Mmmmmmmmm, Ritalin

Today I was browsing around yahoo to find a topic and stumbled across an article that discussed over use of anti-depressants. I'm not blogging about that, however, seeing the article reminded me of a 60 Minutes story on the use of ADD medication at colleges that my friend mentioned. The article was exactly what I hoped it was going to be. You see, I find this issue very interesting and have wanted to blog about it for a while now. This particular 60 Minutes investigation takes place at the University of Kentucky. The host asks students how common the use of Ritalin and Adderall is on campus and how commonly it is used with out a prescription. Students all agree that these drugs are incredibly common. Over 80% of students at the Univeristy of Kentucky claim to have used them while only 4% of the students have prescriptions. The controversy brought up is whether or not it is fair for kids to use these drugs. One student says no, "I definitely do. I feel that it is an unfair advantage. If the person next to me that has the exact same schedule takes an Adderall they can stay up the entire night knowing the material and come in and make a grade better than me". What do ya'll think? Is abusing Ritalin and drugs like it wrong because it gives students an unfair advantage? Is it wrong because the majority of the students using it don't have prescriptions? Because it has many harmful long term affects most students never think about? I think that the abuse of these drugs is very interesting and welcome any comments regarding the subject.

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Hawaii Gone Republican

First things first, I don't know jack-schnitzel about politics. Just thought I'd throw it out before I got underway. So, it appears that a republican has recently won the house seat in Hawaii. I don't know whether there are one or fifty house seats, but alot of Republicans (my dad mentioned something about it) are saying this victory is a huge indication that Obama is doing a poor job. Some are saying that because a republican is representing the state that Obama was born in, a state that has had a democrat house representative for the last 20 years, his support is surely diminishing. In my opinion, that's a load of rubbish. I don't think this republican victory is any more significant because Obama was born in Hawaii. Would someone really vote democrat because our democratic president was born in there state? Highly doubt it. But this piece of news ties into a larger issue. More and more government positions that have been historically been held by democrats are going to republicans. Positions in Massachusetts, Virginia, and now Hawaii have made the change. Is this a result of Obama's incompetence (if he is indeed incompetent)? If not, why the changes? Write about any thoughts you have on this subject or anything that is even a little related to it.

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Ehhhhh she's alright, probably a 7.5

This year's Miss America pageant has been the cause of some controversy. Some right wing bloggers are saying the winner, the gorgeous Rima Fakih, was judged more leniently because of her Muslim roots. Conservative blogger on middle eastern affairs and thorough d-bag Daniel Pipes said that the sudden increase of middle-easterners winning beauty pageants make him, "suspect an odd form of affirmative action". Although I have a thing for darker women, I think that Pipes' statement may have an ounce of truth in it. Historically the winner of the Miss America pageant has been a blond woman with large breasts (the 60 year old male judges swear it's a coincidence). It seams odd that the pattern would break in a time when we are in serious conflict with the Middle East. On the other hand though, I'm guessing that there are more Muslims in America who want to "compete" for the Miss America crown than ever before. If so, the chances of a middle eastern woman winning would be higher. I also think it is possible that racism prevented women of color from from winning the crown in the past. At the end of the day I don't really care about the Miss America pageant. However, I'm not down with racism and only occasionally think affirmative action should be used. What do you guys think? Is this actually a sign of an odd form of affirmative action? Is it a sign of a slow news week when I post about a beauty pageant? If you have anything to say about this topic or something that's even slightly related to it, POST!

Prime Minister Election and other

As I am sure you all know, England's Prime Minister election is raging on. Right now there are three men in the running. I don't know anything about any of them and to be honest I could not care less who wins. However, a few nights ago on Colbert a writer for Atlantic Monthly talked about how the election in England works. Apparently the general election only takes a month long and the candidates are not allowed to use televised advertisements. This topic brought another election related piece of news to my mind. I recently heard that in California they are trying a new system of primary election where people cast their vote for a candidate from a single list (i.e. there will be no separating democrats and republicans). In the end the two candidates receiving the most votes, regardless of their party, will go head to head. In my opinion, both England and California are on the right path. I think the idea of minimal advertising and a one month election is great. I also like the sound of the top two candidates moving on from the primaries regardless of whether they represent different parties or not. What do ya'll think? Is our system fine? Do we need a change? Would it be wise to follow in either England's or California's footsteps? Should should there be a limit to how much can be spent on advertisement and should our elections be shorter?

