How did I feel after seeing the videos of the U.S. soldiers in the videos acting that way toward the Iraqis? Well, first off I would like to say that we can't just infer from two isolated incidents that the entire US army is acting like this and/or condones the actions of these individuals. That being said, I think the videos showed an abuse of power that wasn't necessary in either of the circumstances from the information we were provided with. The first video showed some Iraqi men looting some unused wooden posts and boards. They had this wood tied to the top of one of their cars. These men were then caught by U.S. soldiers, who proceeded to literally crush this man's car with their tank. They backed up and over the car multiple times until it was irreparable. It seems this sort of punishment was tolerated by other soldiers nearby and they were even happy and laughing about it. On the other side of the story, it was said that this car was actually a taxi. They just destroyed this already impoverished man's livelihood and most likely his life. These men were most likely just harmlessly going to use this wood for heat and shelter, but the soldiers stepped in to forbid this. I don't believe situations like this should be happening that often over in Iraq, and if they are I hope they at least get investigated after these videos have surfaced. I would be interesting to see if the Army actually condones this behavior if directly confronted about it, or if they would punish the soldiers in any way.
The second video shows an Iraqi trucked being rammed off the road by a U.S. military vehicle. The car loses control after being hit by the military vehicle and then proceeds to crash into the adjacent road side landscape. Although not shown in the video, it is highly possible that these Iraqi men in the video may have suffered serious injuries, or even death. Actions like this are despicable and it is no wonder that many foreigners have a negative view of the U.S. military. Who can blame them? If you lived in Iraq and witnessed or heard about these or similar events, you would undoubtedly be angry with the U.S. as well. But of course, over here in the U.S., we don't see news reportings of incidents such as described above. This would create more anti war sentiments in the U.S. and would hurt the view on the war and our default, praising view of a typical U.S. soldiers. Overall, the videos pretty obviously showed bad judgments by U.S. solders, but at the same time didn't provide full context of what was happening.

How do I think the negative emotion brought on by recent events has influenced how people in the world view me as a Penn State student? Well, It's no secret that through all of this Penn State students came out with quite a bad reputation. I believe what started all this hatred was probably the riots on Beaver Ave the night the board of trustees announced that Joe Paterno would be fired. The news and media of course videotaped everything that happened that night, and got to pick and choose which clips they showed to public. These clips mainly consisted of rioting Penn Staters tipping over a news van, yelling, and overall acting irrationally. The media has portrayed that night as if we were tipping over cars every five minutes, which is just sad. One thing that was particularly upsetting and unjust was an interview with a young man. This man initially started his interview asking for the recognition of the victims and stating that this is all about them, above anything else. The victims should not be forgotten or outspoken. Later that night and the next day, ESPN aired this man's interview without the first part, so it appeared to the viewers as if he never mentioned the victims at all. Little things like this pile up and caused people over the nation to loathe Penn State. People began making ludicrous blanket statements such as "Penn State students support pedophilia". One man from Texas who owns a company even spoke out against Penn State saying, "I am sickened beyond belief by the disgusting support of pedophilia shown by the Penn State students...anyone who went to Penn State will have their final checks waiting for them Monday morning and no one from Penn State will ever be hired by any company I run in the future!"
From what people see on the news, I guess you can't really blame them for how they view us. It is mostly the media's fault. The truth is, about 8% (number taken from poll in class) of the people at the riots were there for angry/destructive reasons, and only about 20% of the student was at the riots in the first place. This means we are essentially being categorized off the actions of 1.6% of the student body. But people believe that this is the majority opinion of the students. The real opinion of the student body was the candle light vigil service that was held outside Old Main. Hopefully, people will see that and realize what the true Penn State is all about, but that is probably wishful thinking. Now more than ever, Penn State will have to strive above and beyond the call get its reputation back in good standing in the eyes of the public.

