Journal 12

Illegal Immigration

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|EJ3010535218&mode=view

I think this can be a great topic to write about because it is so open ended. There are many different views on how to deal with the problem and so many questions to ask; should we send the illegal immigrants back to Mexico? Let them come in? Arrest them? How do keep illegal immigrants out (a giant wall?) How much money should the government spend? Should we try and stop illegal immigrants even though they have a large impact on our economy? And what should we do with illegal immigrants already set up in the country? There are so many different things to look at since there are so many different aspects and disagreements within the topic.

Net Neutrality

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-101

Net neutrality is the principle that no internet user is restricted from viewing internet sites or using internet communication by an internet service provider or by the government. I think this is a good topic because the internet is something that is a pretty big part of all of our lives and a fairly new topic. If net neutrally is restricted, it may completely change how people use the internet and not make the internet a “free market” anymore.

Journal 11

Original:

Life in prison is seen as the alternative to the death penalty. It is used for crimes less than murder, such as drug charges or other violent offenses, in addition to murder cases. While it is believed that the death penalty is less expensive than putting someone in prison for life, it is not actually true. The death penalty costs state governments hundreds of millions of dollars more than life imprisonment. For death penalty verdicts, millions extra are spent on an expensive second trial, new witnesses, jury selections, and the actual execution process. Eliminating the 15 to 20 year appeals process would decrease costs, but that increases the chances of innocent people being executed, plus most of the costs of a death penalty case come from the trial and pre-trial. Compared to keeping a criminal in prison for life, putting them on death row is much more expensive.

Revised:

Life imprisonment is seen as the best alternative to the death penalty. People who commit murder or other serious crimes less severe than murder, such as major drug crimes or other violent offenses, can be sentenced to life in prison. Many proponents of the death penalty believe that keeping criminals in jail for life is more expensive than executing them, but the opposite is actually true. A death penalty costs state governments hundreds of millions of dollars more than life imprisonment sentence. For death penalty verdicts, millions extra are spent on an expensive second trial, new witnesses, jury selections, and the actual execution process. In Florida, keeping inmates on death row costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. In California, death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year in addition to the cost of imprisoning criminals for life and each execution that has occurs ends up costing on average about $250 million per case (“High Cost of Death Row”.) Eliminating the 15 to 20 year appeals process would decrease the cost of the death penalty, but that increases the chances of innocent people being wrongfully executed. Also, most of the costs of a death penalty case come from the trial and pre-trial. Even if the costs of capital punishment were able to be reduced greatly, the death penalty would still end up costing millions more than imprisoning someone for life.

Journal 10

“High Cost of Death Row.” Editorial. The New York Times. 28 September 2009. A22.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/opinion/28mon3.html?_r=1

In this article the author says that in addition to other reasons, the death penalty should be abolished because of the great costs on state governments which already have depleted budgets. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on death penalty verdicts, which include an expensive second trial, new witnesses and, jury selections. Prisons that hold death row inmates also cost more because of extra security and maintenance costs. Eliminating the 15 to 20 year appeals process would decrease costs, but that increases the chances of innocent people being executed, plus most of the costs of a death penalty case come from the trial and pre-trial. Compared to keeping a criminal in prison for life, putting them on death row is much more expensive. For example, keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. In California, death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year in addition to the cost of imprisoning criminals for life. Also in California, a state that is having great economic trouble, 13 people have been executed since 1976. Even though this may seem like a small number compared to other states, each execution process ended up costing on average about $250 million per case. This money can be better spent on other things, such as police officers and improving prisons. Some states that have the death penalty have recently attempted to replace it with life without parole, but only one state, New Mexico, has succeeded.

This article is constructed by giving many economic reasons for why the death penalty should be abolished, such as how the process costs states a lot of money for each case. The author uses many specific examples, such as how death penalty cases cost Florida $51 million per year, North Carolina $2.16 million per case, Maryland $186 million for five cases, and California $250 million per case.

I think it is a convincing argument because the author states his opinion and then backs it up with a lot specific facts and numbers that support his argument. By showing how much extra money the death penalty costs states by using specific amounts, it is much easier to visualize why the death penalty is so expensive. It is also very hard for someone who supports the death penalty to counter and say that it is economical since the author clearly states how much more the death penalty costs compared to keeping someone in prison for life.

