From today's San Jose Mercury News: "Santa Clara police arrest man suspected in yearlong tagging spree". That man is Roman Kosulin, a 2006 graduate of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, yes I mean that Monta Vista High School where the overwhelmingly overachieving Asian student body is driving away the white folk. Kosulin is currently unemployed.
Out of pure curiousity, I Googled his name and found this old case: In re Alex B., in which said minor (that's why last name was withheld) asserted that the police violated his Fifth Amendment rights. The appeals court said no. This case resulted from Alex getting arrested for a DUI after leaving a party hosted by Kosulin.
UPDATE (August 18): Next month, Kosulin is to serve a year in prison and pay $7,525 in restitution. If not for a plea deal, he would've served a maximum three years plus eight months.
29 June 2009
PTC's selection of facts
So out of pure curiosity during this boring Monday morning right after Dead Celebrity Weekend (Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays), I decided to visit the Parents Television Council website, of the organisation that dares take a tough moral stance against all the curse words, sex scenes, shootings, and fights on TV. As of now, their biggest, latest pet peeve is over the "Bruno incident" from the 2009 MTV Movie Awards. PTC President Tim Winter considered that "a perfect example of why consumers should be able to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want, rather than being forced to pay for unwanted bundles of programming." He asserted that every cable consumer pays $0.80 a month for MTV, meaning that MTV makes $1 billion a year out of all cable subscribers.
So a flamboyantly gay movie character mooning a vulgar, homophobic rapper is enough to cry out about the abuse of consumers' money? That's not it! PTC named the Movie Awards the "worst cable show of the week" given the following examples in a "wall-to-wall trash-fest specifically targeted at young viewers":
- The Lonely Island medley performed by "once-respectable artists" LeAnn Rimes, Chris Isaak, and Forrest Whitaker. The Lonely Island is a comedy rap trio comprised of Saturday Night Live cast member Andy Samberg (who hosted the Movie Awards) and writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. They make those "digital shorts" for SNL that later go up on YouTube, uncensored. I don't have cable, which is the reason I've seen this medley for the first time online, and unlike on SNL, Rimes, Isaak, and Whitaker all performed Lonely Island songs in a singing rather than rapping style, even accompanied by a choir and orchestra. The online version is edited the same way as aired, as evidenced by PTC's transcript, which showed that only the F-word in the song "Mother Lover" (originally by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg) was bleeped. However, the songs "Jizz in My Pants" and "Dick in a Box" were all uncensored even though NBC bleeped those words out on its original SNL broadcasts; common practice of broadcast networks like NBC is zero tolerance for words like "Dick" and stuff like that...even at 12 midnight!
And then: "The expletives just keep on rolling with the introduction of the “WTF Award.” Presenter Hayden Panitierre explains, “I know most of you are wondering, what the [bleeped “f***”] is the WTF Award? For those of you living in a cave, WTF means, ‘What the [bleeped “f***”].’”" (Amy Poehler won that award for a scene from her film Baby Mama in which she tries to perform a pregnancy test over a sink. Poehler's pre-taped thank-you message to the awards show also had a lot of bleeped words.) This just shows PTC's bleep-phobia. Also: "The musical performances were also filled with profanities. Eminem’s rendition of “Crack a Bottle” kept the censor’s thumb on the mute button with lyrics like, “Kiss my butt. Lick the fumunda cheese from under my [bleeped “n*ts”]… It’s a must I redeem my name n haters get mushed. [bleeped “b*tches”] lust. Man they love me when I lay in the cut.”" Yikes. MTV really wants to annoy parents or corrupt our youth!
But hold up. Apparently, PTC is making this look worse than they really seem. I watched Eminem's performance at the awards show, and it turns out you'd either have to be a super-skilled lip reader or look up the lyrics yourself to know what was muted out...and why can't the PTC distinguish between "bleep" and "mute" for crying out loud? Such prudes. The entire Movie Awards ceremony as seen on TV is available on MTV.com. Although PTC asserts that the "musical performances" are peppered with rancid language, the other major performer, Kings of Leon, had no cuss words at all in its performance of "Use Somebody". And then there's a comedic song "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions" by Samberg and Neil Diamond. That song uses only one use of "hell" and no other profanities.