Do I really think the amount of money that I'm going to make in life will affect how happy I will be? Well, of course I do, but only to a certain extent. We all grow up hearing that "Money can't buy you happiness," but quite frankly I believe money most certainly will have an effect on your happiness if you are living at or below the poverty line. In these circumstances, just a little bit of extra cash on hand can alleviate most financial worries that cause a lot of people to stress out. If you are living pay check to pay check and struggling with basic financial needs such as buying food or paying rent, then you will obviously experience a larger increase in happiness once you begin to start making money and not have to worry about such things.
On the other side of the coin, if you are currently living a comfortable lifestyle and are in the middle to upper class , you probably are as happy now as you are ever going to be, whether or not you accumulate more money. In these financial brackets, people are no longer worrying about paying food bills or getting evicted from their apartment if they don't have the cash they need. These people have their basic needs as a human being met, and are probably better off than a huge majority of the people living on this planet. I mean sure, you still might be worrying about college loans, or a mortgage, but if properly managed into your budget you don't really become any less happy that you have to pay for these things. I think most people realize that they will never be the multi-millionaires as they dreamed they would be as a kid. Although this realization may hurt your mental happiness initially, hardly any of us would see this as a truly depressing thing.
Currently, growing up in an middle class American family, I can testify to the latter point. I am financially secure in the sense of having my basic needs met, but I know I will have large payments and loans to pay off once I graduate college. I lived a happy life so far in respect to monetary concerns, and don't expect it to change, even if I earn more money in my career than I had growing up.
Try to think the situation this way. If you are living in a rundown shelter and are going to sleep cold and/or hungry, then of course you are going to be happier if have more money. But, if you already have a nice home to live in, and that extra money allows you to say buy a new material good, are you really going to more happy in the long run?

Why do Mexicans work hard labor jobs and why aren't Americans taking these jobs when they are available? This was a great question and didn't really make sense to me when I first thought about it. I mean, of course Americans would take these if they really needed them, right? My first notion was that simply these jobs had too low of a wage to convince Americans to apply, but this was wrong. In the video we watched, the farmer was offering over twelve dollars an hour to work in his field. This was astonishing to me that he simply could not find workers that would last among legal Americans.
So, are Americans just simply more lazy than people of other nationalities? Not quite. See, we aren't seeing a representative example of the work ethic of other ethnicities just from immigrant workers. The people that end up leaving their home country and travelling hundreds of miles to get to the United States are the people in that country who want desperately to succeed and to make a better life for themselves, no matter what the cost. As was mentioned sometime in lecture,(Colbert report?) someone who has walked four hundred miles through a desert (I think referring to Guatemalan immigrants) , is obviously going to have a stronger work ethic than a typical American. This reasoning makes sense, and explains why the immigrants are willing to work hard labor in hot sun for such long hours. They simply want it more than most jobless Americans do. Immigrants will take these jobs at whatever the cost to keep supporting their family in the United States or back home. Most Americans, on the other hand, seem like they should be entitled to an easier job at an equal pay rate. This is not some hypothetical fairy tale either. This is happening in today's society as was recently seen in Alabama. Alabama passed some of the toughest immigration laws in the nation, which made it almost impossible for illegal immigrants to find jobs without being deported. The farmers in Alabama then protested the bill because their crops were literally rotting in their fields without being picked. When they interviewed the farmers, they asked if the one man if he had tried hiring American workers. He stated that most will work for a day or two, and then quit because of the conditions.
So, currently there are many policies being formed about immigration laws when in reality most people don't know what kind of effect it will have in the real world. This argument has been going on for a while now, and it seems like a very complicated, or almost impossible task, to achieve a balance with immigration policy so that everyone is content.

The proposition that white people will make up less than 50% of the U.S. population in the future is certainly something worth thinking about. When Sam first stated this in lecture, in fact it seemed quite startling to most white people, but it doesn't scare me one bit. I hope this movement continues and in the future generations people are more racially accepting and tolerant than they are now. I think the lecture Sam was really just trying to overplay the situation to get white people to think that they will be one out of every ten people or something in the United States. In reality, this just means once 49.9% of the population is white, people will go around claiming that white people are no longer the majority in the United States, when in reality basically half of everyone will still be white.
What I actually want to see in this country in the next 50-100 years is much more drastic and I believe necessary for everyone to begin seeing race without prejudices. Until another race takes over the white race in percentage, ( say African Americans become 30% of the population, while whites drop to 28%), white people will not ever feel the effects of racism or prejudices as the minorities of today feel. The thought of having this true minority in America I'm sure probably scares a lot of people in power, considering the rampant institutionalized racism currently being seen in America. As a white male, living in this America would be such an eye opening experience for racial issues. This of course will happen gradually over years, so I don't really expect most rational white people to be as afraid as Sam thinks they will be.
As more and more immigrants come to this country, the "white" people in power try to keep them out of "our" land. Obviously changes in laws will help or hurt the rate at which America's white population declines, but never the less, it will happen. These "new" Americans will most likely be seen as we view immigrants now, which is in a harsh and unfair light. People need to realize this country was based upon people immigrating from Europe and these people immigrating to America now are arguably more American than those of us born here. Immigrating to America in hopes of a better life is an essential concept that helped to establish the core of this country. These first generation immigrants represent the epitome of the American story, and more white people in this country need to realize this. Hopefully in the future, America will become more racially diverse and will truly be a nation where everyone will have an equal opportunity.

