What is Libel?

To what soon became a case that the Cheif Justice didn't want to take off of trial contains multiple components. In the case of People vs. George Crosswell, there are many different aspects within the case.  The main thing it goes against though is Amendment One. The first Amendment states talks about the freedom of speech, and the freedom of speech. This 1804 case, goes through the importance of the liberty of press consisting within the truth of good motives.  Alexander Hamilton says there are two great questions that arose from this case. One being, Can the truth be given in evidence? Personally, I agree completely. I believe the only way to best prove your honesty, is by supporting it with evidence. Unfortunately with the way the world is, a man's word isn't good enough. The second question that arose was, Are the jury to judge the intent and the law? And once again I agree completely. The purpose of the jury is to provide an non-bias opinion of a group of people. There are the ones to judge if someone is guilty or innocent, and if there is enough evidence to go along with the case. They have the option of interpreting the law any way they like to make their decision. 

Blogicon 9/19/08

What are you most proud of on your blog? Why?
Throughout my blogs there are many things for me to feel proud of. One thing that I’m proud of, although it isn’t a common problem for me, but I still feel accomplished whenever I am able to turn a high quality piece of work that was done within the given time. I feel accomplished whenever I am able to turn in, what I feel, is my best writing and piece of work. The blog that I feel has the most information, and portrays how I feel the best is my blog about freedom of speech within a classroom. Because it is an issue I feel strongly about, I was able to write a more personal blog, instead of only stating the facts. Another goal of mine throughout this project was to keep a common template for all of my entries. I want my blogs to be recognized, and to be known that they were written by me. I feel like I achieved them to look uniform, with the image in the same spot, and with they way my writing is. I start with a recap of what I feel are the most important aspects of the article, and then I go on to state my beliefs on it, a class connection, and a personal connection. I feel that this is important not only to make the blog look nicer, but it also gives a sense of character to my blog.

How can we better connect our blogs?
I feel like we can better connect our blogs by working on them in groups or partners together. If we co-write them together, the viewers of our blogs will be able to get different viewpoints and opinions on the different subjects. Some ways we can do this would be to pick the same article/topic, and individually write our blogs on them. Another way we could do this would be to have a blog entry written, and then have someone else go back, read the article and the blog entry, and write there own.

How has blogging impacting your understanding of the US, the media, current events and " old news?"

Blogging has helped me be aware of what is going on throughout of Country and the world by reading the news at least two times a week. I now know what is going on in the world, and it is more relevant to me how we are letting history repeat itself. Blogging has helped me understand the " old news" such as the constitution, federalist papers etc. by showing my current examples. By having to find my own examples, it has also corrected my understanding.

Sex Education to Kindergarten Students?

The Advertisement approved by McCain regarding Obama.

There are different ways to say things, and sometimes what we say is different from what we mean. With the presidential election coming up very soon, a lot of advertisements are going around changing what they have said. For example, I was searching Factcheck.org, and I came across and article, that honestly made me laugh.

The article was about how Barak Obama's one accomplishment would be to teach sex education to kindergarten students. Although in the bill this was stated, this is not what was meant. The way it was worded helps us think that Obama wanted to an extensive explicit sex education for grade schoolers. But actually, The bill would have allowed a gradual, age appropriate information.

I personally believe that a gradual sex education might work best, as long as it starts very basic, and works into the most important things. To many girls are having unwanted pregnancies, and many teens are becoming sexually active at a young age, and it is an issue.

http://www.avert.org/sexedu.htm
Article;
Off Base on Sex Ed, September 10, 2008, FactCheck.org.

A Bankrupt bank?

In the beginning of this week, the bank the Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy while Merrill Lynch sold themselves to Bank of America to avoid serious financial issues. With two banks near or at bankruptcy, Dow Jones stock has tanked, which causes huge controversy. How these banks have allowed themselves to go bankrupt is a common question, but the big question is what do we do now?

My personal opinion, is the more the government does, the more that will need to be redone. Stocks, unfortunately, will fluctuate with nothing we can do to control it. If the government gets involved with the stocks, I think it will defeat the purpose and main ideas behind stocks, that investing is a chance, and you have to go in thinking you will not get the money back.

As for the banks, I think the government should do what we can to stabilize them. The banks aren't something citizens put there money into for chance, people put all there money into the bank for safe keepings. With banks like Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch, it is good because the bank won't have any financial issues, but employees of Merrill Lynch will not loose their job because they won't be needed. I have a family member who is the president of a department for Merrill Lynch, and now due to the combination of companies, he fears for his job.

My opinion on Federalist vs. Anti Federalist is I'm more towards the middle of both. I have some opinions where my beliefs are more towards the Federalist side, and vice versa. It depends on the situation and the personal connection I have towards the issue.


