Face Without a Face

Money. People worship money. We work for it, we pray for it, and we steal it. Money is essential to survive; without it, you would die. Money buys the food for consumption you to eat to live, the roof that you sleep under, and the fabrics on your body that provide heat and comfort. Money is one of the objects in our world that we continue to want more of. Once we get the amount we originally wanted, we have to get more; we are greedy. Money is valued more in different parts of the world; this is why there are separate forms of currency. Money makes people crazy. It is so hard to obtain, but so easy to spend. Also, money is a form of power. People with the most money tend to have the most influence in society. This goes back all the way in history to the old times. Countries with the most money, had the most power and could control anyone they wanted to. Money is the root of all evil.

Is Edward Snowden Heroic or a Traitor?

Edward Snowden, in my eyes, is not a hero or a traitor. Snowden can be classified as heroic because he exposed the government and their invasive actions.  Also, he is looked at as a traitor since he gave away secrets to other countries about our government.

If I had to choose between the two, I would lean toward saying that he is more in the wrong. Of course, it is great that we are aware that people are watching our every move, but should that really matter? If you are not doing anything wrong, there should be nothing to hide or be worried about. The government does not care what your weekend plans with your friends are, but rather if you are a terrorist plotting against our country.

Before he released these secrets, people already thought that they were being watched by the government; his stories just confirmed their beliefs. There has not been any recent attacks on American soil, therefore, the government must have been doing something correct. They were protecting and sifting through our actions quietly, and addressing all problems.

Also, this could affect how we deal with our foreign affairs. If we are using these methods on our enemies, they could be compromised. Snowden should have kept him mouth closed and we would not have to worry about being caught checking in on other countries.

The government is not focused on invading people's personal space. Yes, it is an invasion of privacy that all of your personal text message conversations, email, and phone calls can be listened in on, but isn't that better than allowing the enemy to sneak under the radar.

If we can pick out people of interest based off of their communications with other people, that is a win-win situation because of the greater impact it has on the world. That is the goal of the government when they go into your messages, not to embarrass you and understand your whole life.

Edward Snowden: Constitutional or No?

Is Edward Snowden the enemy of the state? Edward is a former National Security Agency worker who exposed some of the biggest secrets of the American government. He disclosed information that the government can listen in on all phone conversations, that they can turn your phone on and use it as a microphone, and that they can hack into your email and read all conversations.

After Snowden shed light on these secrets from the government, American citizens have been up at arms towards the government. People continue to debate if him disclosing this information is constitutional or not. The arguments are that he is entitled to his freedom of speech, and that he felt the American public should know that their every move is being watched.

What Edward Snowden did should be considered as being against the Constitution. He released information that could aid enemies in attacking our soil. In the Constitution, Article 3, section 3, treason is defined as: "levying war against [the United States], or adhering to their Enemies, [and] giving them Aid and Comfort". So far, this incident can not be considered treason, as expressed in the Constitution because there has not been an immediate impact of lives of American citizens.

Now that other countries know that we have tactics to listen in on what our people are doing, they could use this to their advantage. Knowing this information, they can attempt to infiltrate our security system to know what we know about their movements. If a terrorist group is nervous about how much the government knows about their attacks, they could try and get an inside man to gain access to information. This is the reason Snowden's acts should be considered against the Constitution, because down the road, we could end up paying for his actions.

Detroit Red Wings V. Boston Bruins

Two games into the 2014 NHL playoffs and the series between the Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings is knotted up at one a piece. The first game was a 1-0, gritty victory for the Red Wings in Boston. Which means that the Bruins won game two. Game two had a little different of a story than game one. The Bruins won 4-1 in convincing fashion. They simply out-played the Red Wings today and everyone in the arena knew it, even the Wings. The game was over before puck drop even occurred.

The Bruins came out with a vengeance after a late goal was surrendered in Game 1 to Pavel Datsyuk. Pavel had one of the most impressive goals of the NHL season. He dragged the puck blue line to blue line between his legs, passing it to himself and finishing with the wrister.

Game 2 was all about physicality. The Bruins came out with a head of steam hitting on all cylinders, literally. Boston had 33 hits on the day, all punishing Red Wings. If the Wing want to make it out of this series, they are going to have to step their game up. They were skating slow today, hitting weak, and simply getting bullied.

I expect this series to go all 7 games. With the speed of the Red Wings, and the strength and grit of the Bruins, each team will have their moments to shine. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win this series, as cliche as it sounds. If you watched today's game you will know what I am talking about. The Wings had some unlucky turnovers that ended up giving the Bruins points on the board.

