Author: mushuoo

Cop Control Part 2

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Photo Credit: media.jnr.com

The tables have turned.

Just as I was beginning to think that the police were running rampant, recently multiple officers have been victims of civilian shootings.

The true question is; what was their intent?

This question applies to the officers involved in the many shootings of African-Americans, generally men, over the past few years. However, recently because of the Ferguson case in particular and the many other shootings by police officers in the U.S., people have been taking matters into their own hands.

Patterns show that generally white male police officers profile African-American males because of arrest records and generalizations that they are more violent than whites or Hispanics. Because of this profiling, they are more likely to take drastic measures when threatened or have suspicion.

These incidents can be argued against. Many accusations use the word “discrimination.” Are these truly acts of discrimination? Or officers who are posed with a deadly threat in which they responded with a deadly action?

The only people who know the truth are the officers and the victims, which recently have been the officers themselves.

 

 

Crow Craziness

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Currently, the human species is the smartest on the planet.

I repeat, currently.

I walked into the living room and my mom was watching a TED Talk on her iPad. About what you may ask?

How freakishly intelligent crows are.

Crows have the intelligence and communication skills of a six-year-old child.

Scared? I’m just getting started.

Crows have the ability to plan, recognize faces, hold grudges, conspire with one another, and have incredible problem solving abilities. 

A university in Seattle conducted an experiment where students wore face masks and tagged each of the crows with different colored anklets to identify them, which they didn’t enjoy.

Each time the students would put on the face masks, the crows who were tagged would find the student wearing the face mask that tagged them and proceed to swoop down and harass them

Talk about holding a grudge.

Remember that next time you shoo away a crow.

You’ll know who pooped on your car.

Photo Credit: thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com

 

Newsroom Newbie

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Photo Credit: keithsrevolution.com

Due to the fact that I am a seventeen year old girl, my general topic choice for T.V. shows is mainly based around drama and vampires.

Recently, in Journalism class, we began watching “The Newsroom”, realistic drama based around life in a newsroom. This show includes their struggle to have the most updated facts about major events that actually did occur in history.

I can honestly say no other show has intrigued me to this extent.

The realistic way this show is written involves it’s audience to the fullest extent. Every time our class has watched, I am completely zoned out and concentrated on the show.

The plot of “The Newsroom” consists of a team of news correspondents who work together to be the most updated broadcasting show on the air. Between trying their best to say the right thing (morally and politically), you learn about each of the character’s personal struggles along the way.

My blog does this show no justice, I guarantee it will be your next T.V. show obsession.

Now go watch.

I Don’t Really Know What to Blog About This Week.

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I have been in a rut about blogging.

I cannot come up with a writing prompt to save my life.

So this week, I’m just going to write about something that has been on my mind: Dogs.

I have two of them, I grew up around them, and I love them more than anything else in the world.

A few months ago, I began volunteering regularly at my local Humane Society, and have found myself falling in love with a dog named Dodger.

Dodger is a smooth-coated Chihuahua mix who’s chubby belly sways about an inch off the ground as he struts by.

Every time I go in to volunteer, I head straight towards Dodger’s play pen to say hello to him and his friend George.

I would adopt him in an instant, but my Husky Shepard mix and Chihuahua Terrier mix are a handful already.

Anyone want a cute, chubby Chihuahua?

 

Photo Credit: http://www.chihuahuawardrobe.org (not Dodger)

 

 

Defective Defense?

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52 years old, Kimberly Kreis of Santa Barbara has just been sentenced to one year in jail, three years of probation, and 250 hours of community service.

For what?

Killing three youngsters: Danielle Murillo, 17, Brian Lopez, 20, and Jessica Leffew, 17, in April of 2014 in a fatal car crash on the 101 freeway.

Erik August, the driver, had fallen asleep at the wheel, crashing his car with Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew all inside. The car flew into the railing, flipped over, and slid, coming to a stop still on the freeway.

All passengers were unharmed at this point.

Whilst attempting to escape the vehicle, under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine, Ms. Kreis flew full force into their car.

This killed Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew in a matter of seconds and ultimately put Mr. August in a coma for a month. With serious injuries, he woke to months of physical therapy and mental and emotional pain from this accident for the rest of his life.

Ms.Kreis had a few scratches and walked away from the crash.

Although the already crashed car “could have” been avoided by Ms. Kreis, she had more than the legal limit of blood alcohol content to be operating a vehicle, and was on a high dosage of methamphetamine.

Ms. Kreis has a strong history of drug abuse arrests and charges, multiple DUI’s, and pleaded “not guilty”, but was prosecuted for felony charges of possession of a controlled substance in October of 2013.

The defense attorney claimed there was probably no way she could have avoided the already crashed car sitting on the highway.

This got her sentence reduced astronomically.

Accidents like this get me ticking for weeks.

Was this all Ms. Kreis’ fault?

Could the accident have been avoided?

If Ms. Kreis was not on drugs and had ingested alcohol would she have have hit the stopped car?

Photo Credit: http://www.noozhawk.com

We will never know.

Cop Control

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In this day and age, police have an astronomical amount of authority. They can ticket, arrest, and charge people whenever they deem fit.

But at what point is the state giving police too much power?

