Supreme Court 3

The first court that the Tinkers went to was a district court. This court decided that prohibiting the use of the armbands was the correct thing to do. By doing so the school district avoided disturbances which include fights, arguments, and bullying.
Not satisfied with this the Tinkers decided to take the case to a higher court. Here the Court of Appeals couldn’t agree with each other and the final decision ended in a tie. In case of a tie the decision of the lower courts stands. So this means that the Tinkers lost the case again.
Again not satisfied with the decision they decide to challenge the courts again and go to the Supreme Court. Here the decision was 7-2 in favor of the Tinkers. The court decided that by restricting the armbands in school they restricted the students freedom of speech.

Supreme Court 2

The issue with this case wasn’t the armbands themselves but what it represented. By not allowing the children to wear the black armbands they where interfering with their freedom of speech. The other issue is from the schools point of view. Allowing the kids to wear the armbands could cause problems in school such as fights, arguments, and children paying more attention to the armbands rather than their work. Here I have to agree with the schools since the kids grow up in different environments and most likely have different beliefs. This could and would’ve definitely ended with at least one school fight between students who support the war and those who don’t support it. The school was just doing its job which is to protect the children.

Supreme Court 1

The Vietnam War caused a lot of controversy during the 1960’s in the US, so it isn’t a surprise that many Americans protested against the war. Well the Tinkers also protested The Vietnam War except when the children did it they got in trouble. The Des Moines School District was well aware of this and decided to take action against this. The school district decided to ban students from wearing black armbands which represented the people protesting the war and whoever refused to remove them would be suspended from school (http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html).

"First Monday in October"

The movie “First Monday in October” brings up a few interesting topics like should pornography be censored? Are there any issues with pornography and the internet? And is there an issue with appointing a female justice?
Pornography is just as controversial as murder and terrorism, but people’s tolerance may have shifted since the 70’s. People’s opinions on things are way different than ever before. In the past many people believed pornography was something horrendous but now majority of the people would say that it is art or freedom of speech. This may be because the younger generations are more liberal than the older generation. You can see this in the movies, music, t.v. shows, and the way teens talk nowadays. My opinion is like the majority, porn is porn and you don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to. It also is freedom of speech because there is really nothing obscene in my opinion just two people doing what they’re being paid for.
The internet has been more controversial now more than ever, and it isn’t a surprise that pornography is one of the causes. On the internet there isn’t much protection from anything except for common sense and parental controls. But parental controls aren’t very useful against kids who know how to work the computer better than their parents so this makes it easy for any kid to access porn sites or just about any other site for that matter.
As far as a female Justice, I don’t really care what gender they are. Sure it might affect their opinion on things, but then again a male Justice would be biased too on some issues despite what the evidence says.

Supreme Court Case Update

I found out that before the students went to school with their armbands, the school had created a rule that prohibited the use of the black armbands and anyone caught with them would be suspended if they refused to remove them. The Tinkers were aware of this and were also part of a group which protested the Vietnam War [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/tinker.html]. This group created the idea of wearing the armbands and fasting on 2 days around Christmas and New Years. Also one of the judges, Justice Hugo Black who voted against the kids, said that by allowing the kids to wear the armbands they might be encouraging other kids to break school rules [http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar39.html]
Since I will not be here next week I will not prepare anything for the class. But I will update my blog.

Pacific Heights

In the movie “Pacific Heights” a couple buy a big house and decide to rent two rooms in order to pay off their mortgage. They have no problem finding a tenor for the first room, and they rent the second room to someone who seems like a good guy. The “good” guy immediately starts making trouble for the couple and the people who rented the first room. First he breaks in, even though he gets the room, second he continually keeps on making noise with power tools, and to make things worse he uses the law in his favor when the landlord turns off the power and heating in his room.
This could’ve of been avoided before it started though. First the “good” guy seems like a stalker since he knew the girlfriends name before he actually met her and lied to the boyfriend about it. Second, he gave false information about his past and credit. Last he started making noise the first day he moved in.
The couple should’ve gotten the law involved sooner instead of trying to do things their own way.

MySpace Hoax Quotes

From what I have read it seems a lot of people agree with me on this subject. What I had said was that the lady who created a MySpace account under the name “Josh Evans” in order to find out about what Megan Meier, the girl affected by this, thought about her daughter , who were friends at some point.
Ali Minaian said “The thought of a grown adult messing with a young girl is very disturbing. Whether it is in real life, or behind a computer, she was one way or another harassing this little girl.” It really is disturbing when an adult abuses a child whether it is physical, verbal, or any form. Adults shouldn’t get involved in what I believe are silly things that kids might not remember in 10 years.
I also agree with Roland Corpuz who says “I believe that it comes down to parenting. If Megan had a disorder and her parents knew that she was mentally unstable, why did they allow her to get involved with someone in the first place?” First of all “Josh” was sixteen while Megan was thirteen. Second is that she was depressed and had self-esteem problems. With this in mind why did they continue letting her go on MySpace if they knew something was wrong. Megan’s parents could’ve prevented the tragic ending that happened.
“When I first heard about this, I was shocked. You would think in our society that parents would be much more responsible than to pick on and ridicule a 13-year-old girl” is what Evelyn Lee said in her blog. This is pretty much the same thing I was thinking except there was more profanity when I said it in my head. Seems like America is getting more and more immature every day; some evidence of this are shows like Jackass. I like the show, but then again I can also be immature. The show is about some guys going around causing havoc, doing pranks, and hurting each other for our entertainment. If the adults aren’t mature and responsible, chances are that their kids won’t be either.
Lastly Hannah says “Teenage girls are very mean to each other and say nasty things about one another all the time. Being a teenager is a very vulnerable time in one's life - you feel like you don't fit in, people judge and pick at you constantly, you are uncomfortable in your own skin, you feel like you can trust no one. This is why so many teenage girls face depression.” You might recognize this as boys will be boys. Kids will be cruel to each other especially during their teen years when changes happen and they’re trying to find out who they are. The best thing for parents to do here is talk with their children.