PTC's press release notes that the show was rated "TV-14-DLSV", meaning (according to the official TV Parental Guidelines) unsuitable for children under 14, with pointed advisories regarding suggestive dialogue, crude language, sexual situations, and violent scenes. So what did it expect, total and cordial decency? Rather, PTC tests its shock value on certain parents: "MTV believes this content to be appropriate for a 14-year-old". That's the same argument it put forth when it asked its members/others to file FCC complaints against an episode of Family Guy back in March.
And did PTC even bother to care about which movies won at the awards ceremony? Based on Wikipedia's article about this year's awards I decided to see what PTC thought about the winners. Here's what PTC thought about Twilight, which won "Best Film" this year: "Twilight emphasizes chaste romance, loyalty and devotion between those in love, and an understanding of the need for acceptance of family and those who are different. Essentially a traditional Gothic romance updated for the 21st century, Twilight may not be to every parent’s taste; but its lack of sex and foul language and its (mostly) restrained violence make it an inoffensive choice for the romantically-minded teenager." (PTC also publishes Rod Gustafson's "Parenting and the Media" column; Gustafson differs in opinion though.) Robert Pattinson won "Best Male Breakthrough Performance" for his role in Twilight as well, and Twilight also won awards in "Best Kiss" and "Best Fight". And Ashley Tisdale won the Female counterpart of that award for her role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year, a PTC Seal of Approval winner. Heath Ledger wins posthumously for "Best Villain" in The Dark Knight, which PTC would rather rate closer to an R than the MPAA's "PG-13". And yet ANOTHER PTC Seal of Approval bearer gets high honors at the Movie Awards: Miley Cyrus's song "The Climb" from Hannah Montana: The Movie won "Best Song" at the awards, knocking out "Decode" by Paramore (Twilight), "Jai Ho" by A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), and "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen (title track of a film). Shouldn't PTC have acknowledged those facts as well? No, there's this "cable choice" thing to push, and deceptively hiding potentially "cheerable" items will advance PTC's agenda.
I have pointed out other instances where PTC has cherry-picked facts to suit its pro-cable choice, anti-MTV/BET/FX/any cable channel that dares show TV-MA rated programming even after 10 p.m. agenda. For example, PTC has been silent regarding BET's syndication of Smart Guy, a show that it twice named among the best shows of the year. In April 2008, PTC released a report criticizing BET for playing rap music videos out of concern over misogynistic and other negative messages. It also refuses to point out that Seal of Approval-awarded movies have been shown on FX before alongside those 10pm-and-later TV-MA dramas that oh-so-frequently are the object of PTC's grievances. And I'm browsing PTC's "Worst Cable Content" archives and spot yet another one: MTV's DJ & the Fro, a revival of Beavis and Butt-Head that has the titular character humorously commenting on YouTube videos (B&BH did the same for music videos back in the 90s; it was a target of rather silly moral controversy as well because one five-year-old boy killed his two-year-old sister with fire, and his mother blamed B&BH's "pyromania".) PTC's scathing criticism on the show graphically quotes everything the PTC deems sleazy, and asserts: "It is worth mentioning that this show is on every weekday at 5:00 p.m. ET, just early enough for school-kids to tune in before Mom and Dad get home. If this show is the voice of the new generation (as it purports to be), then society is in trouble." (italics & underline theirs) So now MTV is out to get kids to burn their siblings to death again in the 2010s (it's 2009 for crying out loud!) Well not so fast: MTV rates the show TV-14, so I guess that parents who believe their teenage children should be sheltered from all things evil till college should be the only ones concerned here.