A number of times within the past year, news reports of police brutality have been popping up. For what you may ask? Police abusing their power and unnecessarily harming, who usually seem to be, African-American or Hispanic males.

This raises another issue: racial segregation.

Are police prone to act forcefully against different races? Although there are a good amount of African-American and Hispanic officers in the Force, there ARE more white than any other race.

Do these officers act so strongly because there is a pre-requisite for violence in these races? But what about Caucasians? Why is there no pre-requisite for them?

One of the most popular events that occurred was the shooting of Michael Brown.

Michael Brown was only 18 years old when he was shot by a Police Officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He, un-armed, approached a white officer’s police car and got into a short struggle that ended with Mr. Brown fleeing, surrendering, turning around face-forward at the officer, just to have the officer shoot him twelve times.

This caused an uprising all throughout Ferguson. Many rallies and riots were held even months after his death. Probably due to the fact that the white officer was not charged with anything.

Photo Credits: http://www.bet.com

More recently, two white officers in Philadelphia were charged with unnecessarily beating of a hispanic man, Najee Rivera.

Rivera required many stitches and staples in the emergency room after these two police just about beat the living daylights out of this man.

When does this stop?

Are the American people misunderstanding the intentions of these officers?

Are they just protecting their own?

Or are they choosing to abuse their power because they think they are above the law?

What would you do…

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… if your passion was so far away?

If the one thing you loved to do more than anything else was inaccessible?

I don’t really know either.

Since I was a toddler, I have been skiing. As soon as the season starts until the day the season ends, I have always taken every opportunity I get to drive up to the mountains. I feel at home on the mountain; I know there is no other place I would rather be.

This year, I have only had a week of ski time in Mammoth.

I guess living in Southern California is not the best place for an avid skier to live.

Photo Credits: statim.guo.uk.com

This brings me to my main point: where would an avid skier live? Aspen? Switzerland? Canada?

In about a year and a half I will be deciding which college to attend for the next four years of my life, which makes me question if I should move out of California and move somewhere I can ski on a regular basis.

But do I really want to move states or countries away from family and friends?

The decisions begin.

The ISIS Crisis

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We have all heard the horror stories of terrorism – beheadings, genocide, suicide bombings and kidnappings. They happen every single day in many different countries. But when is it time for international forces to step in?

Within the past year, an especially violent extremist group called ISIS has been popping up in my news feed quite a bit, usually with a title including the word ‘beheading’.

Journalists, school-children, women and tourists are the central targets for ISIS kidnappings. These are the most profitable groups of people as women and young girls can be sold to wealthy men, and the journalists and tourists will have families back home willing to give everything for their return.

Often, journalists who are kidnapped at their hands will never return, but the gruesome videos of their death will.

ISIS’s signature horror is far beyond anything any extremist group has bothered to do before: publishing the videos of beheadings and slitting of throats on the internet for everyone to see.

Photo Credits: topinfopost.com

The scary thing about ISIS is the unpredictability of their beheadings. There is no negotiating with ISIS – if they decide to kill a captive, they will.

But why has nobody killed their leader already?

Because extremist groups this large are like a Hydra (to reference Greek Mythology). You can eliminate one leader, but when you do, another will just take their place.

Currently there is no way international powers or the UN can end this reign of terror.

Still want to go hike those Algerian Mountains?

 

Superbowl Sunday

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I have been watching many friends and teachers walk around with a sad and slightly annoyed look on their face for the past week or so. Why? Apparently because with the close score of 22-28, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers in the game to determine who will play in the Superbowl XLIX this year in Arizona.

The Patriots dominated in the finals to determine which teams face off in the Superbowl, and this will be their sixth time in the Superbowl since 2001.

However, there was some controversy over the massive 45-7 victory.

There have been many accusations of the Patriots team purposefully deflating the game balls used in the AFC title game.

One specific person has caused all this havoc for the Patriots; a locker room attendant who was one of the few people to have possession of the balls shortly before the game.

Ridiculous? Maybe.

But many say otherwise.

Photo Credit: http://www.mashable.com

It’s Patriots versus the world.

 

New Year New Me

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I have never been a fan of the whole “New Years resolutions” thing. Everyone always talks about losing weight or eating more vegetables. I find it kind of silly that when the New Year comes around, everyone is frantic to head to the gym and start a new lifestyle.

Until this year, I never understood why anyone would make an effort to do something they should have been doing in the first place.

In late December, I had dinner with a friend who has always been very environmentally friendly and aware. We were talking about what her New Years resolution was. She had decided to use re-usable water bottles everyday and NEVER buy water in plastic containers.

A similar thought crossed my mind as she said that, and I brought up the idea to not use plastic bags anymore. I tried to not use them in the first place, but I was guilty of carrying around a few Target bags full of miscellaneous items once in a while.

This year would be different.

I was only going to use paper bags or bring re-usable bags whenever I went shopping. So far this year, I have saved approximately fifteen plastic bags, and we’re only 26 days into the new year.

Photo Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/45176802483723630/

Plastic bags are one of the many causes for the enormous build up of trash in the oceans. This build up destroys habitats for the wildlife, and the wildlife itself. I do not want to encourage this anymore than I already have. This year, I will try my best not to aid in the harming of our environment.