Teenage Drinking

As a teen, what is your perception of drinking amongst those in your age group? Is it problematic? Do most teens, in your opinion, know and understand their limits and the ramifications of drinking at that age? What are the potential dangers you see of teens and alcohol use? Do you believe there is a problem among your age group, or is it just normal, rite-of-passage use that you witness or know about?

In my opinion, drinking in my age group is somewhat prevalent. I am straight edge, and a majority of my friends do not drink. However, I have several friends who I do not hang out with on the weekends who do drink; I quietly voice my disagreement but do not patronize them for it. I believe that a majority initially have no idea what their personal limits are; they can only speculate based on what they have heard. As for the ramifications, I would say that they do but choose to ignore it anyways; for instance, a girl posted on MySpace-

Subject- slightly drunk. going out.
Body:	yes yes its bad. drunk drivinng. but whatevvv yooo! going to go party, hit meh up!!!!!!!

I would say that this is a pretty relevant example of the careless disregard that many teenagers have for others, and answers the issue of whether it is a danger.
I would say that it is both a rite-of-passage as well as a problem. Many people think that they have to get drunk once before they graduate high school, and then get as blindly drunk as possible when they turn 21. The two might even be viewed as correlated, because this rite-of-passage view could develop into a more serious alcohol addiction.

9/11/01

Seven years pass and the anniversary of 9/11 again challenges those with faith in the human person to try and understand how and why people can willingly seek to exact such death and destruction on those whom they've never actually encountered. Blog your thoughts about this: why are humans not only capable of such violence, but also why do they actualize this capability against others?



Humans are capable of such violence through several means. One is a religious one; I am a Catholic, and I believe strongly in the idea that God gave us free will. This complete freedom allows us to choose our own path in life (and incidentally contradicts the idea of an omniscient God). Some people label the terrorists as insane people, and in some cases it may be true, but overall I think that they just believe that what they do is right. In their worldview, the only way to make their point is to commit such acts. They use these acts to terror; one could say it is a dramatic form of bullying. They seek to inspire so much terror, panic, chaos, and general disorder in order to pressure their targets to subject to their demands. In certain cases, some do not have any aim, and yet still terrorize; those people are, in my opinion, psychopaths. I would also say the ease with which one can acquire weapons is also a reason. Overall, I think that humans are capable of violence because we have freedom, and certain people actualize it because of their belief or because they just do not have control

Economic Blog

We've read a few pieces recently about commerce and capitalism, individualism and collectivism. Taking to mind especially the most recent readings on Creative Capitalism and on labor unions, please blog about your opinion on the following:

Is it possible given human nature that, as Gates says, we can "create a world where no one has to live on a dollar a day or die from a disease we know how to prevent?" Can capitalism and humanism co-exist to the point where all have basic human rights and the opportunity to pursue economic aggrandizement? Can workers get to a place where they have fair wages and benefits everywhere? If not, why? If so, what do you think has to happen for us to get there?

In my opinion, it is essentially the thought of an idealist that we can create the world that is essentially almost perfect. To me, it seems that the natural flow of the world works in a fashion that is best explained by Chaos Theory, otherwise known as the Butterfly Effect. A certain event occurring will have an effect somewhere else. For example, people talk about eliminating crime once and for all. Not only is this improbable, but it also causes one to think- what will happen to millions of jobs? That would render Law Enforcement null and the Judicial System's docket would be cut down severely, thus causing millions of people to loose jobs. Some might say that this is pessimistic or even just downright horrible; I say that even though it is not ideal, it is the way that things are. So when someone proposes a world where disease is virtually non-existent, I say that it is impossible (I realize this is tackling one section of the quote, but it is an easy example). Especially given human nature, this is not possible; although Bill Gates is donating billions (and the addition of Warren Buffets' vast fortune is not overlooked), it is still not enough, and not enough wealthy people in the world share Bill Gates sense of philanthropy.

I also believe that capitalism and humanism cannot exist in perfect harmony because to me, the entire concept of capitalism is essentially Economic Darwinism. As for fair wages and benefits, this is something that is a bit more probable. However, many Americans do not realize that cheap labor is a large part of the reason for the lower cost of goods in the United States. Therefore, while conditions might improve (particularly for migrant workers, illegal or not), some may claim that they always deserve more.