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JT the infamous infamous.....infamous

Time again for a Junior Theme post. This time there is actually good news to report. I finally got in touch with someone for an interview, a Dartmouth professor by the name of William Wohlforth. He also recommended an excellent book for my topic, The 9/11 Commission Report. It's basically a government report on everything I need to know that was later printed as a book for the public. my research has finally taken the form of a paper. My intro is fully completed and my body blocs are coming along quite well. Currently my body paragraphs are a list of bullet points of what I want to include. Shouldn't be too long before they all take the shape of a legitimate paragraph. On the fellow scholar front (quoting a classmate) nothing has really happened. I hope to talk to Tommy today in class and get a quote. Good luck with your JT's my AIS amigos. Stone out.

30 Rock.....you may be on to something

In the beginning of last weeks 30 Rock I saw something that was hilarious, bold, and truthful. Tracy Jordan, played by Tracy Morgan, the spontaneous and hard to please star of the fake show TGS, began to act out, saying that "old school racism is back". He said that because Obama is president no one feels bad for black people anymore. He supports his theory saying that he saw black robber on a home security system commercial and a white judge on Law and Order. Although at first sight these examples may appear to be no more than humorous jokes, I think that there is a serious point underlying them. It does seem that in about half of the commercials set in affluent areas the featured family is a racial minority. The truth is that 75% of Americans are white and the percentage of white people in the upper class (I'm talking top 10%) is not proportional to the racial percentages of the population (nearly the entire upper class is white). I think that the people making commercials know that upper class white people love seeing successful minorities in commercials so they can think, "Oh, that's just a typical upper class family like us". The joke about seeing a black robber in a home security system commercial really got me thinking. The last time I saw a commercial like that both the robber and robbeeees were white. But what if the robber had been black. Would America consider the commercial racist? The joke about the judge on Law and Order left me pondering a similar question. If the show only featured white judges would there be any protest? What do ya'll think?

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Muhammad.... again... but different

Early in the school year I wrote a blog that discussed some controversy at Yale University over whether or not to keep a cartoon shown in a Danish newspaper of Muhammad in a book that was soon to be published. The some called it "intellectual cowardice" to keep the cartoon out of the book. However, in the end the cartoon was never re-added. This same controversy came up in the most recent episodes of South Park. To be honest, if you didn't see them then you aren't missing anything, they were basically clip shows from the last 200 episodes. I last weeks episode a band of celebrities lead by Tom Cruise demanded the town of South Park bring them the Muslim Prophet Muhammad so they could harvest his immunity to ridicule. Muhammad is only present in the second episode but he is covered by a large black censor block the entire time. Even the word "Muhammad" was censored in the second episode (but not the first peculiarly). Both of the episodes the town was in a huge frenzy to keep Muhammad cloaked so they wouldn't got bombed by Muslim extremists. I think that the point being made is that before an image of Muhammad was shown in a Danish newspaper, people didn't show images of Muhammad out of respect for the Muslim people. However, because extremists responded to that incident with violence, people now refrain from showing images of Muhammad for fear of a violent retaliation. I think there is a temptation by some (i.e the people at Yale considering publishing a cartoon of Muhammad because it gave historical context) to think that it is cowardly to not publish and image of Muhammad. These people think they are making a statement against terrorism. In reality, whenever an image of Muhammad is shown it is a slap in the face to every Muslim. For that reason I think that it is never ok to publish an image of Muhammad. What do you think?
Is it ever ok to show an image of Muhammad? Is there any bravery in publishing an image of Muhammad (for historical context)?

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