#33 Relevancy

    The fall of Tiger Woods is relevant for many reasons.   First of all, Tiger’s cheating only became known to the public about a year ago, and he is trying to come back right now.   Everyone has heard about what happened with Tiger and his multiple mistresses.   Everyone has formed their own opinion about him and has judged him for his actions.   Golf has become much more popular among teenagers and college students.   Tiger brought a lot of popularity to golf and brought just as much attention to himself.   His cheating was all over the news.   It wasn’t just on SportsCenter like most news stories involving sports stars.   This became the most popular news story in America.   Tiger was a role model for many kids, myself included.   How he handled himself on the golf course was just as pristine as his image off of it.   He seemed to be the perfect athlete.   That image was shattered after the news of him cheating on his wife made it’s way to the general public.   This made people lose faith in him.   Not only that but, as wrong as it could be, people might have lost faith in golfers, black athletes, men, athletes in general or all celebrities in general.   Tiger is back on the PGA tour after some time off to straighten out his life.   He has not been as good as he was before his break, but he almost won the Masters this year and seems to be making strides towards getting back to where he was.

#31 The Fall of Tiger

    My topic for my Commonplace piece is Tiger Woods’s fall from grace and his road back to the top.   Before his fall from the pinnacle of of the sporting world, Tiger was the #1 golfer in the world for many years.   He was on pace to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors.   Tiger was a role model for kids, he brought an enormous amounts of popularity back to golf, he made golf more exciting, he broke the race barrier in golf and he was my favorite golfer.
    What most people didn’t know about Tiger was the enormous amount of pressure on him.   The pressure of everyone looking up to him, of being the worlds best golfer for years, of always having everything he did and said analyzed, of being away from his family for extended amounts of time.   All that pressure ended up getting to him, and eventually he cheated on his wife with multiple women.   I’m not saying that I like what he did, or approve of it, or think that it is a good excuse for cheating.   I don’t like what he did, but I do realize that he is human and he does make mistakes.   Very few people know what it is like to constantly tempted like Tiger was.   Being not only a professional athlete, but being the best athlete in your sport.   Women were probably throwing themselves at him.   Everyone knows that making the right decision isn’t always the easiest to make.   I just wish that people would put themselves in Tiger’s place and just try to imagine how difficult it would be to be faithful.   Sure its easy to say that you wouldn’t do it, but unless you are put in the position, you have no idea how tough it would be.
    Tiger took time away from golf after the scandal went public to try to get his life back in order.   This scandal nearly ruined his life and looked like it may have ended his golf career.   However, Tiger is back playing on the PGA and almost won The Masters this year.   He is still trying to repair his public image, but there are some people that will never forgive him for his mistakes.

#30 Facebook Problems

    The Commonplace article that I read was called The Dangers of Social Networking Sites by Chelsea Bates.   The article was about the problems with social networking sites, but mainly Facebook.   It pointed out the obvious and not-so obvious consequences and problems with the world’s most popular social networking site.   I chose to write about this article because these sites are extremely prevalent in everyone’s life.   These days it seems like everyone has a Facebook.   Advertisers, businesses, tv stations, parents, even grandparents have Facebook pages!   I, however, am in the minority and do not have a Facebook profile and don’t plan on making one any time soon.   I don’t like Facebook, but I think that if it was used properly it could be a great tool.   The users of Facebook have turned it into a place to harass, insult, mock and pick fights with others from the comfort of their home.   It lets people do things they would never do in person because the other person is not physically next to them.
    This article goes on to remind people that everything that you post on Facebook can be seen by everyone in the world.   Schools, your family, strangers, the police, as well as possible employers can all see anything that ends up on your profile.   I know some people that went to my high school that were suspended from school for having pictures of themselves drinking.   Also, one of the best softball players at my high school was kicked off the team her senior year for having pictures of her drinking on Facebook, and she ended up losing her scholarship because of them.

