Thompso2's Blog

thompso2 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:50:12 +0000

The excerpt from the movie we watched today was definitely arguing against the use of the atomic bomb by showing the immorality of the situation. It was showing the agony and despair that resulted in Japan from the dropping of the bombs. The thing that popped into my mind while watching the excerpt was that war is not moral, war is about defending your country and the people in your country. President Truman surely understood that tdropping the bombs was going to kill many civilians and was not a moral way of acting but he also understood that protecting his country and the men and women in his country were his most important job at that point.

thompso2 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:55:12 +0000

The use of the atomic bomb was immoral but it was very necessary at the time. It was either drop it and cause japanese civilian casualities or go to war and lose possibly thousands of U.S. troops during the process. It was the only way to war was going to end without mass amounts of american casualities. They decided to attack us and when we gave them an ultimatium they chose to ignore it, so basically they brought it upon themselves.While some people believe the atomic bomb was a horrible thing it was a huge step in science for the America and the world. How do we know that if we hadn’t developed it first another nation wouldn’t have gotten control of it and unleashed on us first. It might be selfish and I do feel bad for saying it, but I think it’s better we got them before they got us. It is definitely scary to think that all these unstable democracies(Iran, N. Korea) have gotten control of the science needed to make such bombs. Even though most other countries have caught up with us in the science area, I think we are usually always one step ahead of somebody.

thompso2 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:20:10 +0000

These readings really made me realize how much our society is dominated by science. It’s crazy to think that almost everything we do in same way involves science. I honestly don’t know how people lived before all the technology we have today. No idea what I would do without a computer or a cell phone(GASP!). I think it is a good thing we are so reliant on science because it has some amazing benefits. Diseases nobody ever thought could be stop are now gone and others are on the way. I also think the atomic bomb being invited was a positive thing. Yes, it killed many innocent people, but who knows what would have happened to America during that time if we didn’t supress the Japanese. There is definitely a down side to be so dependent on technology though. Einstein talks about religion and science and the way I understood it, he thinks that religion and science can coexist. I personally don’t think that happens very well. There was a recent report in which less people consider themselves religious and I think that is because we are such a scientific society, but just my opinion.

Mellor

thompso2 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:31:59 +0000

What I took from Mellors essay is that he thinks already developed countries should do everything in their power to help currently developing countries. These developing countries have rampant disease and poverty and Mellor is saying that is partly our fault, for being a developed nation. I take issue with the fact that Mellor is in a way wanting these developed nations to stop being so prosperous to help these countries that are lacking. Yes, I think in a way developed countries should do their best to help these other countries but it is not our job to take care of them. If we and all these other develped nations figured out how to make our society and economy sustainable there is a way for others to do it to. I also understand that it is sometimes harder in these places where their land is not as rich as ours but it can be done and it will just take work. I don’t think it’s far for the people, especially the children to have to suffer from this but we can’t stop what we are doing to make these peoples lives better. It seems like that during times when we do try to help another group of people, it is WIDELY criticized….cough cough…Iraq.

O’Connor and Kaufman, Miles

thompso2 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:39:05 +0000

A Good Man:

The misfit in this story is percieved as the one who is finding true justice. Even though, he is a felon and a murderer, the whole point to what he is doing is to understand that people try to be the best they can the moment before they die instead of their whole lives. Not everyone tries to live their lives the best they can, but this story is trying to show us that when people know they are going to die, they try to be the best person. The misfit knows he isn’t a good person but the grandmother thinks she is. The misfit shows us that she could have been the “jesus lover” her whole life instead of when she knew her life was in danger. He dosen’t try to be someone he isn’t, but the grandmother actually is being someone she isn’t right before he kills her. Even though we all want to be the best people we can, we don’t actually try hard enough to do that. Instead of being fake, we need to try and be real our whole lives. This story reminds me of the “SAW” movies. In those movies, jigsaw tries to get people to realize that they haven’t been the kind of people they should have been in life. He tries to make people understand that we are all born with a chance to be good or decent and it just depends on whether we actually are that way instead of just when we are put in horrible situations.

Queer Kids:

Kaufman and Miles are trying to argue that while gay marriage would be nice to have, it’s not the biggest injustice we face in the world. There people all over the world who suffer from hunger, war, poverty and greater injustice while some people are just trying to fight for something as simple as marriage. I personally don’t believe in gay marriage in the sense that the constitution should be change but i do believe that gay couples deserve to have civil unions. I don’t feel this way because I am “homophobic” or anything, I feel like the authors of this blog, in that there are more important issues we should be debating over these days. Instead of having all this campaigning for gay marriage, people can be out there fighting for the people in Darfur or even the people here at home who cannot afford to have food. Eventually one day gay marriage will pass but in the meantime we need to be fighting for issues that direct effect the way human beings are living in a more severe unjust form.

