That is a good question but I feel like there is a simple answer to it. You said that when a family member passes away it affects us directly, but when three hundred thousand Haitians die it is on the news for a week and we think about it for a little bit but it does not affect us as much. If one of my family members were to pass away I would take time off because it is going to affect my mindset for a while. I will not be able to think straight. My family will come together and bring each other comfort and in time we will get through our times of sorrow together. As for the matter of three-hundred thousand Haitians dying in a tragic earthquake it is not going to affect me as much because I do not know any of them. It is hard to mourn the loss of three-hundred thousand people that you do not know. If it was maybe one person, somebody beloved by all, it would probably hit harder on me, but still not as much as a family member. For example, when Wellington Mara, the New York Giants General Manager and team owner, died it kind of hit me a little bit because I am I die-heart Giants fan, but I still did not think about it for weeks. If you want to help a whole nation like Haiti, I feel like it is up for the U.S. government to take the initiative and help out the country. If that means raising the taxes, then we should raise taxes. The government is the one corporation that has the power to make everyone help in a crisis situation. The problem is, if the government does get involved and raise taxes they are going to make many Americans mad, but why do Americans always ask why can’t we help Haiti? Well if we do then the government is going to make up really upset because they are taking your “hard-work” tax dollars. Like Sam said in class, America is very stingy with their money, and I really do not like that about America. I do not like politics, I do not like people who have the power to do something and sit and do nothing (I don’t know if I have the capability, but I’m probably being a hypocrite because I probably do), I do not like a lot of things about America. Haiti’s situation is very unfortunate and I really hope their country will soon recover from their tragedy and hopefully soon. Therefore, in the end it is hard to mourn the loss of a whole nation and it is even harder trying to figure out how to help a whole nation. I’m not the kind of person who will take the initiative to help a whole nation. I feel that I don’t have the power. Does this make me, does it make us bad people if we don’t help, or don’t know how to help?

Going into this lecture I was told it was going to be the best of the year, so rightly so I was so pumped to go to lecture to hear what Sam had to say. I did not know that he was going to turn us all into Arab Muslims. They way he went about this topic, I feel, was a great way, if not the best way to approach it. He made everyone understand. So many hands went up to say that they would raise up and fight against the “Christian Invaders,” better known as Americans. We are the Americans! He successful converted the whole class, for an hour, into believing that the Americans were bad people. After he showed the first video about the Jihad wanting to destroy Americans, my mind started to think right away. I thought to myself, there is a reason Sam is showing us this video, and it is not for us to get angrier and the Jihad. He also showed the photo of the Arab children holding the guns and I am sure everyone thought that these Arab people are crazy, grouping them as a whole instead of, like Sam said, seeing that they were probably just a couple knuckleheads in their country. Every country has their own special group of knuckleheads because that is just how it is. Not everyone is going to model their country as it should be. For example, when he showed us the video of the American soldiers picking on the Iraqi citizens I felt so sorry for those people. After seeing that one video I immediately understand where the Iraqi citizens, good citizens, are coming from. I understand why they want to fight us. And Politicians just rub me the wrong way. I cannot bear them anymore. They’re just a bunch of liars, all of them. They successfully switch around words and change citizens minds into believing everything that they want to do is always going to make us the good guys.

What I got out of this class was that, when you looked through a different lens, the Arab lens, you can see where they are coming from and why they have so much anger towards us, the Americans. Everyone wants to believe that America is the best and nicest country in the world, but after watching and hearing what all the politicians had to say, I do not know how people could think that anymore. I just really do not like politicians. American is a great country, there are tons of good, great people in this country, but politicians are not one of them. And for anyone who says that Obama is changing everything and making this country better, that’s a bunch of bs. All politicians are liars and that’s what my minds wrapped around at this moment. Overall, I thought the lecture was pretty good, I feel like it was hyped up too much, but I do now understand what Sam was telling us. I understand the anger.

Honestly, I do take in to consideration of what Sam says. He gives a lot of interesting facts and stats that I would never have thought about until I stepped foot in this class. And he makes his cases based off those facts. Yes, I am not going to agree with everything Sam has to say, but that does not mean that I am not going to listen to what he has to say. I am still going to hear his viewpoint on a particular subject and not just block him out. For example, there are times where Sam makes us feel bad for things like Nepotism, and I do not appreciate that. It seemed like he was telling us that we have to “earn” our own jobs and not let a family member or someone we know help us. Sam admitted that the only job that he ever “earned” by himself was his current job. A couple minutes later it seemed like he was talking down to us seemingly saying that nepotism was not a true way of earning a position. It just seemed that he thinks he is better than us and he may be, but not because he earned one job on his own.

