Religion

I thought I would Save This subject for my final post of the semester as it provokes the strongest emotions in me.
I can understand why people follow religion from a young age, especially people of an eastern origin as its basically forced upon them, but surely as they get older they can notice that its all rubbish and that it causes nothing but trouble.
In my opinion, religion is the cause of racism and war. If Hitler hadn't been racist, then he wouldn't have tried to wipe out the Jews. If the Taliban's religious beliefs hadn't rendered our western civilisation as 'infidels', then they wouldn't have attacked the twin towers, and we wouldn't be embroiled in a long and pointless war.
Im not alone in my dislike of religion, thios forum has some disturbing images. http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/the_rational_response_squad_radio_show/freethinking_anonymous/2340
To be honest, a lot of Christians are the worst at this. Despite overwhelming evidence that our humanity has evolved over millions of years, they choose to believe in a fictional character who someone decided to write a book about. If this is sensible, then i might start recruiting people and get them to believe that Harry Potter created the universe and magic is real.
I would like to leave you with a very funny clip from Russell Howard's Good News where he introduces us to the most ridiculous Pastor in the world, and shows us his hatred for Barack Obama. Peace out Homies!

Alcohol

Since the age of 14 I've been drinking. Whether its been a 1 pound bottle of Frosty Jacks cider in our local park, or starting my 15th pint in the pub on a Friday night, I've done it all.
I understand the health implications associated with binge drinking and alcoholism, and display the effects of beer and bread around my inflated torso. But to be honest, the time I spent getting hammered in the park with my friends where the happiest ever, I don't regret them at all. If anything I wish i could go back to one of those memorable nights and relive it all over again. Everyone's got a drunk story, heres a few off the internet. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080228170048AAGm1ZF.
The video i would like to show for this is again from YouTube, but its a video of me on new years eve 2006 beating two competitors at 'The Random Word Game', which wouldn't have been half as funny if everyone in the room hadn't been drunk. Thank you Beer!!

Nasty Comedians

As a huge comedy fan, and especially of program's like Mock the Week and Never mind the Buzzcock's i have got used to and thoroughly enjoy the type of comedy that some people could find offensive.
Personaly, If someone takes comedy and satire too litterally and finds it offensive then its their problem for being and idiot, the whole point of comedy is to entertain and entertainment can be gained in a variety of different ways. Here for instance is a forum of some very offensive jokes, but you can't help but laugh at most of them. http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=35969.
Life is so tough that you need to find the funny side of everything, so you don't get bogged down in its mundane reality, and comedians like Jimmy Carr and Franky Boyle try to help with that, which can only be a good thing.

Bod Mod : Plastic Surgery

I saw another programme on Channel 4 called, The Worlds Strangest Plastic Surgery and Me. To be honest, it was absolutely ridiculous. One women had had surgery to make her a virgin once again, and there was another man who had a fixation on tigers, so he'd had surgery to make himself look like a tiger, including having whiskers implants, his top lip split, and strangely a pair of breasts. Answers on a postcard for the last one.
Plastic surgery is so blatant in all types of media, people don't even try and hide the fact they've modified themselves, and even go so far as going on television just to tell everyone what they've spend thousands and thousands of pounds doing to their bodies.
I'm not a big fan of women making themselves look like Barbie Dolls. Some men may find it attractive for a women to make herself look like a plastic model of Marylin Monroe, but for me its a bit of a turn off. And if this article dooesn't put people off then good luck to you, http://www.oddee.com/item_96587.aspx.

Tattoo's and Body Art

I think that temporary body art can look quite good. For example, the Mehndi hand paintings look very nice and artistic, but they are only temporary and can easily be cleaned away, tattoos on the other hand cannot. Some tattoo's can actually mean and represent something important, but in my opinion and from my own experience they are pointless.
In the picture above is my friends tattoo, which apparently means 'Sound and Rhythm' in Malasian. Apart from looking like a sad face, the message is ridiculas. He needs a tattoo to tell everyone in malasia that he likes music, waste of money.
Another thing I don't understand is why people get their own name tattoo'ed on their own body, is it really that hard to remember? There are lots of websites dedictaed to shit tattoo's, like http://ugliesttattoos.com/ for example.
The most ridiculas example of tattooing I could find is this video of 'The Leopard Man'.

Marijuana

Recently i saw a programme on BBC 3 about smoking Cannabis, and its secret culture in Britain. At the end of the program, instead of being shocked, angry or put off i came to the conclusion a conclusion the BBC didn't intend. Marijuana is only as dangerous as the person smoking it.
One student on the program smoked vast amounts everyday for about 3 years, and ended up hanging himself in his bedroom.
http://www.teendrugabuse.us/marijuana.html I found this article on Teen Marijuana Abuse.

