The two articles about athletic womens body image left me feeling quite uneasy.  It is now 2015, we have a black man as president, gay marriage is legal, and in several states you can legally purchase marajuana but yet we still have an issue with unrealistic body images for women.

     I remember this article about Serina Williams and I have also heard these comments made about her.  I personally think she is absolutly amazing.  She is strong and all about her game.  She is super fit and quite honestly puts most men including myslelf to shame.

    So why are we forcing women to worry so much about their weight and if they look masculine.  The article make it seem as if Serina was a freak of nature was wrong and only out done by the panel of men judging womens body. 

    I think these articles are degrading to women and show a complete lack of sensitivity and respect for women.  The main issue I have is that we seem to think that athletes or anyone in the public eye is not an actual person.

We need to do better

This was a very interesting article and rebuttal.  While reading the article I could not help but feel an emotional connection to the women.  Making their way to this country illegally to have a better life, only to find that things here would be worse than what they left behind.  Even more shocking was the advertisements for jobs offering wages far below national and state guidelines.  The gruesome living conditions coupled with the horrific hours for dismal pay had me cringe to my soul.  Do we have slave labor going on in the country out in the open??

Ms. Nir’s article shed some light on a subject that most of us had no idea existed.  At the end of the article I was questioning myself as to how much I was going to pay for my next mani pedi, until I read the rebuttal.

It is very interesting to see how easily I was persuaded by this article and the power it has to tarnish the reputation of all salons.  The first claim was the advertisement of wages of 10 dollars a day.  No such advertisements existed.  There were low wages posted but none showing wages below state guidelines.  Also how would Ms. Nir know what the ads were saying as she herself does not speak in any Chinese dialects.  All of her information was translated to her which could be misquoted or misunderstood.

Ms. Nir also didn’t get the side of the owners of any salons.  They were painted out as greedy shop owners having their employees work under horrible conditions for long hours for low to no wages.  Having Ms. Nir interview workers was also a difficult pill to swallow.  She did not understand what was being said to her.  She also made mention to when the city does the inspections on the conditions of the employees that very little of them speak Chinese dialect.  This comment also contradicts her own article as she cannot speak the language either but was taking the word of others to form an opinion.

I feel that the treatment of the New York Times was valid.  It is unfortunate that this had to be published in the first place, but as a well respected news organization, more work should have been done to present the story for a non bias stand point.  Having more sources and also speaking to women who are licensed could have told the story form another point of view.  The biggest miss is not getting the side of the owners of the salon.  Without a doubt they would have denied the allegations but it would have given some insight into how they see things.  It would have also shown that not all salons adhere to these practices.

When the New York Times posted this article about Hillary Clinton and the use of her private email with classified documents, it seems that they jumped the gun a bit.  In today’s media coverage everyone is trying to get the best story and be the first to report it.  The fact that everyone is walking around with a cell phone camera and the internet giving them the ability to blog about it has raised the stakes for reporting news.

The New York Times jumped the gun with information that was not confirmed and ended up having to make retractions.   Reporting that a criminal investigation was requested and then after getting facts from the Justice department that they were investigating the security of the documents not a criminal case.  The original article was published on Thursday and not until Friday afternoon did the correction get published.

These kind of mistakes hurt and destroy peoples careers.  When dealing with any topic news organizations must gather all the proper information and deliver the facts to the public.

Watching Citizen four was not what I expected.  I remember this story as it broke but I really didn’t pay much attention to it.  After seeing this documentary I am a little concerned about my lack of interest in this story and what the government was accused of doing.  This is a complete breach of privacy and I feel uncomfortable using any electronic devices.  I remember in one of the recent Batman movies Batman was looking for the villain and he couldn’t find him and he used a program similar to the one the US government was using to track down the villain.  The conversation Bruce had with Alford was similar the the US’s reason for the program.  Batman said it was necessary to catch the villain.  Alford said at what length are we willing to go to catch someone?  Will we violate millions of peoples privacy to do good.  This is how I feel about the government using this program.

I feel the media had a responsibility to report this story.  We were losing our right to privacy in the name of safety but who was policing the people using the program.  Was anyone watching and listening in on their wives/husbands, friends, family members etc.  The part that was even more scary was the government forcing company’s to allow them to track our every move.   How much of our civil liberties much we give up?  What’s worse is that we did not give permission to have our privacy breached.

The part where the U.S. government was spying on other nations is still a shock to me that more has not been done.  If this happened to our nation wars would be fought.  Americans are seen as bullies and illegally spying on other nations could have jeopardized their security.  How can we be trusted as a nation.

I think this country does a great job of shifting the interest of the public because when ever something major is happening another story pops up to take our interest of the real issue.  How is this not still a topic today.  I feel the news organizations should still report on this more so than the Kardashians or Catlyn Jenner.

In the 80’s to the early 90’s there were not many black families on television.  The Cosby show starring Bill Cosby portrayed a health black family built on a strong moral compass.  We watch Bill and the family grow with us for 8 years even sending his daughter played by actress Lisa Bonet off to a fictional black college Hillman.  This show based on such positivity makes it so hard to accept the allegations against Cosby.

At the current date the count is up to 46 women making allegations of sexual misconduct on Cosby.  Many reporting that Bill offered them a drink and then they remember walking up in compromising positions that under normal circumstances they would have never engaged in.

Cosby has admitted under oath to obtaining Quaalude’s to give to women but denies sexually assaulting these women.

Huffington post Cosby Article

The evidence in this case keeps building up against Cosby.  Most of the accusers have all passed the statue to prosecute him for these allegations.

Its very hard to see someone who you respected at a father figure and who has been outspoken in the portrayal of blacks in this country be accused of something so vile and disgusting as rape.  I would honestly hate for this to be true but 46 women accusing him is quite a lot.  I could also understand their fear of coming out against Americas favorite Black dad.

Hopefully this situation allows others who are victim to rape feel comfortable coming forward and getting justice for this crime no matter how famous the accuser is.

News 12 Brooklyn reports on the West Indian day parade.  This year, like many years in the past was marked with violence.  2 people lost their lives at the pre-party.  Some are calling for the return of stop and frisk.

New York Times National news: A Kentucky clerk is now appealing the decision of a judged how placed her in hail for refusing to follow a court order to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.  Ms. Davis made headlines when she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple sighting that it goes against her religious beliefs.  She stood her ground for what she believed in and ended up behind bars.  What’s most alarming about this story is how much of a hypocrite Ms. Davis really is.  She has been married multiple times and has children out of wedlock.  I don’t quite understand how we use our religion to put others down for the same things we are doing wrong.

Iowa state Republican representative posted on twitter that Ms. Davis should be given the “Rosa Parks award”.  The world that we live in is so mistaken.  Rosa Parks fought for equal rights and this woman is denying a couple theirs.