Clinton's Concession Helps Her Case

When discussing the legalization of recreational marijuana, Clinton continues to hold an "on the fence" answer, saying she isn't ready to say yes or no, but she agrees research needs to be done because she thinks there are too many people in jail with low, nonviolence crimes due to marijuana. She agrees with opponent Bernie Sanders on this issue in terms that they both agree that the heavy population in jail facilities for marijuana use is too high. While Clinton could be trying to play it safe and please all her supporters, she is also giving some credibility to Bernie Sanders, as well as conceding, improving her credibility as well.

Esurance Satire

Super Bowl 49 had everything from lucky catches, misses, interceptions, fights, and a halftime show performed by Katy Perry. However if the Super Bowl is known for anything it is the amazing commercials that are filled with both laughter and empathy. My favorite commercial that I saw this year was a advertisement for Esurance, an insurance company. They aired more than one commercial, however they all had the same motto “sorta you isn't you”. In these commercials Esurance used satire to make you understand that you shouldn't stand for insurance companies that only cover you for what you kinda need and not what you really need.

One of the commercials takes place inside of a drug store at the pharmaceuticals department. A women walks up to the counter and rings a bell to get someones attention. As soon as she rings the bell Bryan Cranston gets up wearing a yellow hazard suit and a mask, like he would where in Breaking Bad. After they start talking the lady points out that he is not the normal person doing this and is not helping her at all. He finally giver her medicine, that looks like the famous blue meth, and tells her to take it, even though it is not what she needed.

The whole commercial uses satire to make you understand what Esurance will do that other insurance companies will not. They use parody throughout the commercial by having Bryan Cranston play the role of “Walter White” from the widely popular T.V. series Breaking Bad.

Logical Fallacies in The O'Reilly Factor

One show on television that many people have either grown to be avid supporters or simply aggravated with it is The O'Reilly Factor.  Bill O'Reilly has gained a rather infamous reputation for his strong conservative views on his show of almost two decades.  In addition to these views, O'Reilly quite frequently uses the hasty generalizations to attempt to prove his assertions.  Most notably, this could be seen when O'Reilly had a segment commentating on the former Republican congressman, Ron Paul.  When commenting on Paul's thoughts about drug laws, O'Reilly states that the act of dealing narcotics is a, "violent crime..."  Although I understand what is meant by this statement, the maker of the video below compares the previous statement with dealing cars, stating that cars kill people all of the time.

The publisher of the channel also includes fear mongering as another tactic used by O'Reilly to support his side of the argument.  This is just one example of how logical fallacies are used in the media today and how it impacts the way that society thinks.

Why I like Jennifer Egan's Writing.

In "A Visit from the Goon Squad" Jennifer Egan gives us a fresh new way of story-telling. And I love it. I love that she manages to make every story different, and how she manages to get the important information across in different ways.

With many of the books I have read for school, I dread having to read a certain amount every night. But not with this book. I can read this for hours. It is so rare for me to want to continue past the chapters assigned for homework. But I want to every night for this book. I can't stop.

So why do I like it so much? I like to have to think about how every story is connected to the other. It makes me sit there and try to do it before Egan reveals it to me. It's such a huge web of people that come together so smoothly and its amazing. I have read other stories like this, but this one is on top. Just the tiniest little fact about one character connects to a whole other character so perfectly. Bravo Egan. Congradulations on doing this so well.

The contents of the book also help. How can a book about sex and drugs and rock and roll not be intersting? I'm sure someone can write a story containing all of those things and make it boring, but Jennifer Egan doesn't. She makes it so good. It's not a book that I would expect to read in school, but I am for sure happy that we are.

Shock Value

     While I appreciate most of A Visit from the Goon Squad, many aspects of the book make me uncomfortable. Throughout the book, the themes of drugs and sexuality keep coming up. Maybe these themes are getting at how vulgar life and people can be, but there is a fine line between deeper meaning and shock value. At times the book seems to throw obscene events out of nowhere just to startle the reader.