I on the other hand spent the majority of the Easter break drinking beer, eating cheese and smoking weed, and i have suffered no ill effects and never have done from cannabis simply because, I am not that fucking stupid.
The dude in the video below, I'm sure has smoked weed the majority of his life, and hes a tour guide. Would you be able to be a tour guide if your brain had been addled by the 'devils shrubs'?
No. Because he also, is not that stupid. Hilarious laugh though.

Omid Djalili

I have very strong view of religion, especially those from eastern cultures who tend to lambaste the western life style. In my view, if there was no religion, world wars, like the one we are caught up in now, would be less likely and easier to resolve.
One of my favourite comedians has a short sketch about spirituality and religion and i thought that, aside from being funny, its also very true, and is in keeping with this topic. So enjoy. Omid Djalili.

Infidelity

Being a massive sports fan, the past year has been full of infidelity. With John Terry, Ashley Cole and Tiger Woods all having to admit that they have been unfaithful, after the press got hold of the initial stories.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/tiger-woods-scandal-tabloids-allege-woods-affairs-women/story?id=9232973.
Adultery is almost unforgivable. Once you have entered a relationship there should be no doubt in your mind that this is the right person for you. The issue I wish to cover is not, is infidelity is bad? because that's blatantly obvious. But what acts constitute as 'unfaithful'.
Obviously sexual activities with another person, whether its intercourse or blatant flirting and enticing are classed as unfaithful, and rightly so. However, masturbation and looking at porn is another mater. By doing this things, you aren't bringing someone else into the relationship, they are more personal and isolated activities, so i believe there is nothing wrong with it.
Being a man, we spend quite a lot of time doing these last two things, whether in a relationship or not, a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

Bandits and Outlaws.

We have come a long way, since rooting for the good guys in the old Western and Cop movies.
Due mainly to media coverage and, post prominently, movies, the criminal lifestyle has been glamorised and popularised more and more, over the past 30 years.
Since the early Gangster Movies, like The Godfather (1972) and Scarface (1982) we have come to the point where the audience want the baddies to win, and even emulated their lifestyle.
In more modern times, the stereotypical Bad Guy has gone from a Mafia style Gangster, to more of a violent thug, mobster and football hooligan.
Guy Richie's movies, Lock Stock... (1998) and Snatch (2000), have attempted to combine both the retro and modern qualities. Combining The Gangster lifestyle, with blatant and gory violence, and some elements of comedy.
Now we have modern movies, like Football Factory(2004) and Green Street(2005), which are there simply to popularise the life of a football hooligan. Resulting in people buying the same brand clothing, Burberry & Stone Island, talking in the same accent and coining catchphrases and insults, and often copying the violence displayed in these movies.
These firms aren't stuff of fiction, most are adapted from true stories, and its easy to find websites dedicated to regional hooligans, like this website about midlans firms. http://www.football-hooligans.org/football-factories-midlands.html.

Bad Behaviour

http://www.theparentreport.com/resources/ages/early_school/behavior/88.html
With both my parents being teachers, i do get a lot of stories of their students bad behaviour. From small things like one boy calling one of his classmates 'Mr Cacky Pants', from more severe incidents like one boy used a saw to rip another boys trainer in half.
I think when your a child or a young teenager, these kind of things can be put down to popularity, peer pressure or in most cases, utter stupidity and not knowing better.
When your an adult however, most types of bad behaviour are in excuseable. Stalking, Prostitution and Shoplifting are a few things we mentioned in the session.
In my opinion, shoplifting is no different to any other form of robbery and shouldn't be treated differently. Stalking is just wrong and weird. As is Prostitution, but in some cases, its a way of making money, so i don't rele know if its such a major crime. But with Prostitution comes things like Human trafficing, illegal imagrents and disease, so I supose its just as bad as the others.
As with every subject we have covered in the module so far, these subjects have been parodied somehwere in the televsion and film industry. My most recent example come from the HBO hit second series of Flight of The Conchords. Enjoy.

Drugs

Drugs in society are widely frowned upon. I can understand with drugs like Cocaine, Ecstasy and Heroin, which have proven to be nothing but a scourge on society, with hundreds of thousands of death put down to drug abuse.
The new drug on the market, Mephadrone, a type of plant feeder, facts include http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/184233.php, has had a lot of bad publicity recently, and rightly so. One 18 year old spent 600 pounds a week on the drug and has ended up in jail. For her I have no sympathy.
I do , condone the use of Marijuana. In the words of the highly acclaimed Mike Skinner in his song 'The Irony Of It All', "How can something with no recorded fatalities be illegal?".
In some societies, like the Rastafarian community, its a normal, social occurrence to see a man in the street, 'burnin' up a fatty' and on the whole they seem quite happy an civilised.
Recently, the hit comedy Pineapple Express is hilarious and is dedicated and based around smoking weed.
However it could be said that in the wrong hands any drug can be abused, but then again, can't anything?