To be honest though he did change my thought about nepotism (I didn’t even know what I was called before class on Thursday). Before that class I always thought that the way to get a good job and get ahead in life was to know people. My parents always tell me that if you know people you will get far in life. They also say that if you have a good personality you will get far in life too. So either people need to know you or really like you if you want to get where you want. After the nepotism class Sam definitely changed my viewpoint. Now I think that if you know an insider that gets you a job then that is a pretty shitty way of getting that job. Regardless if Sam wanted us to think this way or not, I now do. So I think that answers the first question; Sam does change my opinions even though sometimes I may not agree with him.

About anything making a difference to me, I do think this class and Sam have made a significant difference. Before this class I feel like I had blinders on and was not seeing the world around me. Now I catch myself thinking about certain things that pertain to race relations and I believe that has made me a better person. And to be honest, to be COMPLETELY honest, this class provides so much information and it has so many topics worth thinking about, that if people truly believe that this class has not even slightly changed their opinion or made a little bit of a difference then they must be really stubborn.

After watching the video of the little children choosing between the different colored dolls, I felt so bad for the little kids because it is not their fault that they think the white doll looks better. It’s because of society that the little kids are forced to think like that. It is sad to see what the children think because they really should embrace their skin, their heritage, their hair, and everything else about themselves. And that does not go just for African-Americans, everybody in the whole world should love themselves because you are never going to be able to change yourself. Society makes everybody in the universe feel crappy about themselves, but it is funny that nobody in “society” likes themselves. Everyone seems to hate at least one thing about themselves, whether it’d be their voice, their race, their skin color, their weight, so therefore nobody is perfect. And nobody should be perfect because what is perfect? If there was a definition of perfection in society then I do not know how the world would be, probably not as great as it is now. There are so many different cultures and races in the world and each one has its own interesting story.

I know when these kids get older they will realize that their skin color is beautiful and they will embrace it, but it is just a shame that these kids can’t enjoy their childhood because they are too busy thinking they are not good enough for society. Until then we should really let them know that whoever you are, white, black, blue, green, or orange, everybody is equally beautiful and has something special about them. This is a sign that the world has changed as much as we thought yet. We still need to work on accepting everybody and everything. And we really need to embrace all cultures instead of just one. When we googled the word “beauty” it spoke volumes to see that all the results came up with pictures of white girls. People always say it is not what is on the outside that matters; it is what is on the inside. Growing up I did not really listen to that statement. In high school I would always worry about my image, but now that I am in college I feel like my eyes and thoughts have experienced a lot more. I feel like I know more about myself and what is going on around me. With age I will continue to gain more knowledge about myself and about society. These little kids will soon learn that both dolls are equally beautiful and neither is a bad doll or a good doll. In the end everybody, even little kids, should realize that everything and everybody in the universe should never be taken for granted. Everything in life provides a special meaning and people should never be worried about themselves. Everybody should love their body, their mind, and everything about themselves.

To be honest with you, I’m kind of surprised Sam doesn’t talk more about Asians and Asian-Americans. I know you talks about the white team and the black team, but what about everyone who doesn’t fit that category. I am probably one who groups Asians and Asian-Americans in the same category. I know there is a difference, but I still sadly stereotype them as great mathematicians. Since I am an engineer you cannot help but notice that there are a good number of Asians in the class. I do not have anything against them, it is just a fact. I feel that Sam should talk a little bit more about everybody else who does not fit on either the black team or the white team because I feel like he hit home that topic. Now I feel that it is time for us to start realizing that there are multiple races and multiple backgrounds and to be honest with you I have not really thought anything about Asians because we talk so little about Asians in class.

If we were to acknowledge a little bit more about the Asian culture or anything that is relevant to Asians then I would definitely start to think about it a little more. In my discussion group we talked about people with mixed backgrounds and where exactly do they fit on the two teams. I feel like Asians fall almost in the same category. When are Asians and people with mixed backgrounds and everybody else not on the white or black team supposed to answer for those open ended text message questions when he as kfor the white response and then the black response? It is definitely not fair to Asians and people with mixed backgrounds and anybody else who is being left out because I would definitely like to know what Asians think of white people. In class Sam only asked for the white people perspective and the black/brown people perspective. Why does he group everybody else together?

Now that you got me thinking about this subject I would say that I can tell a slight difference between Asian and Asian-Americans probably by the way they dress and talk. I do know that most of my math and physics TAs are Asian and sometimes I will be upset because it is hard to understand them sometimes. I feel like Asians have a thicker Asian accent as for Asian-Americans I guess blend in to society a little bit more. In all honesty though every single culture, whether it’d be Asian, American, Mexican, African, or whatever, all deal with the same numbers. Numbers do not change, unlike different languages. That is why I think a lot of Asians become engineers because all day they are dealing with numbers instead of trying to figure out a new language and the material. I know my freshman roommate, who was Korean, struggled with his English 015 class because he had to figure out how to write in proper English and the proper format. I was too much for him at sometimes, but I did my best to help him out. I am a white-American but even I think English is a bitch. Regardless, I do think we should hear a little bit more about Asians in class and maybe talk about some other groups too. This was definitely a good question to bring up.

