How far does free speech go?

Recently I was looking on CNN.com when i noticed a very peculiar article titled "Iran attacks Hollywood over movie 'insults' " This article was about how Iran has become increaseingly angry over movies that portray Iran as a terrible nation which runs on fear. In particular, Iran pointed out two films, "Not Without my Daughter" and recent blockbuster hit "300". I have personally never seen the first film, but from what I have heard it is about a woman who marries an Iranian man and after years of happy marriage they decide to travel to Iran to visit the husbands family. But while they are there, the woman is required to do all the Iranian laws like woman have to be covered at all time. It is then revealed that the husband planned the whole thing and as soon as they get there, he becomes increasingly violent. I will not ruin the ending but it portrays Iranians as sexists and mean. In 300 it shows the persian empire as a nation in fear that only does what their leader says because they think he is a God. The Iranians feel this is a false potrayal of Iranians and they feel it is insulting to them. I believe that it is free speech and that Hollywood has the right to portray people as they wish. There are so many other movies such as "W" or "Team America" that portray people in a way that they might feel is untrue. I believe that if Iran is going to portray Jewish people as pigs in public speeches. Then they should have to suffer themselves looking like evil people on screen.

White man can't jump

For many years people have had the notion that black people play basketball, white people play golf, and people from Boston and Minnesota play hockey. This stereotypes have been backed up by some pretty heavy statistics. But if people would use their eye's they would see what I see in that, almost every NBA player is over 6'6, every golf player has been practicing since the age of 5, and Minnesota is right next to Canada. People play these sports because it is regional or because they were gifted with these height, or because their parents taught them. I believe that these myths, though backed up by many stats, can be proved false. In hockey there are people from the tropics who become stars in the NHL, just how in the NBA there are people like Steve Nash who are from Canada and just have a great basketball intuition. In Golf people like John Daly can hit the ball a mile and he even admits he doesn't put as much time into it as he should. Everywhere there is a stat to prove a point there are other stats to disprove that point. In my opinion people need to keep an open mind about these topics because there are always exceptions to every stat.

The biased sides of Media

Today in class OC made a comment about how Fox news is a "Right wing propaganda machine". At the time this made me very angry because in my opinion, Fox news is the only news station that is not horribly liberal. Because I remember just as clear that the anchors on MSNBC called president Bush, "Bush". I think it is a lone island surrounded by a sea of liberal media. But in this post I am going
to try and take a neutral side.
Many people believe that the news has its neutral stations like CBS, PBS, and ABC. Then there are the two polar stations in MSNBC (liberal) and FOX (conservative). Every single republican has its counter part, Bill O'Reilly and Keith Oberman. Ying and yang. To really get a scope of everything, one must watch Fox and MSNBC to get both points of view.
Back to what I believe, even though in my opinion almost every station is liberal, I should watch MSNBC to get a different point of view. This is the great thing about media, there are stations for everyone (some more than others).

Draft time

The bears are infamous for bad first round picks, from Curtis Enis, Cade McNown, to this years Chris Williams, we have had nothing but busts. We need solid selections to be a force next year in the NFC. In my opinion the two people we need are in the pictures, Taylor Mays and Dez Bryant. Taylor is a safety at USC and he was rated one of the best in the country, he is tall, strong, and fast so he will be able cover receivers and blitz. For to long we have had to count on Mike Brown to take care of the secondary, but he gets hurt to often and we need a back up plan. The other person I would recommend drafting is Dez Bryant, a wide receiver out of Oklahoma State. He is 6'2 and has great hands. This is exactly the type of receiver we need to be a counter to Devin Hester's run and gun style. He would provide us with great over the field coverage and the occasional long bomb. If nothing the bears just need to draft for the secondary, and receivers because this year, those were our Achilles heels.

Its the most horrible time of the year

The holiday period is one of, or the, best time of the year. But to be followed up by such a period of mourning and stress is almost cruel. Following the winter break is final exams, what most students say is the worst time of the year. Students press, get lack of sleep, get anxiety, and many more terrible side effects. to cram all the knowledge one has learned in 4 months, and cram it into one test, it is just atrocious. I feel like there really shouldn't be final exams because, don't we have enough high stake tests already. Theres the ACT, SAT, and all the school work to cope with. Now this is only for a junior to fret about, but still, it is too much on one plate. This one test is 15% of your grade, and most of the time its a grade breaker. In one class i am border line and have a 79.88 in math, if i get anything below an 80% i get C+. I realize this is just preparing us for college, but still, in college we only have like 3 grades in the semester besides that so really, its just a big test. In most of my classes there is just to much to go back and revisit. Unless we get specifics on the amount of work from a single unit, it is almost impossible to study for. I just feel like we don't need finals and it is not a real picture of our work from the semester.

Somber family reunion

Though many people thought it might be a brother v brother super bowl, it seems that once again the colts get knocked off in the last minute and bad eli shows up and ruins it for the Giants. It seems that fate just wont let these two play eachother. Though the Colts ended the season on a 9 game winning streak they once again blew it in the play offs. The Giants on the other hand, blew through the NFC only to lose 3 out of their last 4 and then lose to their division rival the eagles. I feel that it is kind of Ironic. Through out the years Peyton has always over shadowed the younger Eli because of his reimaginging of the quarterback position. But recently Eli has become more of threat and winning the superbowl sure helped his credibility. But these two aren't the only ones with family rivalries, what about the Baldwin brothers, or the Wilson's, even the Bush brothers have their rivalries. I think that this is whats so great about competition, it really brings out the best in people brothers or not.

A feat that will never be touched

In 1995-96 the bulls did something that no other team had ever done in the history of Basketball, they had won over 70 games in the regular season. They dominated almost every single game they played that season. It helped that they had on their team the greatest player who ever played in Michael Jordan. To accompany him they had the first ever point forward, Scottie Pippen, then they had one best rebounders of all time, Dennis Rodman. Now almost every year there is a team that everyone says will beat the record but they end up never coming close. This year for instance the Celtics started the year 27 and 3 but they went on a skid and now they are 29-9. To be as good as that bulls team, they must never go on a skid for any amount of time. That year the bulls went on one skid and it lasted a total of two games. There longest losing streak of the year. I don't know if any team will ever beat this feat. To do this the bulls averages 13 more points than their opponents and had one of the best all around teams of all time. In the category of greatest team ever, the bulls stand in a league of their own.