Mosque Surveillance

 This article is a really interesting piece about FBI's surveillance on Mosque's. It talks about how having surveillance on Mosque's is a must and that they should have taken threats that were made prior to 9-11 more seriously. It is mentioned that there has been a suit filed against the FBI for religious discrimination based on them being Muslim but this article argues that we are being far too lack. Prior to 9-11 there were threats being made and because targeting and focusing on this group would be politically insensitive, the government did not want to dwell on this subject. The main stateside contact for Obama Bin Ladin traveled freely around the United States denouncing the country and promoting hate and to take action. Following this, the World Trade Center incident happened and our government started taking threats more seriously. This article ends with the main point which is that even if the inside man in one operation messes up, our government should not go back to the way it was before 9-11. We should still take threats from Mosque's seriously and must protect ourselves. "The FBI may have bungled in southern California by placing their trust in a man wholly unsuited for the task to which he was assigned. But it would be a grave mistake to return to the days when the default position was to stay away from mosques and allow the domestic terrorist networks that had used them to fully reconstitute. The First Amendment is not a suicide pact."

I think this article was very interesting and brought to light how the government was very lax with threats being made against our government and country because it was politically sensitive. I did not know that we basically turned a blind eye and because of it, 9-11 happened. If we had brought action upon groups that have provided sufficient reasons to watch them and arrest them if needed then it is highly possible that 9-11 would not have happened. At the same time though, I understand how it is infringing upon their first amendment right. What has to be clear is that if there is sufficient evidence then the government must take action.  We cannot make the same mistake that we did in the past. I think I would have to agree with what has mostly been said about this incident from the article. I agree that this specific focus is very sensitive but as long as there is SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE then we must do what we have to do to protect our government, our people, and our country.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/24/mosque-surveillance-a-must/

Technology and Social interaction

I think that technology makes social interactions more convenient in a way but may take away some part of the everyday face to face interaction. I think it has both positive and negative impacts. It makes it a lot easier for people to communicate with one another, organize group parties, and keep in touch. It could be negative in the sense that people may be too lazy and only rely on technology to communicate with other people or be too wrapped up in it to understand the importance of face to face interaction. I have used the internet to meet friends that I have and I do not think it is neglecting our everyday relationships if it is managed. I used to spend way too much on the computer playing games and interacting with people on the internet but now I have controlled it more. Whenever I got back from school, I would just go online and start talking to them and I would also not hangout with my "real" life friends in favor of playing games. If it is managed correctly then it should be fine but back then I chose one over the other instead of maintaining both. At the same time though, it didn't really affect my personal relationships in "real" life that much because I saw them during school all the time. I keep typing real as "real" because of a saying that my friend said . I met this friend through the internet and we are still friends and what happened was that one time my other friend was saying how he has been busy with real life and then my friend goes, "Real life? What are we fake life?". I feel that that specific line rings true. I think relationships that are established via face to face or through internet can remain real and personal. I don't think our society needs to focus on creating more "real" spaces/public spheres because I think that we have enough already. We have so many malls and shopping centers along with stores and parks that people go to. In my personal opinion, I think that it really depends on the person to either communicate through technology or through face to face interaction. There are some Internet sources that makes me wary though such as online dating sites and Craigslist. There was this huge news fest on Craigslist because a murderer was hunting victims using that. Online dating sites make me wary because of how they are matched up. They are matched up through their interests but I think that they need to talk first before setting up this meeting. I am not against online dating because I have dated guys that i have met online before and the more recent and serious one I had was last year where he flew from New York to see me. It didn't last though because I just didn't like the way he acted during that time. So even though you may think you know someone, some people may still act differently in face to face contact than internet contact for various reasons.

Social Network and Privacy

Social Networking has been around in my life since I started using the computer. I remember using chat rooms and icq along with aim. This was when I was probably around 6th grade. Then it turned to aim, msn, myspace, some chatboxes along with voice to voice transmissions such as ventrilo. I mostly still use the same as that except instead of myspace there is Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is not used much though, I just use it to follow certain people and tv shows to be caught up in updates. Facebook on the other hand is used quite a lot. I'm not that bad with it now though compared to before. I just go on to check my Facebook and write on someone's wall. Once I am done then I just sign off. I have a Facebook app on my iPhone but I don't really use it. I have mail connected so unless I need to respond or upload something then I just look at the mail and see what was posted on my wall. The Twitter App is also downloaded but as I said before, I mostly use it to check updates maybe twice to three times a day. Texting is what takes up most of my time. It really depends on the day to determine if I will text a lot or not. Usually on weekdays I might text more because I have school but it really varies. I use my computer a to surf the web more than to use Facebook.

I think the cultural move toward social networking, constant access, and the loss of privacy sometimes brings about a positive and negative trend on the whole society because it does make it more convenient for people to keep in touch but sometimes people get so caught up in it that they do not pay attention to the real life surroundings they are in. For example, I have a friend who texts so much that it gets kind of annoying because she does it even when we are eating and I'm not just talking about one text or two. It is a full on conversation with her and her phone in hand. It bugs me but I let it go because I don't eat with her alone so it doesn't feel so bad. I don't do that because I am more focused on my food. The most I do is maybe two-three texts depending on the content. If it is something that I really need to respond to then I will but usually I try not to. That is, especially if I am with my parents because they get annoyed and believe that it is rude to do that. I believe that remembering where you are and living in the surrounding environments instead of focusing too much on your phone is better for your personal life. I don't think I have ever "over-shared" anything because I do not post or say much stuff about myself to anyone that is too personal unless it is through texts and to certain people. I'm very careful about what to say because of rumors and some people cannot keep things to themselves and their mouth shut. I am mostly worried about Facebook because people can look at "friendships" now and see wall to wall but I have upped my privacy. I'm not sure that will help or not because I know that there are issues with the privacy and if someone really wants to see they can probably hack it.