Diamond and Marx and Engels

thompso2 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:02:21 +0000

The Erosion of Civilization:

Diamond dosen’t blame the Iraqi people for the decline of the “fertile crescent” but I think some blame does have to be placed on them. They used their resources without thinking about the future and if these resources were going to last. I also think that Iraq’s problems would not be so bad today if they were not under a dictatorship rule for so long. There was no help given them because their leader cared more about power and money then he cared about his people. Now that, that rule is over there lives will start getting better, slowly, but it will start to get better.

Bourgeois and Proletarians:

Communism is one form of goverment we should fight to destroy no matter where it is. It takes away peoples basic freedoms and there is no need for it. The one good thing is that communism is slowly falling and that’s the way it should be. It is not fair that while I have all my basic freedoms in the world, there are people out there who are not even allowed to leave their own country and visit somewhere else. Nothing good has ever come out of communism and nothing ever will.

Tocqueville and Annan

thompso2 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:35:04 +0000

Democracy in America:

I don’t like Tocquevilles interpretation of American democracy and I don’t believe he has any real argument. I understand he wrote this piece during a different time in America but people have always been able to have their own opinions(except African-Americans for a time). Even Women who didn’t have the right to vote, were still able to have their own opinion. They were never killed for saying, “oh i like this or i believe this.” Even now, our goverment has almost no control over our daily lives. Yes, they enforce laws but we can write whatever we want or say whatever we want without being persecuted for that, no matter your race, sex, skin color or sexual orientation. I also don’t think there ever will be or should be a tyranny of the majority in America, because we honestly have it better than any other country in the world.

Nobel Peace Prize:

I like many other people in the world would love to have world peace, but I think we all need to realize this will never happen. There is always going to be hate or jealousy in the world. People are always not going to like someone, it’s just our nature. I can’t honestly say I like everyone i have met in my life, how are we suppose to have world peace if we can’t even get along with people who are jsut like us. I don’t think it’s fair that I live a better life than that 5 year old girl in Afghanistan, but honestly what can I, one person, do to change her life significantly? There is always going to be war, poverty, disease and hunger. Some of these things we might be able to change if we tried, others would be impossible to totally eradicate. I personally think one of the biggest reasons why Obama got elected is because people thought he could bring upon “world peace”, but it’s just not going to happen. I do have full admiration for people like Annan would devote their lives to this cost, because I don’t know if I could do it.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

thompso2 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:58:19 +0000

I think Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers had every right to break the law during their protests. They were persecuted in the most horrible ways and they never led their protests or sit-ins with violence. I think there are a very select views times when we should be able to break the law. Yes, we virtually all break the law in some way everyday, like speeding, but the majortiy of people do not break the law in any extreme way. If a woman is being extremely physically abused by her husband, she should have every right to kill him. Most women feel unsafe by leaving these men, and the only way they feel like they can escape is by him being dead and they should have every right to make this happen. I also read a news article about a woman in michigan who saw her date put a date rape drug in her drink. Once he wasn’t looking she switched the drinks and once he passed out from the drug she put a beer bottle in his rectum. She was put in jail for like 3 years and now has to register as a sex offender. I honestly think she didn’t do anything wrong. If she would have had the drink he would have raped her and put her through just as much, if more pain. In this situation I think she had every right to break the law. (Sorry I know that story was pretty disturbing) The laws are a very important thing for us to have, but at the same time there are reasons some of them should be broken.

Superheroes

thompso2 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:23:30 +0000

In comic books and movies, superheroes protect the peace and serve justice. Instead of using police, superheroes are used becasue they are always seen as “cool”, while many people see the police as the bad guys in some ways. They are in their positions to serve the people and provide justice for anyone, anywhere at anytime. Superheroes are also used to “lighten” up the crime and violence that is being committed throughout the world. We all see this crime everyday on the news and it is depressing, and we use these superheroes to make us believe they can stop it and make everything okay. Superheroes give us hope that we are all safe and maybe someday we could be saved by one of them. The good thing about superheroes is that we have male and female superheroes, which shows that women can be just as strong as men and just as protectful. My favorite superhero is the flash so I though i’d just put this clip in…

Beauvoir and Walton

thompso2 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:49:00 +0000

Women as others:

I think Sultana Yusufali describes herself as the “other” in her story. Even though she feels empowered for wearing the Hijab, she also feels like an “other” because if she takes it off she is going to be judged. She is also like an “other” because she won’t unite with others and try to revolt against the judgement of others, she just hides by wearing her Hijab. She is just like a woman of the 1940′s who just stood by there man and were okay with not having a voice.

Women Scientists:

“The principal feature which appears to me to characterize the caucasian…is the power that many of it’s male members have of advancing the horizon of science.”- Bennett

Reworded: The only people that have the power of advancing the world of science are white men.