Support the Vest

All this negative news about Ohio State is ridiculous! ESPN we have had enough coverage of the football team's off the field misconduct. You don't need to bring in Chris Spielman and Robert Smith every time a "new" development breaks about OSU. The last "new" development was that Tressel "lied" to the NCAA in a report about players's eligibility. But we found out months ago that Pryor, Adams, Herron, Posey and Thomas accepted improper benefits, making them ineligible. The NCAA counts knowingly playing ineligible players as lying and misconduct. This isn't news ESPN! And as for the assclown at the Columbus Dispatch that keeps "breaking" these stories about OSU, why don't you head on over to Auburn University for a real story? They have 4 ongoing investigations of former players accepting improper benefits, 7 players that were ruled ineligible that got to play in the National Championship game this past year because they appealed the suspension a few weeks before the game, not to mention a Heisman trophy winner who's dad accepted $180,000 to get his son to play for Auburn, who got kicked out of the Univeristy of Florida!(former football players for Florida were caught having other people take their exams for them and still got to play and keep their scholarships), at Florida Newton allegedly bought a laptop not knowing that it was stolen then when the police showed up to his room he threw the laptop out the window. Popular news media just hates OSU. Tressel was just standing up for his players, now we need to stand up for him.

#29 What Men Really Don't Want

    The Commonplace article that I chose to write about is called “What a Guy Wants” by Erik Vossler.   The title immediately caught my eye while I was looking through articles.   This is just one man’s opinion and every man looks for different characteristics in women.   However, even though I don’t agree with everything Erik says in the article, I thought it was an excellent piece.
    Just like the title indicates, the article is about what guys want, and even more importantly, what we don’t.   I have to agree with Erik that the biggest misconception in today’s society is that men find ridiculously skinny women extremely attractive.   Don’t get me wrong, being naturally skinny or being in shape is attractive.   What isn’t attractive is being so skinny that it becomes unhealthy.   The fashion industry has been using models that are skin and bones for years.   This still astounds me that the fashion industry uses women like this to model their clothes instead of healthy looking women who would probably look better in them.   Never have I heard a man say “WOW! Being able to see her ribs is so hott!”   Using healthy models would be a win for everyone: designer’s clothes would look better, women would change their views of an ideal image, and guys would not have to look at skeletons in ads anymore.   Being able to count a woman’s ribs is a turn off, not a turn on.
    The author makes some good points about what most men look for in a woman.   If I could generalize for most men I would say that we look for attractive, healthy, intelligent women who share at least some of our interests.   Erik goes on to say, “Believe it or not, most men would like to date an intelligent girl who can converse and laugh aside from simply batting her eyelashes and looking cute,” further proving our points.
    One thing I would have to disagree with in the article is that Erik uses Kate Moss and Adriana Lima as examples of “stick-like” models.   Kate Moss is very skinny, but I don’t think she is the best example of a model that is too skinny.   Also, saying that Adriana Lima is too skinny to be attractive is insane!   She is not a stick-like model, and is one of the hottest women on the planet!

#27 Intro

Have you ever met someone who couldn’t handle power?   Perhaps a coach who pushed people too hard, a manager at work, or even a two-faced babysitter.   Chances are, you know a few people that fit that description.   Some people just feel the need to have control over others.   However, once they obtain the power that they sought, they don’t know the proper way to use it.   The theme of power is very common in Star Trek: The Original Series.   In most episodes, there is someone who has a some sort of supernatural power.   The writer uses these supernatural powers to represent an exaggerated form of power in real life.   Celebrities, politicians and athletes in the world can gain near-superhuman power.   Sure they can’t fly or turn invisible, but they have a great deal of influence on people and can be very good at controlling people.   When you start to think about what these kinds of people can do, superpowers don’t actually seem that crazy of an idea.

#17 Italy backs up Libya

    The whole time that I was reading the article “Libya and Europe: Economic Realism at the Rescue of the Qaddafi Authoritarian Regime”, I kept seeing more and more things that relate to my main episode for my ARP.   The relations between Italy and Libya have been really been strengthened over the last few years.   Libya has adopted an authoritarian style of rule.   The recent decisions of Libya have angered the United Nations, as well as many countries.   Even with most countries opposing what Libya has been doing, Italy has supported Libya and their leader, Mummar Qaddafi. 
Yahia Zoubir, a writer that studies European contemporary issues, explained, “Unlike the coercive policy of the U.S., Italy pursued an inclusive policy to prevent the Libyan regime from feeling frustrated and isolated, a condition that may have prompted Libya to act irresponsibly”(n.p.).   I have learned that even when someone faces extreme adversity, even having one person supporting you can be the difference between quitting and continuing whatever you were doing.   This article was talking about even though most countries disapprove of what Libya is doing, having Italy in their corner has given Libya enough support to keep doing what they are doing.   In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, a crewman, Gary, developed supernatural powers.   Gary’s powers were increasing at a very rapid rate, and soon Captain Kirk and Spock realized that Gary would soon become a threat.   Kirk and Spock tried talking some sense into Gary, but Gary refused to listen to them and attacked them trying to gain control of the ship.   Gary was imprisoned on the ship after the attempted coup.   Gary’s only ally on the ship was one of the female doctors.   She thought that what Gary was doing was a good thing, and wouldn’t let him give up his dream.   In this episode, the doctor was to Gary what Italy is to Libya.

