44) Friday Night Special

A music hour brought to you by your resident high schooler.

Tracklist:

1) Ke$ha Just Wants to Have Fun (Ke$ha vs. Cyndi Lauper) - c.h.a.o.s. Productions
2) Papa Was a Ghost (Deadmau5 vs. The Temptations) - DJ Tripp
3) Somebody Told Me to Feel Good (Gorillaz vs. The Killers) - Aggro1
4) Virgin O' Riley (Madonna vs. The Who) - Go Home Productions
5) Don't Let it Be in Anger (The Beatles vs. Oasis) - DJ Y Alias JY
6) Just Stop Believin' (Journey vs. Lady GaGa) - DJ Tripp
7) When You Were a Starlight (The Killers vs. Muse) - team9
8) 4 Minutes (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) - Stuart Price
9) Ray Of Electro-Light (Pance Party vs. Madonna) - Ambulance (Jeffrey Tice)
10) Pea Proof (Black Eyed Peas vs. La Roux) - DJ Divide & Kreate
11) Shut Up And Take Me Out (The Ting Tings vs. Franz Ferdinand vs. Aretha Franklin vs. MARRS) - DJ Y Alias JY
12) Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) - Stuart Price
13) Human (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) - Stuart Price

43) Marquis de Sade

With every dark time in humanity, there is always a darker person willing to push the limits on societal evil. Whether it is mass murder, the invention of more devious torture devices, or the easier violation of ethics, someone in every century is there to break bounds.

Of course, there are the majority who call these people heretics, while the solemn few are brave enough to call these people heroes, pioneers of their time.

People call the Marquis de Sade a genius, only because he was the most innovative sexual deviant of his time. Unrestrained by religion, law, or morality, his collective thirty-two years in insane asylums can attest to the fact that his 120 Days of Sodom is still widely unparalleled in terms of brutality and violence.

The lasting legacy of the Marquis? We derive the word "sadism" from his name.

But whether you're the biggest pervert of the eighteenth century, or just a small time Issei Sagawa, the barriers of evil continue to be broken.

Just early today before this post, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad for his crimes on 12:20:25 a.m. MDT. Many believe death by firing squad falls under the cruel and unusual punishments clause in the eighth amendment of the United States Constitution.

The worst part? Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff advertised the death with updates on Twitter, stating when he gave the order to kill and where to watch his live press conference afterward. As Mashable puts it: "A Tweet Too Far?"

But the real focus of this post, the real shocker, lies in a pediatric urologist at Cornell: Dix Poppas. He "specializes" in female genital cutting.

The original post at the bioethics forum starts off by introducing a comparative story: Tuskegee airmen who did not receive medication for their syphilis for four decades. This is to emphasize the dehumanizing, scientized language of modern medicine of what Martha Solomon says: “can obscure and deemphasize any ethical, non-scientific perspective.”

But back to Poppas. What exactly does he do? First of all, he operates on little girls. Girls that are no older than six years old. He cuts their "oversized" clitorises, then stitches up the glans for the purpose of "nerve sparing." It's for sensitivity issues.

Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder from the original article elaborates:

Here more specifically is, apparently, what is happening: At annual visits after the surgery, while a parent watches, Poppas touches the daughter’s surgically shortened clitoris with a cotton-tip applicator and/or with a “vibratory device,” and the girl is asked to report to Poppas how strongly she feels him touching her clitoris. Using the vibrator, he also touches her on her inner thigh, her labia minora, and the introitus of her vagina, asking her to report, on a scale of 0 (no sensation) to 5 (maximum), how strongly she feels the touch. Yang, Felsen, and Poppas also report a “capillary perfusion testing,” which means a physician or nurse pushes a finger nail on the girl’s clitoris to see if the blood goes away and comes back, a sign of healthy tissue. Poppas has indicated in this article and elsewhere that ideally he seeks to conduct annual exams with these girls. He intends to chart the development of their sexual sensation over time.

