"Dog Mauling" case and some word definitions

    On Monday we watched this documentary about this case that two Presa Canario dogs kill a woman in San Francisco with their owner present in the scene. The background of this case after a investigations was surprisingly shocking. This couple go and adopt a convict who killed someone before to have a three way marriage. He was a part of the Aryan brotherhood in prison and specialized in training PRESA CANARIOS as security dogs which most definitely are one of the most violent and dangerous dogs. We didn't finish watching the documentary but odds are that it was a hate crime towards gays since the victim was gay. The question is how much are we responsible for our belongings' stupid actions??
    Also as homework we had a case called "Thou Shalt Not Kill" that this husband pays a hit man to kill his wife in order to get the children's custody after divorce. It reminded me of all these crime shows and how one of the most popular phrases they use is "It's always the spouse."
    Then we talked about words like Discrimination, Prejudice, Bigot, Racism, Stereotype, and Scapegoat. As I was thinking about how they relate to me or something I've heard almost immediately I thought of the "Moms" and "Dr. Pierce" documentaries which connected with Racism, bigots, and stereotypes. Also it reminded me of the labels that other people would call me or middle eastern people in general that could be hurtful but at some point I've learned to just connect that to their lack of being educated.

This unit consists primarily of case studies, that we watch and converse about during class. Today we started watching "Dog Mauling" which has to do with a lesbian couple who lived in San Francisco. One of the partners, Diane, came home after getting groceries one day, and got attacked by her neighbor's Presa Canarios. The neighbors claimed that the attack was a freak accident, and that nothing like it had ever happened before, but after further research the police found that dozens of calls had been made complaining about the dogs' aggressive behavior. After even further investigation the police found that the owners had obtained the dogs from a man in prison nick-named "Corn Fed". He was a part of the Aryan brotherhood, and ran an illegal breeding/training program for Presa Canarios. This raises many questions; primarily was if the attack was actually an accident, or a well coordinated hate crime. One more important albeit disturbing piece of information is that the owners of the dog adopted Corn Fed, so that he could be part of their marriage. I like to think of the defendant as innocent until proven guilty; because it helps me look at the entire case study with the smallest amount of bias against the defendant however cruel the act they are being tried for is. I do this so that I can at both sides of the argument and consider all of the evidence for and against the defendant in a deeper and more fair way. It is the morally right thing to do seeing as the actual American justice system is based on this exact code of conduct.

Interesting article related to previous case study...

Check it out...it's a relatively local one!

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county-times/ci_26614299/bay-area-agencies-reflect-amid-debate-over-military

9/26 Celebrity Identity

Today in class we continued the celebrity identity activity.  We looked at pictures of the faces of many celebrities and were asked to guess their ethnicity.  When we looked at the celebrities, our brains instantly made a judgement of skin color and guessed on ethnicity.  For example, we saw a picture of "Don Francisco", a popular tv show host, and were asked to guess his ethnicity.  At first glance, we would guess he is Mexican.  However, it turns out that his parents are actually German Jews.  From this, I saw that my first instinct when looking at the photo of Don Francisco was to judge him as Mexican.  However, I clearly learned that I was wrong and he is of German-Jewish descent.  During class we finished through 30 celebrities.  After realizing how wrong most of our initial racial judgments had been, we began to realize that we should think more about our initial judgments and become more open minded.  I think the main purpose of this lesson was to teach us to recognize when we are making an involuntary judgement.  In other words, it wraps back into the theme of Global: "Think about what you think about".  Overall, I thought this lesson was very helpful in making me a much less judgmental person.

9/26

Today in small groups we continued to look at slides of celebrities and tried to guess their nationality. We finished all 30 slides and wrote in our notebook what our guess was. The lesson was that you can't really judge someone based on how they look. Some can claim they are a certain ethnicity, such as Italian. But they have never been to Italy, can't speak the language, and don't practice the culture, so what makes them Italian? Whereas someone who is a different skin color that can speak the language and lives in Italy isn't Italian? The whole point of this activity was to show that looks and skin color doesn't define who you are. 
In large groups we continued to watch the Von Bulow case study. It turns out Claus was framed and was innocent. At the end of the period, if you were A-L you turned in your notebook.