So a flamboyantly gay movie character mooning a vulgar, homophobic rapper is enough to cry out about the abuse of consumers' money? That's not it! PTC named the Movie Awards the "worst cable show of the week" given the following examples in a "wall-to-wall trash-fest specifically targeted at young viewers":
- The Lonely Island medley performed by "once-respectable artists" LeAnn Rimes, Chris Isaak, and Forrest Whitaker. The Lonely Island is a comedy rap trio comprised of Saturday Night Live cast member Andy Samberg (who hosted the Movie Awards) and writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. They make those "digital shorts" for SNL that later go up on YouTube, uncensored. I don't have cable, which is the reason I've seen this medley for the first time online, and unlike on SNL, Rimes, Isaak, and Whitaker all performed Lonely Island songs in a singing rather than rapping style, even accompanied by a choir and orchestra. The online version is edited the same way as aired, as evidenced by PTC's transcript, which showed that only the F-word in the song "Mother Lover" (originally by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg) was bleeped. However, the songs "Jizz in My Pants" and "Dick in a Box" were all uncensored even though NBC bleeped those words out on its original SNL broadcasts; common practice of broadcast networks like NBC is zero tolerance for words like "Dick" and stuff like that...even at 12 midnight!
And then: "The expletives just keep on rolling with the introduction of the “WTF Award.” Presenter Hayden Panitierre explains, “I know most of you are wondering, what the [bleeped “f***”] is the WTF Award? For those of you living in a cave, WTF means, ‘What the [bleeped “f***”].’”" (Amy Poehler won that award for a scene from her film Baby Mama in which she tries to perform a pregnancy test over a sink. Poehler's pre-taped thank-you message to the awards show also had a lot of bleeped words.) This just shows PTC's bleep-phobia. Also: "The musical performances were also filled with profanities. Eminem’s rendition of “Crack a Bottle” kept the censor’s thumb on the mute button with lyrics like, “Kiss my butt. Lick the fumunda cheese from under my [bleeped “n*ts”]… It’s a must I redeem my name n haters get mushed. [bleeped “b*tches”] lust. Man they love me when I lay in the cut.”" Yikes. MTV really wants to annoy parents or corrupt our youth!
But hold up. Apparently, PTC is making this look worse than they really seem. I watched Eminem's performance at the awards show, and it turns out you'd either have to be a super-skilled lip reader or look up the lyrics yourself to know what was muted out...and why can't the PTC distinguish between "bleep" and "mute" for crying out loud? Such prudes. The entire Movie Awards ceremony as seen on TV is available on MTV.com. Although PTC asserts that the "musical performances" are peppered with rancid language, the other major performer, Kings of Leon, had no cuss words at all in its performance of "Use Somebody". And then there's a comedic song "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions" by Samberg and Neil Diamond. That song uses only one use of "hell" and no other profanities.
PTC's press release notes that the show was rated "TV-14-DLSV", meaning (according to the official TV Parental Guidelines) unsuitable for children under 14, with pointed advisories regarding suggestive dialogue, crude language, sexual situations, and violent scenes. So what did it expect, total and cordial decency? Rather, PTC tests its shock value on certain parents: "MTV believes this content to be appropriate for a 14-year-old". That's the same argument it put forth when it asked its members/others to file FCC complaints against an episode of Family Guy back in March.
And did PTC even bother to care about which movies won at the awards ceremony? Based on Wikipedia's article about this year's awards I decided to see what PTC thought about the winners. Here's what PTC thought about Twilight, which won "Best Film" this year: "Twilight emphasizes chaste romance, loyalty and devotion between those in love, and an understanding of the need for acceptance of family and those who are different. Essentially a traditional Gothic romance updated for the 21st century, Twilight may not be to every parent’s taste; but its lack of sex and foul language and its (mostly) restrained violence make it an inoffensive choice for the romantically-minded teenager." (PTC also publishes Rod Gustafson's "Parenting and the Media" column; Gustafson differs in opinion though.) Robert Pattinson won "Best Male Breakthrough Performance" for his role in Twilight as well, and Twilight also won awards in "Best Kiss" and "Best Fight". And Ashley Tisdale won the Female counterpart of that award for her role in High School Musical 3: Senior Year, a PTC Seal of Approval winner. Heath Ledger wins posthumously for "Best Villain" in The Dark Knight, which PTC would rather rate closer to an R than the MPAA's "PG-13". And yet ANOTHER PTC Seal of Approval bearer gets high honors at the Movie Awards: Miley Cyrus's song "The Climb" from Hannah Montana: The Movie won "Best Song" at the awards, knocking out "Decode" by Paramore (Twilight), "Jai Ho" by A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), and "The Wrestler" by Bruce Springsteen (title track of a film). Shouldn't PTC have acknowledged those facts as well? No, there's this "cable choice" thing to push, and deceptively hiding potentially "cheerable" items will advance PTC's agenda.
