Although I was not able to attend the lecture on Tuesday from how our discussion group went I could tell that it was very insightful and both sexes were able come away with answers to many of the questions they had as a result of the lecture. But as for the posed question as to why men don’t ask women after sex if they achieved orgasim, I feel its more of a pride thing than selfishness. Of course men care whether or not their partner is satisfied, I do at least. But when you finish, as a man and you’re feeling on the top of the world after sex, the last thing you want is the possible shot to your self-esteem that stems from not being able to fulfill your partners needs. As far as selfishness goes in the bedroom I really can’t say I know any man that doesn’t want to make a girl achieve orgasim, because its as much as a confidence booster in that sense as it can be a blow to the confidence if she doesn’t get satisfied. However I do feel that women should be able to freely tell men if they are not satisfied especially if they are in a relationship where it is an ongoing issue. In that case its something that needs to be tended to, a man would tell a woman if she continually failed to satisfy him, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work the same for women. If they were able to communicate on that issue then they could possibly resolve it by figuring out what works for her so that as an end result they can both achieve orgasim and possibly have a better relationship because of it, without having to just go through the motions without receiving any satisfaction on one end or the other. It should also be mentioned that while this may be hard for a woman to say it can be equally as hard for a man to hear, so be gentle about it. Without just saying, “hey, you don’t satisfy me sexually”, maybe just suggest something that you like to do that will help you climax, that way you get what you want and no one gets their feelings hurt. Maybe one day we will live in a world were women are equally as vocal about achieving orgasims as men, but communication is the only way that any progress will be made toward that goal.

I feel like as a culture we are able accept nepotism more than we do affirmative action due to the fact that for the most part people don’t look at it as just a hand out, even though that’s what it is. The negative reputation that affirmative action has gained through time comes from the notion that a job position is being handed to a person just based off of their race, however no one seems to find any problem with a person being handed a job or internship because they know someone who is in a position to hand them that position. Personally I feel that affirmative action should not exist, but instead people should gain their career objectives based off of their credentials alone, the same goes with nepotism although that cannot be as easily cut out of our job market structure. I feel like nepotism has become more socially acceptable because of the family or friend aspect of our culture which allows people to accept things they may not truly deserve and look at what they’ve gained more as friendly favors than handouts. While affirmative action may also result in an under qualified person obtaining a position that he or she does not deserve, it carries with it a negative stigma due to the issue that race and racism is still alive and well in our culture unfortunately. Because of this affirmative action is not seen in the way that nepotism is, and is viewed as a system that negatively affects white people by possibly giving less qualified people jobs that they do not deserve. Which as we found out in class is not the case at all since a mere ten percent of jobs acquired are actually from a result of affirmative action, and while I do not remember the exact number of jobs that were acquired via nepotism I do recall that it was much higher than ten percent, and this is an issue. Why is it that we as a nation can be so up in arms about a meager ten percent of jobs being obtained via affirmative action, and yet we find no problem with someone under qualified getting an undeserved position because of who they know. As a student looking to graduate this semester I am far more concerned about losing a job a nepotistic act than I am about affirmative action affecting my future career goals. And at this point I can see no clear way to prevent nepotism from continue to occur.

I personally have no real fear of death, not to sound like a hard-ass or anything but its just something that never really bothered me. Its something we all have to go trough personally, as well as something we see happening around us throughout our lives, so its pretty easy to accept the concept that we as individuals are not going to be walking on this earth for ever. For me personally death is just a natural step in life just like breathing, its weird to put those two things into the same category but in all reality that’s just what it is, if you’re a living breathing being then at some point in time you’re existence will come to an end. I find it silly to have a fear of dying, and feel that the only people who have a fear of dying just refuse to accept the fact that they are no different than anyone else, they see death all around them everyday on the news or in their own family but they don’t understand how that could ever happen to them for some reason. But once you have no fear of death and accept that you could die at anytime you just stop caring about when that time may be and just go with whatever opportunities arise. My best example of this would be my sophomore year of college when I went skiing in Killington Vermont with some friends and we were about to do a dangerous double black diamond run on a steep slope through a mile of pine trees spaced just far enough apart that a person could fit through them. One guy at first did not want to do it saying that he didn’t want to die going down the run, which was a real possibility, however I told him that he was going to die anyway, and that if he didn’t die going down the run then he would be able to tell the story about how awesome the skiing was. And that worst case scenario would be for him to actually die, and even then at least he wouldn’t have to go back to school on Monday. I don’t know if that completely changed his outlook on life and death or not, but he did end up going down the run without dying, so I figure he at least felt more comfortable knowing that whether he died that day or 50 years from then it was still going to happen, so he might as well have some fun while he could. And basically that’s how I feel as well, I am going to die one day and it may be tomorrow or when I’m 100 it really doesn’t matter as long as I can still function and have as much fun as I can taking advantage of the experiences that are available to me while I still can.

