Reality TV

Reality TV shows have become a strong source of entertainment for the American public. However, certain shows such as the MTV hit show, "Jersey Shore," have created a sense of uneasiness and inappropriateness. The show has gotten so out of hand that the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, has claimed that the show is a "negative" view of his state and doesn't "depict the New Jersey he knows." I feel like reality TV has gone from somewhat reality to just fake entertainment. On the first season of the “Jersey Shore” a cast member named, Snooki, was soccer punched to the face at a bar on the beach. The hit was so graphic that it was not shown on TV but was leaked online. I believe that this kind of advertisement is wrong and should not be shown or become a laughing matter. These shows think that violence, profanity, and vulgarity are ways to engage the public. I think that it is poisoning the youth’s minds and creating a new image of what is right when it is just the opposite and is highly inappropriate. On the Fox News Strategy Room it became known that the show had drawn “outrage from Italian-American advocacy group UNICO.” The advocacy group has goals to “promote and enhance the image of Italian-Americans.” The shows cast members are constantly bragging about how they are “guido’s” and “guidette’s” when three of the cast members are not even Italian. They refer to the ethnicity as being a “lifestyle” and “not, like, Italians,” said J-WOWW of the show. I just don’t understand how someone can find fake Italians, who dress up like strippers, and party till they pass out entertaining. It’s disgusting and I hope the American public will soon realize the idiocracy of this show and have it, and others like it, cancelled.

Jed Lewison is a current Daily Kos editor and the creator and editor of Daily Kos TV. So as I was looking through the Daily Kos blogs of the day, I found one particularly interesting. Lewison posted July 23rd and writes about some newfound issues pertaining to the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The chief electronics technician, Mike Williams, said "the general safety alarm was habitually set to inhibited to avoid waking up the crew with late-night sirens. As a result of the alarms not being on, they did not go on in the time of the emergency. Lewison just replies to these claims with "seriously?" He goes on to say, "What is the point of having safety measures if you aren't going to use them?" To me, these are the same thoughts that ran through my head when I read the opening statement on the blog about the alarms being turned off. Oil rigs are very unsafe environments and for them to have been ignoring areas of safety, the repercussions were disastrous. Obviously, the alarm didn't cause the oil spill but if a simple alarm that is there for a purpose wasn't used, who's to say that any other set regulations weren't followed. Lewison goes on to say that the “executives of other oil companies use stories like this to characterize the disaster as an example of individual corporate failure.” It seems that when a disaster like this hits our nation, the first thing the public does is find someone to blame. In this particular issue, so many articles are posted everyday with new information that could have contributed to the overall disaster. However, Lewison believes that although BP and Transocean failed “egregiously,” they are still two of the biggest companies in the industry and when this blows over, they will “once again be welcomed back in to the oil industry fold.”

Religious Freedom in NYC

There are alot of issues with the freedom of religion. USA Today published an article concerning the issue of whether or not there should be a Muslim Community Center only 2 blocks away from the World Trade Center site. USA Today states that if anything the new center "honors the values that the terrorists sought to destroy. It also undermines al-Qaeda's attempts to convince Muslims that the United States is at war with Islam, when in fact the USA is the home of religious freedom, including freedom for peaceful Muslims to practice their faith." If we as a nation do not go through with this center, how would that in any way be fair? I understand that the families of the 9/11 tragedy are still suffering but that does not mean to hate or discriminate against all Muslims. That's like saying that all white people should be punished for the past involvement with slavery. USA Today is right in saying that the center should be built. In a way, by putting the Muslim center in that location, it is defying everything that the al-Qaeda were trying to accomplish. I understand that it may be hard to see the positive side to the situation but the public should not discriminate because to single out one religion is constitutionally wrong. The US is seen as a place for equality and freedom of religion which is "one of the core personal freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment." If the center is not built due to the public's outcry, I believe that this would then just be the beginning of many more issues to come.

Ken Salazar's Off-Shore Drilling Plan

According to the New York Times in a recent article, Ken Salazar issued "revised rules on Monday for a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico." He is stating that there needs to be a higher standard of maintenance and control on these oil rigs. However, by putting a halt to oil production in order to take care of these new measures, thousands of jobs are at stake. These ideas should've been implemented from the beginning to prevent oil spills from happening. I mean, the airports have never been the same after September 11th, maybe the oil rigs now off the coast will be paying a heavier price. I agree that there should be some form of measures taken to prevent future oil spills but not at the expense of people losing their jobs just so that a company can cover their tracks and make their name clear.