I think I heard about this a couple weeks ago, which if I heard about something then it must be a big deal. I think this is really awesome that a high school put gender aside and decided to hire a female football coach. I still wonder what she will be able to do because I have never really came across female football players, so I am real interested to see how much success she will have as a football coach. It is always risky when trying to cross a color barrier and it may be even harder when trying to cross a gender barrier. You can even go as far as saying she is like Jackie Robinson because she is the first female in her profession as Jackie Robinson was the first black athlete in his profession. She better be able to handle the scrutiny and the hassle from the parents and the community if she stumbles out of the gate. It will be really tough for her to open more doors for female football coaches if she does struggle in the beginning, but for her sake I hope she does a fantastic job because this really is a big deal.
She has the opportunity to make a huge difference in gender relations. She is impacting a sport that almost every man would think that women would never be associated with. If she does become a successful football coach I guess guys will just have to create a new sport to play… just kidding. Seriously though, I think this is awesome that she applied to be a head football coach and got it. Before this you would sometimes see women coaching men’s basketball, which I thought was kind of weird, but the game is still not different from the women’s game. This though is something completely different. No man would have ever thought that a woman could play or even coach a football, so Natalie better be ready to take this challenge head on. She seemed really sweet in her interview and I know that that kind of attitude is not going to get her wins, so I hope for her sake that she, I guess, mans up and motivates her players and lights a fire under their butts.
I am really excited to see what Natalie Randolph can do as a head football coach. I hope she has great success because I know it will be tough for high schools to hire female football coaches if she does fail. If she fails, parents and communities will second guess a high school from hiring female coaches until someone finally has success. Not very often do you see females with such a high passion for football and Natalie definitely seems like the right woman for the job. So, I want to wish her success and hopefully she can win a couple gates right off the bat.

I actually find this quite funny. I think everyone knows that the NBA is dominated by black athletes, but do people ever wonder what the game would be like if it was dominated by white athletes? Apparently this Moose character has, and he is really striving to make his own “white” basketball league called the AABA. He claims that this isn’t racist, but to be honest with you it kind of is a little bit, but I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. He truly believes that this is all about business and that fans will really want to watch a slower basketball game, but lets be serious though, if he really thinks that the fans want to see a slow basketball game, and that he is going to make a huge profit off this brilliant, strictly business decision, well then he is shit out of luck.

First off, watching a slow paced game is one of the most boring things to watch. For instance, take the Penn State football team; yes they are a great football team and usually ranked in the top 25 most years, yes Joe Pa is the face of the organization and who doesn’t love Joe Pa, and yes a lot of our players get drafted into the NFL, but to be honest with you they are one of the slowest, most boring, and frustrating offenses to watch. Don’t get me wrong, I watch every game and I am a huge fan, but there offense truly needs a jump-start. The scores of the Big Ten always seem to be so low, and the game is so defense oriented. In the Big 12 or the Big East and even the Pac-10 the games seem so fast moving and to me they are way more entertaining. The point I am trying to make is that if Moose can successfully create the AABA it will fail miserably.

Just having the mindset that a slower paced game is what the fans want to see is just idiotic. People don’t want to see Kirk Heinrich bringing the pall up the court, stand there and call a play, execute the play in hopes that it might work, and if it doesn’t work he’s going to have to start all over again, call another play, and hope this one works this time… No, people don’t want to see that, it is extremely boring. People want to see LeBron flying down the court on a fast break and jumping from God knows where and dunking like no has ever seen before. Now that is exciting and that is what people want to see. The great thing about basketball is that the action never stops. This AABA really is a bad idea, but if the Moose wants to prove he’s not racist I think he should also look into creating the AAHA, the African-American Hockey Association.

I think that is a great question because when I was growing up I always thought Native Americans were called Indians. Especially since I grew up being a baseball fan and I knew one of the teams were the “Indians.” As a kid I never really was taught about the history of Native Americans. You’re always taught about the history of America, and how Christopher Columbus was such a wonderful explorer. Then they teach everybody about the Native Americans and Pilgrims and they make everything seem so wonderful. While in reality it just opened the door for us to take control of their land. I think as a country we should raise awareness earlier and like she said we should do that through our education systems. Growing up in history classes teachers make the history of America seem so magnificent when really a lot of terrible things went down in this country. And the teachers never talk about one of the biggest genocides that happened in the world ever. They build up our people and make it seem like we are the best country, we’re the land of the free, anything is possible in America! We’ll apparently the teachers love to skip over that time period when the Native Americans experienced one of the biggest genocides ever. And even if they did teach me about the Native Americans and what we did to them in order to control this land, I was probably too young to remember what they taught. I think we need to consistently remind American students about what happened to the Native Americans and not just briefly skim over the bad parts of America’s history. We have to stop pretending like nothing ever happened, we have to realize that what we did was wrong, and it starts by teaching the kids what really happened in American history. Don’t get me wrong though. We don’t want to blame all Americans for what happened in the past. We shouldn’t punish ourselves. We should just simply raise the awareness of what happened in the past. Because we really should not be blamed for what our ancestors did, we could not tell them what to do. It was our ancestor’s decision to take control of this land, not ours. But we be aware of what they did, and what we can do to help make up for their mistakes. It wasn’t really fair to take control of the Native Americans land and claim it as our own. We need to start progressing as a nation and understand what happened in the past was wrong. We have to stop covering up the past and pretending that the history of America is this wonderful thing. We need to start changing what is taught in elementary schools and keep kids aware all through high school as well.