I have pointed out other instances where PTC has cherry-picked facts to suit its pro-cable choice, anti-MTV/BET/FX/any cable channel that dares show TV-MA rated programming even after 10 p.m. agenda. For example, PTC has been silent regarding BET's syndication of Smart Guy, a show that it twice named among the best shows of the year. In April 2008, PTC released a report criticizing BET for playing rap music videos out of concern over misogynistic and other negative messages. It also refuses to point out that Seal of Approval-awarded movies have been shown on FX before alongside those 10pm-and-later TV-MA dramas that oh-so-frequently are the object of PTC's grievances. And I'm browsing PTC's "Worst Cable Content" archives and spot yet another one: MTV's DJ & the Fro, a revival of Beavis and Butt-Head that has the titular character humorously commenting on YouTube videos (B&BH did the same for music videos back in the 90s; it was a target of rather silly moral controversy as well because one five-year-old boy killed his two-year-old sister with fire, and his mother blamed B&BH's "pyromania".) PTC's scathing criticism on the show graphically quotes everything the PTC deems sleazy, and asserts: "It is worth mentioning that this show is on every weekday at 5:00 p.m. ET, just early enough for school-kids to tune in before Mom and Dad get home. If this show is the voice of the new generation (as it purports to be), then society is in trouble." (italics & underline theirs) So now MTV is out to get kids to burn their siblings to death again in the 2010s (it's 2009 for crying out loud!) Well not so fast: MTV rates the show TV-14, so I guess that parents who believe their teenage children should be sheltered from all things evil till college should be the only ones concerned here.
21 June 2009
China, Iran, 20 years apart, same cause
June 4, 1989: Various college students and some ex-Communist Party members and others clash with the Chinese military after nearly one and a half months of protest for democracy. Soldiers wound and kill thousands and thousands of people. An uncooperative, secretive government prevents an exact number from being calculated. The academic and human rights community hasn't figured it out yet. As of today, the People's Republic of China has yet to become fully democratic, still, and it still downplays or bluntly denies the extent of the Tiananmen massacre.
June 21, 2009: Upset over the election of anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-American, bigoted, nutty dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran despite warnings from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Like the 1989 Tiananment protests, the military intervenes with firing squads and all that, and within a day there are 19 confirmed deaths and 150 unconfirmed.
June 21, 2009: Upset over the election of anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-American, bigoted, nutty dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran despite warnings from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Like the 1989 Tiananment protests, the military intervenes with firing squads and all that, and within a day there are 19 confirmed deaths and 150 unconfirmed.
12 May 2009
What if instead of the SAT...
...colleges instead relied on one's IQ score, the more definitive measure of intelligence and college readiness? Given the achivement gaps and flawed essay, I feel that the SAT is more of a money-making scheme for the College Board bigwigs to take weekend vacations to Atlantic City sipping on French wine than any reasonable measure of merit.
And yes, I've heard of Christopher Langan.
And yes, I've heard of Christopher Langan.
02 May 2009
More on "Southland"
Broadcasting & Cable has just reported that NBC will renew it for a second season. And the Parents Television Council's grievance against the show only tempted me more to watch it. PTC is concerned that The Jay Leno Show that'll take every weeknight 10pm (9pm central) timeslot might move Southland to an earlier timeslot..."as early as 8 p.m. in the Central/Mountain time zone" in their own words. PTC also pointed out that Southland has some bleeped words.
Well excuse me PTC, but I can name a LOT of other violent shows that air in the first 2 hours of primetime: Prison Break, 24, NCIS, CSI, and Flashpoint. So what's so surprising about Southland airing at an earlier time given that a lot of other shows have such violence and bleeping (Big Brother anyone?)
Well excuse me PTC, but I can name a LOT of other violent shows that air in the first 2 hours of primetime: Prison Break, 24, NCIS, CSI, and Flashpoint. So what's so surprising about Southland airing at an earlier time given that a lot of other shows have such violence and bleeping (Big Brother anyone?)