And as if that wasn't enough:

Many have told us that the genital displays involved in the follow-up exams were more traumatic than any other part of the experience. Indeed, when I once asked a group of women with androgen insensitivity syndrome what they wanted me to work on primarily in my advocacy work, they said stopping the exams, particularly those in which med students, residents, and fellows parade through to check out the surgeon's handiwork.

So not only does the dear doctor get away with it, he also lets other people watch. Might as well start cutting off every male penis and stitch up those results.

All in the name of science? Perhaps, but it's clear that Poppas does not understand the damage he's doing to these girls. Is it some sick sexual perversion he possess? I don't know.

Just remember that when you sleep tonight, someone, somewhere, is eager to prove humanity's inner evil.

42) Home of the Brave

Writing your congressman/senator or appearing at town hall meetings is a political exercise many young students go through to understand the American democratic process. It is the point of inspiration for many aspiring students that wish to succeed in government someday.

However, the public and the media often forget that these figureheads of government are still human. We hold these idols to a high expectation of leadership and heroism, destined to make change for the better.

We understand the high profile world that these representatives are embroiled in. We see stories of their sexual escapades, their sudden lapses of intelligence, or their public outbursts of politically incorrect statements.

The media that paints this image always exposes the drama that runs through their lives. Most recently, CBS scored a hit with their series The Good Wife, which explores a lawyer's tumultuous life after her husband's political career goes awry with infidelity.

Everywhere you go, there's always someone who loves to expose the government and its puppets for what they really are: manipulative control freaks who are irreparably corrupted and ethically ignorant in the name of representation and control.

So when some students catch a congressman at a bad time and film him, there are bound to be interesting results:

(Alternate link if the above doesn't work for you)

It's a hot debate as to who's right or wrong here, even though it's obvious that the students can play the harassment card.

I call it a debate for several reasons:

1) The senator will issue a public apology and get away with it. There is a 0.0001% that he will resign as a result of this video.

2) The students will lose a harassment lawsuit against the congressman, should they choose to file one.

3) Public exposure to the video will be minimal at best.

My thoughts?

I've always been a fan of the theory that the American government is always decades behind the societal changes that occur in the United States and in the world. This is why it took so long to elect an African American president, or why the ethnic minorities in Congress are grossly unrepresentative of the public at large.

It allows this hypothesis to be drawn: The ruled and the rulers are separate entities that shall never coexist peacefully.

While Washington D.C. is steeped in centuries old tradition of cutthroat politics, the public is utilizing technology to share ideas on how they want things to be done.

It's the friction between the two halves of this America that make the system a miraculous display of continuous function for fear of anarchy.

As we delve into tougher times, more personal sacrifices are required to keep the American machine running. This requires the superhuman strength that we expect from the politicians that hit students on the streets. It's time for the media myths of leadership to take fruition.

All the while, the public can continue to lose themselves in watching another season of reality shows and Youtube memes, oblivious to the problems that they don't have to deal with. Leave it to the politicians, they say.

Who knows? Maybe America has earned its dishonorable death.

41) Summer of Dance

A summer starting YOMcast about the Gulf of Mexico's hazardous oil spill, with a link for a live video of the leaky pipe, the Obama administration's questionable response, first day of FIFA South Africa, the cliche surge of movies, and a hat tip to Mr. Sutherland and his first podcast.

Semester 2: Final

In analyzing my writing, evidence suggests my composition abilities have improved little over the past semester. While I realize my weaknesses, formulating and enacting solutions to this has been a difficult endeavor.

When using my first post on this blog as a reference point, my syntax and composition have morphed into marginal gains when it comes to expressing meaning in my posts. Although I have developed and changed my style in different ways, there are several reasons as to why I believe there has been little improvement.

To start, the only major change that has occurred on this blog is the podcasts (which I've named YOMcasts) that I've started doing. Although they don't include actual writing, I feel that they illustrate my point better. This is because you're hearing my style and tone through sound rather than actually reading words. I've been debating whether these podcasts help my writing abilities by allowing me to think more about how I express myself.