Article;
Lehman Files for Bankruptcy; Merrill is Sold, By Andrew Sorkin, Published on September 15, 2008, The New York Times Online

San Diego Icons

As we finished our first project on American Icons, it got me thinking about other people that inspire me, and different things people do that I am inspired by. While I was reading through different articles about remembering September 11th, I stumbled across an article about a guy in San Diego, who took the day off of work today and the last four years on this day, to wave the American Flag on a bridge overlooking the freeway. By the time I finished reading the article, I subconsciously thought to myself, " Wow, This guy is inspiring!" Here is this ordinary, everyday man who is a hero of the day.

This reminded me of a discussion we had in class today, about how icons can be famous, or they can be as personable as your parents. To be inspiring they don't have to be featured on all of the magazines or newspapers, or all over the news. They can have certain aspects of them and of what they do that we can learn from and relate to. As it turns out this guy is from my neighborhood, and I saw him waving the flag on my way to school this morning.

I think it is important to look at who is inspiring and what they do that is inspiring. Maybe they have one thing, like this man from the article, who does one thing to make him an icon for me, and besides that, I don't know anything about him. This helps me conclude that we can have more than one inspiration in life, and the more inspirations we have, the more we are educated through different opinions, different views and different lifestyles.

Article;
One man's reminder on 9/11 , By Laura Embry, Published on September 11, 2008, San Diego Union Tribune.

Banning Education in a Classroom

A big controversy that seems to occur often in classrooms is the difference between preaching religion and teaching religion through history. In this article it is stated that for this case, the federal judge determined that school officials cannot make a school teacher remove signs inside of his classroom proclaiming, " In God We Trust," " All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator" and various other sayings. It was labeled as " One sided censorship," and they were told there was nothing they could do about it except try again.

Personally I think it should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. I feel that statements in different contexts can result in different things. This would be the case if we took the anti-federalists point of view. If we were to have local governments that made there own decisions, they could decide in certain cases. The federalists believe in one central government, and with that, the rules and regulations have to be the same throughout the states.

This makes me remember when I was younger, I had a teacher once who would relate everything we learned to the bible. We would talk about math, and he would tell us, using the bible as evidence, how what we were learning came from the bible. But the way he did it made it sound like he was " referencing the bible" instead of preaching it, which is what he was doing. At the time there was a rule allowing referencing as long as it was to show facts vs. opinions. If we were to have a local structure of government, I feel that this teacher could have been stopped, and there would be less students offended by what was being taught in his class.


Article;
Judge rules for teacher in classroom banners case, By Onell Soto, Published September 9, 2008, San Diego Union Tribune.

Hurricane Gustav

We have all been aware of the devastation that is continuing to occur in Mississippi once again with the hurricanes. There has been many articles written on these subjects, delivering information to those not directly effected by the hurricanes. I found this article particularly more interesting than the others because it addresses something different; " What should we do next?"

The article discussed whether or not it was worth it to rebuild their homes. Most of the homeowners interviewed said that at this point it isn't worth it to rebuild it, but at the same time they can't sell their property because it isn't worth anything.

I think the government should intervene and help those in need, like they have done in past years. Many people have lost everything, and it is hard to rebuilt a life and a lifestyle from nothing. At the same time others might protest that they should use their natural resources, and fight for themselves. This related back to the ongoing battle between two philosophers; John Locke, who believed the government should take care of its people, and Thomas Hobbes, who believed in natural rights and than each person should use their own personal powers to fight for themselves.

In a time of need, people need help from those who are not suffering from the same devastation. If you are constantly around those in need of assistance and help to rebuild their lives, it is harder to regain strength and control over your life again.



Article;
To Rebuild or to leave? Damien Cave, September 2, 2008, The New York Times

School Bullying

Lucky for us, we go to a school with students who are respectful, and school bullying isn't as bad as it can be at other schools. If you haven't read the article on the new school rules regarding bullying, the article says the new rules how each school will be required to assign a staff member to whom students can go to with help for student bullying, and the schools are required to post complaints within 24 hours. Our school has been well ahead of this with the advisory program.

This connects to our classroom discussions because we have been talking about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe this connects to it because people should all have the same opportunities to be happy and to live the life they want to live, without other people effecting their lives negatively.

My personal connection to this article, is by coincidence, earlier this week I met the author of the book, Odd Girl Out, Rachel Simmons. Her book focuses on female aggression and meanness within girls. We talked about why girls in particular feel the need to be superior over other girls? Although I haven't come to the conclusion, but I have concluded that this goes against what is stated in the Declaration of Independence.




Article;
New School Rules on Bias Bullying, Associated Press, Published September 3, 2008, New York Times Online