. They go out of their way to adopt a child and be parents because they choose and want to. I’m not saying that heterosexual couples don’t choose to have and raise kids, but all same sex couple choose to raise a child. They openly choose the dedication that goes along with raising a kid. One of the only problems I find with same sex couple raising children is the stigma and labels their child will be forced to bear. It’s not the parents or the child’s fault that those labels exist, but rather society’s. We have come a long way with gay rights since the movement began, but we still have homophobic tendencies in our society. We use the word “fag” to label a person who isn’t acting as a man should, and we use “gay” to describe things that aren’t cool. It’s those small things that add up. For people to think that someone’s sexual orientation can negatively affect their children is ridiculous. In the video in class we saw the only woman who was a fundamentalist Christian and she didn’t like the fact that the adopting parents were gay. She thought they would be more inclined to sexually abuse the kid, or pass their sexual orientation down to them. As she learned, these guys were normal and very caring, and deserved to be able to raise a child.

The way I was always raised that money doesn’t make you happy, but it will make things a hell of a lot easier. Lottery winners who have to transition from barely managing to a healthy bank account of course are going to run into problems. Having that much money is a responsibility in itself. Others are going to look to you when they need money, when they wouldn’t have prior to winning the lottery. If your savings account has been consistently in the low thousands year in and year out and suddenly it read 100 million, than your going to feel that your wallet is invincible and just spend spend spend. It makes sense that people who spread their lottery payments over time and people who spend their money on experiences are going to be happier than people who receive it in one lump sum and spend it on material possessions. We see money on TV and in movies how people become happier when their wallets become thicker, so we internalize that and make it a part of us when we have that kind of money. Money is involved in every situation of our live. We see it at the store, the doctor’s office, the court, and the list goes on. We all wouldn’t mind winning the power-ball jackpot, I know I wouldn’t, but what we don’t all know is how to handle the money. Do we invest it? Do we buy everything we’ve ever imagined? Do we give it to our family? It is probably fair to assume that most of the people who win the lottery and end up not happy or in bankruptcy are the ones making the ever so difficult social class transition into one of the higher classes. We can take the person out of the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of the person. It’s a very true saying that applies here. These people have never had to handle or invest money wisely before, so they don’t do a good job of it when they have a lot of it. In our culture we’re always talking about what we bought or how we spent money and we glorify that, but what we don’t glorify is saving our money or investing it for years down the road.

I think this is very interesting because it’s the very opposite way of thinking of what we’ve been told all of our lives regarding school and our education. We truly don’t allow for student’s to create and be themselves inside the classroom. We very quickly acknowledge our student role and fall into line of the daily routine in the particular class we are in. Everything is scheduled and standardized. If students at the kindergarten level are scoring in the genius category for divergent thinking and then not as they grow older and become more educated, then it is quite clear that our education system bottles up the minds of children and makes them think in a way without actually doing so. We don’t value art classes at all in our school system, at least from my personal experience. Art teachers are viewed as the lowest of the teachers, and their classroom isn’t taken too seriously by the students because they know how little our society really values it. We value high Terra Nova and SAT scores, not works of art or great pieces of music. The ADHD point is very interesting, because growing up whenever we saw a child struggle in class or act out, he or she suddenly had a medical condition that was making them do so. We live in an age of countless technologies at the tips of our fingers, we should let our children use that to their advantage and explore that. Our system is old, and it clearly doesn’t work for most students. As a college student who will graduate, I have to worry about not finding a job afterward. I’m going to college, paying all this money, to get a good job and you’re telling me I can’t even guarantee one? It’s very disheartening to our subconscious because we’ve conformed our whole lives to be hired with good pay and benefits, and now that’s not even definite. The individual isn’t valued in schools, it’s the majority. We need to recognize that every student we educate isn’t going to college and teach something that actually interests them, applies to them, and can help them in the future.

I think this guy’s approach to the topic of love and soul mates is pretty cool, but also eye-opening and he gets his point across. We always view our relationship and its problems as a private trouble that we try to solve without considering the larger social context. In fact, many times our private troubles are public issues that we share with our peers. Our society and many others like the idea of a soul mate, and how it is our fate to cross paths with them and tie the knot with them. And that is how many of us view love. Contrary to this, love is simply just a give and take relationship in which we are happy in. This guy is basically saying that there is more than one person out there who can be our significant other and make us happy. It’s a very practical way of thinking, but goes against our entire society’s idea of love. Our society has a high divorce rate, and maybe it’s because we’re staying in relationships that don’t make us happy for too long because we think they’re our soul mate and we wouldn’t find another if we tried. This is a private trouble that many of us fight through because of our society’s idea of love, but since it’s our society’s idea of love it’s more of a public issue. Our society is telling us to stick out these relationships with our true loves, when we would really be happier finding someone else. Although this view of love provided to us by Tim Minchin is rather negative, it is very realistic from the sociological perspective. If we found ourselves with problems in our relationship or are unhappy, if we take a step back and look around at the bigger picture away from our private orbit, we might be able to make the best decision for both parties involved. Why stick out a bad relationship with your “soul mate”, when there are potentially better soul mates out there for you. We always here songs about having the love of our life and such, but what if we didn’t, there would just be another significant other capable of making us happy.

I know for a fact that America is a great country. So do most Americans. With this in the back of all of our minds, we have developed a great deal of ethnocentrism. We believe our culture, our government, our people are the best on the planet. Since we believe this to be true, why would we want to go anywhere else? Why pay out of the ass for airfare to travel to a country that is inferior in comparison to ours? These are the thoughts going through our subconscious minds. We certainly do have a hard-work attitude. I know for a fact that it has been years since my dad has had a real vacation because that isn’t a value of his, or many other American’s. It is unfair to compare our out-of-country travel rates to Europe’s or other areas of the globe because we have to fly, which is obviously very costly. Europeans can drive to other countries, or even take public transportation. America is commonly referred to as a melting-pot. We have such a diverse population that has diverse origins, backgrounds, and cultures. Living in Philadelphia, and I’m sure people from other cities can relate to this as well, within a 5 mile radius of my home I can virtually have any kind of food I want and bump into many different people on the way. But I don’t believe this plays a role in our society’s disinterest in traveling abroad. For me, it is simply out of reach financially and it has been that way since I was young. Why spend three-thousand bucks when you can travel to the shore for way less and save the rest of money for something more important? That money could be your child’s college fund or part of a down payment on a house in a better neighborhood with a better school system. I believe many Americans, especially working and lower class folks, think this way and choose not to travel abroad. We Americans believe we are making an individual choice of not traveling, but it is clear that many of us are reluctant to do so due to finances, ignorance, and work.