This article just made me completely sick. I understand the idea of a sex doll, but to have a sex doll that responds to you and is almost lifelike, scares the shit out of me. I am a shy guy myself, but I would never want a Roxxxy because IT IS NOT A REAL PERSON. What’s wrong with finding a real person, who will show you true emotion and love you honestly? I guess that’s not necessary anymore because thanks to Douglas Hines, claimed “married man,” he made a sex doll that talks to us! YAY! Douglas Hines is a true genius because single handedly satisfied every man’s sexual desire. Thanks Doug!

This guy really has no life if he spent three years making the “perfect” sex doll. The idea of having an artificial sex doll meet your sexually needs sounds so stupid. If some guys really feel like they need a Roxxxy to meet their needs, then they must be big time losers. And seriously, just take one look at the guy who made the Roxxxy. He looks like a real loser himself. Too make a doll so lifelike and to spend almost three years on it, THREE YEARS, then he must have some serious problems. When you really think about it, what motivated this guy to make such a perfect sex doll? Was he having problems with his own marriage? Is he really married? Does he have a life at all? Because most people I know that enjoy life, it doesn’t all boil down to sex for them. I know it doesn’t for me. This guy must only think about sex 24/7. That’s the only answer I have for his motivation to make a Roxxxy.

What is the world coming to? Because I really don’t think that we should need Roxxxy’s to help satisfy guys in bed. To be honest I really don’t know how I should feel about this topic. It just seems extremely wrong to me. I guess if guys really want a sex doll then what is stopping them from getting one. I just don’t understand why people would go through the trouble to pay $7,000 for a sex toy. To me $7,000 is a semester worth of tuition. Now that I think of it, if you buy this sex toy, then you’re basically buying your own personal hooker. Except that your hooker is not a real person. Hey look at the bright side guys; at least she doesn’t have any STDs.

I really don’t know how to respond to this article. It makes me sick to my stomach and I swear to God that if I ever hear anyone of my friends is thinking about buying one of these dolls I will definitely smack them across the face and tell them to sober up because OBVIOUSLY they are not thinking clearly. How often do you have to think about sex in order to consider buying a Roxxxy? Seriously? This topic just seems completely wrong to me because it’s not real. It is not real!

After hearing what Andre Bauer had to say about poor people receiving welfare funds, it definitely got me thinking. To be honest I can see what he was trying to say about helping the needed could only make things worse in the future. Sure if you feed stray dogs they will breed and then more stray dogs will arise, but these are human beings we are talking about. A stray dog is a stray because no one wants to take care of the dog. So Bauer is telling us that he does not want to take care of his own people. If you have the power to help people out, you help them out. Bauer is in a position where his voice can be heard and yet he still does not want to help out his own people, people from his own country. And he definitely did not have to disrespect them by calling them animals. He should not have to call them animals because they are people and it doesn’t matter if you are poor, middle class, upper middle class or the wealthiest person alive, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. If Bauer thinks poor people, who receive welfare, are animals then he is an animal himself because he is acting like a lion that is attacking a defenseless zebra. Sure he’s a well known figure in the government, but I would really like to know where he came from because if I had to guess he came from an upper class family which handed him everything. Sure he can say he got a great education and he worked hard to where he had to be, but that is just because he had the opportunity to get where he wants to be. A lot of poor people do not get the opportunity to make something of themselves because they are too busy trying to make a living and put food on the table instead of going to school and getting a solid education. It is really hard to find excellent public schools, with excellent teachers nowadays. Poor people probably do not receive as great of an education as Bauer did. So if I were in his shoes I’d realize that it is not the people’s fault that they are poor. There are many factors that go into determining the outcome of someone’s futuristic success, and a person with a good family background, with great financial wealth will more likely succeed than a person who has no money, needs to work instead to go to school, or even settle for the school district that they are living in because the parents can’t afford to live elsewhere. If Bauer truly wants to fix the welfare problem he shall not ignore them, but rather he should start by giving the poor more opportunities then they have currently.