Bad Cinema

I don't think Kids was as bad as i thought it was going to be. But that could be for a few reasons.
One being the hype surrounding it has been exaggerated by overprotected and naive parents. And the second being that I'm from a generation where this kind of behaviour is a lot more common than it was when Kids was made, and it appears a lot more in modern media.
With television programmes like Skins which often glamorise the use of drugs and casual sex, and more and more stories about date rape at parties and clubs, the events in Kids aren't really surprising or shocking.
I think films which emphasise the consequences of 'Bad Behaviour', can only be good for audiences. As most of them are extremely accurate, you can see their effects without having to experience them.
It took a while to find a good review of the film but here it is, by James Berardinelli from 1995. http://www.reelviews.net/movies/k/kids.html

Masturbation.

To be perfectly honest, I really can't see why masturbation is regarded as bad. It's a natural activity which people, most of the time teenage boys, take up to relax, relieve sexual tension and sometimes just to fill up time. It's a very private activity, most of the time, it doesn't hurt anyone, so I don't understand why some people see it as a problem.
No matter what your gender/age/race, people masturbate. Some people do it everyday and more. It's become such a notable pastime that its earned a wide variety of nicknames common with most teenage social groups. From 'Jacking one out' , to more imaginative phrase's such as, 'Choking the Chicken' or 'Bashing the Bishop.'
There are even website dedicated to this activity. http://www.masterbationlounge.com/
On the subject of religion, this is the main reason why its frowned up. The Catholic church believe that masturbating is as bad as using a condom, they believe that your wasting a life.
The best example of this view is in the satirical Monty Python sketch from 'The Meaning Of Life'.

Telling lies with Integrity

Lying is probably the most debatable subject we have covered so far. No-one can say that they are totally against lying, just like no-one can say that they have never told a lie. Its easy to see both the pros' and cons' that come with telling lies.
Some professions, like being a spy or some elements of the police force, depend on the participants abilty to tell lies convincingly. However, this ability can also be put down to how relationships break down or living a life against the law.
In my opinion, a lie should be judged by it's situation. If it was told to gain personal benefit then it's bad. If it was told to save someone else's feeling then its a white lie, which isn't bad, most of the time.
Here a list of some of the best lies ever told, and some are quite funny. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/701257/top_10_best_lies_ever.html?cat=46

Like Smoking, Hollywood has taken a satirical stance when it comes to the concept of lying. The 1997 film 'Liar Liar', shows how different Jim Carey's characters life would be if he could lie for 24 hours. The hilarious and hektic consiquences of this earned the movie a Golden Globe nomination, but for the viewer it did show that in certain situation, refraining from telling the truth can be necesarry.
More recently in 2009 was the Ricky Gervais film 'The Invention of Lying', which again showed the harsh reality of a world which always told the truth, until one man 'invented' the ability to lie.
Im not trying to suggest that lying is a good thing on moral level, because it isn't, but I do agree with the cliche, truth hurts. So i certain circumstances, lying is acceptable.

Smoking

Being a non-smoker I don't really see the appeal in smoking, unless it's one of those huge Cuban cigars so you can pretend to be in the Soprano's or a Jazz Club. However, it's not hard to see that it does have certain social benefits.
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Smoking_effects_on_your_body ...This is a fact sheet on the effects of smoking.

I know that a few of my friends have taken up smoking just to fit into new social groups when they have moved to a new college or university. Totally disregarding their own health in the hope of increased popularity. Which I recon is pretty damn stupid, but it seems to have worked for them.

Infact that one of these said friends decided that his plan had been so successful that he started recommending this new image to other people, in the hope that they too would succeed and think of him as some sort of popularity icon.
This social advantage of smoking has found its way into the BBC, in their 2004 series 'The Smoking Room', and into Hollywood, with 'Thank You For Smoking', released in 2005.
None of these examples are aimed at glamourising smoking or try to suggest any other benefits it could offer, they only use it to offer a satirical look at how it effects people.
So. It can be said that smoking does have many short term benefits, especially for a student. But none of these could counter balance the long term drawback which are caused by this addiction.

Better late than Never + Blog Responses.

Finally I have recovered to set up my blog. Hopefully a lot of cracking work will follow this and i can pass :D

Over the next few months ill be updating this post by adding the date and subjects of the blog response i have made on other people profiles.

responses - NiccyLou90 - 12th March - Smoking
- ricksahota - 25th april - Kids
- Niall C Reid - 2nd May - Male Gaze
- Mark Jones - 3rd May - Smoking
- Vincent Poisson - 4th May - Tattoo's
- Arvinder - 5th May - Tattoo's
- Becky - 6th May - WEED