Breaking News: Kid Breaks Rule. Gets in Trouble.

As stated in a recent Fox News story, a high school student was suspended from his school after answering a phone call from his father in Iraq during class.

Cove High School in Texas, where half the students have at least one parent deployed, justified the punishment against Brandon Hill by saying he had violated the no-cell-phone policy when he took the call from his father, who is serving in Iraq.

That makes sense. He broke a rule and was punished for it, what seems to be the problem?

“When my wife told me, I was pretty disturbed by it,” he said in a phone call from Iraq.

“I was pretty shocked, considering that several months before we left I had talked to the … assistant principal and thought everything was fine,”

What?! Shocked that your sons schooling system knows a thing or two about justice and following the rules? Rules are rules… don’t whine when you get in trouble for breaking them.

And don’t cry about your father fighting in Iraq and how he should be aloud to call you during class because of what he is doing for our country… No one gets into the extreme discipline required for the army to be able to break rules. Shame on you Fox news for acting as if this story is worthy of the small bandwidth necessary to host it!

Florida Biased Against Ninjas

A Florida police officer recently was stripped of his badge and gun by the Oviedo Police Department after posting that he was a ninja on his myspace page.

It stated that he was a “supertrained killer ninja fighter of the night who has not had a chance to use this special skill yet.”

The problem with this situation… Punishing people for what they might do? It is clearly stated that, even though possessing the rather potent skills of a ninja, the man has yet to enter into a situation in which the ability to slice a room full of pirates into tiny pieces before escaping up the side of wall into the darkness would be needed.

I was saddened to learn that the officer attempted to apologize for the ninja statement, claiming that it was only a joke. But awesome meters shot up once again when the news article stated his other violation, one of which being probably the most domineering thing a police officer can do:

Varkony admitted putting notches on his Taser every time it was used.

To anyone who honestly believes a theocracy is a good form of government…

I think I have found a fine example of how far religious governments will go to keep safe from any and all attacks on their, most liekly deranged, ideology.

The Independent recently published a news report on an Afghan man who was recently sentenced to death for, get this… reading an article about woman’s rights.

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country’s rulers.

The accusation that led to his sentence? Blasphemy. I hope I am not the only one who finds it sick that people are sentenced to any punishment at all for speaking out, much less for simply reading something. I understand this is the picture of a modern fundamentalist Islam society, but in a world with so many human rights groups and worldwide protection agencies, how can any government find it to be worth the trouble?

As soon as I asked that question I came to the realization of who was running the courts that sentenced him…

…tried by religious judges without being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death.

I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that throughout history, if anyone is sentenced to death without any form of legal representation, that they are either poor, or religion is some how involved. And this man, a student of Journalism, does not seem to fit the profile of the subjugated poor.

A direct quote from Aminuddin Muzafari, the first secretary of the houses of parliament,

“People should realize that as we are representatives of an Islamic country therefore we can never tolerate insults to reverences of Islamic religion.”

This downloaded document must have contained a grand heretical cartoon of Muhammad or overly anti-Islamic teachings, right? No. The documents were about woman rights. Specifically about how the Koran was possibly misinterpreted on the behalf of it justifying the oppression of women.

I can understand how theoretically, Islam is a peaceful religion. I can see why all Muslims are not regarded as extremist. But can someone please explain to me how a country, free from Taliban rule for almost 7 years, is still this fundamentally extreme? Is this not proof that either the current leaders of the Muslim faith, or the Muslim faith itself, is that of extremism?

The senate is even telling its officials not to be “influenced by outside un-Islamic views”
I hate to pick on a single religion when several of these concepts hold true for all of them, but any religion that discourages, or even worse, disallows its followers to not only be informed, but also does not allow them to even look at outside viewpoints, is closer to a cult in my books.

Freedom + A Good Education = Happiness

My Response to an excerpt to the BBC News Article: Why are Dutch children so happy?
By Kathryn Westcott

BBC News website

 

The Dutch are famous for their liberal attitudes towards drinks, drugs and sex.

“Because parents are more relaxed, the dynamics of the problems are less severe than in countries where they are seen as more of a serious issue,” says Mr Vangeert.

Laura Vos, a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Amsterdam agrees.

“In this country, it’s very free, you can do anything you want,” she told the BBC’s Newsnight programme. “You can smoke at 16, you can buy pot in the store next to the school. You can do what you like and because it’s not illegal, it’s not that interesting for us to provoke our parents with it.”

Schoolfriend Michell Klimt told the BBC that she thought that teenagers in other countries had to deal with the type of peer pressure that her friends did not have to even consider.

“I think in England, for example, there is a lot of pressure on teenagers. There is something on MTV called Virgin Diaries. Girls of 16 and 17 worry because they are still virgins. It’s like they have to have sex to be cool,” she says.

“In Holland, it isn’t that important - it doesn’t matter to anyone.”

 

*gasp* This cannot bode well! These cannot possibly be moral nor happy people! Young kid’s doing drugs is the downfall of a country and leads to addiction and increased crime rates… right?

I think this is a perfect example of peer pressure on teenagers, or perhaps more appropriately, the lack of. In the same way that hate creates hate, keeping something from someone only makes them want it more. I can justifiably say that the prohibition era mobs, the gangs on the streets today, and the increased underage pregnancy rates are all to blame on the screwed up system of what is considered “moral” in this country.

The article also states that even though these seemingly “unquestionably sinful” things are legal, that the schooling of these kids teaches them enough common sense to know how to handle them selves. Shrooms were recently banned in the Netherlands, not because of the actions of any native who was on them… but rather because of foreigners who had irresponsibly used them.

Has our educational system drifted so far into the spectrum of “let’s teach our kids enough that they can do well on standardized national exams to make our school look good?” that we no longer teach the basics of common sense to our children? We are taught not to learn from experiences but instead to religiously believe everything we are told in school or by the media. I’m sorry but when’s the last time you heard about someone dieing of alcohol poisoning their first time drinking, or over dosing the first time they try something? Any historian who says we learn from history will agree with me that we learn from experiences. I am happier today because I know what to, and especially what not to do, in certain situations and around certain people. I have learned very little of this from what others have told me.

Kind of a rant, but it just seems to me that the things and way we are taught is one that promotes not only apathy and the blind following of authority, but also what seems like a domesticated to feral turn around in our lifestyles at the first taste of something forbidden.

I am happy not because I am free, but because I know what to do with me freedom.

 

Thermodynamics and the Existence of God

The First Law of Thermodynamics: Matter cannot be created nor destroyed

I’ve often seen this used to “debunk” the Big Bang theory, in that essentially nothing became everything that you see today. This universal law is fundamentally disproving a theory proposed by the same scientific community that established Thermodynamics as a law. I’m not here to act as if I can provide a logical rebuttal to prove how any non-creation theory can co-exist with the law of Thermodynamics; I’m here to turn the tables.

According to Creationist, the Universe and everything inside of it was created through the will of a God. This God took nothing and created everything that you see around you. Now correct me if I’m wrong here, but did the creator God not just take nothing, and make something out of it? Does not that logically go against a Universal law that you yourself just used to attempt to disprove another theory with?

I don’t mind you saying that these laws do not apply to God, but I do mind when you turn the same law, that you don’t agree with, to attempt to disprove something else.

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog.

I hope you find it insightful, intellectually stimulating, and well… anything and everything else you might expect out of a high school student’s blog.

First piece will be up as soon as I can finish editing it.