     I feel tricked when a book stirs an emotion in me not by build up or attachment to events, but instead by a surprising shift to a vulgar tone or event. Sometimes it feels like the obscenities are out of place with the larger issue that Jennifer Egan is trying to discuss. I understand that vulgarity is a part of life and that stories involving vulgarity have merit, but adding vulgarity isn't a requirement for writing a story. To be completely honest, I'm just tired of only reading depressing books for school. 

Take Me to Church//Hozier

Recently I have become  huge fan of the song 'Take Me to Church' by Hozier, an Irish singer-songwritter. It's a great song and I would recommend anyone to listen to it. Just as I sat down to dinner to think about what I should post about this week I heard this song come on. As I blindly listen to the lyrics and repeat them, I begin to wonder what they really mean. Curious, I googled the music video and lyrics to come to a better understanding.

I started by just watching the video. If you watch the video yourself you will see that it is all about two men who have a secret in a homophobic society, ending in a hate crime. And of course this message was obvious. But to me what is not so obvious is the message the lyrics send. If I were you, before reading the rest of this blog post, I would watch the music video and listen to the lyrics closely before you come to assumptions and judgements.

I believe that Hozier uses Church and a feminine pronoun to represent anything that the church he grows up around frowns upon. Clearly the music video links the song to homosexuality but it isn't just that. Personally I am not very familiar with any church atmospheres, but I think that he mainly references the Catholicism or Christianity, because there are a lot of ideas they frown upon in society. For example, drugs, sex before marriage, and homosexuality being some of the most popular. I AM NOT MAKING ANY ACCUSATIONS. I know perfectly well that people have their own ideas and can be part of a group or religion and go against what is expected of the church. I understand religion does not define a person.

In the lyrics of the song, Hozier "She's the giggle at a funeral/Knows everybody's disapproval/I should've worshiped her sooner" He is saying that drugs or homosexuality is the giggle, and it is frowned upon and could make every judge you. He also says, that it must be embraced when you are

comfortable. I don't think he is really referring to drugs in this situation, but more likely adultery and being gay. The second lyric I'll share is "I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies/I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife/Offer me that deathless death/Good God, let me give you my life" He is kind of being sarcastic. Now that he, or who ever is the subject of the song, is accepting sin the religion becomes the sin. But if you are going to accept sin, why have someone judge you when you can keep it to yourself. There's no need for him to anger someone who he knows is homophobic.

I could go on about all of the lyrics in this song and translate it but some of it is better left unsaid and for you to figure out. I really hope you take a listen to the song, not only is the message powerful and thrilling, but it is a great song.

Thanks.

P.S. If you are interested about what the writer of the song has to say about the song himself click here for the interview he did.

Psychedelic Drugs

Psychedelic drugs get a bad reputation due to their dissimilarity with all other types of psychoactive drugs. Psychedelic experiences are vastly different than any of the other drug experiences that an average person might have had. The mystery and uncertainty create a stigma that paints an unfair picture of psychedelics. All other psychoactive drugs make the user feel ‘good’ in some way by changing the levels of certain hormones (often dopamine or serotonin) in the brain, while psychedelic drugs only temporarily change the way that the user’s brain interprets sensory impulses. The aforementioned hormone changes caused by psychoactive drugs cause almost all of the negative long-term effects associated with drug use. This difference entails that psychedelic drug-users don’t build up tolerance or experience withdrawal, while risking neither drug synergy, nor addiction. In addition, an overdose is impossible when using any popular psychedelic. Psychedelic drugs avoid the long-term and short term consequences of drug use, so they should be legalized.

Not only do psychedelic drugs lack negative effects, but they are more useful than any other recreationally legal drug. A significant link exists between psychedelic use and creativity level. An entire era of music was shaped by psychedelics, particularly LSD. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said, “Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.”

Most people are uncomfortable with their government supporting any kind of drug with no medical use. And yet, while laws concerning psychedelic drugs will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future, the United States will continue to pump Adderall and other ADHD medications into its future generation. One in ten school-age children is prescribed medication for ADHD. That percentage is over twenty times greater than that of countries such as France. So, rather than encourage creativity, America encourages drug-fueled education that won’t be of any help when graduates find a job and must stop taking the Adderall (as most ADHD sufferers do upon reaching adulthood). So, those who oppose psychedelic drugs must not forget what the government is already doing.While legalization is a long way down the road for psychedelic drugs, the first step is raising awareness.