01 May 2009
Senior week, AP exams
- Monday was the only regular school day this week. Because the underclassmen all were taking state standardised testing the seniors had activities and stuff this week.
- Tuesday: Administration and class officers gave presentation about end of the year activities such as the senior picnic, senior prom, and graduation ceremony. Because the class of 2006 was such troublemakers, the officers struggled with the principal over letting us go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo for the picnic. Finally, the principal and leadership compromised that either we behave well or not go at all. I'm not going to the picnic; it costs $35 by the way if anyone wants to know, and instead I'll either find some work to do that day or show up to school and sleep (just so that the state gives the school a few thousand more dollars just because I stepped in the door). Also, the class president used the current recession to promote discounted prom prices that take place the week before the week of prom. It's not a big difference though ($5 for singles, $10 for couples), but hey, at least it was a pretty cool marketing tool. I'll write about prom a bit later. The only class I had that day wasn't really a class; it was a teacher's assistance period, the period I usually get to help out for a few minutes, sleep, study, and catch up on procrastination. After school was calculus homework center and a baseball game where Evergreen Valley came from behind to win 4-2 over Mt. Pleasant.
- Wednesday: The class took panoramic pictures out in the stadium. Because the seniors were being uncooperative, impatient, and all nasty it took about 30 minutes to set up the stadium. Given how my school is bursting at the seams of students it was tough to set up the picture so that every student could be seen and not cut off. After the photo, an African musical group called Tabia did a guest performance. A catering company provided barbeque for lunch, with salad and roasted chicken. Unfortunately, the state's nutrition laws forbid soft drinks/"non-nutritious" food/drink to be served anytime during the school day, so the only drink the caterers could provide was water. How ironic it was to celebrate graduation from high school with lack of freedom. >:( But oh well; I have the choice to buy my own soda if I feel like it. Again, this was a one-period only day, consisting of English class.
- Thursday: The counselors gave a presentation about graduation requirements and diplomas. Yeah, since I'm a pretty smart student with all beyond-passing grades I didn't really care for it, which's the reason why I nearly forgot about today! Afterwards there were three class periods: Third (calculus), fourth (band), and fifth (economics). It was my first official 3:00 dismissal since...er junior year I believe, since this year since I don't have 7th period I normally get off school at 2:10 or earlier. After school I went to Jamba Juice for the school band fundraiser, ordered a peach perfection. Finally when I got home I watched my DVR'ed copy of the premiere of NBC's new cop show Southland, about the LAPD dealing with gang crime and such in South Central Los Angeles. Surprisingly, it stars Benjamin McKenzie, who played Ryan Atwood in teen soap opera The O.C. from 2003-2007, as main character Officer Ben Sherman! I didn't even do a background check on the show; I just DVR'ed the show to compare it with ABC's new show about NYPD, The Unusuals. Both are good TV, but I seem to like Southland better (I've seen the pilots of both shows).
- Friday: Two San Jose Police officers came to do a presentation on responsibility for the law based on a story about a young man who was locked up for two years since turning 18, for a DUI/murder. That was ordinary, but in the end when the officers took students' questions hell began to break loose. Some students' questions covered bulletproof vests, use of weapons, and disposal of evidence, but then some idiots had the audacity to ask if cops smoked weed or distributed confiscated narcotics amongst themselves. They obfuscated my proposed question about whether lowering the drinking age to 18 would help/hurt the DUI issues. (back in February, Lesley Stahl of CBS News's 60 Minutes did a story about this) So I asked a bunch of friends and the campus police officer about the issue; the campus police officer said that the 21 age limit saves lives and that lowering the drinking age would cause HUGE problems at first but the "sin value" (sin as in misbehaviour, not sine as you math geeks would think) of it would decrease so yeah. After that the senior class presented a photo slideshow, and a chef from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco demonstrated cooking risotto (italian rice) for us. Finally, after lunch we picked up our graduation caps/gowns, which took a couple hours given how many of us there are. My AP Government teacher cancelled his study session today because he was surprisingly called in for supervision. But oh well, he gave me some study materials, and I'll do a lot of studying this weekend. I was a bit pissed to learn that this year the counselors enforce a "no backpacks" policy for AP Exams this year because of...you guessed it...a bunch of no good !@#$%^&*() cheaters. Since I have a research paper about the Beat Generation due that day, I'll have to rush to get it to my teacher before I take the exam. I bike to school and am trying NOT to carry a backpack on Monday for the Gov. exam, so all I'll do is put my pencils, eraser, and USB disk (I'll be presenting a powerpoint to class Monday) in my pockets and slide my English paper in a manila envelope to deliver to my teacher through the school office. Of course, there's also something called e-mail.