From this article, I can say in my thesis statement that I don’t support the death penalty because it costs states a lot of extra money compared to sentencing someone to life in prison and that money can be used on many other better things. Some of the information I may want to quote are the specific amounts of money that the death penalty costs in certain states and the number of people those states executed. I also may want to cite some of the information about states that have attempted to or succeed in abolishing the death penalty.

War in Iraq and Afghanistan

This article talks about how the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, once the most important topic in U.S. politics, has become somewhat unmentioned. Democrats are still somewhat divided on the war, and republicans are unified together and with President Obama in support of sending more troops, but neither really want to debate about the war. I think that although certain topics like the economomy are the most important right now, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are still going on and still be an important issue until they are officially over.

End the War on Pot

This article says that the ban on marijuana is failing and is doing much more harm than if it was legal. Because it is illegal, it is costing the government billions of dollars for anti-drug policies and for arresting and prosecuting drug offenders. If pot was made legal, the government would save those billions of dollars, plus make billions more through taxing it. The only problem with legalization is that there need to be laws put into effect so that no one is able to drive under the influence, which could end up being as dangerous as drunk driving.

Ban on Texting While Driving

This article says that a very large amount of people support a ban on texting while driving. I am in full support of this idea, as texting while driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do while driving. I do not think, though, that people should be charged the same as drunk driving, as that seems a little extreme since they are not impaired the whole time.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/us/politics/29war.html?_r=1&hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opinion/28kristof.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02textingside.html?_r=1&ref=newyorktimes-poll-watch

Journal 8

Google:



Google has a very clean and minimalistic home page that displays only important features and has a lot of open, empty space. The only image on the page, the Google logo, is placed right in the middle of the page and takes up the most space out of any of the other links on the page. The basic Google logo is displayed on most days, but on holidays and special occasions, the logo changes into a more artistic version representing whatever event is taking place. A small bar runs along the top of the page which gives links to search features such as images, videos, maps, news, shopping, and Gmail. Right in the middle of the page below the Google logo is the search bar with two search buttons. To the right of that are two small option links, and below the search bar are some more links. Since most of Google’s features, such as news stories, images, and videos, are presented as links (which are small in size) instead of the content actually being posted on the main page, less content is shown in order to make the site appear as neat and organized as possible.

Yahoo:



Yahoo’s main page has a large amount of the site’s content and links available on it. Along the top of the page is the search bar with other links above it, such as images, videos, shopping, and more. The rest of the page has much more content than Google’s main page. Along the left side of the page are 18 links (with small icons) to parts of the Yahoo site, such as maps, mail, finance, dating, horoscopes, music, sports, and much more. Most of the page is taken up by news stories, pictures from the news stories, Yahoo “trends,” and picture links to popular videos. There is little free space on the page like Google’s site, but much more content, like links to news stories and pictures are given. As a result, the page appears much more cluttered compared to Google’s “minimalistic” approach.

Journal 7

Last Wednesday, the TV show South Park returned to Comedy Central with the second half of its 14th season. I chose to evaluate South Park because it is a popular show that has had a large amount of controversies and its episodes still remain relevant with every season. South Park has remained a very popular show since its beginning. So far, it has aired 203 episodes and has been renewed for a 15th season. In 1999, a South Park movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released and was a box-office hit and received great reviews. The TV show has also won four Emmy awards and a Peabody Award for Comedy Central. Although popularity and awards show how well the show is received, the most important thing for a comedy is how funny the show is.
While some episodes cause almost non-stop laughs and others have only a few funny moments, South Park has had consistently funny episodes over its span. One of the reasons I think this is true is because it uses a very wide range of jokes. Some are really simple jokes, like killing off the character Kenny in ridiculous ways in many of the early episodes, or more complex jokes, like an episode that uses comedy to show how “Wall-Mart” can destroy small businesses and take over an entire town. Another reason South Park is so funny is because it uses satire to make fun of current events. Episodes of South Park are able to be created very quickly; usually an episode takes only a week to be made. Because of this, episodes are able to be very relevant to current events, which make the jokes about the events much funnier. For example, an episode about the results of the 2008 presidential election was released less than 24 hours after Barack Obama was declared the winner.
Another reason why South Park is a consistently good show is because it covers an extremely wide range of topics. South Park’s episodes have centered around just about everything , including alien abductions, the kids building a clubhouse, rainforests, Saddam Hussein, child abduction, illegal immigrants, hippies, global warming, Tourette’s syndrome, Guitar Hero, Canada, Facebook, and even a giant mechanized Barbara Streisand. Since the creators of the show are able to make episodes about so many topics, the show is able to stay interesting and avoid becoming boring or not funny.
Since the show’s creation, it has created many controversies and is considered one of the most controversial shows on TV. Besides the large amount of profanity and violence that revolves around a group of fourth-graders, the show has had many episodes about sensitive topics. While some episodes may upset people, the creators are not afraid to explore most topics, and since the show is on Comedy Central and rated TV-MA, the show is rarely censored. One show I could compare South Park is Family Guy. Both are comedy cartoons that revolve around a group of families and other characters and have had many ridiculous episode topics and controversial episodes. Also, there were a group of South Park episodes that revolved around making fun of Family Guy, which shows that while Family Guy, a show on prime-time Fox, is not able to get away with as much as South Park, they are still both easily compared.

