Millenial's

Reading Stein and Sanburn's article "The New Greatest Generation" I kept getting hung up on the age range that they grouped together, 18-30 years old. I myself am 24 and having worked with people in that age range i can say that I do not find i have a lot in common with my coworkers who are only 3-5 years younger than me, but as i thought about it even though its only a few years, that's a big gap in growing up, there are TV shows that i was raised on that they have never seen, or pop culture references that make me feel like an old man at 24. Music that i listened to in high school they listened to when they were only 10. I just feel like its such an easy thing to generalize and group all young people together so they can label us as "narcissistic" or "lazy" rather than to try and have a conversation and get to learn us as individuals.

Activist's torture claim puts harsh spotlight on embattled Ukraine (Blog 1)

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- A bloodied but defiant activist -- his face scarred, an ear severely cut, his body "beaten black and blue" -- has become the latest symbol of the turmoil in Ukraine, stirring fresh anger in that country and elsewhere as the political standoff drags on.

The visibly battered Dmytro Bulatov reappeared Thursday, more than a week after he went missing amid anti-government protests. He told reporters he'd been kidnapped and tortured by his captors -- who, he claimed, "crucified me" by piercing his hands -- before being dumped in a forest. Video footage shows blood caked on his head where he said his ear was cut.

Bulatov, who organized convoys of motorists as part of the so-called AutoMaidan protest movement, said his abductors -- seemingly unable to grasp that protesters were there on their own free will -- asked him who was funding the effort (Laura Smith-Spark. Greg Botelho and Diana Magnay, CNN).

That the US is appalled by what has been occurring and that they push for the president of the Ukraine to put a stop to this.The reason for the protesters is for wider constitutional reforms and shifting more power away from the President and onto the Parliament.  Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev says that the military will stay out of it and abide by the law. However it becomes controversial when the President saying, "saying that it had "fulfilled all its obligations" and that opposition leaders were stoking people's anger for their own gain". Although former president of Ukraine is states that the opposition has no full control over over the protest. So until the can come to a pact that meets the protesters demands things might not change. And the protesting could only get worse. 

Technical problem resolved...

With some much appreciated support from DJKnockout I am now able to post to this blog. There seems to be no explanation of why I could view the posts, and reply to any, but not create new; the post button was just not available. I will end this first post to read all the interesting contributions and add my 2 cents later this weekend.

Justin Bieber

A few weeks ago Justin Bieber was pulled over in Miami beach for speeding. After he was caught speeding, police discovered that Bieber was under the influence. He was arrested for driving with marijuana and pills in his system. Justin Bieber is setting a bad example for his fans, especially the younger crowd. He is also causing harm to our society with his inappropriate behavior.

More recently, a petition was signed to deport him to Canada. According to Yahoo news, the petition received over 200,000 signatures. The petition caught the White House's attention and they will be responding to it soon. Even if Justin Bieber gets deported to Canada, our society will still hear about his bad behavior, but we will not be as harmed.

Transgender Anti-Discriminaton Ruling in Maine

In the article, "Maine Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Pupil" by David Sharp, the Maine high court overturned a ruling that school officials acted within its discretion when barring a fifth grade transgender student from using the women's restroom. Biological male, Nicole Maines, was forced to use a staff restroom instead of the one designated for students. According to the article, this is one of the first rulings in which a state high court concluded that a transgender individual should use the restroom of the gender they identify with. This article focuses on the motif of discrimination. Maines used the girls restroom until the grandparent of another student complained. By barring Nicole Maines from using the girl's bathroom, the school discriminated against her gender identity.

This ruling is both controversial and progressive. As the readings from last week explained, the millennial generation surveyed as being open-minded about various political issues. Not many hot button issues require more open mindedness than that of equal rights for the LGBT community. Since most of these rulings are starting to come to fruition now, it will be very interesting to see if society continues to rule in favor of gay rights. As the next generation starts to take over more high office positions, it will be very telling if the millennial generation can have a similar nationwide impact to that of the civil, and women rights movements of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Blog Post 1

Last week Florida's Representative, Trey Radel who is also a first-term Republican congressmen decided to resign from his position after being convicted of drug  possession charges.  I don't think he intended to step down from power because the article stated that he went around those types of questions.  Representative Trey Radel did apologize to his Republican party collogues in a closed door meeting, but they suggested that he resign.

After reading "The Discourse of Adversaries" I thought that Representative Trey Radel's issue was a perfect example for the article.  From the reading I got that political parties are always hostile to each other, "...because each side operates out of a fundamentally different conception of moral authority, because each side employs a markedly different kind of moral logic, neither side will ever be able to persuade the other of the superiority of its own claims" (Hunter 136).  So since each political party are committed to their ideals, they reject their opposing party's ideas.  Representative Trey Radel's situation looks bad for the Republican party, especially in a hostile political atmosphere between the Democratic and Republican parties.  I suggest that the Republican party asked or made Representative Trey Radel step down in order to save their reputation because I think that in politics opposing parties will find anything to make the other party and what they stand for look bad.   

Blog Post One

     In the last few weeks, there has been an abundance of talk concerning exactly how involved Chris Christie, who is the Governor of New Jersey, was in the lane closures from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge. This talk includes allegations that these lane closures were meant to be some sort of political retribution to the Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich. This massive traffic jam lasted all weekend long and delayed schools buses, commuters, and first responders headed for New York. Governor Christie claims that he had no prior knowledge of these lane closures, but as this story continues to develop many state officials are refuting this claim. There are already talks of whether the Governor should resign or not if it is found that he has lied about knowing about these lane closures.

     In reading several articles about this issue, the blatant disrespect towards the Fort Lee Mayor was what stood out to me. In one email Christie’s campaign manager wrote “The mayor is an idiot”. In another email Wildstein, another official with ties to Christie, wrote “"It will be a tough November for this little Serbian". This whole incident is a prime example of what Hunter describes as Negative Face. Instead of focusing on the issues they are attacking each other. These verbal assaults take the attention away from the issue at hand. Rather than focusing on their disagreements and debating them, these political figures chose to attack Sokolich personally, and Christie chose to shut down a bridge.