Who's at fault?

In class we have been discussing a video clip about a section of a book written by Al Gore that is promoting the impeachment of Goerge Bush. In the video he relates the situaion to a past situation that was tried in court. There was a teacher who for the past ten years was abusing boys that were students at the school he worked at. And the conflict was who should be punished? The "pathological" abuser or the teachers and adminisrators that knew about these terrible acts but did not do anything to stop him. Although the abuser was "pathological" and could not be reformed, I still believe that it was his actio and he should be penalized. It would have been the ethical thing for the teachers to try and stop this act, but at the same time, can you convict someone for not being ethical. Unless there was a rule or law that enforced the teachers to report this type of thing, just as there is at New Trier, I do not believe that the teachers should be convivted of anything. I agree that it was morally and ethically wrong, but as much as it disgusts me, they did not break any laws and therefor the judge made the correct decision in not convicting the bystanders. I believe that the abuser was the one who broke the law and he is should be rightfully convicted for his actions.

A Flawed System

In college football the champion is not decided by a playoff of a number of the best teams. The wat that it is done is a computer chooses two teams to play in one game against each other. The rest of the top teams don't even get the chance to compete. Also, the only teams that are eligable for the championship game are the teams in one of the six major confrences. These confrences include the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Big East, Pac 10, and ACC. Other teams like Utah, who went undefeated this season and beat many big confrence teams, will never get the chance to play for the national championship. Many fans and analysts of the game would prefer to see a playoff of the top eight teams no matter what confrence they come from. Althought it will initially lose money for the NCAA, I feel that keeping the fans happy is much more important and that will ultimately meaqn more money for the NCAA. With a playoff system the BCS will not have to choose the teams they think are the best.

This season was a very contraversial season in college football. There were many teams worthy of playing in the Championship game. This season the game will be between Florida and Oklahoma. Both of these temas have lost a game at some point throughout the regular season. I think that Florida certainly has the right to be in this game, but many would argue that Oklahoma was not the next best team. They did lose to Texas on a nuetral field and many people believe that Texas is the most deserving team seeing as they only lost one game also.

As you can see, the entire system is all very confusing and base on opinion. With a playoff this problem will be solved and there will be no more contraversy.

Big "EGO"

As you may have heard already, one of the premier receivers in the NFL, Plaxico Burress, accidentally shot himself in the thigh. He was at a night club and he had an unauthorized weapon in his pocket. He supposedly accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the leg. What I don't understand is why he was carrying a gun in the first place? and Where is he going that he would need a gun? In my opinion, anyplace where you need a gun to protect yourself is not the best place to be. It was said that he was at a night club. I personally don't know of any night clubs that someone needs a gun to protect themselves. I think that Plaxico thinks he is a target to many average citizens because he is a big time professional athlete. He believes that many people are out to get him, and he is a target to some degree. But that is still no reason to bring an unauthorized gun to night clubs. If your ego is so big that you think people at a night club are out to get you, it would be wise not to go to those types of places. Rather than making that smart decision, Burress decided to bring a gun and put not only himself in danger, but everyone else also. At the very least he could have at least put the safety on. This was just a pathetic decision on the part of Plaxico Burress.