July 11, 2006
United 93 and 9/11 Conspiracies
I saw a movie today. A pretty good movie and there seem to be few and far between that fit in the good movie category now days. Although this one came and went fairly quietly, there was some debate about it but I think it was a good movie for its subject matter. I saw today United 93. The whole time I was thinking about what was coming. I knew what was coming; I had seen it with my own eyes (through a TV) nearly 5 years ago. All the emotions and memories came rushing back. It is a powerful movie but also very informative. I like how it portrayed the FAA and the Military. It did show how unprepared they were but also how unprepared the ATCs (Air Traffic Controllers) or anybody was. How could you be prepared for such an attack? One part I remember was the movie depicting some people who were on United 93 praying the “our father” while the Muslim terrorists were praying as well. It was an interesting juxtaposition of people’s faith and how some can mangle and/or misunderstand their religion. The portrayal of the passengers of United 93 was moving most of all. From their despair to their courage, it was very moving. Overall I thought it was an excellent movie and you should see it today.
I also heard about this article today. There is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who believes in a 9/11 conspiracy and he claims to be a fair teacher in the matter. I can not believe at a public or even private university this professor is allowed to teach. Now I have heard of groups of people believing there to be a conspiracy behind 9/11 claiming the government (aka the Bush administration) has masterfully orchestrated these attacks), and I believe they have every right to claim that and share their beliefs. But, to have this taught in a university setting? Is this right? Am I wrong here? What if a Judaic studies professor decided to teach that the Holocaust never happened? That it was all made up. Would he still be allowed to teach? What about an evolutionary biologist who mentions intelligent design or any other theory of evolution other than Darwin’s theory? I doubt those professors would still have a job yet this one does in the name of academic freedom…It seems to me he can do this outside of class time all he wants but to teach it, that is something else. I am just in disbelief.
June 16, 2006
UCI What do you know about it?
I recently came across an interview with Chris Ronayne, new president of UCI. He talks about different aspects of UCI from residential development, marketing, the Euclid Corridor, to the instutions entering "a new era of collaboration". I think he has some good ideas and some old ideas just restated. His success will be measured by whether or not as new "mayor" of UCI these ideas will come to fruition. Watch the short interview
but beware it is horrible a taping, probably because it was done by and independent cleveland news organization.
March 19, 2006
Theater
Very few people know exactly how much work is done to put on a play or musical especially here at Case. There are very limited resources that prevent groups from expanding and becoming better than what they are now. It also takes a lot of money to put on an actual production that most groups on campus do not have. But then there are people like me and many others who are willing to struggle through what we have here which is often less than what anybody had at their public high school. Footlighters has come about in the last three years I have been here. This spring under the careful eye of Jeffrey T. Verespej as both our president of the group and director we have culminated to probably the best show I have worked on here but we still need some help. The following is from Jeff’s Blog:
I need a guitar player for the pit orchestra for Footloose - the show runs March 30, 31, & April 1. Four performances. The guitar player has to be able to read music & make rehearsals & performances obviously.
DIRE NEED. PLEASE. If you know anyone, I need to know - I don't care who you are or who they are (no need for the Case relation here, I can work around that). I'm that desperate.
I put this up here to reach another crowd on campus. This is another obstacle we face on a daily basis, finding qualified musicians who have the time to spare. This guitar player NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO READ MUSIC and not tabs. That is the difficult part. I hope someone can help us make an excellent show even better and I hope you will come support our hard work. With about 45 total people either in or working on the show you probably know someone who is involved. Come support them at the cost of $5 and enjoy an amazing show. The show begins at 8pm each night and there is midnight showing on April 1st.
January 14, 2006
My Hometown
I recently read an article that was linked by the Case Daily email. I like how all the news that involves Case can be anything that remotely mentions Case Western. Anyways, the article has to do with my little home town of Moreland Hills, Ohio. Recently a developer bought some land and wanted to build homes, 18 of them on half acre parcels. Moreland Hills has a zoning law on the books from 1952 requiring that all homes be built on at least two acres of land. The developer since has had the Ohio Supreme Court overturn a favorable ruling towards him. I have mixed feelings about this decision. I do like being able to preserve the feeling of the neighborhood I live in now. I live on a little over 2 acres and the rest of my neighbors do as well. It’s a different feeling from my first home where in Eastlake, Ohio we lived on probably half an acre and you had houses lined up next to each other in this whole development. It was the typical after WWII housing project where all the houses were built off of a few models. I like the extra space in Moreland Hills granted cutting the grass is a bit more difficult. At the same time I feel this ruling forces people who would want to build a house in Moreland Hills because of our great public and private schools, the neighborhood, or whatever else from doing so. Just buying a parcel of 2 acres is fairly expensive; it was seven years ago when my parents originally bought the land, I can’t imagine how much it costs now. I feel that it excludes people on a socio economic level but there are also plenty of houses on the market. For now, I get to enjoy Moreland Hills the way it is. If you want to read the original PD article go here.
