IHSS Blog 2018-2019

Toy companies are sexist whether we want to believe it or not. Whether that is for guns being made mostly for boys, or nurse kits being created for girls. Nerf was created for boys to use. In the early years of Nerf, there were no girls in any of the commercials. In recent years, Nerf has come out with pink guns and bows to "appeal" to girls. Toy trucks and cars did the same thing. When I was younger, there were only blue trucks and black cars for kids to play with, for they were mostly targeted towards boys. Barbies were mostly targeted towards girls and the company even came out with "Ken" to try to come off as not sexist. As I grew up, I saw that while boys were given guns and told to pretend like they were in the army and such, while girls were told to play with barbies and nurse kits. This is still a debate happening not just in our own society but others as well. "What would you do?," a tv show that tests what ordinary people would do in certain circ...

Emory Ying Mr Roddy IHSS 10/23/18 Columbian Presidential Election Columbia is a presidential representative democracy. This is the same as the US, where the eligible citizens vote on representatives to pass the laws. The government has three branches, judicial, executive and legal. Every four years they elect a new president. March of 2018, Columbia held a vote for the new President. There were six candidates running for the same spot. One of the "front runners" in the election, Gustavo Petro, agreed with the previous presidents views on the civil war and peace treaty. The civil war peace treaty is a very big part of the issues in the election along with healthcare, unemployment and corruption. The candidate who ended up winning was Ivan Duque. He won %54 of the vote. He is 41 and the youngest Columbian president out of the 32 previous presidents. Unfortunately he will also have one of the hardest presidencies. He is the first president after a five decade bloody w...

Venezuela has a long, tumulus, violent history when it comes to the government in their country. In 1998 a man named Chavez came to rule in Venezuela. As an elected official he incited the "Bolivian Revolution" which gave way to a new form of government, a new constitution, and a new way of life in the country. In 2002 a rebellion occurred, and Chavez was taken into custody. The new standing government failed, and Chavez was put back into office. As he came back into office, it became clear the kind of country he wanted to run. Regulations were put on social media and the internet, and land was being redistributed, worrying the ranchers and land workers of Venezuela. Chavez had filled the parliament with loyalists, and parties loyal to him dominate the government. In 2006 he wins his third election, and remains in office, despite the people's opposition to his authority. In 2013 Chavez dies, but his possession is taken by his chosen successor, Nicholas Maduro. As oil pric...

Andreas Cantu  Mr. Roddy  IHSS 22 October 2018  Brazil's Election         So if we are going to talk about a place that has recently or is going to have a election, the perfect place to talk about is Brazil.  General elections  were held in Brazil  on October 7 2018 to elect the President , Vice President  and the National Congress . Elections for State  Governors and Vice Governors, State legislative Assemblies  and Federal District Legislative Chambers  were held at the same time. Although Brazil may seem nice, they are still recovering from a massive corruption Scandal. The scandal involved a record amount of  the country's political representatives which are now facing criminal cases. So even though there was this massive scandal Brazil's favorite politician is as well as everyone involved in this scandal in jail. Even the current front runner is recovering from near fatal stabbing. The upcomi...

Asher Forman Mr. Roddy IHSS 22 October 2018 Voting Matters - Athens   One of the oldest democracies was in Athens, Greece. The classical civilization of Athens began in 508 BC and fell in 322 BC. Athens became a democracy because of the ideas of a man named Cleisthenes of Athens. "The father of the Athenian democracy," was what Cleisthenes of Athens was known as. He was born in 570 BC and died in 508 BC. His entire idea was to make it so that individuals that were not of any power in the already implemented government, to be able to have a say in their government from now on. Many people were a fan of this because people weren't making decisions for them, but rather these Athenians would be able to have a say in what happened in their government.   Athens has had a big influence on the democracy that America has today. As you already know that the United States is a democracy and that the classical civilization of Athens was a democracy before it'...

Votes in Brazil      In Brazil voting works for the president works this way: there is the first round of votes to determine two candidates and then the second round of votes to determine the president. Recently the polls have been stuffed with 11 candidates in the first round. However, if one candidate gets more than 50% of the votes he automatically wins the presidency. The two candidates that were expected to win the first round were Fernando Haddad and Jair Bolsonaro. Fernando Haddad is in the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores or Worker's Party) that is leftist. Jair Bolsonaro is for the PSL (Partido Social Liberal or Social Liberal Party) and he is an extreme-right activist who believes that the answer to the countries crime problem is to arm the citizens with guns. Can you see the problem here?      Brazil is a young democracy. It was led by a brutal military dictatorship from 1964-1985, in which several hundred people disappeared and were killed by ...

John Mazziotti October 22nd, 2018 IHSS Mr. Roddy Political Views Describe how your position in the six categories above influence the political choices you may make.   (If you don't want to share your specific views, you can write how a certain view in each category may influence the decisions you make). Most people in America are perceived by their political views on society, my views veer towards the conservative side. My opinion on education is that a person should at least finish High School with a G.E.D, and aim for a higher level of education like a minor in college. But if however a person or a group of people do not attend college, or maybe not even finish high school should be eligible to be given a job by the government. Jobs vary from state to state in which there are multiple different occupations to choose from, if the government provides jobs, it would have to be available nationwide. I am very laid back with my religion (Methodist Christian), ...