Journal 6

1.) Opening Scene:
-It’s a Wednesday night around 10:00 and Dillon Gentekos locks up his friend’s bike outside of Tener Hall and goes inside
-The next day Dillon gets a text from his friend saying he can’t find his bike.
-“Please tell me you didn’t lock it through the wheel.”
-“Ok, I’ll look around some more.”
- The bike is gone and all that is left behind is the bike lock

2.) “It really ruined his day. It really ruined my day because now I owe him 300 bucks.”

3.) Nut Graph:
- I am writing about crime and safety at East Halls. I chose this issue because it is something that affects everyone at Penn State and is a serious issue for students and Penn State administration.
- My audience should care about this issue because it is something that they see and have to deal with every day.
- Recently there have been multiple reports of theft and indecent exposure in East residence halls, so it is an issue that is very relevant.
- “The Penn State Police Department will increase police officer and student auxiliary officer patrols on campus in response to a string of indecent exposure incidents reported in the residence halls.”

4.) Background:
- Safety has been a concern for the school for many years.
- “Safety on campus is one of the highest concerns.” – Graham Spanier
- The school has put much effort into safety measures, such as I.D. cards, lockdowns of residence halls, room keys, police patrols, lighting up walkways at night, and education programs.
- “Before the 24-hour lockdowns on residence halls and I.D. cards, the male resident halls were never locked.” – Officer Frank Ball of the Penn State Police Department (25 years at Penn State)
- “Bands of thieves would go around the residence halls and push on the doors. If they opened and no one was there, they would take anything they wanted.”
- I can use specific statistics about crime on campus to show how often crimes are reported.

5.) Common Crimes on Campus:
- Theft, alcohol laws, and drug laws are the biggest reported crimes on campus.
- Two burglaries have already been reported in East Halls this year.
- Bike thefts have greatly increased recently
- “Bike theft, for some reason, has been huge in the past year. The numbers of bikes reported stolen have skyrocketed.” – Officer Ball

6.) Crime and Safety in East Halls:
- “I think East Halls are generally pretty safe, there really isn’t that much crime. I mean, there’s always something going on, but never really anything major.” – Ryan Blatz, 4th year student, RA at Pennypacker Hall
- “Not really. Actually, East is less safe than the other resident halls because of all of the freshman here that are more likely to commit crimes than other students.” – Ryan
- East Halls are actually “the biggest area of concern” for the campus police. Most police calls come from east.
- Most people on campus in one area, more freshman – “new people”
-Use statistics about crime: how they have increased or decreased over years and how they compare to other places on campus.

7.) Safety Measures/ Crime Prevention:
- I.D. card system used to get into residence halls.
- “It works very well and has helped in a lot of ways.” – Officer Ball
- Piggybacking – someone letting into a residence hall behind them, whether they live in that residence hall or not – allows for anyone to get into a protected residence hall
- “It is a big problem. It’s just so natural do and so easy.” – Officer Ball
- Locking room doors can prevent a lot of crime such as theft.
- Logan, 1st year student left room unlocked by accident and roommate got mad: “He got really upset about it.”
- Lighted walkways are very important at night.
- Emergency phones are actually being taken out because of cell phones and cell phone tracking
- Crime prevention education programs are available from the campus police
-Ways to prevent crime: “Always lock your doors, even if you’re just going to the bathroom. Never leave your things behind and watch your alcohol consumption.” – Officer Ball

8.) Conclusion:
- Safety is a big issue at Penn State for both students and the school.
- Much can be done to prevent crime by students, faculty, and the police
- More things are being done to help prevent crime in the future, such as new safety measures like increased police patrols and more security cameras