The story of Abigail and Brittany Hensel is truly an amazing one. The chances of this medical phenomenon happening have to be over a billion to one, and yet here they stand. After watching the video, one can't help but to start asking many questions about these young girls. For instance, during high school, and when they get to college, are they going to be given one test or two? Wouldn't they be able to help each other take the test? If this were possible, couldn't they just always divide the material in two and each of them remember one half? How does sleeping work? Can one twin be asleep while the other is awake? I'm sure much more difficult questions for them arise in their lives such as what to do when it comes to dating or intercourse. I couldn't imagine how these girls lives must be and how hard it is for them to make decisions. From the video, it seems as if the girls are managing their teenage lives as best as they could. They successfully obtained their driver's license, which I'm sure is a pretty complicated task for them considering each one of them controls one arm independent of the other.
Focusing on free will vs. determinism, is a fairly easy argument to state that Brittany and Abigail's situation is favored heavily toward determinism. By random chance they ended up conjoined twins, and now they will have to live the rest of their lives like this. I feel like their lives will be much harder than the average person's and they will face much more complicated challenges then we do every day. They both have the free will to decide certain aspects of their lives of course (in the video they were talking about future career choices), but clearly some things just won't be possible for them. For instance, they will always have to decide together what restaurant they will be eating at, or what movie they are going to go see, etc. They will never have any alone time to think. This brings up the point of always having someone there for you. Always. The girls speak of this in the video as a mainly positive thing. This can possibly be seen as a positive in their unique way of living and is only a characteristic shared by the few other conjoined twins in the world.
When it comes down to it, their situation does relate to what has been talked about a lot in lecture. Determinism gave these girls a rather unusual deck of cards to start off their lives with, but ultimately it is up to them to see how it plays out.

I thought that the article “Five Scientific Reasons Your Idea of Happiness is Wrong” was certainly an interesting find by Sam and was worth the read. The article brought up some great points about being happy in today's society and how the word itself has changed meanings several times throughout history. When most people think about happiness nowadays I believe, as the articles stated, that they think of that feeling "you get when you eat a warm cookie or play with a puppy." As point number four describes, I believe that this feeling of happiness simply isn't obtainable for any extended period of time, unless perhaps if you are inebriated. This was shown in comparing the "happiness" levels of quadriplegics, lottery winners, and regular people. The study found that all three groups had relatively the same happiness levels and the same amount of good and bad days in their lives.
On the topic whether or not money buys happiness, I agree that having more money does make your life easier up to a point where your basic needs as a human are being met. After that, buying more and more unnecessary materialistic goods today's society is shoving down your throat with its onslaught of advertising simply won't make you any happier. "Freedom of choice doesn't always make you happier" was definitely a bold statement when I first read it. I said to myself, "What the heck is this guy talking about, of course freedom of choice makes me happier, doesn't it?" Then I started to think back to how many times my grandparents to this day still reference "the good ole days" when life was much more simple and they didn't have to worry about having four separate remotes to operate their TVs, smart phones, or even career choices. They didn't have to worry about the thousands of other decisions that our generation has to worry about. Some people of the older generation do indeed refuse to get caught up in this pandemonium of modern society and take their life at an easy pace. My great Aunt still doesn't have a computer in her house, and quite frankly doesn't care. Sometimes I feel like I wish I could go back to those simpler times and just take it easy and enjoy, without knowing all of today's technologies that exist.
The last section talks about happiness being set as a goal. I don't think people should set happiness as their goal because it is unlikely to achieve something that has such an abstract definition. People should instead set a goal to improve a certain aspect of themselves or to help out others. While doing this, they will realize that in fact , they are happy, or at least satisfied with their life, and will have fewer regrets when they are older.