9/25

The documentary we are watching is really interesting and i could see where you can find that the husband is guilty and were the kids could have set up the step father for guilty. I think the kids could have set up the step father for guilty because they never liked him in the first place which could be a motive to set him up. The son also knows that his dad had a mistress which could gave the son more to set up the step father. I think the kids could have also set up the father by putting insulin and a used needle in his bag. It has no prescription like all the other medications which could mean the kids could have simple bought insulin and placed in inside the bag along with a used needle they too could have recreated. At this point its had to tell but both sides have a motive.

Von Bulow A Wealth Of Evidence

Today in large groups, we watched a case study about Claus Von Bulow. Claus was convicted of attempted murder of his wife. She was found curled up around the toilet in the bathroom with her dress above her waist. She contained high levels of insulin in her blood, and low levels of sugar. Since she was not diabetic, this raises question to whether Claus was involved with attempting to murder his wife. While in the ambulance to the hospital, Claus had no reaction and did not try to calm his wife. Claus' black bag was found with vials and needles. Insulin was found on a used needle in the black bag. This evidence raises question to whether Claus is guilty of attempted murder. 

Von Bulow Case 9/25/14

Today in large groups we learned about the Von Bulow case.  This case focused on the accused murderer of Sonny Von Bulow, her husband, Clause von Bulow.  In the case, Claus von Bulow was charged with the murder of his wife by trying to poison her with insulin.  The main evidence used against him were a needle and a bottle of insulin.   What also made Clause a suspect was the fact that he was having an affair with an opera star.  Essentially, Claus's step children were giving authorities a significant amount of information that points to him as the murderer.  However, he was able to receive no sentence even after the extensive amounts of evidence were shown.  As we watched  the documentary, we also took notes on the evidence for "guilty" and "not guilty".  There was a much more substantial amount of evidence for "not guilty" rather than "guilty".  Overall, this case has shown us that even though evidence can clearly point to a suspect, it does not necessarily guarantee that you will win the court case.

9/24

The activity we did today in class was real eye opener to how quick and easy we label people. We independatly came up with multiple labels for one simple picture, not knowing anything about the person but immediately came up with multiple labels, and as a class we came up with a lot more labels than I would have thought. With this activity it made me realized we label people a lot with out realizing it and sharing it out loud made me realize how quick we are to judge  and how harmful the labels we have for someone based on a pile picture with out knowing anything else. More often than not it was easier to assign negative labels than it was a positive label, we often find the negative in people rather than the good.

Celebrity/Race Discussion 9/24/14

Today in small groups we did an activity on celebrity identity.  The main purpose was to show ourselves how many judgements we give off without even knowing it.  In the activity, we looked at a picture of a celebrity and were asked to guess his/her race.  After that, we saw the celebrities actual race, which in most cases, surprised the majority of the class.  For example, we looked at a picture of the celebrity "Alexa Vega" a former star of the movie Spy Kids and were asked to predict her race.  At a first glance, she looks American.  However, we found out that she was of Colombian and European decent. This clearly shows us that simple looks do not determine a persons ethnicity or heritage.      

Labels

Today in small groups we looked at different slides of celebrities and tried to guess their nationality by the way they look. We write down a guess in our notebooks and then the answer is revealed. A lot of the celebrities nationalities were very surprising. The purpose of this activity was to reveal how we put labels on people, even when we know very little about them. We will be finishing up this activity on Friday.

Provocative...

1st Amendment!

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-colorado-student-protests-story.html

The Legal Process 9/23/14

Today in large groups we learned about the legal process.  We learned about everything from arrests, to pre trials, to actual trials.  In order to become part of the legal process, you must become arrested.  As Mr. Stewart stated, "... if you are not arrested then you are not part of the legal system.."  After someone is arrested, they are usually charged with something.  Authorities will present evidence to a grand jury and they will determine the indictment .  Next, there is an arraignment.  At the arraignment, the indictment is read,  the defendant enters the plea and the judge considers bail.  The next part of the legal system we learned about were pre trials.  At pre trials, there are opening statements from lawyers.  Both sides then lay out their cases and evidence.  The prosecution then presents witnesses and they are cross-examined.  During the trial, rebuttal evidence is shown and witnesses can respond.  The closing arguments are then made and both lawyers try to sum up their cases.  The judge then gives the jury instructions to make a decision.  Overall, the lesson today was extremely interesting and taught the class the basics of our justice system.