January 02, 2006
Happy New Years
Last night I watched the ball drop in Times Square with several hundred thousand people there and an estimated billion watching on TV. I also was able to watch like many of you Dick Clark on air for the first time since his stroke. It has been over a year since he had his stroke and yet he still had a slur in his speech as if he was drunk. He looked perfectly healthy yet a small clot in his brain caused so much damage. Even with his slurred speech it was nice to see him back on TV trying to convey the energy and liveliness he has in years past. I was moved by his spirit and determination to come back into our homes and celebrate another New Years with us. We have come once again to a new year where 40 percent of Americans will resolve to lose weight. But I hope we also resolve to do more, to challenge ourselves and each other, and to never forget that there is always someone who can use our help.
Two awesome events in the sports world also occurred today. First the Browns won over the Ravens and Doug Flutie of the Patriots completed the first drop kick for an extra point in 40 years. When I saw this I was thinking is this even legal? Check it out here
December 29, 2005
Random News Stories
Christmas has come and gone and now New Years is coming up. I just wanted to talk about a few things in the news.
The Cleveland Indians are coming back to local TV! The Indians signed a deal with Time Warner cable. A whopping 20 games will be broadcasted on our local WKYC channel 3 (In HDTV) while the rest will be on a cable station. For all the details you can go here. While I am excited that baseball games are coming back to a local free station after 4 years, I wonder if I will be able to see the rest of the games as I am a DirecTv user and not a local cable user. Hopefully this deal will give more exposure to the Indians as well as generate more support for the team. I do not want to see a repeat of last year where we almost did not sell out the home opener.
I thought this following article was pretty interesting. I did not know that student based EMS groups were growing. Both UD and JCU seem to have better programs then what we currently have but I ask is it really necessary? I can not imagine the insurance, equipment, and teaching costs. Furthermore both JCU and Case are not in rural areas where we expect EMS to arrive 10 minutes after a call. I think offering a class is one thing but do we really need this?
There seem to be a rash of police shootings locally but here is one in New Orleans as well. Now to me this latest one in New Orleans could have been resolved with out the suspect being killed. Just with the amount of man power there I would figure someone could have jumped the suspect from behind to take him down. I was not there and do not know nearly all the details so I can not pass judgement. The police have said that what occurred was that one of the officers tried to do that and then the suspect lunged at him with his knife and that is when three other officers opened fire. What I hate most about these stories though is that the media as well as the general public takes a quick stance against the police officers. Sometimes this is deserved for example when a man was beaten in New Orleans a few months ago. But in Cleveland especially we have people calling our police officers ‘murderers’. I think that is completely ridiculous and when ever it is a white cop who shoots a black suspect the cop is automatically racist. These people get paid worth crap for what they do and I do not believe for a minute that there are officers who get up and think lets see who I am going to shoot today. Furthermore I am sure that they make mistakes but that is expected when you have only a few seconds to decide whether or not to shoot. The least we can do is give them respect and wait for the investigation to occur before we judge them. In society we presume innocence until proven guilty but that doesn’t seem to apply to cops. Why?
Here is a little heard news story. While most of the news about the Catholic Church recently has been negative and in recent years all we have heard about is church closings and priest shortages, here is an example of the strength of the Catholic Church. Furthermore you never hear that the Catholic Charities is second in donations to those in need and you never hear about how many new members the church brings in a year. The church has been hit hard but is no where as bad as people may believe.
Here is an interesting article about the growing gender gap in College. Now this may not be what you think. Apparently more women than men are matriculating into universities. How come I don’t see this at Case?
I hope everybody has a wonderful New Years!
December 21, 2005
Damn Deer
This is something the east side of Cleveland deals with quite a bit. What to do with the over population of deer. I live right next to the city of Solon which has continually taken controversial steps to control the deer population. I do not remember the exact numbers but I believe the deer population was as high as 30 deer per square mile nearly double than what it should be. One fact I know for sure is that 175 car accidents due to deer occurred just in Solon. Last year Solon city council decided to have a culling of about 600 of the dear and then donate the meat to local food banks. The culling took place with licensed sharpshooters who took head shots to make it as humane as possible. This year the issue was the feeding of dear. People decided to feed the deer in order to keep them around their house and not in the areas where the culling took place. Now this has also brewed a local fire storm. Some citizens said arrest me and send me to jail or we will move if you pass this ordinance. It was also discussed on how police would find out if the ordinance was being broken. I believe feeding any wild animal is a bad idea and should never be done. I also think the thinning of the population is necessary. In America there are 1.5 million accidents with deer resulting in nearly 1 billion dollars in damages which was stated in this article. I also have a personal connection to this when my parents came home late the other night when they hit a deer on their way home. Luckily there was only minor damage to the car and my parents were fine. This accident did occur in Solon. The deer also managed to get away but my parents believed it was badly injured. So to all the people who say poor deer why do we shoot them, I ask, which is better, starving to death, being hit by a car and then bleeding out, or shot in the head? I know there are many arguments on both sides but I believe the city of Solon is doing what it has to in order to protect the welfare of its citizens. For more information go here and here
Finally if you live in the Cleveland area take a look at this and help someone out in need.