Posted in Sports

Hoop it Up

The NBA season is kicking off today!!! And for those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s the National Basketball Association. I like basketball, I’m really good at it, I have some insane skills. It helps when you’re 6’1″ and can shoot lights out. But I don’t play anymore, I quit so I can concentrate on school. But anyway, I still watch basketball, it’s a REALLY exciting sport to watch, especially in person.

A lot of people don’t like sports because of how slow some can be and how little action there is. Yet you don’t have to normally worry about these problems with basketball, it’s extremely fast paced and full of action.

Especially with the NBA, there are a lot of great athletes that play. It’s great to watch because it’s full of high flying stunts in mid air and mind boggling dribbling skills. The crowds are very loud and the athletes are easy to see, unlike football where they wear helmets. I KNOW that people who don’t normally watch sports can atleast bear basketball, Bri did it.

So turn on the TV and switch to a game, it won’t hurt you to try it out.

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Issues

Tolerance

I have a very confusing conjectural moral question I was hoping the internet population could help me out with. Regarding Tolerance.

Now, It is not nice to prosecute people with a differing opinion than yours, and there are many pleas for tolerance from writers and critics old and new, attesting the desirably of tolerance. But…

If we accept tolerance, we are basically saying that every system of beliefs is equally valid and that we need to accept diversity.

That is saying that there is a possibility of our system of beliefs being wrong and their system of beliefs being right.

And to admit that possibility, we concede that we have doubts about our own system’s validity, which basically defies our system of beliefs.

So the only way to be true to our system of beliefs is to not accept any possibility that it is wrong, which sparks intolerance.

But to carry out that intolerance, we must squash the dissidents. But that leads to the first point, as persecution is not nice. And the thing goes round and round again.

So what do all you intelligent and opinionated people think? I hope you can alleviate my confusion. Or, if not, then you can join me.

Posted in Movies

5 Movies That Should Be Required Viewing

All of the films on this following list are great in many ways. They are all amazing movies, but more importantly, there are messages that we all should learn. Some are brutal and would normally not be watched by people in their teens, but the messages are so important to learn, especially in the teen years of someone’s life, that they must be seen. No violence in them is without good reason, and all it does is make the story more powerful.

5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Every aspect of film is top notch in this drama. But its on this list because of it’s message. Jack Nicholson plays a guy who gets stuck in a mental hospital where all of the patients are trained to do whatever the nurse says. Throughout, he tries to make them realize that there is a whole world out there where they can be free. The purpose? To show viewers not to get to attached to “the system” in which we live our lives. Live on the edge, take some chances and have some fun while you’re here.

4. Raging Bull

It is a boxing movie, but there is so much more to this than that. Raging Bull is the story of Jake La Motta, a great boxer, but a horrible person. With some anger problems and being a womanizer, there wasn’t much for viewers to like in his character. Really, this one is about being a good person to those around you. Raging Bull shows how he lost everything because of the way he acts, and that its a hard road to redemption.

3. American History X

When I was talking earlier about some of these movies being brutal, I basically thought about this one and the #1. American History X is about two brothers who are involved in a neo-Nazi gang in their town that terrorizes African Americans. The older brother is arrested when he kills some of them at his house. I bet you can all guess what the point of X was, which is don’t be racist, but the way that it’s told is why I put it on the list.

2. Schindler’s List

Before seeing the #1 this weekend, I would have had Schindler’s List top this list for sure. It’s about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman during the holocaust who employed Jewish people at his factory. He saves 2,000 from death by getting the Nazi’s to let him take some workers for his ammunition factory. But none of the bullets or guns ever worked. While some would think its about the same message as American History X, its actually about being good to the less fortunate, and standing up for what is right.

1. Requiem For a Dream

Again, the brutal thing I was talking about earlier, applies to this one. With a wonderful score, great acting, editing, and story this is one of the greatest movies of all time to me. Requiem is about 4 people who each have a drug addiction. Diet pills, cocaine and heroin are just some samples of what they are doing. By the end, they are all withered away from this, and its not too pretty. I won’t go too much into it, but some of the images just makes your stomach drop, and really no one could ever take drugs after watching it. It is NC-17, but there’s not too much more shown in this than there is in R rated movies. Watch it, and the next few days this will be all you’re thinking about.

Posted in Politics

Do you know what the presidental canidates are going to with Tax cuts?

Tax. It affects us all, and each candidate says they will cut taxes for us but what will really happen.

Well here id a chart

MCCAIN OBAMA
Income Avg. tax bill Avg. tax bill
Over $2.9M -$269,364 +$701,885
$603K and up -$45,361 +$115,974
$227K-$603K -$7,871 +$12
$161K-$227K -$4,380 -$2,789
$112K-$161K -$2,614 -$2,204
$66K-$112K -$1,009 -$1,290
$38K-$66K -$319 -$1,042
$19K-$38K -$113 -$892
Under $19K -$19 -$567

plus if you elect the republicans you will have to pay for Sarah Palin’s wardrobe

Posted in Sports

It’s October!!!