Rodney King Riots Justifiable?

The Rodney King case put the problem of police brutality against minorities, specifically African Americans in the spotlight.This was the chance for this problem to be recognized and be brought to justice because their has been so many incidents before between police and African Americans that had remained quiet. This was not the case however because the four policemen charged with beating Rodney King were found not guilty and were released. This created an outrage in Los Angeles and a riot that would last for three days. This riot was deadly because African Americans out of rage from the verdict and caused anarchy. In the documentary we see a man pulled from his truck and beat repetitively. Was that innocent man getting beat up justifiable because of the verdict for Rodney King? Does it come down to an eye for an eye? In my personal opinion it comes down to morals and i don't believe that them beating that man could be justifiable because of the verdict. They laid out the same scenario that Rodney King was in however they are doing the same thing that they are mad about. This caught the attention of the media and stressed how mad the people were. In the defense of the rioters, they believed that this riot and violent method was the only way left to actually bring about change and to bring justice which it did in the end because the four men were put on trial again and found guilty. If this riot had not happened than more incidents of police brutality would have gone on. In conclusion I personally believe that the cause of there riots can be justifiable but when it came down to looting and beating innocent people that's where it became unjustifiable, even if it they did it to make a point.

New World Order

Today in small groups, we finished the documentary New World Order. Alex Jones, a radio host discusses his strong beliefs about conspiracy ideas. He strongly believes that there's a conspiracy could take over the world. In large groups we discussed The Legal Processes, which included pretrial, trial, and appeal. The events in pretrial are arrest, charge, arraignment, discovery, and pretrial motions. During a trial, the events are jury selection, opening statements, prosecution presenting their case, defense case, rebuttal evidence, closing arguments, and cases. We didn't get to the steps in appeal.

Rodney King Riots 9/22/14

Today in large groups we finished the documentary outlining the Rodney King beating and the subsequent LA Riots.  As the documentary continued, we learned that much of the racial tension in Los Angeles was already pre-existing and that the Rodney King incident was only a minor part of the issues that many people were rioting about.  For example, the rapper Ice Cube insisted that many of his song lyrics were about racial injustices in the Los Angeles area.  He also stated that the riots should be no surprise as many rappers were singing about the tensions long before the Rodney incident.  We also learned that there were extremely strong tensions between the Koreans and Blacks. Essentially, the blacks felt violated due to the fact that many Korean businessmen were buying shops and stores in South Central.  So, many Koreans shops were the first to be looted during the riots.  The documentary also interviewed a Korean man who talked about how he became part of a gunfight just to protect his store from becoming looted.  Lastly, near the end of the documentary, we learned the changes that the L.A. Riot brought, such as dramatic LAPD improvements.    

Friday 9/19/14

In our small groups we began a documentary about conspiracy ideas and the NEW WORLD ORDER. In the video Alex Jones is a radio host and a film maker who discusses conspiracy ideas and what he believes is really going on in this world behind the scenes you could say. Is there conspiracy to take over the entire world and have ONE power controlling all of us? Are there people controlling us right now but we have no idea its happening. We didn't get very far into the video. Now in our large group we continued to watch the video on the Riots happening in LA during the King trail. We spoke about the tensions between the citizens and the LAPD before and after the riots. We started looking into the relationships between the different groups in LA. Such as Black/White/Latino/Asian ect. We saw that the people in the riots were so Angry and filled with hate they didn't care about what the police might do, because the police just left in the beginning and didn't come back. These people clearly didn't care at all what might happen to them, they just were too angry to see anything else except injustice. In these riots they looted, killed and burned homes, people and shops all around South Central Los Angeles. These rioters were done with the LAPD. They were done with listening. They just fought and fought.

