fourth outside reading post

In this blog i will be anaylzing and summarizing the novel "A few Kind Words and A Loaded Gun" by "Razor" Smith, pages 185-262. In this section Razor gets off from his three year sentence and gets back on the gang scene. When he first gets out he thinks to himself, " I was a bundle of spite and visciousness clothed in a teenage boy, a war, looking for a place to declare itself" (smith 208). By saying this Smith tells the readers that he is angry with the system but is willing to take out his anger on anyone who crosses him or looks at him incorrectly. We can look back at his beginnings and start to realize that he is no longer a man of morality but a man of anger and rage. This change came from the constant abuse of the prison management and the lack of encouraging role models in his life. Smith then goes to his part of south london and organizes a gang called the Balham wildkatz. He makes plans to take his group to the top and fight the "skin heads". While doing this his crew goes around doing random smash + grabs, and assorted crimes to get money for drugs, alchohal, and style. This is also a serious change in Smith's character from before. He commits crimes not only to stay alive but to have fun and to make life easier. From our viewpoint we can tell that smith is slipping ethically and probably will continue to slip. Later in this section he has a run in with a rival gang member and promises to have a straight fight, he commences the fight and it is fairly even until some of Smith's friends join in and start to beat on his adversary. When Smith finaly pulls them off he gets verbal abuse from the adversary. This abuse causes Smith to run up and kick the other guy in the face with his steel toed boots. We can clearly see that Smith's anger dominants his actions and controls who he is. Finally we see a faint glimmer of the old smith when he is watching another "straight" fight between to guys. When he sees another guy try to intervene with a weapon smith attacks the guy for the sake of the two fighters.
In the second half of this section smith is captured by his age old enemy, the police. He gets out shortly and is seeing a girl named allison. When he finds out that own of his best friends was having a go at her while he was in jail he gets infuriated and starts a fight. Both of them fight for 15 minutes and then get to tired to even throw another punch. To put an end to the battle a bouncer jumped in and declared the fight a draw. We can see the pride and honor that Smith still retains from before.After this gang violence escalates and Smith is nicked for GBH and wielding a dangerous weapon, the razor blade. He is now in an adult jail getting his first real taste of adult jail.

Citation on previous posts

Third outside reading post

In this blog i will be summarizing and anaylzing pages 134-184. To open up "Razor" and his friends in his current cell area are terrorizing the nounces and the sex offenders. This abuse gets to the point that they aren't allowed out of their cells while the nounces and offenders are out. In a few weeks "Razor' and Jel both get transfered to the Borstal system. The Borstal system is reservered for the hardest of Under-age delequents. He is seperated from his known buds and has only one real ally who slips him a blade the moment he gets there. Withen the first couple of hours he tangles with the wrong people and is sneak attacked during social time. The first blow almost knocks him out but he manages to hold his own then using his devoloped fighting skills he whips out his blade and cuts his assailant's hand open. He continues pressing the attack and slices his foe across the stomache. After this his attacker tries to flee and drops his weapon but "Razor" grabs him by the hair and is about to slice his neck open when he is tackled by "15 stone" screws. When he is taken away he yells, "Next time i'll fucking kill ya!" (143). I think that Smith at first is completly justified in defending himself with a blade but as he gets more into the battle he continues the assault just for enjoyment and an increase in reputation. In this section of the book you can clearly see the difference between the beginning Smith and were he is now.
In the second half of this section Smith is taking to the punishment block and meets the first nice screw he has ever met. The Screw's name is Mr. Black and offers Smith a ciggerate. Smith cleverly relates this to the time when the germans and british came out of their trenches and played football on december 25th. Smith finally realizes that not all management and powers are abusive, however this has no lasting effect on him. After his chapter at Rochester Borstal he is sent to a prison hospital. Upon is arrival he is beaten sensless and a "doctor" comes to him with a medication to help with the pain. He doesn't have any choice but to take the medicine and becomes mentally impaired. He is taken to his cell where he sits like a vegatable realizing what is happening but helpless to stop. He manages to stop drinking his tainted water but the gaurds notice and force him to drink it. With this comes an unreleaseable rage that builds up. Speaking ethically the doctor is extremly corrupt because he is destroying lives that still have potential, and enjoying it.

