What is the world coming to?

Seriously, what is the world coming to? More importantly, what is America coming to? I am writing this in response to the voice of America, South Park. To anyone who has never seen the show, it is a very well done satire on current issues, and if you can get around the swearing and language, it is an intelligent show that makes fun of anyone and anything. Recently, for the 200th episode, Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creators) decided to bring back every group the show has ridiculed for a reunion of sorts. One such group was the prophet Muhammad, the religious figure for Muslims. During the episode, the citizens of the town hid Muhammad in a giant bear costume, and Muhammad is never shown. However, Muslims took offense, and a website, Revolution Muslim, was set up warning that Parker and Stone would be killed. The episode had 2 parts, and the second part aired a week later. Only, in this episode, Muhammad was blocked out completely by a giant black box, and the name was bleeped whenever a character said it. Also, at the end of the episode, when Kyle gave his wrap up speech (a speech at the end of nearly every South Park, in which one of the characters gives a speech telling the moral and what they learned) the entire thing was bleeped out. It never even mentioned Muhammad, it simply discussed not being swayed by intimidation and fear tactics. Which in this case, Comedy Central clearly was. This is America, what happened to freedom of speech and expression? If a network is willing to censor one of their most popular shows in the face of terror, haven't the terrorists won? What is wrong with America? What happened to American exceptionalism, a value which has always made this country great? Also, not to sound racist or anything, but the fact of the matter is that there is something wrong with radical Islam. All muslims are not the enemy, but those who believe the radical version of Islam are wrong. You can't threaten to kill someone over a cartoon, that is simply wrong on every level. Radical Islam is wrong. South Park has featured an episode that had Jesus Christ shitting on an American flag, yet patriotic American's or Christians did not threaten to kill the creators of a CARTOON! Radical Islam is evil, and Comedy Central is run by cowards who cave in to the enemy. What happened to the great America who actually had a First Amendment, which gives many freedoms, such as speech and expression? If American's are willing to bow down to threats from terrorism, I IMPLORE those people to leave my country, for clearly they do not believe in the fundamental things that make this country the United States of America, like, you know, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on lately?

time

In class yesterday, my little group was talking about George Carlin. One of the things brought up was when he died, which after checking on Wikipedia (the go to site for important research, despite what the academic types think about the place) I found he died in the summer of '08, almost 2 years ago. This was very surprising to me, I thought I remembered hearing about this just a few months ago or something. I realized that time goes by fast, much faster than I thought. Life seems to be flying by, and that's some heavy stuff to be thinking about that early in the morning. Oh, and now as I'm writing this, I see a commercial for the World Cup in South Africa, which is coming up soon. It seems like it was just last year that the World Cup was being played in Germany, and me and my buddies were going into Boston to watch the games. Where is the time going?

if i was king

All this talk about global warming in class today got me thinking. If I was king, I could fix everything in about two days. I said king because the President really can't do anything, they need Congress to get stuff done, so I would be king. The first step to fixing everything would be solving the health care crisis facing America today. I have a simple solution, and the answer does not involve giving away free services. No, the way to solve the problem is through scales. You know, those things you step on that tell you your weight. Attach a scale to the door of every McDonalds, Burger King, KFC (by the way, has anyone seen the new double down thing at KFC? 2 pieces of chicken, bacon, cheese, and special sauce. A sandwich that has fried chicken in place of bread, and people really wonder why Americans are fat? Seriously? But I disgress.) or any other fast food place. These doors will be locked at all times, and in order to get in you must step on the scale and be under a certain weight, say 200 lbs. Now, there are always exceptions to this rule, such as the 6'5" person or the 5'8" of solid muscle, but these people will get codes to bypass the scale. With this system in place, America's obesity problem will slowly be reigned back in, which in turn will help solve the health care problem. American's will get healthier, which is the root of the out of control costs. What does this have to do with global warming? Well, with the money saved on health care costs by being healthier, thus needed less health care, that money will be diverted by me, the King, to combat the problem of global warming. Significant incentives (ie- CASH) will be given to people to develop and actually USE alternative sources of fuel. Soon, Americans will be thinner, healthier, and driving cars that get 100 miles to the gallon...of water, seeing as gas will be obsoleted. Everyone will be praising King Ethan, and all will be well.

questions for just add water

1. do fathers normally buy their sons prostitutes for graduation?
2. what is in the box that ray keeps looking in?
3. why does ray's sister keep hassling their mom for the recipe?
4. why doesn't ray's wife go outside?
5. why do these people live in such a crappy town?
6. how does dirk come to run the town?

writing center

My trip to the writing center, as with many things in life, had it's pro's and con's. When I embarked on my voyage to the center, I did so without having anything written for my Shakespeare paper. The girl I was working with on my paper (I want to say her name was Maggie but that could be very wrong. It was a long time ago.) had never read Twelfth Night, so in that regard it was not as helpful as it could have been. When I was bouncing ideas off her she did not know if my ideas actually made sense of not because she had never read the play. However, she was very helpful in coming up with ways to tie all my ideas together, making the paper bond together more. Also, she helped me in sorting out the difference between a general observation and something that made up an actual argument. All in all, I found the experience to be a plus.

extra credit twelfth night

I went to see the play "Twelfth Night", playing at the Hofstra Playhouse, with Alan. Or so I thought. Unbeknowst to me, Twelfth Night was not playing that night, the Ides of March was. I did not know this because the little pamphlet thing they give you when you walk into the play said Twelfth Night on it. Thanks a lot Hofstra. Anyways, here I am, sitting watching this play that I think is Twelfth Night. The actors are saying stuff to a guy named Cesar, warning him about the Ides of March. At this point, I was a little confused. I didn't remember Twelfth Night having people wearing togas? But, I thought maybe the director took some creative directions with the play. And the character everyone was calling Cesar could easily just be a shortened version of Cesario. So I continued watching the play. A little before the play reached its halfway point, I realized there was no way this play could be Twelfth Night, and when I asked one of the attendants, they informed me I was watching the play The Ides of March. So, to make long stories short, I never got to see Twelfth Night. However, once my confusion about what was going on got cleared up, I actually did enjoy the Ides.

in class writing, just add water

Seeing things that say 'just add water' annoys me. Whenever you try and have something that you supposedly just have to 'add water' to, it never turns out to be the only thing. Often times, I'll be hungry and lazy and don't feel like doing anything, so something that you just have to add water to is a good choice. Now, it might not be a gourmet meal, but it satisfies my hunger and my laziness can cope with just adding water. If only that were the case. The manufacturers always leave out the other parts. The stirring the water in. The cooking. And on and on. There's always a catch. I don't want to cook or stir, if I felt like putting in that much time and effort I would use it to go make food that is actually palatable! No, 'just add water' is total b.s.