Thursday 9/18/14 Rodney King Riots

On Thursday we discussed the riots which happened after the Rodney King trial. Started watching a video about the Hip Hop during that time and how the riots affected it. We also listened to people who were apart of the riots tell their story. In class we had a really good conversation which got a tad heated but it was really interesting. We saw how many African Americans spoke up about how they hated the police and how they acted on it. A song which came out around this time which was called F**K THE POLICE was a angry song that was speaking about how the LAPD is a very unfair to African Americans and how they don't ask, they just attack. We saw that Blacks were attacking white people who went through the wrong neighborhoods at the wrong time. Because the white officers beat up King, Blacks were now beating up any white person who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In class we talked about the irony behind this idea.

Wednesday 9/17/14

On Wednesday we continued to finish up Selleberty and and we talked about some of the main points from this documentary. We saw in the video that the paparazzi will do whatever it takes to get that one photo which could be worth $300,000. Now aside from this, we saw that gossip plays a huge role in this whole circle. US Magazine was the first magazine to start this idea. To really make you THE READER see into the lives of these starts. They made a page called "Stars are just like YOU", in which they show random pictures like someone getting ice cream and next to it they write "Stars get ice cream too." This magazine wanted their readers to feel apart of the gossip and have a real life picture into their favorite stars. It is really an interesting concept and idea. But there is a price to this idea, how far will you go to get that picture? The picture of a star who isn't on the red carpet all dressed up and glamorous. The people we call the paparazzi we do whatever it takes to get that picture of Jennifer Aniston walking her dog or Miley Cyrus at the store shopping. These people will invade the privacy and lives just for ONE picture. Now these people are protected the the 1st Amendment in which it states the freedom to press, but we need to think about this. Does that allow you to invade one's private life?

For those interested in NFL or possible conspiracy

You might like to check this out...

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11551518/how-ray-rice-scandal-unfolded-baltimore-ravens-roger-goodell-nfl

Speaking of 1st Amendment...

1st Amendment issues in the 21st Century.  Check it out.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-upskirt-law-overturned-20140919-story.html

A Quick Diversion from Rodney King...Plagiarism: can you spot it?

In Global we have access to a lot of information from a lot of different sources.  For everyone involved the question properly addressing the issues of "citations" from our sources will constantly come up.  You might be interested in trying to test your skills at identifying plagiarism (unauthorized/undocumented use of intellectual ideas).

First dictionary definition of plagiarism...

noun

1. an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author:

It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne.

Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft,borrowing, cribbing, passing off.

2.a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation:

“These two manuscripts are clearly plagiarisms,” the editor said,tossing them angrily on the floor.

from Dictionary.com (see I cited my source!)

And now the quiz! (takes about 5-10 minutes).

https://www.indiana.edu/~tedfrick/plagiarism/item1.html

Rodney King Riots

The video we watched today about the Rodney King riots made me think about a persons morals an ethics. In the video, we all saw the terrible and violent rioting of angry blacks that was triggered by the unjust ruling of the LAPD officers who got away with police brutality of an African American man, named Rodney King. I completely agree with the reasoning of the blacks riot. I understand that the black population of Los Angles had/have been treated with racism and inequality for many many years, and that at some point enough is enough. When such a powerful  form of anger is bottled up for so long it has to come out at some point; But even though it's not a just thing for racial police brutality to be going on, does that make it morally right to commit the same terrible crimes to non blacks were are also innocent?
In the ethical situation/message of the Rodney King riots, was it truly necessary to use violent in order for them to get their message across?
 Do you think it's fair for the blacks to be degrading to other races by using the same kind of violence the police used/use on African Americans, on other innocent people?
It may have been immoral for the LAPD to evacuate from the scene and leave civilians in danger, but what about ethically? Would it have been far worse if guns were involved?
There are so many rhetorical questions that pop up, it's impossible to place all of the rights or wrongs on one side.

Thursday 9/18

Today in class Val brought up the irony of the blacks during the LA riots. This involved the blacks being treated unfairly before the Rodney King incident, and then during the riots the blacks targeted anybody who wasn't black. According to the documentary, they did it because they were mad, but I think it was also because they thought they could get away with it because the four police officers had gotten away with it when they beat Rodney King. The part I am curious about is if the people who did the beating in the intersection where ever caught, and if they were, if they were brought to justice.