Why do women dress a certain way and want to be treated a different way? This is a great question that I already previously thought about but had a hard time coming to a definite conclusion. First off, it is no secret that women here at Penn State have been seen to dress provocatively on the weekends. These girls that go out on weekends will most likely be wearing their short skirts, high heels, and low cut tops well into winter, no matter how uncomfortable it is for them. Women can be dressed like this for various reasons. I suspect some just want to win the attention of men over other girls, thus having to dress "sluttier" to gain more attention. Some girls are just trying desperately to fit in with their fellow classmates and will dress like this even if deep down they feel a little uncomfortable. The point is, these women choose to dress like this for whatever reasons they may have, but at the same will also complain about how guys are so disrespecting towards them. I'm sure this level of thinking perplexes most people, including myself.
If you want to be treated with respect, you must first respect yourself. This becomes an increasingly difficult task when you are trying to talk to someone who only came up to talk to you in the first place because he noticed your cleavage from across the room. I don't believe girls have any right to be calling the guys they attract on these nights assholes or slobs when they see the next morning that they want nothing to do with them. You represented yourself as you chose fit, and a guy interpreted it in a logical way. You have no one to blame but yourself if you end up getting hurt. I believe it is easy to dress classy as a college female and still garner the attention of respectable males here at Penn State. Next time you're looking for a nice guy to date, try starting a conversation with him when your dressed more appropriately. He will be a lot more focused on what you're saying and you will get to know each other much better. This also allows you to evaluate your compatibility a lot easier when you aren't worrying about whether or not he is just trying to get laid. In the long run, both of you would be thankful you met this way instead of waking up in a drunken stupor next to each other. So until women start respecting themselves more, it is a hard sell to convince the general male population that they are in the wrong in treating these girls with less respect than a presentably dressed lady.

I definitely believe in the statement that women are viewed in our culture as more innocent than men. This can be due to variety of different reasons, mostly because women through the ages have been associated with certain social characteristics that are closely linked to their perceived modern gender roles. The epitome of a woman is often portrayed as beautiful, innocent, and harmless. People don't regularly associate women with violence, criminal activity, or other negative related behaviors. A good example backing up this statement is the video Sam showed us in class in the other day. I am talking about the video of the social experiment with the bicycle thieves trying to steal a bike near a walking trail. There was a black male, white male, and blonde white female thief. While the males were targeted and approached for stealing the bike (mainly the black male), the female was extremely less likely to be questioned, even though she was performing the same criminal act. As I remember, some people even helped her to steal the bike, knowing full well what was going on. When questioned, they gave replies such as the "I was just trying to help a damsel in distress" sort of deal. I think this whole innocence of women stems from women often being seen as the more caring and sensitive of the two sexes. Females are just more delicate and emotional about things , so society has become "soft" in a way. Men are use to helping women and some may say it is even in our nature to care for and assist them whatever may be the case. From what I have seen, it seems that society has definitely become sexist in the prosecution of females for the same criminal activities of men. For instance, I have personally witnessed two females elude a traffic violation because they became incredibly emotional with the cop ( not saying this was fake emotion). The officer then gets guilted into feeling bad for them and lets them go with just a warning. Situation such as these, and more extreme cases like the bicycle experiment, lead me to believe that society assuredly takes it easy on prosecuting females as compared to their male counterparts.

A similar bias can be seen with black males as compared to white males. From the video, people obviously felt more compelled to tell the black guy what he was doing was wrong. Even though these people claimed they were not racist, something has been instilled in their brain to associate a black male with criminal activity more so than a white male. This may be due to media, personal experience, or just inherited racism from older, less educated generations. Whatever the case may be, it is an interesting subject and I hope to continue learn more in the coming weeks.

So, this week of class with Sam has been very interesting. We learned about Haiti and its current socioeconomic state, as well as how exactly that state came to be. I learned that just simply giving money to impoverished nations is not just going to magically make all their problems go away. It is much more complicated than that. The entire economic infrastructure in most of these nations has to be rebuilt from the ground up. This monumental task would take a huge amount of effort, resources, and some wisely spent monetary funding. To build a successful society you will have to help these impoverished people fend for themselves. This follows the old adage, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." We can't simply keep donating resources to these nations because nothing is going to change. I believe to make even the slightest change in one of these communities it would be more beneficial to help out in some other way, such as teaching a skill, educating the people, or providing new technologies that will directly benefit these people.

After reviewing the initiative videos on the website, I think those entrepreneurs had some very good ideas. Most of them were based on clothing, a craft which requires great skill to be proficient at. The video mentioned that at least one of these shops made clothing articles entirely from just raw materials. While these businesses were providing some revenue for the owners, there was obvious some things that could be done to promote more efficient business revenues. One thing was the acquisition of bulk materials for a fair, lower price. For the people of Haiti to buy certain foreign goods it is currently overly expensive since the material is bought and resold many times over. This problem, if fixed, would most likely provide a slight economic boost to these clothing manufactures.

I think this initiative group project will certainly be very interesting. I am curious to see what ideas our group may come up and hopefully we will be able to make an impact on at least one person in Haiti. Currently, that is my goal going into this and hopefully it will be achieved. Our group has many interesting people and I'm sure we will come up with a way to help out, even in a slight way, and be able to improve the standard of living for some people in Haiti. This project is a great way to connect this sociology class to a larger global construct and I admire the boldness of the project which we are about to begin.