#13 Personality Disorders

    In researching the corruptive effect of power I read “Was Saddam Hussein Like Adolf Hitler?”   The article was basically a report on the results of personality disorder tests that were done on both Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler.   I thought a comparison of both of these men would provide some interesting information and some useful arguments for my ARP.   I’m sure it will not come as much of a surprise to most people, but this article showed both Hussein and Hitler scored very high in  many of the categories of personality disorders.   However, the sadistic, antisocial, paranoid and narcissistic categories for both men were exceedingly high, and both had very high scores in most of the tested realms of personality disorders (sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid, schizotypal, obsessive-compulsive, dependent, depressive, self-defeating, borderline, passive-aggressive, histrionic, avoidant).   Hussein’s sadistic features were more profound that Hitler’s, and the research provided that Hussein might have been a paranoid schizophrenic.
This article provided me with some very useful information about Hitler and Hussein, as well as, gave me some personalitiy disorders to look for in other tyrannical or unjust rulers.   From this article I can assuming that most power-hungry people or people that misuse power will also have some sort of personality disorder.

Coolidge, Frederick L., and Daniel L. Segal. "Was Saddam Hussein Like Adolf Hitler? A Personality Disorder Investigation." Military Psychology 19.4 (2007): 289-299. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

#10 Prelim. Research

    My analytical research paper will be about how power can corrupt people.   To provide some real world examples, I will be researching Hitler’s, Saddam Hussein’s and Muammar Gaddafi’s rise to power.   Also, I will find other rules or leaders that severely misused their power.   I will compare their intentions that they had, or claimed they had, before they gained power to what they actually did while in power.

Coolidge, Frederick L., and Daniel L. Segal. "Was Saddam Hussein Like Adolf Hitler? A Personality Disorder Investigation." Military Psychology 19.4 (2007): 289-299. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Johna, Samir. "THE ANATOMY OF CRIME: PHYSICIANS UNDER THE OPPRESSIVE REGIME OF SADDAM HUSSEIN." Acta Medico-Historica Adriatica 7.2 (2009): 303-308. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Nayar, Monisha. "The cult of Osama: psychoanalyzing Bin Laden and his magnetism for Muslim youths. By Peter Alan Olsson, Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2008." International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies 6.3 (2009): 232-235. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.

Winter, P.R.J. "Penetrating Hitler’s High Command: Anglo-Polish HUMINT, 1939-1945." War in History 18.1 (2011): 85-108. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Zoubir, Yahia H. "Libya and Europe: Economic Realism at the Rescue of the Qaddafi Authoritarian Regime." Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17.3 (2009): 401-415. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

#9 Prospectus (Power)

    My prospectus will be about power in the Star Trek universe.   There are many episodes that deal with the concept of power.   In the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, one of the crew members gains extrasensory perception and takes over the ship.   The main point of the episode was how power corrupts people.   The crewman didn’t know how to properly use his powers.   This abuse of power is seen commonly in unjust rulers and tyrants.   There are plenty of examples of abuse of power in Star Trek: The Original Series, as well as, the real world.
    Questions that arise when seeing this power abused is abundant.   I would want to know how abuse of power is so prevalent, why people haven’t learned to stop this and why people change so much when they come into power.

#8 High School is Hell

    “High School is Hell” explains what issues the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer deals with.    The chapter picked out certain metaphors used in the show and dissected them, pointing out how they can be related to real life.   The main point of the chapter, however, was that many of the metaphors used in Buffy are very relatable to the real world.   Also, some of the principles of the show that seem like metaphors, are not actually a metaphor, but a literal representation of something.
    I have only seen a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I think I see what the writer is trying to convey.   The writer was talking about how storytellers use monsters or some sort of evil to represent problems or fears of the real world.   The question brought up when talking about this from the chapter was, “Does this mean that at some level, the metaphors are more real than we first expected and that there is some truth behind the myth?   Might it be that the truth is scarier than al the collective monsters put together?”   I thought this was a great question to ask, because I feel like most people assume that stories or tales are just fiction.   I feel like people fail to see through the created monster to what the writer is trying to portray.   For whatever reasons (maybe the reader or consumer doesn’t agree with or want to accept the intended message, or the person is just reading or consuming the media for entertainment) people don’t fully understand or comprehend what they are consuming, which is a shame because most of the mentioned material discussed in “High School is Hell” is deep, thoughtful, meaningful and extremely prevalent in society.

