Losers

It is true that there are losers in this economy. Our economy depends on them. The minimum wage people doing the blue collar work who can never and never will get out of debt. These are the people that keep the economy moving they put in more money than they take out. These people are required because their is some fat cat with all the money circulating his money privately among the rich not helping the economy. The people who spend money on American products and put money into the American economy are the losers, they are necessary. The system could be broken if people worked for their money, that money was spent on domestic products, and the companies that make those domestic products pay their domestic workers with that money. No money leaves the system there are no winners or losers.

Who Am I Again

My name is Jimmy. I am a fun loving American teenager. My friends are the largest influence in my life. They can negatively or positively affect my life. Baseball has a lot of control over my life. Depending on where I am playing baseball controls where I live and work for summers. My goal in life is still to be in the AROTC program at SDSU and join the Air Force.

Catfish

I do not believe everyone has a catfish. I myself do not have a catfish. I believe the only people that get catfished are people who are stupid enough to just trust some random person without knowing them or verifying their identity. Catfish don't do anything to keep people alive. They only trick people into trusting them and deceive them. Catfish end up having a definite emotional impact on people and it is almost always negative. These negative impacts could cause someone to fall into depression and possibly take their own life. Catfish are not needed for survival and only people who are to stupid to immediately trust a random stranger will get catfished.

Basketball Stereotyping

It doesn’t matter what race a ball player is if he is good he is good. Korean basketball players may not be something that is well known but if there is a Korean that is good at basketball it shouldn’t matter. It takes a special kind of person to ignore talent because of a person’s race. Although it is true that Jewish people dominated the basketball circuits. They have since been replaced by black players. There is a definite race dominance of black people in basketball today. I don’t see a problem with this since most of them do have the skill. Although I do feel since the transition to the black dominated NBA basketball is no longer enjoyable. Its not because of the blacks but it is because they won’t alter the game to the new players. It has become a show off contest where no one plays defense and looking good on court is more important than playing basketball. Race shouldn’t matter it should be based on skill but I don’t think this can happen until the players themselves focus on skill.

Alien Commuters

I read this article on alien commuters and honestly I do feel bad for the situation these people are in. They get almost no sleep, they spend hours waiting to cross the border, and even more time just waiting in line. After they spend these many hours of waiting they work full eight hour days in the fields. This form of life would be tough and unimaginable. However I do not feel bad for the people themselves. They complain that they cannot actually immigrate to this country because it would tear apart their family. So what my ancestors left their family in a famine to come to this country. If you want the American dream you have to make sacrifices that's just the way it is. The other thing that bothers me is the fact that these American agriculture places are hiring these people just because they are cheap labor. What they don't realize is that if you hire American citizens and pay American citizens, those American citizens will put that money back into America's economy. Instead we are paying Mexicans to waste money on the Mexican economy.  So to reiterate, I do not like the situation that these people are put in. However I do know that there is something that they can do about it themselves but they are not. This situation shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody it has been happening for centuries if not in Mexico in other countries and, I do not believe they should get some special treatment just because they border the U.S.A..

Animal Farm Connections

In the book Animal Farm it starts out with a conflict theory a farmer reaping the benefits of his animals. The animals who get nothing rebel, as always happens in a conflict society the poor Proletariats rebel against the rich Bourgeoisie. In the book as in real life the poor outnumber the rich which is why the rebellion succeeds. After the rebellion Snowball and Napoleon become the unofficial leaders of the farm. We see Napoleon push hard for a conflict society but Snowball always keeps them in a functional society where the different parts of the society depend and thrive on each other. However the pigs do claim themselves the smarter species and even with Snowballs presence they slowly start leaning to a conflict society. We see the pigs start hording apples. Normally an act like this would anger the community, but, the pigs so amply lie to the community saying that they have to eat apples, and they say they don't even like the taste but it is required they eat them. Slowly their functionalist theory starts slipping. The battle of Cowshend takes many lives and wounds snowball. This lowers the moral of the animals but boosts their patriotism. With this boost of patriotism Napoleon takes his shot he drives away Snowball claiming him a traitor and assumes command of Animal Farm. With Napoleon in control the pigs take what they want, they do what they want, and they kill any that object. They do this by keeping the community in a constant fear of attack and a constant exhaustion from building a windmill. They get away with executions because they can say that those animals are spies. Slowly little by little the animals start to realize that the pigs are just the same as humans. They realize that the pigs are reaping the benefits of their labor while they get nothing. They were stuck right back into a conflict society. What is an oppressed community to do. They revolt once again. This is why functionalism should be practiced a community that relies on the equality of all. When the rich get richer and the poor get poorer the poor will revolt.