Protecting Pot: A Closer Look at the Inconsistency of Public Perception and Drug Laws

Marijuana, or pot as it is commonly called, is a preparation of the cannabis plant that is smoked in order to achieve a high that leads to a sense of euphoria or relaxation. While it is most commonly smoked, marijuana can also be eaten plain or mixed into foods for ingestion. It is currently illegal to use recreational marijuana in the United States, with the exceptions of Colorado and Washington. Although it has similar effects to alcohol and is often taken in the same way as a tobacco cigarette (both of which are legal), marijuana is classified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule 1 substance. This means that in the eyes of the law, marijuana is just as dangerous as recreational drugs such as heroin, LSD or ecstasy. By taking a closer look at the effects of marijuana and comparing them to effects of currently legalized substances, it will be easy to see that recreational use of pot is not only justifiable but potentially safer than things such as alcohol or cigarettes. These facts will demonstrate to Americans that pot should be legal by today’s standards.

Marijuana is always referred to as a “drug.” This gives it a sort of stigma among Americans that makes pot seem like a very intense and harmful substance. In reality, if pot were compared to the effects of drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco, it would be easy to see that its effects are almost the same. Millions of Americans drink alcohol every day, even though it is a poison in the sense that it makes the drinker incapable of having normal control over their actions. Pot has the same effects on the human body, and yet is still not allowed. Additionally, if you drink enough alcohol in one sitting, you can even die. This is not true of marijuana. While it is possible for someone to smoke enough pot to make bad and potentially dangerous decisions (as is true with drinking too much alcohol), it is impossible to die from overdosing. To put this fact in perspective, over 25,000 people died in 2010 due to alcohol related deaths. There were no recorded cases of any people dying from a marijuana related death.

Studies show that both smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol cause the same immediate effects: impaired judgment, slowed reaction time, changes in behavior or mood, affected motor skills and an increased risk for getting in an accident. However, it is legal to buy all the alcohol you can drink in the United States as long as you are over the age of 21 years old. While marijuana might increase the risk of testicular cancer in men, alcohol increases the risk of breast, esophagus, liver, and throat cancer in both men and women. Alcohol can also have devastating effects on the liver, causing fatty liver disease, cirrhosis (irreversible scarring of the liver), and hepatitis.

The effects of smoking marijuana have almost the same negative health effects as smoking cigarettes. In a study done by Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco, healthy adults who smoked cigarettes had a decreased lung capacity the more they smoked. However, participants who smoked marijuana developed an increased airflow rate and had no decreased lung capacity. Pletcher explains that one reason for this result is that cigarette users smoke 10-20 cigarettes or more a day, while marijuana users typically “lit up” only two to three times per month. However, Dr. Pletcher is unsure what the effects of heavy marijuana use could bring. While some may think that the above study shows that marijuana shouldn’t be legal because of its potential to cause lung problems, they are ignoring the fact that marijuana users simply don’t smoke as many times as cigarette users do. Cigarette users inhale so much more carcinogenic smoke than pot users, but this is due to an important factor: addiction.

When comparing alcohol to marijuana, one finds that one in twelve people in America are addicted to or abuse alcohol. The addictive properties of marijuana are not yet fully understood, but doctors realize that it does not have a high potential for abuse like other drugs it is classified alongside. Even compared to cigarettes, marijuana is a better choice because it is not physically addictive like the nicotine in tobacco. Because of this, marijuana users don’t chain smoke, and thus smoke much less on average than do tobacco smokers. While marijuana does contain more tar than cigarettes because it is unfiltered, this doesn’t matter when the usage of marijuana is so out of proportion to cigarettes.

