life and times of lil ry

Inter racial marriage and dating was a big issue back in the day.  Most families would not allow you to marry outside your own race.  There was one incident last October in New Orleans, when a justice of the peace wouldn’t issue a marriage license to an inter racial couple.  He wouldn’t marry them because it was for the concern of the children.  The person who did this was Keith Bardwell, said that all inter racial marriages don’t really last long.  Bardwell said that he is not a racist and that he has a lot of black friends and they come to his home and he marry’s them.  But if they are a inter racial couple and they ask him to marry them, he says no.  He doesn’t like the idea of inter racial marriage because the black and white society doesn’t accept the offspring in those relationships.  The two people who wanted to marry; Beth Humphrey and Terence McKayare filing a discrimination complaints to the U.S Justice Department.  They both were looking forward about having kids and their families and friends supported them very much.  Beth said that, “It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 “that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry.”  The license fee is $35, and the license must be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge. ”I’ve been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don’t think I’ve mistreated anybody,” Bardwell said. “I’ve made some mistakes, but you have to. I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.”  I thought that all this inter racial stuff was all over but i guess not. Some people still don’t like this.  I think that it shouldn’t matter what color or race you are to marry.  You should be able to marry who ever you want to as long as you’re happy.

The first laws prohibiting interracial marriage were in 1664.  Then in 1691, the Virginia legislature enacted the first act of interracial marriage.  It said that negroes, mixed, and Indians marrying White people is bad.  Interracial marriage was allowed at a time, even though supporters said there isn’t any evidence. In Massachusetts was when they began allowing interracial marriage in 1843. There’s no record of the legislative debate on the bill, which raced through the Massachusetts Legislature in three weeks and was quickly signed into law. In 1948, interracial marriage was legalized in California, but not until 1967 that interracial marriage became legal in the United States. The fight for interracial marriage is very similar to the fight for gay marriage.  There was a constitutional amendment that proposed to prohibit this.

Black-white marriages increased from 65,000 in 1970 to 422,000 in 2005.  There are some people of interracial marriage such as Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, and Paula Abdoul.  While they make the headlines they have the privilege to be in an interracial marriage.  There has been many ways to increase interracial marriage, interracial adoptions and a growing population of immigrants from all over the world are coming in to the U.S. are helping to change race relations in the United States.  Today, young adults are more likely to have an interracial relationship, then marry inter-racially then older adults.  Also in today’s society it is hard to be in an interracial relationship. Even though interracial relationships are becoming a lot more common.  With everyone stereotyping one another, the way to stop that is to mix more races together for more interracial couples.  Its been about 350 years that interracial marriage was not allowed.

In Washington Township, New Jersey, an employee got on the loud speaker said, “Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, all black people, leave the store now.”  Right after this happened, the store manager got on the loud speaker and apologized for the rude remark while all the customers expressed their anger to the store management.  There also have been several past instances of black customers claiming they were treated unfairly at Walmart stores.  In February 2009, the retailer paid $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its hiring of truck drivers.  Although he National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has said the company has worked hard in recent years to show it cares about diversity.  I think that this was a sad and stupid thing to do.  Who ever made that comment should be punished.  That was not a good thing to say.  Stores should have locks or keys or some kind of protection over the loud speaker of the store so people like this can’t make comments like this.  I think that people of higher rank of the store should only be allowed to work the loud speaker.

I think that the Olympics is dangerous.  One person has already died and a lot of people have fallen down and been seriously injured from the down hill skiing.  The guy that died was 12 years old and died going on a run on the luge course.  They have to go on the fastest track in the world which goes up to 90 miles an hour or more.  He died from going around a corner and lost control of his vehicle and hit a bump or something and ran head first into a medal pole.  Now they have made that corner more slower and put a cushion on the pole in case someone else loses control of their vehicle.  Then on the downhill skiing, that track is so steep and so icy.  When they go off the jumps, they go so fast and sometimes when they land, they lose control and fall and eat it.  A lot of people have gotten seriously injured by downhill skiing.  So is the Olympics dangerous or not?

Which is the new best video game system out there: Playstation 3, X-box 360, or the Nintendo Wii?  There are a bunch of similarities and differences between these three systems.