Next week is going to be HECTIC compared to this one. First, schedules resume to normal times, yay? Second, I have AP Exams on Monday the 4th (U.S. Government/Politics) and Wednesday the 6th (Calculus BC). On Monday, baseball game vs. Prospect; Friday baseball game vs. Willow Glen. I'm sure the EV Cougars will win these given I've seen them win against them in the past. GO COUGARS! And also I need to start planning for prom and preparing for a summer job since I work as cashier for the school lunch line and the school year's ending soon.
- Tuesday: Administration and class officers gave presentation about end of the year activities such as the senior picnic, senior prom, and graduation ceremony. Because the class of 2006 was such troublemakers, the officers struggled with the principal over letting us go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo for the picnic. Finally, the principal and leadership compromised that either we behave well or not go at all. I'm not going to the picnic; it costs $35 by the way if anyone wants to know, and instead I'll either find some work to do that day or show up to school and sleep (just so that the state gives the school a few thousand more dollars just because I stepped in the door). Also, the class president used the current recession to promote discounted prom prices that take place the week before the week of prom. It's not a big difference though ($5 for singles, $10 for couples), but hey, at least it was a pretty cool marketing tool. I'll write about prom a bit later. The only class I had that day wasn't really a class; it was a teacher's assistance period, the period I usually get to help out for a few minutes, sleep, study, and catch up on procrastination. After school was calculus homework center and a baseball game where Evergreen Valley came from behind to win 4-2 over Mt. Pleasant.
- Wednesday: The class took panoramic pictures out in the stadium. Because the seniors were being uncooperative, impatient, and all nasty it took about 30 minutes to set up the stadium. Given how my school is bursting at the seams of students it was tough to set up the picture so that every student could be seen and not cut off. After the photo, an African musical group called Tabia did a guest performance. A catering company provided barbeque for lunch, with salad and roasted chicken. Unfortunately, the state's nutrition laws forbid soft drinks/"non-nutritious" food/drink to be served anytime during the school day, so the only drink the caterers could provide was water. How ironic it was to celebrate graduation from high school with lack of freedom. >:( But oh well; I have the choice to buy my own soda if I feel like it. Again, this was a one-period only day, consisting of English class.
- Thursday: The counselors gave a presentation about graduation requirements and diplomas. Yeah, since I'm a pretty smart student with all beyond-passing grades I didn't really care for it, which's the reason why I nearly forgot about today! Afterwards there were three class periods: Third (calculus), fourth (band), and fifth (economics). It was my first official 3:00 dismissal since...er junior year I believe, since this year since I don't have 7th period I normally get off school at 2:10 or earlier. After school I went to Jamba Juice for the school band fundraiser, ordered a peach perfection. Finally when I got home I watched my DVR'ed copy of the premiere of NBC's new cop show Southland, about the LAPD dealing with gang crime and such in South Central Los Angeles. Surprisingly, it stars Benjamin McKenzie, who played Ryan Atwood in teen soap opera The O.C. from 2003-2007, as main character Officer Ben Sherman! I didn't even do a background check on the show; I just DVR'ed the show to compare it with ABC's new show about NYPD, The Unusuals. Both are good TV, but I seem to like Southland better (I've seen the pilots of both shows).