Layer Cake 8 - Is Lent an Excuse for Anorexics

In an article published on the Boston Globe, author Jennifer Graham posted a blog about anorexia. She specifically says that the cause of anorexia is religion. Graham goes on to talk about how, during lent, women give up eating solid food. Also, she blames the media for pressuring young women into not eating as much because they feel that they have to look like fashion models.

Saint Thomas Aquinas commented on fasting, and how it is not an excuse to starve yourself. When asked whether fasting is a virtue or not, Thomas presents three reasons that it is a virtue to fast. The first reason he says is that it prevents lust, one of the seven deadly sins. (2 Corinthians 6:5-6). The second reason that fasting is a virtue is that we may have a revelation from God, like Daniel did in: (Daniel 10). Finally, the third reason is that fasting cleanses your soul and brings you closer to God. (Joel 2:12).

Thomas also makes the point that fasting is an act of abstinence. Therefore, fasting should be done as a form of sacrifice, but not a form of harm. To fast as a form of self-harm, it would be considered a sin, as opposed to a virtuous act.

There have always been a few questions about who has to fast.  "How old do I have to be to fast?" or "What if I am sick?". All people are called to fast, within reason. When considering your fast you have to be reasonable and knowledgeable. If you are poor and do not have enough money to go without eating, the church makes exceptions to that. Children, on the other hand, are not called to fast because of their natural weakness. They need to eat and gain nutrients to grow properly. According to the church, as long as the growth period lasts they are not required to fast. The church classifies the growth period as the third period of seven years.

Fasting is done in the Easter season for Christians. As Christians we fast during this time because of the two purposes of fasting: for deletion of sin, and cleansing of the mind. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it is a form of reverence to go and confess ours in church. We do not have to fast during the Passover because fasting is done during days of sorrow. The Resurrection is a form of joy and would not be fitting to fast.

Saint Thomas Aquinas has a few valid points in regards to whether lent is a cause of anorexia. Personally, I believe the same as Aquinas. Lent is not the cause for anorexia at all, but it may be a good excuse for some people.

PTI Podcast Summary #6

This episode of Pardon the Interruption was held on April 4th, 2014. Tony Kornhesier and Michael Wilbon are the hosts of today's episode. They open talking about the NCAA Men's Championship. They feel that Kentucky underperformed and that they did not leave all of their game out on the line. They continue to talk about the previous scandals that have been related to UConn. Recently, their program was suspended from the tournament because of academic credibility. Next, they discuss John Calipari's future with the Kentucky Wildcats. I feel that he should stay in college because he is one of the best recruiters in the nation. Tony and Michael feel that he has one more shot in the NBA, but that if he wants it to be successful he has go to the Lakers. Surprisingly, the talk about the Women's National Championship. This is surprising because not a lot of people key in on women's basketball. The main reason, sad as it is, is because of the coaches, not the players or the game. (UConn won this game.) Another topic that they discussed, but we now know the answer to, is Kevin Durant's 25+ points a game scoring streak. Last night, the streak came to an end. He scored 23 points and did not play in the fourth quarter. They close the big finish with another mistake. Wilbon picked the Miami Heat to win against the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets did win last night, pushing them to 4-0 against the Heat. This is the first time in Miami's Big Three Era that they lost 4 games against any team in a single season.

Skinny Jeans and the Weight of My Sins

Anorexia is at the opposite end of the weight spectrum from obesity. Anorexia is a problem now because people are looking at various factors when examining themselves. A few of these factors are: religion and how their beliefs shape the view of how women should look, pictures from the past drawn by famous artists, current singers and how they dress in their music videos, social media, and genetic factors.

In James Ciment's essay, "Obesity and Eating Disorders", he makes two claims about how women picture themselves. The first claim that he makes is that the rise of Christianity in the West has lead women to believe that they need to fast as a form of ritualistic purification. The second claim is that as we lost our asceticism we moved towards having unnaturally clinched waists to try and satisfy the public image of women in fashion.

The first claim about eating disorders deals with women in old times fasting as a form of ritualistic purification. This reason would not be a valid argument because the Bible does not tell us to starve ourselves. The Bible actually says the complete opposite. Proverbs 6:30 "People do not despise a thief who steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving". This quote from the Bible tells us that in instances of dire hunger, it is alright to do all means necessary to satisfy our desires. Therefore, this theory that anorexia originated because of the amount of the Christian movements, would be false.

