Blackout or a Good Evening?

Blackout in a can or the beginning of a good night? This is the question that raves every young persons mind before they pop open a Four Loko. However, this fun drink has been causing a lot of controversy lately leading to a ban of this malt beverage in many states. Four Loko, which has an alcohol content of 12 percent and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee came under heavy scrutiny when students from Ramapo College, New Jersey and University in Ellensburg, Washington ended up in the emergency room with high levels of alcohol poisoning. Sounds like freshmen that don’t know their tolerance to me.. For $ 2.50 how can one go wrong? The appealing can, with a horrid taste will be off shelves by December 10^th.  

            Four Loko is a rather poor tasting concoction designed for the purpose of making the imbiber intoxicated in a swift and cost-effective manner, while blunting the depressive effects of alcohol with caffeine. It is also the subject of a national hysteria—or at least, a Congressional hysteria. Like many people, I think Four Loko being a national political issue is a bit outrageous—but I am also a bit relieved.

One of the biggest issues is the appealing factor to underage drinkers (like you and I). Understandably the pretty colors on the can does appeal to young drinkers, but how they get their hands on them has nothing to do with Phusion Products. That is the problem of the bodega/store owners. Even though we can not shutdown every bodega in New York City, better checking of IDs would help. According to the Daily News “The agreements came after an undercover sting operation at 28 mom-and-pop stores in the Bronx last week led to four arrests for selling the booze-infused beverage to minors.”

Many people also seem to be invincible after a Four Loko thinking they can drink and drive. News flash America: drinking and then driving never meshed well.  

The media definitely had a significant effect on the banning of this drink. The monstrous coverage definitely opened eyes of others in the dangers of this drink. Local politicans even joined the efford in showing the harms of Four Loko. Assemblyman Felix Ortiz offered to use himself as an example to show the harmful affects of Four Loko; props to the guy for drinking 2.5 cans of that in one hour. We all know how it ended though.. Now lets imagine an 18 drinking 2.5 cans in an hour. This is the stance that many people are trying to push for. Prevent underage drinking. Mr. Ortiz would not have used himself as an example if he did not feel so strongly about the issue.

Some people will still get their hands on Four Loko, just check Craigslist and you’ll find it for $8 a can. Luckily it’s only a 250%-300% mark-up but still cheaper than a handle, sounds like a bargain if you ask me. Although the media has had significant coverage on this, Criagslist does not seem to be getting the same scrutiny as Phusion Projects did for distributing the product. If underage drinkers could get their hands on them in bodegas, wouldn’t it be easier to buy them off Craigslist? If you plan on buying off Craigslist just give it a day or two, there’s bound to be a surplus!

NY Daily News

New York Times

Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Over the weekend John Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a rally to help “Restore Sanity and/or Fear” a counter to Glen Beck’s “restoring honor” rally. Many public figures such as Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and Kareem Abdul-Jabar not only attended the rally, but were also involved in the rally. The use of public figures helped spread the message to a vast amount of people, where as an average individual could’ve gathered a rally but not nearly as large. “The rally generated extensive buzz on the Internet, with more than 226,000 people on a Facebook page created for the event saying they would attend.” The rally’s intention was to make Americans turn there back on hate and work together to make the world a better place.

According to a Times article, the idea behind the rally was to provide a counterweight to all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. There were political undertones, too, pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday's election. Slogans urged people to "relax." But also: "Righties, don't stomp on my head," references to a Republican rally in Kentucky at which a liberal activist was pulled to the ground and stepped on. And, "I wouldn't care if the president was Muslim."

In recent years, the weekend before Election Day has traditionally been a time for learning the names of candidates, figuring out the locations of nearby polling places and figuring out which foreign country to vow to move to if the other guys win. This year nearly 200,000 people came out to support a cause and to show their support for the midterm election.

            The use of these political icons was not to chastise the media, but to point out their flaws. A more powerful individual will allow for a wider audience rather than someone like myself trying to gather a rally. Stewart and I could’ve given  the same speech but more people would have reached out and listened to Stewart rather than some average Joe people are not familiar with.  

            Stewart told the crowd “ this was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down our noses a the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear. They are, and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies, but unfortunately one of our mail tools in delineating the two broke.” We need to stick together, through the hard times and the good times. Everyone has their problems, but fingers should not be pointed unless we are certain. “There are terrorist and racists and Stalinist and theocrats, but those are titles that must be earned.”

            Hopefully the audience pulled away with a stronger message. The media polarizes Americans and makes them choose sides. All part of a democracy, yes? But as members of the same nation we need to unify together, not find flaws that push people away from each other.

CNN
Times

Did Someone Say Coke Monkey?

It’s hard to believe that this idea of social media (new media) has evolved from a college demographic to everyone. I’m not quite sure about everyone else, but it still bothers me that my mother is more active on Facebook than I am, I refuse to add her (as a friend). The idea that I cannot be drinking a beer in my profile picture without the risk of being fired from my job is hard to believe, but it’s okay for political candidates to call their opposition coke monkeys. Why are candidates allowed to express themselves, but my expressions have repercussions?

Apparently Twitter has become the new site for grown individuals to start lashing out on each other. At least that was the case in Nevada, where two forum candidates Harry Reid and Sharron Angle began attacking one another. A scuffle broke out at a candidate forum in Nevada last week (September 27^th) and the argument presented its way to Twitter.  The argument came about when Reid who attended the forum via video questioned Angle’s character. “Beyond her extreme and dangerous agenda for Nevada, Angle has said many things that cause reasonable people to literally question her sanity and whether or not Angle knows the difference between the pathological things that escape her mouth and objective reality - and this may take the cake.” Verbal hell broke loose after this.

                        It is always comical to watch two grown individuals argue amongst each other, but to read two grown individuals arguing over Twitter…. Sounds like “Mean Girls” all over again just the elderly edition. I mean I’ve never attempted to run for Senate, but shouldn’t these candidates focus on their campaign, or maybe spend some time with their family? Personally, I think it’s childish drama and immature, but hey, good thing they aren’t representing New York, right? Sharron Angle tweeted “Harry Reid’s plan to save the Nevada economy: coked-up stimulus monkey.” First off, I find it completely unacceptable to relate such an illicit drug to such a beautiful primate and secondly, where do people come up with these phrases? (It is witty though). The real meaning behind it had to do with the stimulus package and how it’d be used. It mocked the real use of stimulus money to study the effects of illicit drugs on primates. These two candidates haven’t backed down.  Many of their recent tweets contain ‘hashtags’ (# attached to the message) where Twitter users who click on them will be taken to a feed of anti-Reid/Angle tweets. 

In retrospect Tweeting is very effective because when it comes down to it, it’s free. Who’d be willing to pay for immaturity anyways? It’s also fairly simple to change a campaign in a matter of words rather then sentences. It’s effective for people who are on the go and do not have a lot of time to read lengthy in depth articles. Trying to express a point of view in under 140 characters can lead a person to believe more than one idea. Can 140 characters of Tweeting be that effective though?

Sarah Palin has over 250,000 Twitter followers; with one tweet she can generate traditional media headlines. I’m fortunate enough when three people like my status on Facebook. Journalists thrive off these tweets, they are paid to follow anindividuals every tweet and use them in stories. Are newspapers just going to be articles full of tweets with more pointless information than they already contain? “Sarah Palin just bought a new pair of shoes!”

It’s absurd to believe that this is what media has come to. Just the other day I remember blogs being a place where people expressed their emotions, wrote poems, and song lyrics. Now it is one of the main centers of politics.

CNN political tracker

CNN