Feb 04 2006

UKTV – Boys Alone

Well, I just received my copy of this TV show that aired on UKTV a while ago. The movie is called Boys Alone and it is a psuedo-reality TV documentary where ten 11-year-old boys were put in a house to live for an extended period of time. They weren’t allowed to leave the house or property. It was interesting to see the changing relationships between the boys and the things they did to keep themselves entertained.

The movie can be rented or purchased through The Filmakers Library and more information can be seen here:

Filmakers Library — Boys Alone

Overall, a pretty neat look into the minds of adolescent boys in relation to peer pressure. Be prepared, the rental fee is rather pricey, but I would say that it is worth if IF you are a psychology student, or are just naturally interested in developmental psychology.

Feb 01 2006

Analytical Report on the validity of United States democracy

I just finished my analytical report discussing the effectiveness of two different articles regarding the framers’ ideas about democracy. To really understand this analysis (as well as with any other analysis), it is necessary to read the two articles being analysed. If you want to read those articles, they are available in the book How Democratic is the Constitution by Robert A. Goldwin and William A. Schambra. That book is a collection of articles about the current and past United States political system. This analysis report examines the articles presented by Joseph Bessette and Michael Parenti.

Anyway, here’s the essay in PDF format. As always, if you don’t have Adobe Acrobat, you can download the Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website for free.

Parenti / Bessette analysis

Jan 31 2006

Lord of War

My goal is to keep this entry as short as possible while still maintaining the level of total enthusiasm that I have towards this film. In Lord of War Nicholas Cage plays a Ukranian immigrant named Yuri Orlov that decides his life isn’t really going in the direction he would like. He chooses to get out of the family-owned restaurant business and partake in the illegal activity of gun-running. Throughout the movie you see Yuri’s struggle between his multiple identities and maintaining a level of respectability to his wife and child. Not only does Lord of War provide an amazing insight into the psychological battles of illegal activity, but it also looks at the vast corruption of the five main countries of the United Nations–China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and of course, the United States of America.

Before I end my, what I feel to be concise, review of such an incredible movie, I feel obligated to share some of the powerful quotes from the film:

Yuri Orlov: There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?

Yuri Orlov: I sell to leftists, and I sell to rightists. I even sell to pacifists, but they’re not the most regular customers.

Yuri Orlov: There are two types of tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it.

Simeon Weisz: Governments are changed more often by bullets than votes.

Yuri Orlov: They say, “Evil prevails when good men fail to act.” What they ought to say is, “Evil prevails.”

Yuri Orlov: After the Cold War, the AK-47 became Russia’s biggest export. After that came vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists.

I could go on for about another 10 pages, but I want to leave some of the little treasures of the movie for you to witness first-hand!

Lord of War

My opinion of Lord of War, if you haven’t already figured it out, is that it is one of the few movies of the past 10 years to deserve a 10/10! Awesome job to EVERYONE involved in its production.