I used to have an X-box 360, but I sold it because I didn’t really like it anymore and you have to buy X-box live cards to play online with people and friends.  Then for the Playstation 3, you don’t have to pay extra because it is free.  Now I have a Playstation 3 and I love it, I think it’s much better than the X-box.

There are two different versions of the Playstation 3.  The old one that is sort of fat, and the new one that is much slimmer and more portable.  They don’t sell the old ones anymore that used to cost $599 and now the new slim one is $299.  The only problem with the slim is that it’s not compatible with Playstation 2 games that mean you can’t play Playstation 2 games.  The things that come with the Playstation 3 are a controller and a headset.  You can also get different packages or bundles that come with like 2 controllers and like 2 or 3 games and a blue-ray movie.  For the Playstation 3, there are some accessories you’ll have to buy on your own.  For example, a Bluetooth headset or a regular headset to talk to people, sometimes it comes with one though.  An HDMI cable that allows you to play on an HD TV that is much clearer when you play.  You can also get whatever else there is to get.  The cheapest headset would be from about $20-$60.  If you want games and more controllers those are about $60 each also.  A really cool feature I like is that the Internet is free.  All you have to do is connect to your wireless modem at home and you’re good to go.  I can surf the web whenever I want, I could even do homework if I wanted too.  Also there is something called the Playstation store which is on the system already.  What this is is that it allows you to search for demos of all the games that are out there and you can get updates and buy different things like a new avatar or something for your profile.  To me I think that the Playstation 3 is way much better than the X-box 360.  Critics give this system 4 out of 5 stars.

Unlike the Playstation 3, the X-box 360 costs money to play online or Internet.  You have to buy X-box live cards which range from $8-$60.  The cheapest one is for one month that is $8, a 3-month membership is $20, and a year membership is $60.  When the X-box 360 first came out it cost about $350 and now it is about $300 plus tax.  The things that come with the 360 is a controller and a headset.  You can also get different packages or bundles that come with like 2 controllers and like 2 or 3 games. The normal cost of a controller is $60 and a headset ranges from $20-$60 and the games are also $60 as well.  Some new features it has are facebook, radio, a camera, a universal remote, netflix and X-box live marketplace.  X-box live marketplace is a feature where you can download movies, games, demos, avatars, themes, pictures and more.  You will also have to buy some of these accessories.  And the only problem with the 360 is that if you leave it on to long, it will give you the red ring of death and you do not want that.  It makes your system not play certain games and you have to send it back so the people can fix it.  Critics give the X-box 360 4 out of 5 stars also.

The third and final system out there is the Nintendo Wii.  When this first came out, it cost about $300, but now the price is $200.  I think that this system is alright for being so cheap.  Instead of sitting on your butt, you have to stand up and move around and actually get a work out.  Who thought a video game could give you exercise?  Like if you’re playing a sports game, you have to do the motion of that sport to play.  Now they have the Wii Fit that actually works!  You do certain exercises that can make you lose weight.  I thought it wouldn’t work, but it does!  The main thing you need for this system is the motion sensor because without it, the Wii wouldn’t work correctly, a controller and nunchuk and sometimes a game.  The cost of a game is $50, a controller is $40, and a nunchuk is $20.  If you want the Wii Fit, the balance board is $100.  There are so many accessories for this system that I can’t name them all!  There’s to many to count.  I think that this is the least favorite system to get.

The most favorite popular system out there is the Playstation 3.  It offers many things like very good, crisp sound, real looking graphics and to top it all off, a blue-ray player.  Since the new slim Playstation 3 came out, it looks more like of a normal console because the old one was very big and looks funky.  The only drawback about the Playstation 3 is that if you leave it on for a long period of time, let’s say overnight, it will overheat and eventually break down.  Other than that if you buy this, you will be satisfied and won’t be disappointed.  The Nintendo Wii is the least favorite system out there although in the past couple of years, it has been selling very well.  Even though it doesn’t have as good of graphics as the Playstation 3 and X-box 360 or good sound quality, it is much cheaper.  Also it is easier for little kids to play and the whole family will have fun together.  So I think that the Playstation 3 is the best system, then the X-box 360, and then the Nintendo Wii.