Wednesday 9/17

Today in class we watched more of Selleberty. This brought up the idea that I have seen a lot when a new game comes out. There are features in it that people don't like, but all they still support the company by giving them money by buying their game. The consumers that were interviewed in the documentary today didn't like the idea of paparazzi, but they continued to support it by buying the magazines which use paparazzi photos. They all hated the idea of children being followed by the paparazzi, but whenever a magazine would advertise about the cutest celebrity children, those same people would gladly buy the magazine, supporting the idea they are against. Even if they did not read that specific article, the publishing company wouldn't care. They managed to get you to buy the magazine, and give them money. In the end, the most powerful way to get a company to listen to your complaints is to stop giving them money. If you continue to support how they operate now, nothing will change, no matter how much you hate it.

In class today we finished up watching the "Sellebrity" video and we touched up on a few main ideas.  A few things that came up from the video was taking into consideration that the paparazzi are doing their job, which is putting food on their table. An interesting thin to ask is "How far would you go?" just to get new gossip on these celebrities. Gossip which isn't always true because as the video said, some of these photos are used to create stories. These stories are driven by people wanting to know anything and everything, but no one takes into consideration the damage to the celebrities. For example, a rock star who sued because he was accused of sleeping with underage boys and urinating on them. He said so himself, "it made my life HELL!" and it was all done to get people just to read their magazine. So here's the question, Does the paparazzi go to far?" The paparazzi has 1st Amendment rights, which includes "Right to press" but does that include one's personal life? These are a few ideas to think about as we write our reflection for "Sellebrity".

Tuesday 9/16

Today in class Mr. Stewart brought up a great question about the riots that had me thinking a lot. Were the riot really about Rodney King?  I think they were about Rodney king at first but once everyone began to steal everything, break everything they could and setting buildings on fire it was not about Rodney king any more. It was about everyones personal interest, being able to steal thing that are really expensive without getting arrested for it because the police wouldn't do anything about it. They used Rodney king as an excuses to do everything they shouldn't do, which I think a lot of people would do once they realized the police wouldn't enforce anything at all.

Yesterday in class, we finished up the video on the Samoan players, who were labeled as “big and tall” which was the reason believed that they made it to NFL, but the reality was that it wasn't about how big they were. It was about how they were disciplined as children. To them it wasn't just football, it was something that they did with full commitment and dedication.  It was amazing to see how good they were at football with only a few years of playing, starting in High school.

Today in small group we watched the video “sellebrity”, which was basically showing us the concept of people being labeled and it not always being in positive ways. The celebrities  spoke of their experiences and as we watched we filled out our worksheet with examples.

Today in large group, we finished watching the Rodney King documentary. Basically, we started right back up where people began to riot. Buildings were being destroyed and then set on fire, which was sending a clear message to the Police enforcement's that they wanted justice for Rodney King. It resulted in having another trial because the president believed that the police officers violated King’s civil rights and should be charged. The court resulted in two officers found guilty and two not. Something i found interesting was that the two force experts had completely different policies for excessive use of force. It made me question how they really new what the real Los Angeles Police Department policy was.

Monday and Tuesday - 9/15/14 - 9/16/14

In the beginning of this week in our small group, we finished up the law and society presentations and started watching on Labels and what they mean and how they can affect people. We also spoke about labels that have been given to you and why were those given to you. The documentary we watched was about Football players, mainly Samoan football players and how many of these men went into the NFL and it was not just because they were "big" or " tall". It was interesting to see how this young men were raised and how they became such strong and amazing football players. During this we had to read a article on LABELS on Edmodo and write a reflection on what labels you might have been given, why they were given to you and how they made you feel. We then moved on to a movie called Sellebrity which we have just begun.