Barcelona Fight Club

I have recently observed that in Barcelona there is a man who owns a boxing gym. He is using this gym to keep kids off the street. The kids come in and train instead of going and being vagrants. He is providing them with a way to let off steam. This is also a way for them to make money. These kids get to come in train, fight, and have at least a semi healthy life. For most of these kids this could be a permanent fix. It will teach them to work hard for their goals and give them a sense of accomplishment. By the time they are out of boxing they would be old enough and mature enough to know the proper ways of coping with their emotions. However I do believe some of these kids a very few of them could stay with their heads in the clouds about boxing being "thug" and sadly never mature from their "swag" to class.

Anybody can change their social class if they want. This woman is trying to do this but she is stuck in a position where it would be very difficult. Her son on the other hand has the drive to. He dresses for a higher social class and acts like a higher social class. He also tries to succeed in sports and school. The boy turns out to be living socially higher than his mother and brother who never tried to move up. Yes, moving up social classes is possible. It takes time and hard work. I will admit though that you can only advance one or two classes. Going from rags to riches is very rare.


Social Classes don't really play a role in our school. Yes we are all different classes but they don't separate us. Our school is small so we all intermingle. There are kids who are poor that are best friends with the rich kid. We are lucky enough to have this. In larger schools Social Classes are everything. The poor are discriminated and the higher ups get treated better.


The things we own tend to represent our social class. My family lives in a broken down house that's falling apart. However we drive two newer cars. We cant afford the fancy things but we still enjoy some of the pleasures of life. Things like satellite TV, wifi, and an xbox. We shop at Kesslers and Walmart and we eat white and wheat bread.

Marxism and Social Classes

1. The function of a social class structure is to give people power. Rich higher classed people have more power than lower class people. Higher classes tend to control the lower classes, however the lower classes are the reason the upper class has their wealth. So in this theory each of the classes can keep each other in check. 2. The conflicts that arise are that the wealthy upper class always want more and more from the lower classes and the lower classes want to give less and keep more. Hence the quote "The rich get richer while the poor get poorer". This creates a lot of tension between the classes the Rich want more making the poor turn on them. 3. We associate Kings and Queens with the upper classes. We associate the middle like the American dream of a family with a little house and a white picket fence. We associate the lower class with peasants and homeless people. 4. The only change I wouldn't change the class structure but I would force the upper classes to have to invest more money into charities and the economy than they do and raise taxes to a much higher rate for only the upper class. 1. Ascribed class is when someone is born into their wealth and they don't make themselves they have it given to them. Achieved is when someone "makes their own luck." They fight their way to the top often times moving up through the classes.

Requim for a Dream

This was an awesome movie. In the beginning of this movie it was like I had expected. A deadbeat kid in trouble and scaring his mother. His junkie girlfriend and his thug best friend. They really showed the struggles that people with a drug problem and their families go through. After a while the Junkies get smart and decide they are going to by a large amount of heroin and sell it. This was a good idea for them they began making a lot of money. The problem was that they still used the drugs and they stayed as junkies. I thought the movie represented how quickly someone can make money by selling drugs. I honestly thought they were going to become very successful with their drug business and clothing store. Then a drug war hit, that sent their lives spiraling down. Nobody in the city had drugs. Junkies started going crazy and doing anything for money. Finally when a large shipment came in they thought they were going to score I however expected they wouldn't. I was right some junkie to desperate for the drugs messed up their operation. The next thing that happened I had also expected, The girlfriend started prostituting herself for drugs. The boys heard there were drugs in Florida so they decided make a trip. They didn't even make Florida. The stupid junkie kept injecting his infected arm making it worse and worse. He is the reason that they got arrested and wind up in prison and dying in a hospital. His girlfriend continues to have to prostitute herself for money. All of this was stuff that I honestly did not see coming. It all surprised me and made it really interesting. The part I didn't like was the involvement of the mother. I knew she was going to go crazy the second the doctor prescribed her those little uppers. I honestly thought that it was a side story that just made the movie weird. Over all I thought the movie was a good way to scare young kids away from drugs. That stupid infomercial was amazingly annoying.

