Freedom of Press?

In a Sun Times article we were given in class yesterday, to give us some backstory on the first amendment and certain rights. And in this article it defined freedom of the press as, " access to information independent of the government, and political leaders." While this is techinacally true, by definition, many news sources are accused of being highly supportive or against a certain political view. For example Fox is accused of being highly conservative, wheras the Chicago Tribune, the NY Times, and MSNBC are called out as being overly liberal, and CNN of supporting the Republican Party. Some people even claim that mock news sources like Stephen Coldbert and John Stewart are biased in what they show and who they make fun of. Which begs the question, are we ever going to see a newspaper or network that gives us the facts, and nothing else, free of any prejudice or bias?

Grades, Grades, Grades

We were discussing something in class today that particularly struck a chord with me. We were talking about grades and how important they are at a competitive school like New Trier. Which got me thinking, why do people worry about grades so much? Isn't the point of school to learn as much as possible, so why don't kids focus on that? I try my best to make school not about the letters and percentages, but with constant pressure to perform well in school from parents, and the desire to get into a good school, it can be easy to forget what is important. I also thought, how would school be different if there were no grades given out, if it was truly about what you got out of the experience in knowledge and life-skills. Would that make kids work harder? What do you think?

Turtles

Disc Drop

Newton's Cradle

Hamster

One Nation Under God... or not?

Who knew Old Glory could cause so much controversy? In American Studies today, we were talking briefly about the 'under goddebate in the plege of aleigance. So I decided to look up some background info on the subject, and I learned that in 1954, the phrase 'under god' was added to the plege. And it has been that way ever since, until 2002 when a panel of judges ruled the plege 'unconstitutional' because of that phrase. However this ruling only affects a few states, and Illinois is not one of them. Personally, I think 'under god' belongs in the pledge, because religion is one of the big things that unites this country, and it was important to the founding fathers. I suppose the fact that I'm Catholic influences my views a little bit, but whatever. What do you think? Does under god belong in the pledge or not?

Olypmics a No-Go for Chi-City

Today during 3rd period, I heard the unfortunate news that Chicago was the first  finalist candidate city eliminated from the 2016 Olympic Bid. After a few years of promotion, awareness, and energy to gain support for the Olympics to be in Chicago, the dreams of many windy city residents were crushed. The Olympics went to Rio de Janero, Brazil. I was surprised at this final decision, personally I thought they would be in Madrid if not here. This Washington Post article speculates as to why the Olympic comittee voted against Chicago. Some say it is because of the hassles and terrorism and the necesary all out redesigning of Chicago's public transit system. One psychology student speculates that it was a sort of 'ani- Obama' act, that the Olympic comittee wasn't just going to let him have his way. What do you think, why were the Olympics decided not to be held in Chicago?

Sadly, this vision will never be realized...