Ryan's Journey » News

Kid Voted Out of Kindergarten

RyanB — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:26:53 +0000

A special needs kindergarten student in Florida was voted out of the classroom by his peers. The vote was initiated by the teacher according to the mother in the video.

The Coral and Opal blog made a post on this as well, the author points out that Ms. Portillo, Alex’s teacher, stated that “she and the class a was not ready for him to return.” Portillo said Alex was pushing up a table with his feet while he was laying underneath it. While nothing I read about this said Alex was doing it to hurt people, I don’t see why he was punished. I, and probably everybody else, don’t know why Alex lifted the table. He could have just trying to impress a girl. To play a devil’s advocate, why would a young boy with a disability want to impress a girl? We all know all persons with disabilities are a-sexual.

While I could spend more time looking at this issue, I want to look at the fact that no major site or news source has covered this. I did a search in my RSS reader for more stories about this issue, and came up with zero hits. So I am wondering why it didn’t get more coverage.

Modern Sins are Condemed

RyanB — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:09:56 +0000

The Vatican has updated their list of sins covered by the New York Times. The latest additions include: pollution, mind-altering drugs and genetic experiments. The article said the Vatican added some last year as well, but I didn’t hear about it.

Pentagon Bans Google Teams From Bases

RyanB — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:57:09 +0000

Google Maps have been around a few years, and the government just now found out about it? The government has banned Google from making street-level detailed maps of military bases. Now, while the reasons they enforced this ban are completely valid, why on earth did it take the most advanced military this long to find out?

Some coverage about this:

Technorati Tags: google, google maps, government, maps, military, military bases

Bush: Mandela is dead because of Saddam Hussein

RyanB — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:56:21 +0000

Technorati Tags: bush, dead, george bush, hussein, mandela, saddam hussein

Legit Jail Time

RyanB — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:28:09 +0000

I just read how Lonny Baxter got sentenced to 60 days in jail yesterday. In August 2006, Mr. Baxter shot a gun into the air a few blocks from the White House. For those that don”t know, firing a handgun within rang of the White House is illegal, you get a fine and jail time. Besides 60 days in jail, Baxter received a $2,000 fine and is prohibited from owning, possessing or using a firearm.

While I have no problem with there being a law against having a firearm close to the capital, my issue is with the jail time. What kind of lesson do people learn in 60 days. I was looking around and found that the average amount of money per year per person in jail is $22,000. So for those 60 days, approximately $3,600 is spent on that person.

Technorati Tags: gun, guns, jail, law, washington dc

‘08 Mess

RyanB — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:10:12 +0000

The following article, kind of made me just say duh. The first part I am not too interested in, but the second half I am. The second half of the article talks about the electoral votes. Electoral votes factor into a system called the Electoral College, 528 people total from across the nation come together to cast the votes for President and Vice President. These votes by the people that represent the Electoral College are the most important part of electing the President and Vice President. This is so important because when you, your father, mother or I vote, we aren’t actually voting, we are just telling our district, which roll up to the state level, that if we had a voice, I would vote ___ for President. The Electors are supposed to be bound to what the totals of the state say, but there have been a number of cases when an Elector has voted not how their state told them to do.

Each state has a different number of Electoral Votes, the number of votes are determined by the number of Senators and Representatives the state has. Most states use what is called a short ballot, which I explained above, and the Elector for the state casts all the votes for that state for the candidate who win by majority or the plurality. Currently, Nebraska and Maine allow their votes to be split between candidates. What happens in these two states is the winner in each district gets the vote, and the overall winner will get an extra two votes.

Now, California is looking at an initiative that will do the same thing. The crucial thing about this is that California has the greatest number of Electoral Votes, with 55, the next state is Texas with 34 votes. In 2000 and 2004, Bush won just under half of the districts. If the initiative passes, the way campaigning in California will change quite a bit.

Technorati Tags: california, election, politics

Popcorn Ban

RyanB — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:31:15 +0000

When I was reading the news a bit ago, I came across this story about burning popcorn. It seems as though people at the City of Seattle civic building have the same problem of students at the University of Washington do — not knowing how to cook microwave popcorn. I guess the City of Seattle has had enough, and is imposing a ban of microwave popcorn at all city buildings. Every time there is a fire alarm there, some 400 people are evacuated and shuts down the building for 30-40 minutes.