Now in reality most of these things wouldn’t be the same as in the video game world.  Basically all the shooting, killing, and fantasy games are/or aren’t real in reality.  Like in the shooting games, it doesn’t take like a full clip or half of a clip to kill someone.  In reality it probably takes one good shot to maybe about 5 shots.  Also you don’t get any do over’s or you can’t respawn which is you can’t come back to life.  Then in games that have weird creatures, obviously isn’t real.  The only games that are probably almost the same as reality is the car games and all the cool things the car has.  We actually have those things in real life.

When kids play violent video games, it can affect them in reality.  They could do stupid things in real life that are in the video games they are playing.  So the question is, does violence in video games lead to violent behavior in kids?  I think that the violence in video games increases different behaviors, thoughts and feelings in kids.  Some people say that violent games are like “murder simulators” that sort of train kids to use weapons and the games are teaching them how to kill and do other violent things.

But then on the other hand, people say that games don’t cause violence.  I think that people who play violent games aren’t violent people when people think they are.  It all depends how seriously they take the game they are playing.  For example, myself, I play shooting and killing games and I’m not a violent person.  I also think that video games are for entertainment and socializing because there are lots of multi-player games.  It also passes the time away really fast.  People think that video games are for children, but most games now are for 18-30 year old males.  The majority of the game players out there are adults.

When it comes to teens that play video games, they think it’s a fun experience.  Although, parents don’t know that the “fun” or violent games are influencing their kids to commit different acts of violence.  In the shooting video games, little kids and teens get the idea of how to use a gun.  They also get to see a bunch of blood squirt out when they kill an enemy and they tend to like it and think it’s cool.  They could think about bringing the violence from the game into reality and we wouldn’t want that.  It would be bad if kids took the violence and brought it into reality because they could get hold of a gun and misplay with it.  A group of kids could each get a gun and they could pretend they’re in the game and start shooting each other.  Also for the racing games, they could try and get a really nice fancy car, then try to race someone on the streets, and then somehow they could lose control of the car and get in an accident.  If any of these things happened, parents would complain more about how video games shouldn’t be so violent and influential.  They’ve already tried to ban some of the violent games but they didn’t.  In Germany they’ve banned over 100 violent video games because of how gnarly they are.  There can only be one easy solution for this problem.

I think the solution for this issue is that parents should follow the ratings on the games.  If they have young children, preferably ages 6-12, they should get them “E” games, which means everyone and basically for young children.  Then for teens ages, 13-17, they have games rated “T”, which is obviously for teens and then whoever is older can play rated “M” games that is mature.  If the parents don’t care what their children play, it’s a bigger chance for them of learning violent things and acts.

On parenthood.com there is a solution for parents about how to prevent their kids from playing violent video games.  The first thing it says is to make sure your child has lots of “real” experiences, away from the computer, TV or video games.  Basically, it says that if your kid wants a certain game, make sure to check the rating and if it is suitable for your child, purchase it and if it’s not, don’t.  It also says to ask the seller if it involves the characters trying to harm others and if it does this frequently throughout the game.  I like what this is trying to say but I don’t think that most parents do this because they don’t really care because they are probably saying to themselves, “Oh it’s just a game and it won’t have any effect on my child.”

There is a fourteen year old kid named Evan Berry, the new head coach at Tennessee offered this kid a scholarship.  The kid is fourteen years old, being a seventh/ eight grader, soon going into high school.  Is this kid really that good?  He’s the younger brother of UT All-American Eric Berry who is going to be a freshman in college soon.  Your not allowed to get scholarships until your a junior in high school.  So Evan has another 3 and a half years to go.  The high school coach wants him to play on the varsity.  I think this is dumb because the kid is only in middle school.  I mean that would be cool to see him on the team, but not play.  If he were to play and then get tackled by a 200+ linesmen, he’d break like every bone or just get hurt really bad.  If this kid is that good, he should be put on a JV football team so they can see if he can get the job done because if you put him a the varsity squad, he’ll get hurt and he’ll be out.  I don’t think that this coach should be looking at middle school kids, it’s stupid.

