The book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" take place mostly in Afghanistan. The book outlines the different periods of time and what forms of government that has brought upon Afghanistan in the last hundred years. Afghanistan was founded in 1747 by Ahmad Shah, though the land has ancient history and many different timelines of different civilizations. For much of the 21st century Afghanistan was a monarchy. In 1973 former Prime Minister Mohammed Sardar Dauod Khan seized power in a military coup. He abolished the monarchy, abrogated the constitution, and declared Afghanistan a republic with himself as the first President and Prime Minister. In 1978 the PDPA overthrew Mohammed Daoud's regime. this uprising was known as the Great Saur Revolution. Nur Mohammed Taraki became President, Prime Minister, and General Secretary. The country was renamed to the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The country shiften to more liberal and socialist ideals. Religious, traditional laws were replaced by Marxist and secular ones. Men werea obliged to cut their beards and women could not wear burqas. Ambitious land reform was carried out and farmers' debts were waved. Usury was also banned. Womens' rights were also improved. They were considered peoples, forced marriage was banned and other similar things were done. in 1979 the soviet invasion began. For nine years the Soviet Army conducted military operations. Eventually the Islamic Jihad Council was put in place. Taliban, a movement of religious scholars and former mujahideen, emerged from Kandahar . The Taliban took control of about 95% of the country by the end of 2000, limiting the opposition mostly to a small corner in the northeast. The book demonstrates Afghanistans history of a nation shaped by constant invasions and new rises of power.

Contrast

The speaker of Ruth Roach Pierson’s poem, “Summer in the Yakima Valley,” talks about his days on the farm with his cousin. He has many contrasting feelings towards the farm that are triggered by the transition between day and night. In the day he speaks affectionately of the farm. He admires the abundance of fruits the trees yield and finds excitement in venturing the farm’s grounds. When day shifts to night and he is lying to sleep with his cousin in the barn on the hill, his feelings turn to discomfort and distress. He feels imprisoned in the room as he is subject to the mysterious sounds of night. He starts to miss his home. While in the day the speaker and his cousin enjoy running around the farm and swimming in the muddied water of the irrigation ditch, enjoying the excitement of the dangers of the whirlpool’s pull, the night contains no movement at all. The two lay in the attic of the barn and the dangers heard by the speaker do not hold the same joy that the days dangers held.

The Lottery and The Perils of Indifference

Both "The Lottery" and "The Perils of Indifference" explore the idea that ordinary, moral people have the capacity to commit terrible acts of violence given the proper circumstance. Perhaps no event can better confirm this than the holocaust. Under the influence of a charismatic leader the people of Germany acted in ways that were completely uncharacteristic of them. In almost a cult like way, the people were taken in by eloquence and convinced to act violently.Something similar is seen in "The Lottery." In this case ordinary citizens are killing people annually for a reason long forgotten. Simply because it has always been done villagers the villagers partake without question. What they do is randomly select another villager's name from a box and stone them to death, showing no remorse for killing the peole they were once friends with. On any other day the villagers are non violent people with morals. "The Perils of Indifference" suggests that the worst form of violence is indifference. The victims of the holocaust certainly suffered greatly at the hands of their captors during world war two, but many feel more anger towards those who stood by and did nothing at all to help. It cannot simply be said that the allies did not know of the atrocities being comitted because in truth they did. The Germans' behaviour during the war is accurately depicted by the villagers of the lottery'. They became the willing executioners of the war contrary to the beliefs of some people that they were forced into by Hitler. Caught up in the fierce nationality that emerged many Germans went out of their way to imprison their 'un-German' neighbors that they were once friends with. Some of the efforts carried out to help the Nazi cause were far greater than any task instructed to them. The actions of the Nazis clearly demonstrate the capacity and willingness of an ordinary citizen to act inhuman often without the need for threatening to convince them to do so.

Top 3 Overrated Bands

There are many bands out there that receive far too much praise. For some people it is a duty to listen to them because of what guitar magazines have said about their pivotal role in music history. The unfortunate part of this is that the people who listen to these bands often can't see that even though they like the music, their drummer isn't the best drummer, their guitar player isn't the best guitar player, and their bass player isn't the best bassist.

The criteria that reasons for my decisions is as follows.