And you know (or atleast I hope you know) what that means, the World Series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The World Series is the championship series, best of seven games, between the two best teams from proffesional baseball (Major League Baseball), from their respective divisions. The AL is the American League, and the NL is the National League. The leagues aren’t split down the middle of the country or anything, there’s teams from both leagues in most US regions. Though inside each league the teams are split into their geographic regions, it’s fairly simple.

Starting with the NL, this year representing are the Philadelphia Phillies, a very old and historic franchise. They haven’t won the WS in quite a while, but they have a good team this year.

As for the AL, the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series this year, barely beating the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The Rays have never made it to the World Series before as a franchise, but their roster is looking good this year.

I’ll break things down by teams now.

Phillies: Philly is a great team this year, they have a very good lineup with one of the best power hitters in the league anchoring it, Ryan Howard. And infront of him is argueably the best power htting second baseman, Chase Utley. Their defense is pretty solid, Jimmy Rollins is a great shortstop and they great some speed. As for pitching, they have the best starting pitcher in the series in the young Cole Hamels, who has been nothing short of brilliant this postseason. And their bullpen is amazing, with Brad Lidge as their closer, a man who hasn’t blown a save all year! But as for the rest of their starting pitchers, they aren’t that deep.

Rays: The Rays are a very very young team, but with a lot of talent. They have the best power numbers in recent playoff history. B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria (my second favorite player) are the best consistently powerful duo in these playoffs, with a very powerful Carlos Pena in between them. They also have good pinch hitters for key situations. Defensively, they are GREAT! Longoria is soft handed with a cannon at third, Iwamura is very smooth at second, and they have one of the fastest center fielders in all of baseball in B.J. Upton. Their outfielders also have very strong arms, which could prove critical. They have better depth in terms of starting pitching, they have a very consistent rotation of four starters. Their bullpen may be problematic though, they have good pitchers but they’ve been throwing badly as of late.

So going off those stats, and my own personal interests, I pick by a narrow margin the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series this year! Who do you pick?

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Issues, Politics

Drugs…

Legalize or no?

Personally, I think we should legalize all drugs, the war on drugs is doing basically nothing and all it really resorts to is people on the street making money when legitimate businesses could be making that money and they could be taxed, getting more money for the government to pay for programs, and taking that money off the street. Making items illegal doesn’t stop them from being bought, it just forces the law enforcement to work harder. Look at alcohol (when banned, people who wanted it still got it illegally), guns (in D.C. they still have the highest crime rates, even with guns banned. This will just put arm dealers in control of guns), and abortions (they still happen when not legal, its just that people will self-perform them, making it ultimately more dangerous for the mother). Now, I hate drugs, I’ve made a 15 minute movie on how bad meth is, and 3 short commercials on smoking, but these videos won’t stop enough people to make a difference on the industry.

I’d like to hear your thoughts!

Posted in Issues

Background Info: Important or just a freakin’ waste of time?

I’m wondering something and I wonder what everyone else thinks.

Is it really important to know background information? Aren’t solid facts enough without reasoning, subtlety, and explanations? True, it’s nice to know, but is it really necessary? Do you really need to know every detail about combustion engines and the history of oil manufacture to drive a car? Obviously you do not, but there are less extreme cases. Consider Math. You can get by perfectly knowing that logarithm (log) can be used to determine y in 9^y=x with y =log5(x). You don’t need to know what log is, just how to use it to find y in the equation. Beyond finding it on your calculator, this is all you need, in your current situation, to know about logarithms, right?

So why are people so concerned with background info? Is it not enough to know that the Protestants fought the Catholics in the 30 years war without going into differences in dogma, which sprung from protestant reformation leaders, each with their own history that coalesced into their motives? Who cares? Who really needs to know about Zwingli or the Ursuline order of nuns or who attended Martin Luther’s trial? Correct me if I’m wrong, but NOBODY DOES!! NOBODY CARES!! True, some historians or socioligists might care, but 1) they aren’t us, who aspire to achieve something less boring, and 2) the past is past and doesn’t matter to us. Or maybe it really does matter.

Which brings another point. WHY do we have to study history at all? True, it tells us why things are the way they are, and sometimes we want to know that (but it’s more often with social interactions involving someone of the opposite sex) but we can get along perfectly without it. Do we need to know about particle physics and thermodynamics to build a hot air balloon? What’s wrong with knowing that hot air rises and leaving it at that?

Honestly, one could say ignorance is bliss as information builds shades of gray which are annoying. But it’s always nice to know things in case they come in handy. But that is for future necessity, not current need. And then one can say information breeds insight. But mostly it just causes confusion and hesitation, as one weighs the possibilities. So what do you think? I would love to know if I’m insightful or just totally conkers.

Posted in Movies

My Favorite Coen Brothers Films

After seeing most of their movies, I really doubt that these directors can ever make a bad movie. I don’t care how bad a trailer of theirs look because they have never disappointed me in any of their films. Their genres range from thriller, to dark comedy, to drama. Each of their films, to me, are special in their own way. Here are my top 5 of their movies.