With podcasts, I often rehearse my speeches to prevent fractured expression. This is because I'm self-conscious enough to care a lot about what others might think of me over the internet. This is why I go to great pains to take certain positions on issues.

With the first YOMcast, I was not rehearsing, which explains a lot of my stuttering. Later prevention of this has helped me try and improve my public speaking skills, along with composition improvisation. Most importantly, it has shown me that how you say things are more important than what you actually say.

Many parallels with this can be drawn to my writing. While it's not the actual composition of words, it is the actual style with which I convey ideas. There is a difference between saying "That was a horrible movie," and saying "That movie made me want to vomit and gouge out my eyes."

I have seen this in my own writing. Take this in context:

Perhaps where I'm going with this is that school seems utterly pointless at an early age.

Compared to this:

...especially in high school, when students are forced to do assignments they do not see the reward in. Day after day, the modern student must struggle against a cause they have no standing reason to believe in.

The major difference between the two is that the second one develops the same point with detail. Podcasting had taught me to be more clear and precise because the audience might not understand your point if you are being too vague. I make the second sentence convey more meaning not only with more words, but with more emotion.

This is the style I've learned to develop. I bring all of this up to understand whether I've actually improved my writing skills. What I've come to question is whether these podcasts are just a subconscious laziness factor that I've developed in trying to avoid improving my writing.

So the question stands: Have I been improving or stalling?

One thing is clear: I have changed the way in which people can understand me on this blog. Trying to analyze whether I've improved, is a inner philosophical semantics question I've yet to fully work out. I can't concretely say I've "improved", but I'm siding with evidence to the contrary. If anything, I realize the dilemma present.

With all of this in mind, I can say without a doubt there have been posts in which I have surprised myself in terms of subject matter. In keeping with my volatile attitude, there are many subjects I never imagined I would be writing about. Looking back at these posts drudges up feelings of shame, guilt, or happiness.

As evident by post labeling and tagging, I've covered a wide variety of subjects ranging from personal stories to politics. This all depends on the mood I'm in according to the day on which I write the post. Like many other blogs, sometimes it is easy to tell whether the author has had a good or bad day.

YOM is no exception. I'm not afraid to admit that I sometimes regret the subject matter I chose to write about given the free write option. My bad days of depression and teen angst bleed through in posts about myself and my struggles.

I rarely talk about my brother, mostly because of the pain it brings up. But this post that appeared gives a rather impersonal and uncomfortable exploration behind my seventeenth birthday. You can't get more in-depth than this.

I'm rather surprised that I would mention a dead sibling at all, but I speak of it freely and openly. Although I regret the subject matter involving my brother, I don't regret writing that post. I have surprised myself in posting it, but I'm even more surprised at the feelings of closure it has given me on the matter.

Maybe that's why I can talk about it so freely. Or perhaps it's because of the eye-opening statistics on Google Analytics. If the numbers are right, I get very little visitors, and most of them are just not willing to leave a comment. This I can understand, for I hesitate to leave comments on the blogs I read. I only leave words if I know the author in person.

It's the prospect of not standing in the spotlight that's given me the freedom to try these varied and surprising topics. Knowing that nobody's paying attention makes it easier to write things you wouldn't otherwise share.

I've tried topics I never imagined I'd touch. My original guideline of writing about games, education, and society has expanded to include fictional stories, religion, and government. I can only hope to become even more varied in my topic choices. Most importantly, I hope I can continue to surprise myself and learn more.

It's been a long road since my first semester final, and in that time, I've tackled alot of life's problems using this this blog. I can only continue to do so with more writing. Writer's block might be a problem, but I think I'm going to keep trudging on, even after the school year ends. I can only hope others do the same.

Finally, if there's anything I've learned from this past year of posts, it's that I finally and truly understand what YOM means to me.