Poor New York City and State Leadership for Hurricane Sandy?

Personally, I find it disgraceful that America's preeminent city is virtually shut down for an entire week because the MTA (the subway system) is not running due to a severe rain storm.  This does not seem to happen in other American or world cities.

Frankly, foreigners who come to New York City are often shocked and disgusted when they see New York City's subway system.  It is quite dirty, old, falling apart and filled with rats. The signals often fail, leaving trains standing still in tunnels for short periods of time.  Over the past winter, an entire train was stuck on an elevated track for an entire night with hundreds of people inside. 

The MTA has obviously been neglected for decades while riders are forced to pay higher and higher fares each year. Now the results of this neglect are evident.

The New York Times has pointed out that months ago it ran a story in which experts stated that New York City has NOT prepared for the type of storm that recently hit it.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/nyt-september-york-city-lagging-flood-protections-142613424.html

http://news.yahoo.com/bad-yorks-subway-looking-grim-140645061.html;_ylt=ApTDckmoHEAqmdBEnPgRnLiZCMZ_;_ylu=X3oDMTVxNnVnNG12BGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDEwMDBwb29sd2lraXVwcmVzdARtaXQDQXJ0aWNsZSBNaXhlZCBMaXN0IE5ld3MgZm9yIFlvdSB3aXRoIE1vcmUgTGluawRwa2cDZjA3MTY4YWYtMzk1NC0zYmY1LThjZDYtNmQ1NjNhNWZmYzkwBHBvcwMxBHNlYwNuZXdzX2Zvcl95b3UEdmVyAzZlNzFmNTAwLTIzNjQtMTFlMi04YmY5LTc3YmY1OTk1YmJmMA--;_ylg=X3oDMTMzbWNjZGx0BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDN2EyYzZjNzctMWE2Zi0zMmI4LTkwOTgtYjVhZDYyNTg5YjExBHBzdGNhdANibG9nc3x0aGVsb29rb3V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=3

1)  Although Hurricane Sandy was a large storm, based on the above articles, do you believe that city and state leaders should have been better prepared for this situation?

2)  What should be done to avert (avoid) another mess like this?

3)  Do these stories affect your impression of New York City?  In the movies the city is usually portrayed as clean and efficient.  How does the city seem after reading these articles?

4)  Do you feel that New Yorkers should be upset that they may have to sit at home for a week doing nothing while the MTA tries to fix its problems? Is this the way a major world city should operate?

(Today it took me 5 hours to travel from Queens to Manhattan to meet a couple students.  I literally walked from 125th and Lexington to 53rd and Lexington, because I realized I could walk faster than the buses were traveling.)

Is this NBA team "too white?"

The Minnesota NBA basketball team has 10 "white" players and 5 "black" players, in a league in which 75% of the players are "black."

Because Minnesota is a primarily "white" state, some people feel that the team deliberately chose a predominance of "white" players.  Yet, many of the white players are from Europe, where many new great basketball players are developing.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201210/are-minnesota-timberwolves-too-white

1)  Do you think that a team with primarily "white" players should seem strange in the NBA?

2)  Do you agree with those who are accusing the owners of the team of a type of racism?

3)  NBA games are very expensive to attend and most of the fans are "white" at the games.  Should anyone be complaining about this?

4)  Do you think NBA fans care about the color of the players on their team or do they care primarily about whether their team wins?

5)  The whole country - White, Black and Asian - was excited about Jeremy Lin's success earlier this year.  Does this say something positive about people's attitudes toward race in America?

6)  Europe is turning out amazing basketball players these days, and the US Olympic basketball team had a hard time beating some European teams.  Is this situation a situation of racism or a change in the types of players who are NBA caliber? 



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please buy my book: New York City Sucks But You'll Still Wanna Live Here! It's available as an affordable and easy to read e-book: http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

Police Dogs: Constitutional or Not?

There will be a case going before the Supreme Court dealing with the issue of whether police can use dogs to "sniff" out drugs from outside people's homes or even in airports.

Usually, the police are not allowed to check whether a person is carrying something illegal unless the police are reasonably suspicious that the person has something illegal.  However, many people have argued that police dogs in airports randomly sniff innocent and unsuspicious people.

In the case mentioned in this article, a police dog was brought to a person's house and sniffed from outside and determined there were drugs inside.  The police then obtained a court order to enter the house and arrested the person.  However, a judge threw the case out saying that the police had no constitutional right to use the dog to sniff outside of a person's house.  Basically the judge was saying that people have a right to their privacy and that you just can't walk around neighborhoods with dogs sniffing people's homes for drugs.

http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-turn-nose-dog-sniffs-110522793.html

1)  How do you feel about the dogs at airports that sniff for drugs?  Do you think this is necessary?  Is this right?