Recording

my audio for contemporary lit class

Willie Bell, a fourty six year old man got his eye-sight back for Christmas.  Here’s the  story.  Willie Bell met Dr. Paul Dougherty at the Santa Monica Civic Center on Thanksgiving Day while Dr. Dougherty was performing free eye examinations along with free eye glasses to the homeless and needy.  I think that’s pretty cool that he did that for the homeless and needy and he even did it on Thanksgiving.  He seems like a nice person and he probably made a difference to some of these people like Mr. Bell.  Willie said that he was homeless because of his inability to see which got him fired from his job or forced him out of work.  Willie was legally blind due to a severe case of nearsightedness.  Dr. Dougherty said that he wouldn’t be able to perform Lasik surgery so he will do a new surgery called VISIAN ICL, Implantable Collamer Lens which is an implanted contact lens that will allow him to see clearly for the first time ever.  I would be very happy and gracious if I was Willie because Dr. Dougherty gave me my eye-sight back.

The city of Rohnert Park does not have a skate park when Santa Rosa and Petaluma have one.  I do not see why we haven’t built one yet for all the skate lovers.  We’ve been trying to get one for a while now, but the city council has yet succeeded to give us one.  They don’t like the skateboarders skating on the street because it is “dangerous”, but if they know how to ride a skateboard then they can ride on the street.  Another issue for the skate park is protection.  They are worried that kids will not wear helmets and other protection if we do get  a skate park.  If we do get one, everyone will have to wear helmets and etc because the owners of the skate park do not want to get sued or something if someone gets hurt when it is not their fault when the kids are the ones not wearing protection.  We have tried to figure out where to put the skate park, but they haven’t thought of a good location to put it yet.  Skateboard groups and parents petitioned the city council and they formed a fundraiser, but the funds went to another charitable group instead of going to skateboarders.  Personally I think that they should make a skate park soon because all the skate lovers get in trouble for riding around without a helmet on and sometimes just having a skateboard with them.  They should make it soon so all the skateboarders will have a place to chill and have fun.

In London, three men were sentenced for liquid explosives for plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic jets.  A judge gave one man 18 years in prison for his role to blow up the passenger jets using liquid explosives.  Adam Khatib, was sentenced for plotting with Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who was convicted of leading a team that planned to blow up at least seven trans-Atlantic flights. Ali was sentenced in September to 40 years.  The other two men were convicted of lesser offenses, but were also put jailed on Thursday. Nabeel Hussain, received eight years while Mohammed Shamin Uddin,  was put in jailed for seven years.  The plot was uncovered in August 2006 and intended to rival the Sept. 11 attacks. It caused massive disruptions and resulted in restrictions on the amount of liquids and gels that can be carried on airplanes.  So now you can’t bring any lotion or gel bottles/containers that are a certain size.  I’m glad they caught this people because they were planning to blow up at least seven jets and that wouldn’t of been pretty.  That would’ve cost so much money to replace and repair all those jets and the UK would might ask us if we could help them pay some money since it is kind of related to the 9/11 bombing.

The former girlfriend of actor Nicolas Cage is suing him and his accountant for fraud and breach of contract which was asking for thirteen million dollars and a home for her that he had promised.  She filed a lawsuit Tuesday saying that Cage’s series of financial problems had resulted in foreclosure of the house.  Christina Fulton, ex-girlfriend said she believed the Los Angeles home where she lived with her son was under her name, until Cage allegedly served her an eviction notice in September.  A singer said that Cage was under court order to pay his former girlfriend six thousand dollars for child support, when he was really paying much more of about three million each year.  As of September, the IRS has filed over six million dollars in tax dues against Mr. Cage when he is saying that he found out about his financial problems last year.

So first why would you promise to buy your girlfriend a house and give her three million dollars?  I mean if you have the money what the hell but still, that’s kinda pushing it.  Cage’s accountant never warned him about his overdue taxes, why would he do that?  If i was him I’d learn how to look over my money and taxes or whatever in case an incident like this doesn’t happen.  Some other reasons why he’s probably in debt is because he bought two yachts, a gulfstream jet, dozens of cars and motorcycles, a Lamborghini for 500,000, a real dinosaur skull for 276,000, two private islands in the Bahamas and two castles, and Two King Cobras.  He also has the anti-venom just in case.  But wow, look at all the stuff that he bought to make him go bankrupt.  He must have had millions of dollars to get all this.  I wish I had this kind of money and if I did I wouldn’t be dumb like him and buy a lot of fancy things.  I’d save and invest in things.