- Friday: Two San Jose Police officers came to do a presentation on responsibility for the law based on a story about a young man who was locked up for two years since turning 18, for a DUI/murder. That was ordinary, but in the end when the officers took students' questions hell began to break loose. Some students' questions covered bulletproof vests, use of weapons, and disposal of evidence, but then some idiots had the audacity to ask if cops smoked weed or distributed confiscated narcotics amongst themselves. They obfuscated my proposed question about whether lowering the drinking age to 18 would help/hurt the DUI issues. (back in February, Lesley Stahl of CBS News's 60 Minutes did a story about this) So I asked a bunch of friends and the campus police officer about the issue; the campus police officer said that the 21 age limit saves lives and that lowering the drinking age would cause HUGE problems at first but the "sin value" (sin as in misbehaviour, not sine as you math geeks would think) of it would decrease so yeah. After that the senior class presented a photo slideshow, and a chef from the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco demonstrated cooking risotto (italian rice) for us. Finally, after lunch we picked up our graduation caps/gowns, which took a couple hours given how many of us there are. My AP Government teacher cancelled his study session today because he was surprisingly called in for supervision. But oh well, he gave me some study materials, and I'll do a lot of studying this weekend. I was a bit pissed to learn that this year the counselors enforce a "no backpacks" policy for AP Exams this year because of...you guessed it...a bunch of no good !@#$%^&*() cheaters. Since I have a research paper about the Beat Generation due that day, I'll have to rush to get it to my teacher before I take the exam. I bike to school and am trying NOT to carry a backpack on Monday for the Gov. exam, so all I'll do is put my pencils, eraser, and USB disk (I'll be presenting a powerpoint to class Monday) in my pockets and slide my English paper in a manila envelope to deliver to my teacher through the school office. Of course, there's also something called e-mail.
Next week is going to be HECTIC compared to this one. First, schedules resume to normal times, yay? Second, I have AP Exams on Monday the 4th (U.S. Government/Politics) and Wednesday the 6th (Calculus BC). On Monday, baseball game vs. Prospect; Friday baseball game vs. Willow Glen. I'm sure the EV Cougars will win these given I've seen them win against them in the past. GO COUGARS! And also I need to start planning for prom and preparing for a summer job since I work as cashier for the school lunch line and the school year's ending soon.
08 April 2009
The recession and violent crime (updated)
With the economy in recession since the banks failed back in the fall, the War in Iraq draining millions or billions of dollars daily from the government's budget, and jobs disappearing as time goes by, there seems to be a spike of violent crime--at least in the world of the news media.
On Feb. 15, an NBC Nightly News report covered funding cuts for various American police departments
Examples:
- Nov. 16, 2008: Computer engineer Jing Hua Wu, who was laid off from his job at Santa Clara semiconductor company SiPort, kills SiPort CEO Sid Agrawal, vice president of operations Brian Pugh, and human resources head Marilyn Lewis.
- Feb. 8, 2009: R&B singer Chris Brown assaults girlfriend/singer Rihanna, gets arrested, and will be arraigned on Monday, Apr. 6. This incident was the subject of non-stop discussion that month, and Rihanna cancelled her Grammy Award performance on that day because of the attack. Brown pled not guilty.
- March 8, 2009: Rev. Fred Winters is shot to death during a sermon.
- March 10, 2009: Murder-suicide in Alabama
- March 20, 2009: Following hateful/destructive vandalism, threats of a school shooting circulated the Internet last night. That led the majority of students not to show up at Evergreen Valley High School today. During the same week, rumors spread about gang initiation meetings
- March 21, 2009: In a shootout, high-school dropout and parolee Lovelle Mixon kills four Oakland police officers before being shot dead himself.
- March 29, 2009: Devan Kalathat murders four family members and wounds his wife; after the shooting he kills himself.
- April 3, 2009: Vietnamese immigrant Jiverly Wong (born Voong) shoots dead two people at a Binghamton, N.Y. immigration center. He recently lost a job.
- April 4, 2009: Richard Poplawski shoots three Pittsburgh police officers to death and wounds two others when they came responding to a domestic dispute call. Poplawski was expelled from Catholic high school and joined the Marines to seek his GED. At least he's now in custody.
- Later that day, a father in Seattle killed all five of his children and committed suicide. His name is James Harrison.
- April 7: Another murder-suicide, this time in Alabama, but not related to the older one
- April 9: Gunman kills one, injures three at Korean Christian retreat in Riverside County, Calif.; armed man in police pursuit over three felony warrants disrupts traffic in I-80 near Lake Tahoe, Calif.