2)  Would you agree with the judge who threw this case out?  Why/why not?

3)  Many people are upset when New York City police officers stop them from entering the subway system in order to search their bags.  Many people feel this is a "random" search which violates our rights.  How do you feel about this policy?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please buy my book:  New York City Sucks But You'll Still Wanna Live Here!  It's available as an affordable and easy to read e-book: http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

United States Military Prepares for a Major Zombie Attack

This is crazy.  I think this is a joke.  The US Marines are engaged in a "war-game" in which they fight zombies.

http://news.yahoo.com/marines-police-prep-mock-zombie-invasion-180541102.html

1)  Even though it's near Halloween, do you think this is crazy?

2)  Why do you think they are doing this?

3) Should American tax payers be upset that the Marines are preparing to fight zombies
instead of "live" enemies?

Legalization of Prostitution?

The recent Economist magazine has a story about a female Chinese activist who works to help women who are forced to work as prostitutes.  The Economist story refers to an older story about Ye Haiyan, and I found a good article about her on the site: The Daily Beast.  She was, in fact, attacked by eight men back in May of this year, due to her activism on the part of Chinese "sex-workers."

This article is somewhat heart-breaking in that it points out that many women who work as prostitutes in China have "no other economic choices."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/31/china-s-sex-worker-warrior-ye-haiyan-fights-for-prostitutes-rights.html

1)  Ms. Ye believes that by legalizing prostitution, the working conditions of Chinese prostitutes will improve.  What do you think?

2)  Do you, in general, believe that prostitution should be legalized?

3)  Do you believe, as some psychologists suggest, that working as a prostitute can cause psychological problems or trauma?

4)  Ms. Ye believes that prostitution should be legalized to help these poor women who turn to prostitution to make money.  Shouldn't the Chinese government find a way to help these women so that they do not have to sell their bodies for a living?

5)  Ms. Ye became a prostitute for one day to find out how it feels.  What do you think of her action?

6)  Do you believe that a "feminist" or someone who believes in the equality of men and women should support prostitution?

7)  Do you think that legalized prostitution will increase the "objectification" of women (the viewing of women as objects?)?

8)  Toward the end of the article, a woman states that her previous job was washing dishes.  She then states that being a prostitute allows her to make more money than she did washing dishes.  What do you think of this situation?

Social Rejection Stimulates Creativity

In this article it is argued that those who are "rejected" by a social group or by society can become immensely creative.  However, these people will have to have very strong identities.  Basically, being rejected or having one's ideas rejected can either crush a person or motivate a person.  If a person already strongly believes in him/herself, social rejection will motivate the person to greater creativity.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-social-rejection-can-make-you-more-creative-2012-10?utm_source=1026&utm_medium=yahoo&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=partner#_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready%2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart%2Concircled&id=I1_1351303120306&parent=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com

1)  Are you crushed or motivated when you or your ideas are rejected?

2)  Many authors of great or ultimately popular literature receive numerous rejection notices.  In a famous example, the author of Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, was rejected by every publisher to whom he submitted his manuscript, and he killed himself.  Several years later his mother found a publisher for his manuscript and the book won the highest award for fiction in America. Do you think that truly creative people are always going to be misunderstood and rejected?

3)  Will this article help you to deal with rejection now?

4)  Can you speak about times you felt or were unfairly rejected?  How did you deal with that?

New Neanderthal Model Created

Apparently the "Neanderthals" or Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis preceded modern humans in evolutionary history.  Indeed, for many thousands of years, apparently, Neanderthals and humans lived side by side.  It is thought, in fact, that Neanderthals died out due to the extreme competition with humans for various resources in Europe.

Scientists have created a new model of a Neanderthal male, based on a skeleton found about 100 years ago. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/neanderthal-model-made-70-000-year-old-bones-article-1.1191670?localLinksEnabled=false

1)  In the past Neanderthal models were presented as fierce and potentially violent.  Why do you think this model looks so sweet and gentle?

2)  Does it look as if there was a huge difference, in appearance, between Neanderthals and humans?

3)  A scientist in Europe has been able to retrieve some DNA from a Neanderthal skeleton.  Do you think he should be able to clone a Neanderthal so that we can see whether the models are correct?  If a Neanderthal is cloned, should he/she be given full human rights?  What if the Neanderthal can speak (it is believed that they had some speech capacity)?  Should human rights for a cloned Neanderthal be based on its genetic similarity to humans or its capacity to speak?

4)  Do you think that Neanderthal man looked alot like Chuck Norris?  (This is a joke.)