Citation- on original post

Whistle blower Vs. traitor

In the movie "On the Water Front" the main character Terry has two different ideas of stool pigeons and traitors. At first he believes that if you tell on someone that wouldn't tell on you or someone who has helped you before that you are a traitor. Later in the film he realizes that even though they might not tell on you and that they helped you before you probably should tell on them. He also understands that most of the time if the person has done something so bad that you need to tell on them, that person probably helped you for their own personal gain. Another character takes an extreme view on this, Edy. She thinks that no matter what you should be a criminal informant. She doesn't fully understand the slight feeling of guilt that Terry gets because she has no real connections with the mob.
My personal opinions on Stool pigeons and traitors is as follows. Rule number one: check the severity of the crime, if it goes completly against your morals you probably should turn them in. Rule number 2: would they turn you in? If not then try to return the favor, if so well refer to rule number one. Rule number 3: do you owe them anything? If you do then you might want to compare the severity of the debt to the severity of the crime, then use this as a guidlines. If you use these rules to help you decide when to tell and when not to tell life will go swell. For all the people who think of only the extremes, AKA always tell or never tell, life is not perfect, and the best way is a moderate middle of the road way.

All my sons

In All My Sons, a Play (book) by Arthur Miller, characters are contrasting each other in their ethical beliefs about society Vs. family. On one side of the spectrum there is Joe Keller, who believes that one's family is the most important thing that they have. He does all that he does only for his sons and their well being, "Don't think like that. Because what the hell did I work for? that's only for you, Chris." (17). In the middle of the spectrum leaning towards the pro-family is the mother. She understands society and it's rules better, but she also tends to be more supportive of the family, "You above all have to believe" (23). In this quote she is telling her husband that he has to believe that their son is alive because if he isn't then Joe isn't justified in sending away the cracked airplane parts. On the other side of the spectrum there is Larry and Anne, who both believe that society's morals are more important than family. Anne shows this by completly discommunicating with her father and Larry shows this by killing himself as a final act of disjustification of his father's actions.

Second report on A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun

In my second blog i will be summarizing and anaylzing pages 86-133. He just got out of Send one of the most notorious juvenile systems and was involved in a car chase the first day he was out. He managed to escape and then later in the summer he finds a few buddies and buys a sawed off shot-gun and a luger. The luger is completly out of shape and doesn't work but the shotgun works fine. He never fires the guns during robberies, "robbery is all about confidence and attitude, and if you don't have a bottle in the first place, then no amount of fire power will make you a good blagger" (93). Smith has an immense amount of respect for human life and will not fire on the people he robs for two reasons, one your time in jail will almost triple and the second is that he is compassionate. One of his best times is the summer of 76', he and his team go on a number of armed robberies, (no banks yet), and are on the teddy-boy scene. The teddy boys are a type of gang brotherhood, that is interested in the rock music genre. After he gets nicked for a number of charges that he commited in the summer he is sent to latchmere house, a "real" prison. In this prison he meets another teen named Jel, together they manage to throw a bag of poop on a vicious "screw" (one of the prison gaurds). He is sentenced to 3 years at Ashford prison. When he is in custody after trial he meets three real "chaps" and models his entire life from that point after them. They wore sharp suits and were treating with respect from the screws. Here he meets up with some old pals and a few new. They are treated specialy because they are under an extremly rare and harsh law, called section 53. when they meet up they instantly start to haze the sex offenders and "nounces" in their turf. (nounces are usually sex offenders who want to be with the "normal" prison crowd and refuse protection, then they snitch on the "normal" crowd to the screws). This shows that Smith still has morals but they are different than the straight goers morals. Smith's morals include sticking for his friends and cleaning the prison of perverts. He shows that he has some highly attractive qaulities such as loyalty and determination. You can also tell that he has a sense of humor because he and his friend threw some poop on a screw that was giving everyone in the prison trouble. Amongst his qaulities his best one is his intellegence. He shows this through by saying in court that he is a soldier of the army of crime and according to the geneva convention he should be trying to escape from prison all the time. He backs this up with head lines talking about the "war" on crime. The judge is humored by this, and the prosecution is infuriated. However the persecution say that for the geneva covention to apply to him his state must of signed the convetion and the underground criminal world, isn't really a state.

citation on previous post.

