Lies, D Lies, and Statistics

The Title of this post is a phrase that my Statistics professor often uses. I am a History Major, and I see how history is important to the present and the future through the lessons it can teach us beyond mere facts of past events. I however never saw how most of the other subjects could claim such a thing. Professor McCaa has tought me otherwise. He taught me that often times the truth is not always the truth. People can distort statistics to make the out come appear to be what they want it to be. People can also do this with spoken facts. Rewording and synonyms and many other things can cause the truth to appear as something else. Saddam Hussain was executed for crimes against humanity. People in Iraq seem to be happy about this fact. Professor McCaa says to always question what to are told, because it could be meant to mislead you. So Iraq is in turmoil, things in that nation are very bad. Are the people of Iraq happy about the execution of Hussain? Now the innocent hide where? Not in false loyal obedience to their aggressor, because now their enemy exsist on the fringe of society, and are more than one group. Everyone is a possible victim. Bombs explode in everyday places. they are safe nowhere. On the otherhand, before the smallest thing could be seen as trechery, and could be punished by death. They had to be careful with their actions living nervously on the edge. So when were the Iraqis better off? I am not giving my opinion on which situation was best. Just saying that before we make our opinions on any subject we should look at the situation beyond the manner in which the facts are given, and looks at the facts only. So that our opinions are truely our own and not the regurgitated opinions of other people.

Culture

At my job their are a lot of people from places other than the United States. There are two girls from India, Two girls from Jamaica, and a girl from Poland. That is just where a work. My college as a whole has people from just about anywhere. It is often said that Americans are oblivious to the culture and customs of other places. I thought that, that was just a sterotype of Americans, but I soon came to realize that it may not be that far from the truth. I thought that I was on the up and up on cultures, but right before Thanksgiving I wished Sharon from India a happy Thanksgiving and asked what she was going to do for the holiday. She replied nothing. Then I thought about it "is Thanksgiving even celebrated in India?" Sure enough it isn't. I felt like and idiot. The Dumb American assuming that everyone does what we do. From then on I asked a lot more questions than I usually did. the girls and I would have back and forths about our two respectable cultures. I would ask a question about Indian, Jamaican or Polish culture they in turn ask a question about american culture. I found out many things. In India you pay for school from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and america and her citizens are seen as all being rich. They have a saying in India if you are looking for something and can't find it "If you were in america, you would have found it." Christianity is a major religion there. They assume that all americans are black or white. Sharon has told me she now know these things to be untrue. Those are just some of the things about her culture that she taught me. I taught her things about american culture also. Jamaican Culture is not so strikingly different. They have similar things there. The place just isn't as commercialized as america. the way they cook their food is very different. Nadia told me that she did not know that such a wide variety of food is fried. She says that they rarely fry food. They steam or boil their food. Meeting new people from these various cultures is a wonderful experience that hope to not soon forget.

Happy Holidays

December is a month filled with holidays. This time of the year is supposed to bring out the best in everyone. The world is a varied place, overflowing with different cultures, races, and ideas. So in the spirit of that I would like to wish Remorji, Tim, KB, Celtic Sister, Xtralicious, Alexhb, Jhenene, Deborah, Mrs. Jones, Saralulu, Ms. Liberty, KariinAfrica, Dirk Star, Yuri, Betmo, Rajeev, Matthias, Annie, Tanie, The Family, Nikki Jilton, Meander, Lizard Princess, Amazll yeo, Mypurpleink, Steve Novak, Sneha, P.O. Patricia, X. Dell, FRIDAY'S CHILD, Enemy of the Republic, Undeniable Liberal, The Future was Yesterday, Imran MD, Starlet, and anyone else who visits my blog a Happy Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, and general well wishes.

You

Time magazine announced it's "Person of the Year" and they chose you. Not you really, but the average, everyday person. The title "Person of the Year" is supposed to highlight the man, woman, idea, or movement that most influenced the year. The choice of "you" is supposed to highlight the movement of the average person coming up and making their voice be known through the many user friendly services. Services such as Blogger, Wikipedia, Facebook, My Space, Black Planet, Flickr, and You Tube. I agree that user friendly services have had a major impact on this year. I do not agree with their choice. Had I had an input I would have cast my vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I am not claiming that he is a good person. The truth is that he has influenced this year in more ways than anyone else. I say this because since the begining of the year he has been in the news. He of course is pursueing Nuclear power, he says to help power his nation, not weapons. Whether he is telling the truth about this is uncertain to me I can't just dismiss what he says. Nuclear power is a good, but dangerous source of power. Then his ardent speech at the United Nation. Ahmadinejad gave a speech which he shows clearly that he believes in what he says is not just some power hungry terroist despot. Then His fervent hatred of Israel. Ahmadinejad's misguidence about Israel is not in question. You can not deny that this hatred of Israel is a major factor in International politics. It drives all politics in the Middle East. The United States is heavily tied in with that region so it affects our life here, and from us to the rest of the world, seeing that the U.S. is the only superpower left. I am not saying that Ahmadinejad is a good person, but just because someone isn't good does not mean you can't respect him and his influence on the world. Ahmadinejad's stirring speech at the UN showed me that whether imprudent or not are sincere. He to me seems that his belief come from actual thought out means. Unlike other bad men he sat down and formed his own opinion. Right or wrong you have got to respect that, in a world filled with people who rarely make their own opinion he did. That is my selection and why I chose him for "Person of the Year" So who do you think should be "Person of the Year"?