In regards to the slavery conversation that Sam had with the two students on Tuesday, I would say that my first reaction was of disbelief. Mostly because when I think of slavery I think of the United States history with slavery and just have the notion that slavery ended when we abolished it. I realize how sheltered of an outlook that is, but really its just not something that the average American thinks about on a daily basis because its not something that we feel affects us. However as Sam pointed out not only does it affect us but it is a direct result of our consumer lifestyles. Because of our greed for nice things such as clothing or technology we simply buy what we want without ever wondering where they come from or who makes them. I remember taking an economics class back in high school and my teacher saying that shirts from Holister only cost 14cents to make. In my mind that was just because they were made from cheap material in a big factory production line, but in all reality its because there is no production cost because the clothes are most likely made in a sweat shop by people entrapped in slavery. As for the second part of Sam’s question I for one can not trace my ancestry back to slavery but I still couldn’t see being able to look someone who is currently a slave in the eye and be able to explain to them that although I don’t support slavery I still buy things that are produced by slaves. Its tragic really the whole idea of a country that would never let slavery take place at this day in age on our home soil, but that we wear and carry in our pockets things that we feel we couldn’t survive without which coincidentally come at the expense of other peoples freedoms, and we don’t care because we cant see it. We have become so consumed by the things that we want that we literally don’t care how we get them or what it takes to produce them just as long as we have them in our hands at a reasonable price, and as it turns out the cost that we save comes at the cost of someone’s life. It really makes me think as I look at all of my possessions and my clothes, how much of it came from people forced against their will to make it. And what can myself or anyone do to avoid buying products that were made by the hands of slaves, and if we as a country can stop making these purchases that cost people their lives will we actually be able to save them, and if not what else can be done to end slavery worldwide.

I was rather shocked at the amount of people in our class that said that their was no chance that they would ever join a branch of our nations military. I have always viewed the military as something that should be an honor to be a part of, as something that people should want to be a part of to give something back to the country that provides so much for them. In all honesty if I were one of the men or women in the class who has served in the military (thank you for your service by the way) I would feel extremely offended to lean that such a vast majority would not share the same beliefs in protecting my country and its freedoms like I had done for them. And to the male class members who claimed that there was no way that they would ever be involved in any part of the military, I would just like to point out that we as men of the United States are required to sign up for the military draft at age eighteen, which requires us if necessary regardless of your plans, wants, or needs to take part in something more important than yourself. Whether some people realize that or not, that’s what the military along with its objectives are, something much bigger than any individual. And because it is bigger than the individuals we as individuals should not take our personal wants into account when it comes to protecting the values of our country. That being said I personally would take great pride in serving my country if I was ever called upon to do so. This country has provided myself along with so many others an amazing place to live and strive for opportunity, and if serving in our nations military would be the best way of showing my appreciation than I would be more than happy to do so. And lastly after reading some of the comments posted it truly disheartens me to realize how selfish, and fearful some people are to put their own small concerns ahead of the safety and freedoms of an entire nation that provides so much for each of us. All things considered though I realize that we all do have our own fears and principals which may cause some people to feel differently about some aspects of the military, however our military is a vital part of protecting the freedoms we have and I personally feel that the freedoms of an entire country should be a larger concern than any individuals fears.

In my opinion atheism is not a bad thing for a person to be, just as any belief does not define the entirety of a person. It is a choice that every individual can choose to make, whether they want to be Catholic, Jewish, Atheist ect it is a choice that in the end only one person can decide to make. I myself am a Catholic and was raised so, I don’t question my own faith but I have had many discussions with people who have and who have decided to be atheists. I think no less of these people do to their lack of faith and they still have the same values as I do, they are good people they just don’t feel that their actions will determine the fait of their souls. All in all I feel that being raised with the belief system that was instilled upon me as a child made me a better person than I might have been without one. However people of faith commit crimes all the time so I suppose it really doesn’t matter how the person was brought up but who that person decides to be, do they want to be good or bad it is a choice that is made by the person not by their religion.
This topic reminded me of the point that Sam brought up the first day of class, when he asked us to think of why we followed the religion that we do. And he was right for the majority of us we were raised with that religion as were are parents and theirs before them and so on down the line. And he is right, we are resting our eternal souls on the choice that one of our ancestors made possibly hundreds of years ago, its really a lot to think about. It was a thought that never crossed my mind before that day, and to be honest it made me uncomfortable, mostly because I knew what he was saying made sense. And because it made so much sense I could see how people could make a logical decision to not follow the guidelines of an ancient belief system that has been passed down through generations, and instead make their own choices and be good people because they choose to be and not out of fear of punishment from a higher being. When in the end if you think about it actually makes Atheists out to be the better people, since they aren’t behaving well out of fear of hell to obtain the eternal reward of heaven they are making those choices because that is truly the kind of person that they are, and that really says something about a person.

I feel that the main reason that people even entertain the thought that President Obama is a Muslim is due to the skeptic and often times unreliable reporting done by bias news organizations. Those who follow these programs and hear their words as gospel are only letting in one side of information which often times appears no more reliable than the common conspiracy theory. I feel that those citizens, who claim that President Obama is Muslim, don’t truly believe that he is, but rather they want it to be true because they feel that that would make him a flawed person. The idea that a man’s religion no matter what it is would make him any better or worse of a leader is to me a complete and vagrant display of ignorance, which only makes the one making the claims appear to be foolish.
In addition to those who choose to be educated by bias organizations and do no further research on their claims, there are those who chose to do no investigating of their political figures and merely take the word of one or two random people who for some reason feel that it is their duty to inform everyone they meet of their political views. And therefore these even less uneducated citizens or voters base their one and only vote which helps to determine the fate of our country off of the opinions of a biased news organization with sources that are not credible. In my opinion whether it means anything or not, people who only follow one news outlet and base their vote off of their poor political knowledge are the true ruination of this country. Due to the fact that these people are the majority vote we as a country allow our futures to ride on the decision of the uneducated masses. Who are so in the dark about things that actually matter, that they feel that the religion of a candidate should actually matter one way or another in a way that they vote. Vote for the man or woman whom has the best characteristics to be a leader though is education, his policies, and his motivation, not because of whom he worships because that particular character trait has no bearing on the candidates abilities to govern.