A Few kind Words and a Loaded Gun, an autobiograohy by "Razor" Smith

I will be anaylizing and summarizing the first 85 pages of my book in the next two paragraphs. Background information- "Razor" Smith's real name is Noel Stephen Smith, he got the nickname razor because he was notorious for slashing people with his weapon of choic, a razor. He is currently alive and serving a prison sentence for life. He has been in numerous jails and is Irish. Plot summary: Razor is a normal kid growing up with an extremly supportive family in the south side of london. At the current time (1970's) the IRA have been bombing northern Ireland and the Irish are discriminated against. His family is poor, he has a brother and a sister, his dad is a drunk and a famed pub fighter. He qiuckly adjusts to the life he has got and becomes a tough kid who dislikes school because he doesn't learn. He and the neighborhood kids all hang out together and the main changing point in his life is when he skipped school as usual and he and his friend were walking to a muesam. Some undercover cops take them into their van and torture them for "burgling" the neighborhood. He has his hand broken and the police cannot get them convicted due to lack of evidence but the charges his family press against the police are dropped because the police continue to threaten him and his family. After this he hates all men in uniform, and declares a war on the police. He does an assortment of crimes and finally is caught and convicted. He gets his first taste of the British juvenile system. After he gets out he begins a life of crime and does small armed robberies in stores, he is also addicted to adreneline and says that was his drug of choice.
In this book I am constantly feeling pity for razor because he was a smart guy who was messed with for no reason. Through out the whole book I always wonder what his life would be like if he hadn't been tortured as a child. Prior to the beating his idols were the "robin hoods" of the day and could've easily been police. When he goes to juvenile he is taught about the rules and who are the "chaps" and who aren't. These rules remind me what life would be like if there was no authority and terrifies me of prisons "the criminal is the hungry wolf, and the straight goers are the sheep"-Razor Smith. The places are described as primal states where the best fighters win. The moral decisions of Razor are generally understandable. He was wronged and he is extremly proud so he won't take the wrong and decides to fight back. This shows his determination not to be broken or beaten. Later his rage comes in and adds to this. For these qaulities I look up to Razor but for his actions I condemn him. Maybe if he had a better moral gauge or religious base he would've ended up being a pulitzer prize winning author.

citation- Smtih, Razor. A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun. Chicago I.L., Chicago Review Press. 2005.

Rwanda all over again

In the article I read on the current congonese conflict that is extremly similar to the Rwandan crisis of 1994. The main difference this time is that the U.N peace keeping force is more activly involved and instead of the Hutus attacking the Tutsis it is the Tutsi rebel forces attacking the legetimate government of the Congo. The current situation is quite dismal because the rebel forces consist of 10,000 well supplied rebels while the government forces are disbanded and ununified. However the U.N. recently implimented a new mandate allowing the peace keeping forces to disarm the rebels by force, (enabling them to attack with military might). The one catch is that they are out numbered as the U.N. only has 6,000 troops that are spread out thin and disliked by the natives. The Nationals are displeased with the U.N. performance because the peace keeping force doesn't have the ability to help keep the civilians from harm (their main reason for being there), and have started to stone the sites that the U.N. are using for bases. On top of that the government forces set up artillary behind that U.N. and then fire and run leaving the U.N. to deal with the counter-attack. Because of the U.N.'s inability to protect civilians another ethnic cleansing is eminent. However it will be the opposite of Rwanda with the Tutsis "cleaning" themselves of the Hutus.

link:
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-world/20081030/AF.Congo.Peacekeeping.Disarray/

mysterious old man

Photograph/film anaylisis of Dark knight review

In the review I felt that the author was judging the film fairly and evenly. He didn't try to force his own opinions of movie but instead showed the facts of the theme and how the actors did. The author said that the movie, "The Dark Knight", was a must see even if you didn't like super hero movies. The reason for this is because the movie was performed by a star-studded cast and Heath Ledger was one of the main characters (in case you didn't know he is dead, he gave his life for this performance). The reviewer, Rafer Guzman, also stated that the theme revolved around a darker side of life, and the transformations of batman, Harvey Dent, and commissioner gordon. If you haven't seen the movie i would highly recommend it.

link: <http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-darkknight0717,0,5573190.story>

My Thoughts on "There Once Was an Old Man"

