Giving the F.B.I. What It Wants

In 2002, Hasan M. Elahi was stopped in at an airport in Detroit on the way into our country. After scanning his passport, the immigration agent led him back to the I.N.S. office to be interrogated. He was suspected of participating in bomb-making and being involved in the 9/11 attacks that year prior. For the next six months, he was frequently brought into the F.B.I. headquaters for followup interrogations and polygraph, or lie detector, tests. Six months later, he was finally told that he was clear of any suspicions, and he was free to go about his life as he had before. Shortly there after, he was set to leave the country on a trip. Nervous about returning and running into the same problems as before, he informed the officer of his plans. The officer told him to send him the numbers of the flights he had scheduled, and that he would take care of everything. Well, Hasan did just that.

He began sending the F.B.I. everything he had. Any information he had about trips he was taking, planning, or even already had taken were sent to the bureau via a website he set up purely for that purpose. He poured information on the hotels he stayed at, the food he ate, and even the toilets he used onto his website. He uploaded pictures of everything he did onto it, the entire time thinking, "You want to watch me? Fine. But I can watch myself better than you can, and I can get a level of detail that you will never have.”

Many people have critisized him for it; why would you pour yourself and your life onto the internet, for all the world to see? What could you possibly gain from that? Well, by uploading so much, he actually gained a level of privacy few people have. With everything out in the open, the F.B.I. and other agencies have nothing on him. He's left alone because of how public he is; the only information the government is interested in is that information that people try to hide. By hiding nothing, Hasan blends in more than most. And now, with Facebook and other social networking sites, the people who once critisized him are most likely hypocritically posting pointless statuses and uploading stupid pictures now. Nothing really is private anymore.

You Want to Track Me? Here You Go, F.B.I.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/giving-the-fbi-what-it-wants.html?pagewanted=2&ref=opinion

What Tax Dollars Can’t Buy

One common misconception many Americans have is that the rich in our society, a whole 1 percent of the population, is the reason for the economic downfall and recession we're currently in. A solution many people toss around is taxing the rich more than the middle and lower classes.
While this in theory would make America more socially equal, it wouldn't really solve the differences in monetary distribution because there is no guarantee that the money collected would be given to the more deserving middle class. More likely it would be used to fund things like Medicare and our failing school systems.
The author of this article clearly thinks that the government is incompetent, and that it should learn to do more with less, rather than "less with more" as he believes we Americans have become accustomed to do things. I agree with this author on many levels. There are many things I think our government could be doing to help with rises costs and taxes, which it isn't. If they keep this up, there isn't going to be much of a country to govern soon.  

What Tax Dollars Can't Buy
  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/douthat-what-tax-dollars-cant-buy.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Outside Reading Book

The book I'm reading is called The Poisonwood Bible.

The Lingering Injustice of Attica

Forty years ago, 1,000 inmates in the New York prison Attica started a reform protest that would last for five days. This was arguably the rebellion with the biggest impact on American history.
The inmates were fighting for their rights; most of the incarcerated at this time were African American or Puerto Rican. All the prison's gaurds were white. This led to predicatable discrimination against the inmates. Men with serious medical conditions like polio weren't provided with the proper care. Men who had commited more mild crimes like driving without a license wouldn't recieve the same treatment as men who commited more serious crimes.
After writing to state officials and hearing nothing back, they decided to rebel. They took several hostages, and overall behaved in a civil manner towards anyone they came in contact with; they elected officials from each cell block to negotiate their rights with law officers.
Instead, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller refused to comply with the inmates demands. On the fifth day he ordered S.W.A.T. to drop tear gas on the prison from helicopters, while the rest of the team stormed the walls. 39 people died that day, 29 prisoners and 10 hostages. Forty years later, the state of New York still hasn't taken responsibility for the deaths.
The author was very clear that she was disgusted with the treatment of the inmates that went on during those five days. However, it seems like after reading the article, New York state and the particulars about this incident weren't the main focus of her article. Her main point seemed to be to prove that lots of things are lost to people on an individual level when the state and the government overreacts to a situation; many of the families of the victims of the massacre were never properly reimbersed.  