The second theory is the one that should be looked at as the most likely to be the cause of anorexia. This claim says that women are becoming skinnier, and skinnier because of how society perceives what "attractive" women look like. Women would cause self-starvation because they feel that if they are not super skinny like the models they see on the television, then other people will not view them as attractive. This theory has some truth to it, but it also has some flaws.

Throughout history the female physique has been criticized. In recent history one of the most attractive females of all time. According to Mens' Health Marilyn Monroe is the third hottest woman of all time. She is not regarded as a thin woman. Marilyn is an example for all women in the matter that they do not have to be the skinniest person on the plant to be considered attractive.

In a painting done by Pablo Picasso, he portrays a woman looking into the mirror. The woman has a sad expression on her face because she feels that she is not the ideal image of a woman. The black hair represents how society views women with blonde hair as being the perfect hair color. Also, the watch on her hand represents how she feels like her life is just wasting away. If you look closely at the picture she does have a skinny waist, but the cloak makes her look larger than she is. This is to portray that even if you are super skinny, chances are you will not always be happy with yourself. The final aspect of this picture that is worth noting is the color of the reflection on her mirror. The color is brown; brown is not considered a pretty color in any regard, therefore, she does not seem to think she is pretty.

 

In this painting down by Goya, men are shown, rather than women. The difference between men and women, when talking aesthetically, is their figure. Men are typically not worried about being skinny, rather, they care more about how fit or muscular they appear. Goya portrays the men to be in front of a crowd, possibly under scrutiny for their appearance. This does not directly apply to Ciment's theories because the men are not starving themselves, but it does have to deal with his claim because they are trying to change their appearance to be in accordance with society.

In an article, "ThinkingBig: The effect of sexually objectifying music videos on bodily self-perceptionin young women", they say that women today are influenced by what they see from popular artists in the music world. Their research found that only women with a low self-esteem were negatively impacted about their appearance compared to the women in the sexually objectifying videos. 

Katy Perry's new song, "Dark Horse", has been in the top 50 ever since it was aired on the radio. She is shown in this video as an Egyptian Queen. People would not be influenced by this video to dress like this, but they could be tempted to try and shape their figure to look like her. Dark Horse would be considered a neutral video because she is clothed at all times, therefore the statistics below on this chart would be related more with this video specifically. On the counter side of Table 2, is the statistics for if the video objectified the women in their videos.

Table 2. Correlations of music video attitudes and self-esteem in the objectifying and neutral music video condition.

	Neutral videos (n = 28)	Objectifying videos (n = 28)
Liking of the videos	.48**	−.49**
Attractiveness models	.09	−.13
Eye-catching models	−.03	−.19
Identification with models	.11	−.43*
Models as a source of inspiration for appearance	−.06	−.48*
Body related thoughts	−.14	−.61**
Social comparison	−.16	−.44*

*

p < .05.

**

p < .01.

In the article, "Negotiatedmedia effects. Peer feedback modifies effects of media’s thin-body ideal onadolescent girls", they talk about how friends and social media can influence a woman's perspective on their own body. This theory is highly plausible because people tend to care about what others think of them. Also, social media can easily show how other people should be viewed in society. Social media influences people's diet because they can easily access new ways and theories to losing weight. Also, anyone can post anything they want on the internet, without having validity to their points. People should not trust all they see in the media for these reasons. 

Dove has launched a campaign to help see how women feel about their own body, and if they perceive themselves as beautiful. In their studies they have found an increase of 2% since 2004. The media, whether intentional or not, does shape how women view themselves. They tend to have skinny models who advertise their product. Women take notice of these actresses and consider if they need to look like that to be considered pretty. It is a disappointing aspect of our society that should be reconsidered. 

In contrast to my belief in my previous obesity blog, I feel that anorexia has more potential to deal with genetics. Again, people can take preventative measures to help their chances of not being super skinny. They can get on diet plans and try to eat well. With anorexia there is a possibility that people's metabolism works so fast, they physically can not keep the weight on. I come from the perspective that it is easier to do things to lose weight, than to gain it. On NCBI, there are a few reasons presented to defend women on the issue of losing too much weight.

Anorexia and weight loss are impactful phenomenons that are sweeping the nation. These issues need to be addressed and taken care of before they severely affect someone's life in a negative way. Women should feel comfortable in their own skin without worrying about if they look like the photoshopped women in the media.