In the large group we continued watching the video on the Rodney King incident. In the documentary, a video was shown that someone had recorded the police beating Rodney King while he was laying on the grown helpless just trying to stand up. In this video we saw that during the first trial where the police were charged with Assault charges, attempt to cover up as well as attempt to bodily harm, were not convicted by the jury and all chargers were dropped for them minus one, the attempt to cover up. Because of this vote, many people in Down Town LA were quite angry and began to riot and basically start a war. These riots turned into mobs and these mobs began to loot and set fire to many stores in the down town area. Around 37 people were killed during these three days and it got so horrible that the President had to bring in the national guard and he also charged the officers who attacked king with Federal Charges, saying that they had broken his Civil Rights. After three days of rioting, the mob began to calm down just a little. The new trial was a little different than the first as well. The prosecutor used different tactics than before. So did the DA. Now Mr. King was brought into this trial as well while during the first round he was not a witness they called to the stand and this did change the case and trial. In the end the 2 of the officers were found guilty and so was the commanding officer. The riots stopped once happened. The community felt that justice had been done. This is what happened on Monday and Tuesday, 9/15/14 and 9/16/14

Monday 9/16

In small group on Monday we did an activity that caused us to think about why we label other people.  The second part of the activity involved us anonymously adding labels to a Padlet which is on Ms. B's website. The part of the activity I found interesting was when Ms. B was asking the class what some of the labels on the Padlet meant. Everybody was hesitant at first, there were willing to put something nasty up for the whole class to see, but as soon as their name would be attached to it, they didn't want anything to do with it anymore.

This shows the power of being able to do something anonymously. Being anonymous allows us to mostly avoid the repercussions of what we say or do, and this causes most people to think that this is a bad thing. But what if being completely anonymous is the only way to get somebody to reveal their true self.  They would not have to worry about what other people thought of them, allowing them to say whatever they wanted to be. The hateful statements that come from truly anonymous sources only come from truly hateful people, if you pride yourself in being nice to everybody, and actually follow through in those ideas, then being anonymous will still allow you to spread kind ideas.

Monday 9/15

Today in small group Ms. B brought up a idea that we almost always label people. When she said that it made me think if that statement is true. I think that the statement is true, maybe not for everyone but it is a true statement. Its almost like it an automatic thing we do, we label people just based on  what we think we know about someone and we never really think about why they do something, we just make assumptions right away which puts us high up in the ladder of inference. Sometimes we don't mean to label people but its almost like an instant thing our minds do, and this is not true about everyone, but there are situations in which we label people before anything. It something that everyone could improve on, myself included.

Rodney King Beating and Riots - CNN Doccumentary

Last year in English, I chose to study the Rodney King case instead of the Laremy Project and found this really interesting documentary that was done in 2011 and reveals a lot more about the case.

Friday 9/12

Today while talking about who was to blame for events that go wrong I remembered something that my friend and I did based after Jackass. We went to AMC theaters in Santa Clara for the premier of Jackass 5. After the movie we were outside waiting for my mom to pick us up. While we waited we found a shopping cart and decided to do some stupid stuff with it. I challenged my friend to do a front flip off of the shopping cart as we pushed it into a grassy area. As you would expect he got hurt attempting the trick. Although Jackass is what inspired us to do it they are not to blame for our stupidity. We knew that things could go wrong but decided to be stupid anyways. That is why I do not think that people who put out an idea are to blame for others actions even if they were the ones to put out the idea. However if the one putting out the idea is influencing others to be violent and giving instructions on how to accomplish it, is to blame.

Godhatesfags.com

I took some time to look at godhatesfags.com, the Westboro Baptist Church, and I found a bunch of links on their website such as "God Hates Joan Rivers" "God Hates the Media" etc.. I think they are using their freedom of speech to the extreme being that they probably understand that their language is really offensive, and they seem to go out of their way to make it offensive just to provoke people. Of course I don't know what's really going through their heads but it seems like they know what theyre doing and they are being so provocative on purpose.
I also took a closer look at the hate group map and it turns out there's actually 5 different hate groups in the bay area that meet at 8 different locations. Most of them are north bay or east bay so they're not too close to home but that was still surprising that they are in the bay area. The 5 are Islam Threat which is an anti-Muslim group, Counter Currents Publishing, a white nationalist group, Golden Gate Solidarity, a racist skinhead group, Black Riders Liberation Party, a black separationist group, and As-Sabiqun, a "general hate" group.