Equal Opportunity Crime, Shoplifting: Men Do It Too

Despite the stereotype that women are the primary criminals when it comes to shoplifting, research is beginning to show that men do it too, maybe even more often then women. A 2008 study showed that men are actually the more likely gender to shoplift. While women shoplift because of an enchantment with the product they're taking, men shoplift to feel like superheros in their favorite videogames. They feel like they're outwitting the store's staff and security personel.
Kleptomania, or compulsive shoplifting, was deemed a mental illness in the 19th century. The first known cases date back to the 17th century, however, and are most likely the reason we have the sexist stereotype we have today towards kleptomaniacs. Women were viewed as the lesser sex, and therefore only presumed capeable of lesser crimes, whereas men were more likely to be assumed guilty in more voilent crime like murder.
This author knows alot about the subject she's talking about. Throughout the article she talks about the extensive research she did to come to her conclusion, which was that no one really knows what compels some people to shoplift. This knowledge of the subject tells that reader that the author knows what she's talking about, and that most of her information is true. The authority the research gives her makes her very persuasive as a writer.

"Sticky Fingers, Male and Female"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/opinion/sunday/equal-opportunity-crime-shoplifting-men-do-it-too.html?ref=opinion

Targeting Schoolchildren

Despite the prohibition outlawing scams to get illegal immigrants to register made twenty years ago by the Supreme Court, last week a new immigration law posed by Alabama that lets the state harass anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, or even anyone hispanic, was upheld by a judge. A federal judge. The law, though applicable to anyone believed to be in the country illegally, is mainly centered around bullying children of illegals out of school. From now on, all schools will be required to take careful records of the immigration status of all it's students, kindergarden through grade twelve.
The law doesn't set any requirements to becoming a registered citizen, in fact it seems to have no other motive then to push illegal children and their parents out of the country.
The children aren't only under scrutiny for their immigration status, but also the status' of their parents. If their parents aren't registered U.S. citizens, the children are assumed to be illegal as well; a record that will stay with the child.  
This law is outrageous in the sense that children have no control over their parent's actions. Every child has the right to an education; all this law will succeed in doing is cause the illiteracy rate to rise, and possibly leave the local farmers and business men shorthanded. Most illegals will likely only continue further north to more hospitable environments.

While reading this article, it's clear the author has similar believes to me. He calls the new law "viciously xenophobic" and "pernicious" and says that Alabama is "vilifying and victimizing schoolchildren and their families." He predicts the law will just cause minorities to become bitter and fearful.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/targeting-schoolchildren/2011/09/30/gIQAunJBBL_story.html

Shooting an Elephant Journal

I think Orwell reacted to the best of his ability under the circumstances, whether or not he's a coward, many other people would react the same way in a similar situation. The reader might think they wouldn't, but peer pressure is a powerful thing and the pressure to be the leader that you made yourself out to be is a stronger influence than you would think. This is the predicament Orwell faced while standing at that marsh.   Does he do what is he sees as right by not killing the elephant? If he did that all the people that followed him would laugh at him and say that Europeans aren't as powerful as they think. he would have wasted everybody's time and looked like a fool in front of an entire town.
Or does he kill the elephant and knowingly cause the suffering of the large mammal?

I don't think Orwell was being racist at all. He was relieved that the man died not because of his race but because it takes the pressure of legality off his shoulders. Even if he had wanted the man to die because of his race, I think he had more than enough reasons to hate the man. Unlike most racists, Orwell had a legitimate reason to hate this race of people. He had been tormented for the entire span of his career as their police officer. He had been tripped and laughed at. this would make anyone resentful of the people doing these things to you. Whether or not race was a factor in his relief at the death, it was all very appropriate.

Justice, though delayed, for beaten student

A year and a half ago, John L. Mckenna, a student at the University of Maryland, was brutally beaten by several riot control officers after a win of the school's basketball team. It was not until a full eighteen months later that this poor victim was finally given justice.
McKenna was in a cheerful, carefree mood when he was assautled by three Prince George's police officers on his way home from the university's win against Duke. The policemen attacked him unjustly and without probable cause; he was carrying no weapons at the time and didn't act aggresively towards the officers at all. Despite this, the men attacked him and continued to beat McKenna around the head even after he was lying on the ground unconscious.
This author, who correctly believes that this is a gross malpractice of justice, clearly lets his views known by using phrases like "sickening incident" and "deeply disturbing" to describe the police department's response to the event. He also thinks that the Chief of Police, Mark A. Magaw, reacted well to his officer's crime. He infers that under such management, the police force that produced such controversial offense can be recreated to be a fair, just department like the general population expects it to be.
The author, being from the Washington Post, assumes his readers are mainly Washington residents. He calls the basketball team the Terrapins without bothering to elaborate where they are from.
Overall, I think this article was well written. The author clearly cares about this cause enough to keep up with the Chief-of-Police's actions and reponses to this event. The article puts some interesting questions in the reader's mind, and the author ends with the positive speculation that with such leadership the police force will overcome some of the corruption that is clearly entangled in it today.   


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/justice-though-delayed-for-beaten-student/2011/09/21/gIQAWohVnK_story.html