#7 Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

    A man’s lust for power was depicted wonderfully in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.   In the episode, the Enterprise exited the galaxy.   The Enterprise soon travels through a ring of particles causing a few deaths among the crew.   However, one crewman, Gary Mitchell, was given Extrasensory Perception (ESP).   Gary gained the ability to read minds, to read and retain entire pages of information in seconds, to control objects just by thinking about them and to shoot lightning from his hands.   Spock and Captain Kirk realized that Gary’s powers would continue to grow exponentially, and soon he would become bored with the crew and kill them all.
    This yearning for power is not an isolated incident.   In fact, it is the reason we all live.   Most people strive to be the best they can be.   Very few people have no desire to better themselves in any way, shape or form.   This drive is why people set goals and strive for perfection.   For some people, being in good shape makes them what to be in great shape.   For others, having 100 friends makes them want 200 friends.   When goals are seen as constructive, the lust for power is commonly referred to as a drive or a will to succeed.   When individuals have less than constructive goals, the person is seen as obsessive and power-hungry.   Most dictators and tyrants are perfect examples of negative obsessions.
    It is important for some goals to be unattainable, and maybe even more importantly, people should realize that some goals (like having absolute power) are not possible to achieve.   Perfection would lead to complacency and eventually to boredom and anger.   Also, trying to obtain absolute control can drive people mad.

#6 Hitler takes over the starship Enterprise

    In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Charlie X”, the Enterprise beams aboard a teenage boy, Charlie, who is supposedly the last living human from his planet.   Charlie has not had any human interaction in a very long time and has no idea what acceptable behavior is or how to normal people interact with each other.   Aboard the Enterprise, Charlie has his first encounter with women, and he even falls in love with the first one he sees.   Soon it becomes clear that Charlie is not a normal person.   Charlie has the power to control people and objects with his mind.   He is easily upset and doesn’t always use his powers for good.   When Charlie doesn’t get his way, he throws a temper tantrum and lashes out at someone.   Captain Kirk witnesses Charlie make someone disappear, that is when Kirk realizes that Charlie was responsible for the disappearance of a ship a few days earlier.   Charlie ends up taking control of the ship and holds all of its crew members hostage.
    Watching the episode, I found myself thinking about Charlie as an Adolf Hitler of sorts.   Charlie’s mental ability to control people reminded me of the persuasive powers Hitler had.   After Hitler came to power, he could basically make anyone do anything he wanted them to.   If people made Charlie angry, or if Charlie didn’t like someone, he would just make them disappear.   If Hitler didn’t like someone or feared someone, he had them killed.   Also, Hitler’s primary goal was to eliminate all non-Aryan people.   Finally, Charlie’s takeover of the Enterprise could represent Hitler’s takeover of Germany.

#5 Star Trek thinks women are evil

    In the episode of Star Trek: The Original Series that I watched, crew members of The Enterprise were being killed left and right.   They were all being killed by an alien that fed by killing people for the salt in their body.   The way interesting part was how the creature hunted it’s prey.  It could transform into any person it wanted.   The intelligent part was that the creature knew the best way to draw in its victims.   It disguised itself as man’s biggest weakness, a woman.   The killer would take the form of an attractive woman and lure men to secluded area and quietly killed them.
    I think there were a few hidden messages in this episode.   It seemed to me like the writer, Gene Roddenberry, was not very fond of women, and it showed men as being weak and stupid.   The creature was usually a woman that sucked the salt out of men.   I believe that what the writer was trying to show was that women are evil.   Why else would the creature take the form of a woman?   A man could have killed the crew members just as easily as a woman.   However, the writer had the monster take the form of a woman for most of the episode.   The writer didn’t seem like he was trying to hide his view of women either.   He just showed women literally sucking the life out of men.   Also, the men in the episode were so mesmerized by women, that after seeing the creature’s woman form, they were completely unable to function.