Thursday 9/11

Today's class was somewhat intense due to the controversial ideas being shared by the people on the documentary we were watching. I found it sort of offensive that one of the moms said that she would not accept her own son if he married someone that is not white. However I do not fail to see where she is coming from. When I first heard her say that she was a white supremacist I automatically characterized her as evil and naive (ladder of inference presenting itself). But after hearing her say that it was more of a love and desire to preserve ones race I found it a little more tolerable. I still do not agree with her views but I respect her right to believe what she does.

Wednesday 9/10

The highlight of today would have to be learning about Ms. Bissonnette's favorite case which was Loving v Virginia. I was really surprised to see that not too long ago it was completely illegal for two gay WHITE men to be married but it would be completely acceptable if the men were not white. I don't even know how to really react to this. Like really? I don't even know what to say about it. All I can say is that all gays should have the right to be legally married regardless of their race!!!

Open Internet - Current Internet Issues

As we are presenting our law and society projects this week, and some of us are just receiving our new Chrome Books, I wanted to share a case about the issue that is going on right now with the internet that pretty much effects everyone. If you don't want to read this big paragraph, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAxMyTwmu_M

So basically the internet we think of is called "Open Internet" or "net neutrality" which means that the internet has general public standards where anyone can access or share things and everything flows relatively the same. This means huge website companies like Facebook or Google flow at the same rate as a new small start-up company's website. The problem is that internet service provider companies like Comcast want to make money so they want to make companies like Facebook or Google  pay them in order to get faster loading of their pages. So for example if you get a Comcast plan that says your internet loads at some amount of megabytes per second, Comcast can make pages load at lower amount of megabytes if the website isn't paying Comcast, which means the non-paying pages load slower. Which means you only really get the amount of megabytes you are paying for when a company is also paying Comcast for faster loading. When a website loads slower, the internet user usually gets angry and blames the website like "Oh my god netflix is being so slow right now" but what is really happening is that Comcast is slowing down the pathway from Netflix to your computer because Netflix isn't paying the fee. This gives an advantage to big companies that are able to pay these fees and disadvantages start-ups, which makes the internet less diverse and it also extremely effects our economy if these start-ups cannot grow. A lot of big companies like Facebook, however, are still not paying the fee because they were once a start-up and they don't want to disadvantage other new start-ups. The arguements that were being made were the FCC wanted this type of neutrality for all telecommunication services (phone companies, etc) but the internet providers argued that internet should be its own category seperate from other telecommunication services and should therefore not have to follow this neutrality idea. The court decided in favor of the internet service providers saying that providing internet or "broadband" is in its own category and does not have to follow the same regulations as common carrier communication services, making it legal for Comcast to slow down or speed up website loading as it pleases. The FCC said they might still appeal this which is why it is important for us to know about because we can spread awareness and push the FCC to appeal so that we can have open internet.

Tuesday 9/9

Learning about the Fox news lawsuit got me thinking about the rights and protection that we actually have. I mean if it is so difficult for such a big company such as fox to defend its name imagine an individual. I mean is it really that easy for anyone to say things about you whether they are true or not without a penalty? I understand that the freedom of of speech is a right but when is it considered libeling? Like in the case we saw today Franken called one of the spokespersons from fox news a liar and got out scratch free. To me there is nothing more offensive and defaming than someone calling me a liar in front of everyone.

Bill O'Reilly vs. Bellarmine Teacher

Bill O'Reilly was featured in the movie we watched today about the Fox vs. Franken case. His case was thrown out because he couldn't make a reasonable arguement for himself against the book that called him a liar and made fun of him satirically for being an extremely right sided figure.

A morality and social justice teacher from Bellarmine, Kathy Eder, who made a deck of 12 cards called the "Operation Hidden Agenda Cards" which each show one public figure and give a description about this person's "hidden agenda". The point of the cards were to get people to think critically and question government figures instead of just believing popular opinion. Bill O'Reilly puts down her cards and questions why she didn't use him as a source and claims she only uses a bunch of "lefties who don't like the war."  Here is the link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9N1mTYVeIw
Notice that Bill O'Reilly uses the phrase "fair and balanced"!