My question to Americans is this: How is it that we are allowed to smoke ourselves into terminal lung cancer and drink ourselves literally to death, but smoking a joint every now and then is so dangerous that it deserves civil punishment? It seems ridiculous that the government is allowed to regulate self-poisoning and determine which carcinogens are better than others. Marijuana has overall less negative health effects than either alcohol or cigarettes, and yet one can get arrested just for carrying it around. To be perfectly clear, marijuana is not good for your health. While it can be utilized for some medical purposes, the recreational use of pot is beneficial only because it makes the user feel good. The point is that the negative effects of marijuana use are practically the same or less than alcohol or cigarettes, which are both legal. It is illogical that recreational pot is still illegal in the United States. A review of medical studies will prove to anyone that marijuana is no more dangerous than cigarettes or alcohol, two harmful yet staple substances of many American lives.

Alcohol vs. Weed

Jack Monaghan

Alcohol vs. Weed

The drinking age in America is 21 years of age, in China it is 18, in Austria it is 16, and in Germany it is 14. The number of countries that have fully legalized marijuana (weed, pot, cannabis) is one, Uruguay if you're curious. There, it is still only legal in small quantities. The number of states in America that have legalized marijuana use is two, Washington and Colorado. So why has this distinction been made? Why is alcohol considered to be far worse than marijuana? I have no idea. Both of these drugs are harmful but alcohol is on a level that weed could never be on. Alcohol is also far more addictive than marijuana so much that is you are addicted to alcohol it is considered a disease (alcoholism). Alcohol's short term, long term, and withdrawal symptoms are far worse than marijuana as well. There is no field in which alcohol should be considered less damaging than weed.

Weed has many short term effects, but alcohol has more, and far worse effects. Some short term effects of weed are rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, and increased rate of breathing, red eyes, dry mouth, increased appetite, and slowed reaction time. Some of these may seem bad but alcohol's include slurred speech, drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, upset stomach, breathing difficulties, distorted vision/hearing, impaired judgment, decreased perception/coordination, unconsciousness, anemia (loss of red blood cells) ,coma, and blackouts. This list depends on how much alcohol was consumed, but all of that could happen your first time drinking. Coma, blackout, and impaired judgment, compared to red eyes, and the munchies, which do you think is better or worse for your body?

The long term effects of marijuana don't differ as much from its short term effects but alcohol’s gets even worse. Alcohol's long term effects include; liver disease, nerve damage, permanent damage to the brain, high blood pressure which could lead to a stroke and death, ulcers, gastritis, malnutrition, and, believe it or not, cancer of the mouth and throat. Marijuana's long term effects are; reduced resistance to common illness, growth disorders, personality and mood changes, lesions to the brain which could be permanent, and damaged lung fibers. Both seem very bad although alcohols are lethal, they could very well cause your death through stroke, or cancer, or even through brain damage. None of marijuana's symptoms are lethal, and only one might be permanent. In addition to long term effects alcohol is so bad that it is considered a disease to have the symptoms, its called alcoholism. There is one way in which marijuana can be considered a worse drug than alcohol and this is the gateway drug theory.

The Gateway drug theory is a immeasurable down side The theory states that people who use and/or abuse marijuana are more likely to move on to more serious drugs such as cocaine and heroin, this theory has a great margin for error. 41% of americans have used marijuana in their lifetime. With nearly half of americans having used marijuana, who’s to say that the fact that most cocaine and heroin users have a background in abusing weed is just a coincidence. Also, consider that the neighborhoods in which weed is present and easily obtained is also one in which cocaine and heroin are also present and easily obtained. So for all we know the fact that most users of cocaine and heroin have used weed in the past are two unrelated things. Some people that have used weed and became successful in their life are Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Michael Phelps. If you believe that Alcohol is better than marijuana than I bet you're thinking that those people are one in a million and that since 41% of americans used marijuana in their lifetime it could also simply be a coincidence, and they could have no relation. Fact is, whether people fail or succeed, it has no correlation to weed for all we know.

So, alcohol can put you in a coma the first time drinking, if drunk on a regular basis you could die. Weed used the first time causes slowed reaction time, and increased appetite. If consistently used it may cause lesions of your brain. Alcohol, beer, wine wherever it is, and in whatever drink it is in, is far worse for your mind and organs than marijuana could ever be. Yet weed is illegal in 50 states and you're allowed to drink as much alcohol as you want as long as you don't drive and you're over 21. This is a system in which is being inconsistent and something should be done.