What's in a Name?

Recently the GOP and the media have had a field day. They have been parading the fact that one of the two leading Democratic candidates, Obama, has the middle name of Hussein. Now when I first heard of this controversy I laughed. I thought who cares? What difference does it make? Apparently the widespread media and many other influential members of society DID care. Then investigations were made and apparently Obama has some sort of ties with people that don't have Israel's best interest at heart. Well, first, if anybody tries hard enough, they can find ties between you and anyone they wish to (the six degrees of separation), and second look at our president today, look at what his father is tied to with his oil companies and who Dubya is tied to through that and by his own contacts. You are not given the choice of what your birth name is unless you wish to legally change it, but look at the percentages of America that actually choose that route. I think it is ridiculous to even fathom that Obama will have terrorist ties just based on the fact that his middle name is Hussein.

Seat Fillers

The Acadamy Awards were on tonight, and you know what that means: corny jokes from the host, long and boring acceptance speeches that nobody really cares about and fast forward through, and the camera shots of all the people enjoying themselves there. Well, there can't honestly be that many stars, filling up all those seats; that's where the seat fillers come in.

I'm not sure when that tradition started, but as long as I can remember, there have always been seat fillers at all the major award shows. It is obviously done to make themselves (Hollywood) look better; the whole town is egocentric and pompous. Everything needs to be BIG!! and they don't seem to know how to do it any other way, but why can't they just be happy with George Clooney, Jack Nickelson, and Jessica Alba?

The Power of Old People

We have been talking a lot about women and children and their place in society, but we haven't really talked about the differences between the way our culture and other cultures value the elderly. In some societies, they are treated with the utmost respect; regarded as full of wisdom and endearing to their families. Though in some places, they are worthless and can't add anything else to the community. Now Modern America does consider all people created equal, but how much so?




Now you all know how wrong this is, no matter how funny it is. This man, in his haste and impatience, rudely honked at this elderly woman as she was trying to cross the street. He could have asked her to move a little faster (he was in a convertable after all) or could have even helped her across the street, but no, he chose to dehuminize her. Am I the only one that is astounded by this?

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

I was looking around the New York Time's website and it had an article entitled "Girls will be girls." The article was about the double standards presented to women in society and focused in on Hilary Clinton. I am less interested in talking about Hilary (it is a pretty covered topic) but my curiosity was drawn to the title of the article. When a journalist chooses a title for their piece, it holds a great amount of symbolism mixed with a certain edge so as to entice people to click on in. It is interesting that this journalist chose something like girls will be girls, which is an obvious transformation from boys will be boys.

The phrase "Boys will be boys" connotes not only that boys are curious beings, but that it is not their fault- it is written in their DNA that they will get up to some mischief, so they are not to be blamed. On the other hand, "Girls just want to have fun." That connotes a certain negativity to it- it seems as if girls will do anything to have a good time, and whatever it may be is the wrong thing to do. It also says that the girls may not be having the fun, but they yearn for it, which is also the wrong thing to think. The phrase relates to the Lowell factory girls in the sense that they are "locked up", away from their families, and under harsh conditions, and all they want to do is have a little fun, which would be wrong by the standards of the factory supervisors.