Limits

I think that people and nation should be able to understand their limits. The U.S. has reached it limit in Iraq. We can no longer hold to the fanciful thought that we can make Iraq a better place. We are foreigners, not only to the nation, but to the region and the culture. We have to enlist the aid of nations that can take some of the weight off our load. I am being repetitive, but we need a time table. Pulling out of Iraq is going to be a slow process, but we need to start now. To help ease this process we need to recruit the nations in the region who are familiar with the culture. Senator Bill Nelson visited Syria and plans on visiting other nations in the region to enlist support. I know that Syria is not the best nation, but the truth is we can't help Iraq and neither can any other nation in the "coalition". Syria can. If we only ask them to help secure their border not much trouble can come from that. I think that Senator Nelson did a good thing the executive branch won't do what needs to be done because of their pride. I know if we leave, but get other nations from the region to aid the legitimate govn't I think that is the best course to take right now. There are no really good options to consider. If we take a step back and do what is really in the best interest of Iraq, the situation will be a lot better than if we stay there. Many Americans feel that we need to stay, because thing we get horrible. In fact the situation is already too far gone. Iraq, really the entire Middle east needs to be stablized and we are not doing that. If we can teach those nations to work together without our help the entire region will be in much better condition.

Bad Situation

Not to long ago, a couple days at the most. The Iraq study group relesed it's findings which stated that the situation in Iraq is beyond repair. No good options are left. What does that mean for the U.S.? I have long thought that to be true. I am glad that it has officially been stated. I know it is going to be a long and hard road to us getting out of Iraq, but we need a time table so that we can begin to systematically pull out. This will prepare the Iraq govn't to handle it's own affairs. I just hope that the American people will see that the situation in Iraq is extremely bad. We need to get out to save some of our image. We have already tarnished it. Hopefully not beyond repair. People are dying everyday young men and women, American and Iraqi. Horrible things are happening over there All I have to say is that Iraq is out of hand.

I can only imagine what horrible things he has seen

Education

I feel that Education is the way that humanity can better itself, and in doing so save itself. I also think that America has the potential to be the leader in this movement. Yet, lately I have read that America is behind a lot of countries in the academics. Fifty percent of students on average graduate high school. At first that seemed unrealistic to me, then I thought. My graduating class consisted of eighty-three people. I know that a lot more people went to school with me than that. Some failed, some moved, but an overwhelming number did dropout. I say this after thinking how many people I saw on the streets of Winnfield, who should have been in school. What is it? America was once the leader of the world in the sciences. The newest, and best developments came from here, but not now. I personally think that it is the culture we live in. We glorify the people who contribute least to society. Athletes, they serve a purpose, they entertain us which is needed in a society. To me the thought of professional athlete is the most ludicris idea I have ever heard. Teachers and scientist the people who contribute the most are paid the least. That does not make sense to me. The millions of dollars that athletes are paid to play a game. What really gets me is that not only are they idolized, but also remembered. Think about it. Who has the most rushing yards? Who created the polio vaccine? Who scored the most points in their first professional NBA Game? Who invented the printing press? If you think about it you know which questions that most people can answer. It is not only athletes, singers, rappers, and actors also get too much recongnition. Most people who drop out aspire to be like the people or rather persona's that they see on TV. Thugs is what they want to be. People feel that school is not necessary to be a singer or actor. Both are very respectable arts, but I feel that they don't want to be artist they want to be famous. That is a huge difference. So now we have an epidemic of actors who can not act, singers who can not sing, rappers who can not rap. People aspire to be famous, they want the recognition, money, andd the easy life for the littlest amount of work. What I just spoke of disturbes me very much. This is causing people to shift their focus from education. Which in turn is causing America to fall behind in the math and sciences. All of that means that people no longer want to do good for others. To better humanity. They only want to betters themselves. What happened to making a difference that will better the world for future generations?

Tagged!

My blog is mostly serious and rarely light-hearted. So today is a light-hearted post. on Tuesday Undeniable liberal "Tagged" me so this means that I have to list six weird things about myself. I also have to tag six other people. So if I tag you play along, it's all for fun. Well here I go six weird things about myself.

1. I am afraid of heights, but love to fly
2. I was afraid of chucky the doll until I was Sixteen ( he still creeps me out)
3. I like the show Smallville
4. I don't like anything on my burgers
5. I think gasoline smells good
6. I like to eat fritos and spaghetti together

There it is, let the laugh fly. I hope you enjoyed that, and look out I am about to start tagging.