5. Raising Arizona

If you like comedy, I really don’t see how anyone can not like this movie. Nicolas Cage stars as a criminal who marries a prison guard, but they can’t have kids. So when a furniture seller has 5 kids, they decide that that is plenty for one person, and they go ahead and take one for themselves. Filled with hilarious moments and some serious ones, it is one that I think that everyone could get something out of.

4. Blood Simple

Their first full length film was this dark thriller, and it really is very good. No comedy, but a very complicated story and scenes that will just give you the goosebumps make this one a great movie. Blood Simple is a raw, violent film that should be seen by those who liked No Country For Old Men, they are both very similar.

3. The Big Lebowski

This is really a love or hate movie, since the humor is on the R rated side. Drugs, violence, and sex are all used to get us to laugh, and it works well if you can find humor in these things. While Jeff Bridges plays a great part as “The Dude”, John Goodman stood out as the best character playing a Vietnam veteran who references it every time he’s on-screen.

2. Fargo

How could someone make a Coen Brothers list without mentioning Fargo? It’s a comedy, thriller, and drama all mixed into one crazy movie. Again, this is a dark comedy that makes you laugh when you normally wouldn’t in real life. While it can get very depressing, there are also some scenes that just can make your day. Fargo has everything that a good film needs, and all of it is done perfectly.

1. No Country For Old Men

Tense. This is what you feel when watching this classic story. Much like Blood Simple, No Country is raw violence, but everything happens in this movie for a reason. People hate the ending, but it definitely would be on my list for favorite endings. Just think about everything that happens, and know that the “main character” really isn’t what the story is about.

Posted in Blog

I even freaking reminded you

Grar. Webmistress is grumpy right now.

I’m taking a break from homework right now because I have a pounding headache and I noticed that our new admin, Shawn, has not posted a blog today. Me thinkies that he will be getting deleted… soon. I warned you.

It is eight o’clock at night, and I still have about two hours of homework left to do. Freaking speech and debate cases took two freaking hours, and freaking AP language persuasive letter took freaking one hour, and now freaking AP US History is taking freaking forever. 20 more vocab cards plus fifteen pages of notes on the most BORING ERA IN HISTORY.

The Industrial Revolution is the DEVIL. I do not CARE WHO INVENTED THE STEAMBOAT (Robert Fulton). I like all the political stuff and the presidential scandals and the religious stuff, but manufacturing makes me yawn. Plus, I had to learn about all this crap back in 8th grade. Granted, I like this class better, but STILL. AUGH.

We had a debate today in APUSH over whether or not Andrew was an accurate representative for the “common man”. I was on the negative side, because he so totally WASN’T.

Ack ack ack. Bad-ish day, I’m stressed beyond belief… ok, I’m going to go back to vocab cards.

Shawn, you’re getting deleted. I had hoped that you would be a little more committed to this and would actually put some effort into it. At least the FIRST FRICKING WEEK YOU HAD TO DO IT! Augh. I told you I wouldn’t miss you once astronomy ended. >:p

Posted in Sports

Kick it with your foot!!!

That’s about the smartest thing I say when I’m at a soccer game, I don’t completely understand the rules. So our boys soccer team just lost AGAIN, this time on senior night to our cross town rival. I went to a total of four games this year and our team did not score a single goal in any of them, unless you count the two we scored on ourselves one game. I kid you not, scored on ourselves not once, but TWICE in one game.

So since I’m a sports guy I pretty much can watch whatever sport and be entertained. I don’t know a lot of people who watch soccer or can even stomach it, but a lot of kids go just because it’s a school thing and the stadium is pretty sweet.

I’d have to admit the game is a little boring at times, there aren’t many goals normally. However, the game only stops once (half-time), so atleast the action is constant. In high school there are two 40 minute halves with a 10 minute half-time break, which is really needed.

But even though it can get boring, I can’t help but notice that it really does take a lot of skill to play. At a competitive level, you have to be conditioned like a beast in order to stay in the game. It may look easy, but kicking a ball with accuracy is really really difficult. Even pros, the best of the best, miss tons and tons of possible goals, it’s just not an easy thing to do. Not to mention goalies, they take a beating out there. My ex-girlfriend is a goalie and she told me how many hits she’s taken.

It’s also extremely team oriented, 11 players on a field is a lot. In order to score a goal the defense normally has to stop the other team and get control of the ball, which in itself could take four players. Then the ball has to be moved up the field without losing the ball, the ball gets stolen a lot. Then a PERFECT pass has to somehow be wedged into a tiny space, followed by a perfect kick or header into the goal. That’s a lot of things that need to all mesh together!

So I like soccer, it is the most popular sport in the world. Though I don’t think I could get into it like some people do, like at the World Cup… those people are nuts. If you like constant movement and don’t mind getting bored a little, soccer could be a good sport for you. It’s not on TV all that much in the US, so that’s problematic. But if there’s a soccer game for your school team, maybe go one time. You may find that you love it!