- April 11: Sunday School teacher Melissa Huckaby is arrested for the murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who'd been missing since March 27 and found dead April 6. Rennie Pratt is arrested for allegedly murdering her boyfriend, Oakland attorney Michael Porcella last night.
- This weekend two of the network news magazines did stories on gun policy: CBS's "60 Minutes" and ABC's "20/20"
- April 16: Hospital worker kills two co-workers & himself; 8- and 10-year old boys arrested for armed robbery attempt
- April 17: In Cupertino, Calif.: Couple attacked, with husband severly injured and wife killed; two fifth-graders in San Jose are suspended for a failed "stabbing-for-hire". A man is stabbed on his way to the food store and is identified a week later as Enrique Flores.
- April 24: "A man was shot and killed in East Oakland in broad daylight Friday in the city's fourth homicide in a week, police said."
- April 25: Marketing professor George Zinkhan of the University of Georgia is a suspect in an off-campus shooting.
- April 26: Children hit by gunfire in Oakland
- more?
On Feb. 15, an NBC Nightly News report covered funding cuts for various American police departments
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Examples:
- Nov. 16, 2008: Computer engineer Jing Hua Wu, who was laid off from his job at Santa Clara semiconductor company SiPort, kills SiPort CEO Sid Agrawal, vice president of operations Brian Pugh, and human resources head Marilyn Lewis.
- Feb. 8, 2009: R&B singer Chris Brown assaults girlfriend/singer Rihanna, gets arrested, and will be arraigned on Monday, Apr. 6. This incident was the subject of non-stop discussion that month, and Rihanna cancelled her Grammy Award performance on that day because of the attack. Brown pled not guilty.
- March 8, 2009: Rev. Fred Winters is shot to death during a sermon.
- March 10, 2009: Murder-suicide in Alabama
- March 20, 2009: Following hateful/destructive vandalism, threats of a school shooting circulated the Internet last night. That led the majority of students not to show up at Evergreen Valley High School today. During the same week, rumors spread about gang initiation meetings
- March 21, 2009: In a shootout, high-school dropout and parolee Lovelle Mixon kills four Oakland police officers before being shot dead himself.
- March 29, 2009: Devan Kalathat murders four family members and wounds his wife; after the shooting he kills himself.
- April 3, 2009: Vietnamese immigrant Jiverly Wong (born Voong) shoots dead two people at a Binghamton, N.Y. immigration center. He recently lost a job.
- April 4, 2009: Richard Poplawski shoots three Pittsburgh police officers to death and wounds two others when they came responding to a domestic dispute call. Poplawski was expelled from Catholic high school and joined the Marines to seek his GED. At least he's now in custody.
- Later that day, a father in Seattle killed all five of his children and committed suicide. His name is James Harrison.
- April 7: Another murder-suicide, this time in Alabama, but not related to the older one
- April 9: Gunman kills one, injures three at Korean Christian retreat in Riverside County, Calif.; armed man in police pursuit over three felony warrants disrupts traffic in I-80 near Lake Tahoe, Calif.
- April 11: Sunday School teacher Melissa Huckaby is arrested for the murder of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who'd been missing since March 27 and found dead April 6. Rennie Pratt is arrested for allegedly murdering her boyfriend, Oakland attorney Michael Porcella last night.
- This weekend two of the network news magazines did stories on gun policy: CBS's "60 Minutes" and ABC's "20/20"
- April 16: Hospital worker kills two co-workers & himself; 8- and 10-year old boys arrested for armed robbery attempt
- April 17: In Cupertino, Calif.: Couple attacked, with husband severly injured and wife killed; two fifth-graders in San Jose are suspended for a failed "stabbing-for-hire". A man is stabbed on his way to the food store and is identified a week later as Enrique Flores.
- April 24: "A man was shot and killed in East Oakland in broad daylight Friday in the city's fourth homicide in a week, police said."
- April 25: Marketing professor George Zinkhan of the University of Georgia is a suspect in an off-campus shooting.
- April 26: Children hit by gunfire in Oakland
- more?
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