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Christian McCormac

Ms. Giknis

Blog Post #1 (X Band)

24, April 2015

Airport Security

Planes are a form of transportation that is very popular. This has led to security having to be enforced on planes in order to keep the passengers safe. But, sometimes safety goes too far. Sometimes those that are supposed to protect you are the ones that make you feel unsafe. The topic that I am talking about is Airport Security. Since Airports are a very big and populated space it is only right for their to be security. But security is too much at times. There should be less security for the main fact that it is a invasion of privacy. No person has the right to pat you down and scan your body. The whole point in wearing clothes to provide privacy, so therefore by patting someone down they no longer have any sense of privacy and it is as if they are not wearing clothes. Then you have body scanners. These scanners can make it seem as though the person being scanned is naked. Therefore the person being scanned has absolutely no sense of privacy anymore. The guard that you have never met before has seen you naked.

A airport security guard.

There are better methods that are more efficient. For example metal detectors. They can be used to detect any form of metal. Since metal is a thing that is found in most weapons it will be a very smart move to install extremely strong metal detectors. Now for the dangerous objects that are made out of materials such as plastic you can use dogs. You see since dogs are able to detect drugs then with the proper training they should be able to detect any dangerous chemical found in dangerous objects. A dog simply sniffing a person is much less invading then scanners that allow you to see people like they are naked. A dog simply sniffing a person is much more comfortable than a person thoroughly patting down another person. By patting someone down your are invading their privacy and feeling them. By a dog simply smelling someone they don’t even have to make physical contact with them. The dogs just have to be close enough that they can smell the dangerous chemicals. Another method is having a machine that only detects dangerous threats. This machine will scan the person but instead of giving the viewer a naked view of the person they will simply only see the dangerous chemicals. This method shows no invasion of privacy whatsoever and keeps all people at the airport safe.

People getting patted down.
The reason why I feel so strongly about this topic is that it has happened to me before. I have gone through a body scanner that made me feel shameful afterwards because the guards had then seen what my clothes hided. This experience has made me very passionate about airports being able to keep passengers safe without having to technically harass them. Therefore I want to educate the public on the belief that we should not be forced to go through harassing security measurements.

I'm so very proud of all our amazing filmmakers for their achievements!

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/

I am choosing animal abuse because there are a lot of people around the world abusing animals. There are too many people using animals to take advantage of them just because they may make one small mistake.

In “The Taming of the Shrew”, honesty and deception play big roles in the relationships between the characters, especially Petruchio and Katherine, as well as Katherine and her father, Baptista.  In the 2012 movie “ Silver Linings Playbook,” honesty and deception are even more important — almost every important thing that happens is rooted in honesty or a lack thereof.  

Pat Solatano, Jr. is a diagnosed bipolar who has just been released from prison following his beating of his wife’s lover.  Tiffany Maxwell is a recovering sex addict whose husband has recently died. While the relationship between Pat Solatano, Jr. and Tiffany Maxwell can be compared to Petruchio and Katherine’s, the genders should be reversed.  In “Shrew,” Petruchio uses very manipulative tactics to eventually end up with Katherine’s love.  Likewise, in “Silver Linings Playbook,” Tiffany manipulates Pat, making him think that her end goal is something completely different from what it is.  In contrast, Pat Solatano is not aware of Tiffany’s goals until almost the end of the movie, while Katherine most likely knows Petruchio’s plans from the beginning.  Both of these stories show that, while manipulation is not always moral, the results can be good for both the manipulator and the manipulated.

Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp, i’faith you are too angry.

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Petruchio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.

Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.

Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?  In his tail.

Katherine: In his tongue.

Petruchio: Whose tongue?

Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.

Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail?

(Act II, Scene I, 207-214)

In this scene, Petruchio and Katherine are first meeting.  While on the surface they are insulting and trying to intimidate each other, they are also hinting at the physical or sexual attraction between them using innuendos.  This represents deception and manipulation, because they are hiding their true meaning behind clever words.

Pat, Jr. and Tiffany also have a strange first conversation:

    In this scene, Pat and Tiffany are meeting for the first time at Pat’s friend Ronnie’s house.  Pat remarks that Tiffany looks nice, and soon after asks about her dead husband, which spurs an awkward and somewhat hostile conversation between the two.  However, during the conversation, they are both giving each other somewhat heated looks.  When Tiffany leaves the room, she gives Pat a sultry look, implying her unspoken intentions, just like Katherine and Petruchio.

Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented

That you shall be my wife, your dowry ‘greed on,

And will you, nill you, I will marry you…

Here comes your father.  Never make denial.

I must and will have Katherine to my wife.

(Act 2, Scene 1, 261-272)

In this scene, Petruchio has recently spoken to Baptista, Katherine’s father, and gotten his consent to marry her.  This was a very deceptive act, because Katherine thought that her father would at least talk to her before doing such a thing.  This is incredibly dishonest, of both Petruchio and Baptista.  

However, in the long run, this might have been good for Katherine; she ends up seemingly happy and “tamed” at the end of the story.

In this scene, Tiffany shows Pat the envelope that supposedly has a response from Nikki in it, but says that he cannot read it until he nails the dance they are working on.  In the end of the movie, it comes out that Tiffany actually wrote the letter.  This was an incredibly dishonest and pretty manipulative thing to do, but in the end, seemingly caused Pat to fall in love with her.  

The message that I attempted to get across was the idea that there will always be two opposing sides in EVERY situation. That being said, I also tried the emphasise the fact there can never be in any form a way of successful equality. In fact the closest thing that we have to being equal is fact that we are all mammals. Another lense that I attempted to look through was this idea on an “equalizer”. By this I mean leveling the central rights between both sides during the reconstruction era. And It may sound like a little much, but connect this topic to a more relatable instance in our modern society where something that is greater is being changed by an equalizer. The problem isn't whether or not it is unfair for the thing that is greater. The real issue is that fact that it's problematic on both sides because they are being equalized. So then what do we consider it? Is this really a reconstruction for the better? After doing this project I realized the radical perspectives in literally everything. In a sense it was almost troublesome looking at different situations and noticing the shift between good and bad (As cheesy as it sounds).