Another arguement on freedom of speech is Richard Sherman and Skip Bayless saying things about each other that are possibly considered defamation on ESPN 1st take. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6x-O3kb1sI

Monday 9/8

Today we started our law presentations and it made me wonder about every situation that didn't necessarily make it to Supreme Court or even any court to begin with. I found several articles about less publicized and famous that I thought would be interesting to add to all the famous cases we are learning about now.

This one is a campus rape prevention article that focuses on a girl from Columbia who got raped and was essentially ignored by police officers and campus administration and is now taking action in several different ways. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/02/-sp-campus-rape-prevention-yes-means-yes

This is an article about a woman who criticized video games (specifically Grand Theft Auto, Metro: Last Light, and even Dragon Age) for being sexist over social media and got so many severely threatening responses from men that she had to flee her home and contact authorities. http://mic.com/articles/97616/these-video-games-are-horribly-sexist-the-attacks-on-woman-who-critiqued-them-are-worse

Monday 8th

Referring back to today's discussion about the ladder of inference I realized that made a giant assumption that turned out to be completely wrong. All summer I was talking up my favorite soccer team Real Madrid and all of the new star players that they had bought. After the transfer window closed Real Madrid Won a title against a tiny time but many saw it as the beginning to a great year. Right after they faced their capital rivals and lost. A week after they faced another small team and lost by an astonishing 4-1. All of my friends rubbed it in my face. That's when I came to the realization that maybe more expensive isn't always better. Then that got me thinking about the inferences that we make when we see a price tag. For example when I am out looking for something that k=I know nothing about but need, I usually assume that the more expensive it is the better the quality. Am I the only that does that? I doubt it.

Class 9/5/14

In class on Friday, we continued to work on our law and society projects. We are going to begin presenting them to our small groups this upcoming week. Also, in large group we continued to discuss our political views and analyze political spectrums.

Miss B-- thoughts on blog posts so far--

Would be great if posts had more than just a summary of what was learned or discussed in class- 

For example, your reactions and thoughts about the learning would be far more interesting to read and might even generate more of a virtual discussion. 

You might:

Ask a question of the group...

Continue a discussion that started in class...

Post an insight or comment that you would have made in class but perhaps didn't feel brave enough to at the time...

Share a personal example of something that we discussed... 

Hope this helps generate more engaging posts! 

Class 9/4/14

In class today, we went into more depth on all of the First 10 Amendments. We learned about each of them individually and our rights that we have through them. After talking about that, we analyzed Political Spectrum charts with our group members. We wrote a reflection about the spectrums after our analyzation.

Class 9/3/14

On Wednesday in class, we worked on our Law Case Projects. We had time to research our cases and begin to put together our projects.

Today in class we finished talking about the first 10 Amendments,I learned that the 5th Amendment wasn't just only the right to remain silent but also stated that no one can be trialed of a capital charge without a grand jury present unless that person is in the naval force or in time of war.It also stated that a person cannot be re-trialed after a verdict is placed unless it is appealed and property cannot be taken if not found guilty.

Today in class we finished watching the documentary of Marcus Dupree and saw his success turn into nothing in the end when he started to go up against his morals and ethics.Because he started listening to others,his path began having obstacles along the way and ended up having no one by his side.I believe his path ended shortly because off the constant tugging from those around him such as his "friends," media and coaches, I think he couldn't take the pressure and even knew when his career as a big shot would end.

Today in class we learned and talked about the Bill of Rights,which are the first Ten Amendments made in the Constitution.To understand them more in depth we read over all ten and talked in our groups trying to understand what in was basically saying.A question that came to mind was if it was possible to limit an amendment in order to prevent danger to someone or something?

Class 9/2/14

Class 9/2/14

Today in class, we started to learn about the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was the first Ten Amendments made to the Constitution. We read over all ten amendments in the beginning of class with our groups, and then we covered the First Amendment in more depth towards the end. The First Amendment is the right to freedom of speech and press, along with the freedom to practice religion. The First Amendment also allows citizens to peacefully organize to protest or petition against the government.