Heroin

Drugs are sadly a hug part of this world. I believe though with proper tasking the war on drugs could be won. It would take many hard decisions and close to Marshall law. First the opium fields would need to be carpet bombed and all at once. Next every import and export needs to be checked. Considering that those to things can be done maybe not to completion but to close completion there is one more step. Addicts, dealers, and sellers need to be harshly punished. Our laws are far to soft on junkies and dealers, they aren't afraid of a little jail time. The punishment in Singapore for drugs is that a policeman get to beat you severely with a stick until he feels you have learned your lesson. I for one would promote this punishment in the U.S. people are going to want to stay away from it. It is a simple scare tactic nobodies going to willing subject themselves to something that could get them beaten within an inch of their life. I do however like the programs that are doing needle exchanges and supplying narcan. These programs should be governmentally  funded. I think by giving clean needles, providing a cheap antidote, and being much harsher with the punishment the war on drugs can take a massive turn for the better, because lets face it we are losing.

TRASH

Wow. this article was very humbling. It makes me very happy to live in a community were heroine is not an epidemic. In fact we have never really had a drug problem around here. These cities were hit by heroine like it was a plague. I don't know what could cause people to think it socially acceptable. A young man died. Many young people died and are still dying because of the terrible effect drugs have on people. These cities should have a sort of marshall law imposed on them to stop an epidemic like this from happening. There were many good people who tried to help, that is true. There were also many who just let it happen or encouraged it. We need not fear evil, what we must fear is the indifference of good men.

xbox and lead and crime!?

I have always had a similar thought as this article did. It actually makes sense how videogames reduce crime rate. If someone can sit at home playing a videogame where they get to kill people that would more than likely reduce the angry thought that everyone gets. If a teen is sitting at home with his buddies playing video games then he isn't out on the streets tearing up the town and throwing trash on teachers streets. As for the housing question, it is a tricky situation. If you bring public housing to people who need it your doing a good thing and you will probably prevent some from committing crime. But it is also giving a place for drug dealers to house themselves and for criminals to move in. The whole lead thing I have to throw a huge BS flag on. I mean really these people think crime is reduced because there is less lead. what about all those people who lived through the 50's they were practically drowning in lead and they were just fine. I think that the reduction of lead does have a positive effect on humans but I do not think it can be directly related to a decrease in crime.

This is my character analysis for the Breakfast Club. I am doing my character analysis on Judd Nelson's character John Bender. http://www.podomatic.com/mymedia?tab=audio

Deviance

Lately we have been learning about social deviance. We have been taught that there are two types of social deviance positive and negative. Deviance is an act a person does that does not lie within the social norms of a generation. Negative deviance is a deviant act that has a negative effect, this could be anything from underage drinking to a teenager robbing a the local gas station. A positive deviance is deviant act that has a positive effect. Positive deviances range from diffusing the tension of a fight that is about to break out to buying lunch for the person behind you in the drive through. This past week we read an article about a teenage robber and watched a clip about the potato chip hero. Both of these clips show prime examples of positive and negative deviance. The potato chip hero has positive deviance because, a man stopped a fight from possibly getting ugly just by stepping in the middle and eating chips. The teenage robber story shows negative deviance because a teen was holding a man at knife point. The story however shows positive deviance. The man saw that he could turn this kids life around by giving him his coat and buying him dinner. Although I did not get the chance to be this heroic I did have the chance to do a positive deviance. I had seen a young girl asking her sister for money to buy something at the concession stand. I paid for her pop corn for her. I noticed positive behavior from the people around. Although the young did not thank me personally I am sure she was thankful.

Who Am I

My name is James. I am an American teenager. I am a fun and loyal person. What makes me who I am is my friends. My friends have a lot of affect on my life whether it be negative or positive. I also feel that baseball has a large impact on my life. Baseball decides what job I will have during the season or where I will be living. My goals in life are to attend basic training, graduate high school, attend SDSU for their AROTC program, and then serve in the Air Force.