In the poem "There Once Was an Old Man" Elizbeth Anderson envisions what an old man with a tranquil mind would see. She says that he sits by an old tree near a pool of water that "reflected heaven itself"(8). Elizbeth believes that the reward for a peaceful mind is a gaze into the wondrous pool. In the final line she continues on to say that the reward is actually a peaceful soul "Such is the reward of a tranquil mind,A soul at peace"(16-17). The wondrous pool that reflects heaven and never is disturbed can be related to the old man's soul. However the old man's soul is like this only because he has a tranquil mind. Similar to the buddhist belief that nirvanna is reached by a mind that has completed the eightfold path, Elizbeth believes that a tranquil mind will be rewarded with a peaceful soul.

link: <http://www.bettys-poetry.co.uk/poems.php?Group=Peace>

response to Question number 2, is odysseus a hero in mordern times?

In the time that odysseus travels the seas, trickery, guile and deception were excellent traits to have. In mordern times not many people believe that these attributes are worthy of having or flaunting. However Homer proclaims in the Odyssey that trickery and guile are characteristics that will elevate one's posistion in life. The character Odysseus is the best portrays these features. When he first arrives in Ithaca he attempts to fool the goddes Athena, for this she rewards him with knowledge and a plot. If Odysseus had not done this he would've been off much worse. In modern times people can make Athena the equivelant to their boss, in most cases bosses will not give people a pat on the back for lying to them. Actually bosses will probably try to retaliate for such insubordinate behavior. Odyyseus gives us another illustration of guile being positive, when he fools all of the suitors in his own house. By doing this he manages to gain the upperhand in the fight because suprise is on his side. If a person is in a fight and loses because the other person uses treachery the person who uses treachery will be shamed and harrassed by people watching. Odysseus also lies to his very close friend to prevent word of his return from spreading. This lie can be compared to batman lying to robin to prevent crime lords from hearing of him. Batman as long as i can remember never lies to Robin but rather toughs it out like a man. Odysseus decieves his own wife about his return for the smallest gain. Odysseus gains the peace of mind that his wife will not spread word about his return. If modern heros were like this they would be considered compassionless and therefore lose their admiring fans. In ancient greek times Guile and treachery were more admirable than they are now. This is because a change in soceity and an increase in the want for commendable heros.

Mars may be able to sustain life

Some of the newer research done by the mars lander "Phoenix" says that Mars may have water underneath the surface. The lander recently established that there is ice on the planet, and that the soil contains minerals that are created when water interacts with the ground. The final and most exciting of the discoveries is snow. The lander's laser identified snow falling roughly 2 miles from where the lander sits. These discoveries open a whole new field of questions. The most eminent among them is if Mars can support life. As of right now it cannot, but scientist say that it once was able to. The lander contains 8 ovens that look for minerals needed to support life and 4/4 tests have failed. The lander will be shut down soon because the sunlight reaching the section of Mars that the lander is on is waning. I believe that the planet can support life but only microbial life forms. Some of the main reasons that i think it can support life is that it has water, and is large enough to have the minerals needed to support life. However it may be a long time before the planet can support humans or anything much larger than single cells, as it's atmosphere is not adequete.

citation
Mars lander finds water sugesting past water. Tue september 30th 2008. Associated press. October 1st. <http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20081001/Phoenix.Mars/>.

Iran using iranian to make nukes?

In a recent report by the international atomic energy agency, also known as IAEA, Iran was found to have expanded there uranium enriching program and is not letting the IAEA to complete their probe into an allegations that Iran has been researching nuclear weapons. Iran on the other hand is saying that they only want to enrich uranium to provide nuclear power. This problem has been going on for quite some time and probably will be a large part of the election speeches. My prediction is that when the new president comes into power he or she will use a different type of foreign policy than we have seen from bush. This different type of foreign policy will most likely be less militaristic in contrast to the policy we used in Iraq and Afghanistan. My hope is that we will solve this problem without any force.

In response to ngoc's comment i would like to say that government spending actualy helps economic growth and prosperity, as shown in the formula for a nations gdp, (GDP = C + I + G + (X-M)). The G stands for government spending.

citation
Heinrich, Mark. "Iran Blocks Probe Into Alleged Atom Bomb Work". Rueters. Monday september 15th 2008. <http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20080915/NEWS-NUCLEAR-IRAN-DC/>.