This just makes me wonder what is happening. In the dorms we have popcorn fire alarms now and then. We evacuate slightly more people than that depending on what time it is and all that. However, it doesn’t take 40 minutes for things to get restored for us. But I wouldn’t mind having a ban on popcorn now and then.

What is funny is that the city sent to all employees a memo detailing how popcorn should be cooked in a microwave.

Technorati Tags: burn, fire, fire alarm, microwave, microwave popcorn, memo, popcorn, seattle, university of washington, uw

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Killed In Center City Crash

RyanB — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:12:23 +0000

I just came across the following story: kyw.com - Wheelchair-Bound Woman Killed In Center City Crash. A woman, in a wheelchair, was ran over Thursday morning. If you look at the first frame there, you will see the chair — a pile of rubble. Literally. I will give a little slack, and from the picture, the chair looks like it was a Jazzy. And to be honest they are not the most heavy-duty chairs out there. Quite flimsy to be honest.

Now by chair on the other hand, is quite hefty. My chair is similar to the one you see here, minus the head-rest. My frame is titatium, so it cannot really be smashed up too bad.

What is more disturbing, if you watch the video, the guy who was driving the truck will not be criminally charged for running this woman over. Why not though? I hate to say, however I would bet it is due to her being disabled. Probably if this was somebody else, the guy would probably be half-way to the firing squad by now. So why should he be allowed to walk, FREE! He still killed a woman.

Technorati Tags: Center City, Jazzy, killing, Philadelphia, Philly, wheelchair

McCain’s MySpace Hacked

RyanB — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:11:41 +0000

If you didn’t hear, Senator John McCain’s MySpace page got hacked into the other day by Mike Davidson. I posted a comment on TechCrunch earlier this morning saying I saw this story on CNN. Just about an hour ago I recieved an e-mail from Mike Davidson asking where on CNN I saw the story.

I am still waiting to hear back from him. I use NewsVine from time to time. I was going to do a write up on what political effects this has, and look at how candidates have moved from radio to the internet.

Technorati Tags: John McCain, NewsVine, Mike Davidson

Obama Takes First Step Toward Running in ’08

RyanB — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:41:17 +0000

Ok, so if you haven’t heard, Senator Barack Obama took his first steps to becoming our next president. You can read a New York Times article about it. As the article says, he has not officially declared his running, but rather a committee that will help him raise the necessary funds to run. He will be announcing his running for presidency until February 10, when he returns to his home state of Illinois. He is waiting to see if his family and his core support say about his run.

Mr. Obama, 45, was elected to the Senate two years ago. He becomes the fifth Democrat to enter the race, joining Senators Joseph R. Biden of Delaware and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut as well as former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Tom Vilsack, who stepped down this month as governor of Iowa.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is expected to join the Democratic field soon and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he would make his decision known by month’s end. Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts also is weighing another run.

That is a pretty big score card just from one party. The biggest name is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom I am sure when she is tossing her hat into the ring. But according to that article, Sen Obama, is not going to even go against her if they do both declare officially. From the buzz I have heard the past few weeks if Senator Clinton does run, it will be almost a shoe in. This of course was prior to Obama’s statement today.

Let’s take what Obama said is true, that he will not run against Clinton, if they both run, does it mean some major behind the scenes is going to take place? What I mean is, Obama will have to acknowledge her at some point, and perhaps belittle her character some, hey it always happens, but from what it seems Obama is not going to do that at all. He is doing this not as a cocky, or arrogant person, but I feel as somebody genuine who acknowledges his challenger as a challenger not somebody who is trying to get his job, and will not use dirty tactics to get that job. So let’s look at it from another angle.

When you run for President of the United States of America, one of the things that can make or break you is your running mate. The person that you say this is my vice-president. So, what I am suggesting is in these back-room deals that Senator Obama’s running mate is Senator Clinton, or vis-versa. Clearly then Obama wouldn’t have to address her as a challenger. This would be quite a remarkable team, if the things I have heard, and just hypothesized as correct.

In Other News

While I was browsing a news site, and read a similar article about Obama, I saw a comment from a reader about a theory about the public has been getting used to a minority as the Commander and Chief. This stems from the television show “The West Wing”, where a minority just was elected as president.

The media has a greater influence of our lives that most people realize. I can go on about this for quite a while, but I will save it for later.

Technorati Tags: senator, senator obama, barak obama, obama, united states, president, hillary rodham clinton