Why do celebrities matter?

Some people love celebrities a lot more than others, but we all know them.  People like to watch celebrities lives, and that could be for a number of reasons. You might love Justin Bieber, you might hate him, or you might just think he's weird, but I bet you know who he is.

There is nothing special about celebrities other than the pedestal they are on. They have many people looking at them, which makes it easy for you to get a constant look into their lives. You always know when they are in a relationship, where they are traveling, and a lot of times what they are eating. You get very connected with this person, but somehow you are still very disconnected.

No matter how close you feel like you are to this person, chances are you wont be able to ever make friends with them. Maybe one day you could meet them for a couple second though, if your lucky. It can make people crazy. People want to meet these people who are on this pedestal for them to see, but they are too high up to ever meet. So the only option left is to obsess over them.

One reason people love celebrities so much is because they are very idealized in society. We tend to only see the good sides of people, whether that be in a photo, interview, or magizine. People think that they completely know celebrities, and that they are an image of perfection.

Another reason is attraction. Need I say more?

One good reason to love celebrity is because they inspire you. Celebrities have had success in their lives to get themselves to the point they are at. They can make people feel like anyone can achieve success, which is a good thing.

Why do we choose to idolize people that are the hardest to become part of our lives?
What makes us love certain celebrities more than others?

10 days of news

I am always generally aware of current event going on in the world, but I never go to seek out this knowledge. I get most of my news from websites like twitter, even though I wouldn't say that’s a very reliable source, It may have a lot of rumors and may not be completely true, the baseline of the news is usually correct. There a never stories that trend that are totally false. Twitter is a good source to look at because it tells a story in the phrase or hashtag that is trending, and then if you’re interested you can look it up online to see a real news source.

Other than social media, I get news from the Today Show at school. I currently have American Experience, so we watch current event in the mornings. This is a good source to watch because it has full stories that are very reliable. They are also video’s which is good because sometimes America is lazy.

I looked at a very different source than I usually do for my ‘10 days of news’. I looked at the site Aljazeera, which I enjoyed in a weird way. It didn’t give me much major news, like I didn’t know a single question on the news quiz from my source. I don’t think that’s quite what the sites supposed to be about though. There is a lot of news that is just as important but doesn’t get covered by any other news sources. The cover small town news things, and things that are really affecting small places. There is also a lot of news about different countries that is a very big deal but we just don’t talk about much. It was a different side of news that I liked.

We, as citizens and as people, are very vulnerable. We look to major news sources to tell us things because we have no way of understanding situations without them. We are like small children looking to their parents for answers. That makes it the parent’s job to decide what to tell and how to tell it. They have a responsibility to only tell us what we should know, and sometimes keep us oblivious to things that may hurt us. We have no control over that, unless we want to listen to someone else.

There are bad things on the news all the time, and often times we are better off not knowing them. They can make you sad or even angry, but isn’t that what news is all about? Making you feel something? You are supposed to feel something.

When the Boston Bombing happened it was all over the news. People were upset even though it had would have had no effect on them without the news. It did not directly affect me or anyone in my life, but I still felt sad and felt bad about it. That way the people who were directly affected by it, weren’t feeling bad alone. I think that is the true purpose of news. To share something. Whether that be happiness, sadness, knowledge, laughter or grief.  

Deadly Force

If you have ever watched the news, then you have probably seen numerous reports of cases of deadly force.  People protect themselves, others, or their property by fatally harming another. There are different situations where this is seen as okay in the eyes of the law. There are different rules in different states on this, but the question all of them have to ask is 'when is killing someone else alright?'.

The line between reasonable force and excessive force is very thin which can cause problems with the law. In MN the law is as follows: "The intentional taking of the life of another is not authorized by section 609.06, except when necessary in resisting or preventing an offense which the actor reasonably believes exposes the actor or another to great bodily harm or death, or preventing the commission of a felony in the actor's place of abode."

There are several pieces of information that are not obvious in this statute. You can not use deadly force anywhere outside of your abode unless you are 'innocent'. This means that you can't provoke someone, shoot them, any claim self defense. You are not innocent in you were part of the problem. Also, if you are robbing a bank and someone pulls a gun on you, you can't shoot them and claim self-defense. When you committed the crime of bank robbery, you forfeited your right to self-defense.

The phrase 'great bodily harm' is also very important in the statute. The injury has to have a high probability of death or causes serious permanent damage. If these conditions do not apply to your situation you can face jail time or large fines.

Some states have laws that state that people have to trying to run away before they can use deadly force. This is not a law in Minnesota currently, but it is some places.



If you see someone in your home, you can't use a firearm on them even if you see they have one. They have to be pointing it directly at you or someone else. This seems like a bad law to me because once someone has a gun pointed at you, chances are that he will shoot you before you can shoot him. So many things can go wrong, but I suppose things can go wrong no matter how the law is.