Lawyer Response

I agree with you, not all lawyers are evil. I also agree with “10% of them are really bad at their job, 10% are really good at their job, and the other 80% are just average.” I do find it interesting that you compared doctors and lawyers though. You did use a good example of how they could work together to commit insurance fraud by looking for injuries on a patient. I’m not sure what you mean about the drug companies and the doctors working together to provide the medicine to patients whether they need it or not.

"Used Cars" list of crimes

Group: Anthony,Geovanni,Theo,Michele

1. False Advertising

2. Slander

3. Conspiracy

4. Assault and Battery

5. Bribery

6. Destruction of Property

7. Tampering with Witnesses

8. Contempt of Court

9. Under aged Minors driving.

10. Speeding

11. Attempted Murder

12. Endangerment of a Minor

13. Misrepresentation

14. Sexual Harassment

15. Gambling

16. Perjury

17. Reckless Driving

18. Leaving the sight of an accident

19. Driving the wrong way

20. Tail-Gating

21. Unregistered Vehicles

Lawyers

Lawyers have been around for a long time. Also people from the 1800’s might think the same thing about lawyers as someone from this century and that is that they’re crooks
Personally I haven’t had any experiences with lawyers but since I’m still young I probably will need one in the future. Lately though I have not heard anything good about them. Some things I’ve heard are that they’re too pricey; they will try to outsmart you, basically that they’ll do anything to get your money. But being around for a long time also says something and that is that we need them. If we didn’t need them than being a lawyer would’ve been a dead profession years ago.
In reality you don’t really need a lawyer. But ask yourself this; are you willing to study pages and pages of the law to get out of a speeding ticket? Do you really have the time to do all of that? I don’t. But then again is it really worth it paying so much for something that could’ve been easily avoided and isn’t as much as the lawyer. Maybe it’d be cheaper to pay the lawyer than study some books that you might have to buy that will add up to a whole lot more than a lawyer.
Then again I have no personal experience with lawyers and all I know about lawyers I know from movies and the media, both not very good sources. So here is some advice from someone with no experience with lawyers, next time you wonder if you should step on the gas on a yellow light, don’t do it there might be a cop nearby waiting for someone to make a mistake.

Grand Theft Auto Lawsuit

Grand Theft Auto has been criticized for many things such as violence, language, drug content and other explicit things. In June of 2003 another thing was added to this list and that is training players how to kill cops.
A teen from Alabama was convicted of killing two police officers and a dispatcher after stealing a car. If you aren’t familiar with the game this is what you basically do in the game. You get a car from anywhere and drive from point A to point B and kill people. In court in December he is quoted telling one of the officers “Life is a video game. You’ve got to die sometime.”[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147722,00.html]
Now four companies are being sued relating to the lawsuit; Wal-mart, GameStop, Sony, and Take-Two Interactive. Wal-mart and GameStop are being sued for selling the game to the teen while under 17, the age you are allowed to buy games that are rated “M”. Sony is being sued, in my opinion for being guilty by association, because it is the console where the game can be played. Take-Two Interactive is being sued for publishing the game.
Being in Game Art this doesn’t help my profession. Also being a fan of the game I have biased opinion on this subject. Also being three years younger than the accused I don’t believe that Take-Two Interactive should be held responsible for this. The reason being is that if I played the same games as he did and being younger I should be more “influenced” to go around and commit crimes, yet I have not. Sony should also not be sued because, like I stated before, it is guilty by association. Just because you can play it on their console it does not mean they are responsible for the actions the people who play on them do.
On the other hand Wal-mart and GameStop should be responsible for selling games that are rated “M” to minors. Although I do not always agree with the ratings that some games get, they are there for a reason.

Myspace Lawsuit

Many teenagers today have access to the internet; so it shouldn’t be a surprise that almost all of them have an account on a social networking site such as MySpace.

MySpace is a site where people can go and meet other people, chat, post pictures, and even post blogs. MySpace also has a bad reputation with parents from people who kidnap children, and people who post in blogs about other people. One example is the case of a thirteen year old girl who committed suicide after a failed romance with a boy he met online. After some time police found that the sixteen year old boy from MySpace was actually made-up.

It all started when thirteen year old Megan Meier met Josh Evans, the made-up boy, and started getting friendly. Megan was who had A.D.D, depression, and was overweight as a child needed a boost in self-esteem and she found it with Josh Evans. After a while Josh decided not to be friends with Megan anymore because of some rumors. This later escalated to name calling in blogs.

The person who created Josh Evans has not been charged with anything.” Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law” said Mike Celizic a reporter for msnbc (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21882976/page/2/) It seems to me that the people who created Josh Evans should be charged for writing harmful messages to Megan. The correct term for this would be libel which is “the spreading of damaging statements in written form,” (Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45).Libel is part of defamation “the harming of a person’s reputation and good name by the communication of a false statement.”(Essentials of Business Law Liuzzo pg.45) Lori Drew was convicted of three misdemeanor charges and could be sent to jail with a fine of $100,000 for each misdemeanor .

Parents should keep an eye on what their kids do on the internet. Whether they’re playing an innocent game online with someone else or if they’re chatting they might be in danger.