Who is to Blame?

President Bush? Mayor Nagin? Governor Blanco? FEMA? The Brown Guy? In the finger pointing aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, everyone seems to be blaming someone else for the poor response to the catastrophe. On Tuesday, September, 27, 2005, ex-FEMA director, Michael Brown, was interrogated on his response or lack thereof in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by a congressional committee. Brown used the occasion to blame local officials. However, the former director was still implicated for his poor performance in the midst of such a horrendous tragedy. What do you think? Is Michael Brown's claims that the victims (i.e., the residents of Louisiana governor of Lousiana and mayor of New Orleans) are to bear some of the responsibility for the deaths and destruction that occurred? Is Michael Brown largely responsible for his lack of dexterity in his Presidentially appointed position? Or is President Bush largely responsible? Since he did admit that the federal government failed the people of Louisiana during this disaster. As you respond, think about all parties involved: the residents of Louisiana, Governor Kathleen Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, Michael Brown of FEMA, and President Bush and then give sound arguments as to who is responsible for the majority of what occurred in New Orleans.

Violent Video Games, Violent Kids?

"I think Doom fulfills our need for violent spiritual entertainment, because church doesn't do it anymore...We really want the fire and brimstone, and Doom gives us this."
--Joystick Nation author J.C. Herz in Hotwired magazine, 1997.

"Play a first-person shooter long enough and its morbid reality seems to descend over your awareness like a grid, accompanied by a kind of adrenalized hyper-awareness and euphoric rage. Grid, adrenaline and rage stay with you, far past the point when you exit to the desktop. Walk away from the computer, and they still persist. You find yourself stealing up on street corners as if preparing to strafe the adjoining block; you seem to see a crosshair traced across the bodies of passersby. For the overwhelming majority of us, with well-adjusted social lives...the grid recedes."
--Wagner James Au, new media critic, Salon and Wired, from Salon, "Quake, Doom and Bloodlust," May 1999.

Tuesday, April 20, 1999, two teenage boys went on a rampage at a high school in Littleton, Colorado. The Columbine High School incident would change how security in high schools functioned forever. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were two teenage boys whom some said were social pariahs. They established a private website in 1996 which hosted different levels of the video game Doom. It is said that this game was the beginning of the violent tendencies of the two teenage boys, which would later result in the making of explosives, petty theft, and the large-scale shooting spree and suicide at Columbine High School.
So what is society to think? Are video games responsible for the increase in violence amongst school-aged children? There are some studies that link video games to violent behavior in children. Some say that this view of video games is unbalanced. There is an element of fine art in such video games if you can just get through the violence. What do you think? Are video games indeed responsible for the increase in violence amongst school-aged children? Before you answer read the following link on culture shock.

Technological Advances in the 21st Century

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
-Winston Churchhill

When I was in high school (1993-1997) there was no internet. Pagers were the commonplace telecommunications technology instead of cellphones. There was at this time (not that long ago!) an absence of these and many other technologies that are "essential" to everyday life nowadays. Think for a minute, if these technologies we see today, like the cellular phone and internet, have made it to the mainstream public in less than 10 years, what technological advances may we be in store for in the future?