1) Variety

2) Skill

3) Performance

Number 3

Number three isn't one band but rather a collection of bands. At least at my school, there has been a huge rise in popularity of metal. The idea that anything metal is good is widely accepted even though the majority of metal is awful with a few gems of bands. Some of the bands included in this collection are In Flames, Children of Bodom, Misery Signals and Gojira. Another idea is that you can make any song better by adding double bass to it. Guttural and screaming vocals also seem to be some of the only ways of achieving a listenable song. Another silly thing about metal is that it is really about being "metal." Artists will close off all means of developing a new sound or exploring the boundaries of music and strive to be more metal than the last band. The more brutal your band, the more metal, thus the more awesome. Singing about the most disgusting murder scene or metal pride is crucial. Spelling your name phonetically couldn't hurt either. Another rising trend is to listen to local metal bands, this will make you smarter than the average music observer as you've heard of bands that only a few hundred people know about. If the music is so poorly mixed and ear bleedingly loud that someone can't tell if your good, you're brutal enough. Metal heads are really just silly. They run around to the music and punch each other rather than watching their bands, they think they are enlightened or just have the grapes to listen to music that is too harsh for a wimpy listener, but one day they will grow out of this trend... I hope. So due to being incredibly silly metal is number three on the list of the top three overrated pieces of music.

Number 2

AC DC has made seventeen studio albums which means somewhere around one hundred seventy songs. You would expect that in such a large amount of songs there would be at least some musical discovery and exploration but this is not the case. Of all the songs I've heard, and all the popular ones that make it as hit singles, there is no variety. All the songs have the chords A, G, and E (or perhaps a D also if they are feeling particularly adventurous,) with the only difference being the order in which they are played. Now, I have not heard every AC DC song so I can't say that each song is this way, but one hundred percent of the songs I have heard from them are this way. Another thing that bugs me about AC DC is that all the the titles seem to be about something explosive. TNT, Big Guns, Volts, Blow up your video, high voltage, love bomb, and the list goes on. Any songs that are named in such a manner have the title sang in the chorus in some annoying growly voice that does not sound like a sincere singing voice. Probably the main reason that AC DC is overrated is Angus Young. After all I have said about AC DC I do not care if anyone listens to them and enjoys them but to think that Angus Young is the greatest guitarist in the world is bull honky. I have been subjected to some AC DC live videos by some former fans of AC DC and I have seen Angus Young's "amazing solos." After soloing in the same key for thirty six years you'd think he would have some idea of what to do or devise something interesting to play but that is not the case. His solos consist of a lick or flashy trick played forty times over and then switching to some pull off arpeggios or maybe some pentatonic run and then changing it up with another short run played for another three minutes. There is nothing to surprise you with. Despite this, Angus has been rated the ninety fifth greatest guitarist on Rolling Stones Magazine. Now, even though I hate AC DC, Young's' choice to play like this is perfectly fine, I don't have to listen to it, but I do have to listen to AC DC fans running around saying that Angus is the worlds greatest guitarist and that it is a fact rather than opinion. So for simple songs and solos and an affinity for explosions, AC DC is number two on my list of the most overrated bands of all time.

Number 1

And now for the most overrated band of all time. Metallica. People say things like "Metallica has sold out, their first four or five albums were amazing but then they cut their hair." Hair has nothing to do with talent. When they cut their hair they were no longer metal looking enough and not trendy enough. Saying that one only likes Liking Metallica's first four albums is a common thing for people to say, but the truth is it was all rather horrible. Furthermore, lots of Metallica's first songs were written by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth who never made it on to a Metallica album because they kicked him out of the band, so early Metallica was hardly Metallica at all. The writing is terribly prosaic. The songs all consist of a chugging riff that sounds almost identical in every song. You could write a guitar line for a Metallica verse in less than ten seconds. I've heard the first four albums many times over and tell you that this is true. Kirk Hammet is similar to Angus Young in his creativity. I've heard people argue and claim that Kirk Hammet is more original than another guitarist, but that isn't possible. He uses the same tricks and runs in every song and while the solo might progress and change more than Young's, the lack of creativity is obvious in that every song has essentially the same solo. One thing that has shot Metallica's popularity through the roof is Cliff Burton's death. Death is great for a musicians career. Sure it is sad that Burton died, but this does not make him a better bass player than he was. I have not heard alot in the ways of new Metallica but I have heard St. Anger. "I'm madly in anger with you"? Come on.

Superheroes

While superheroes are often pitted against one another, one hero will always triumph against any other. Every super hero could gang up against him and he would still end up the victor. This super hero, the one with the most powers, is also the most boring. Superman. Superman has the super speed of Flash, the strength of one million Hulks, the eye lasers of Cyclopse, and almost every other power that any super hero has been imbued with. While some would argue that he is faced with internal conflicts and emotional challenges, what super hero isn't? Spiderman has had family and friends held hostage, he has faced the struggle of fighting his best friend turned Hob Goblin. There are only so many ways a story can involve kryptonite and still be fresh and entertaining. The prosaic stories of Superman do little to amsuse me. They just took a guy and loaded him with every ability ever. If he needs to save a plane let's let him fly. He can also withstand extreme temperatures, hold his breathe forefver, and take bullets. Though he could best the hulk, silver surfer and the green lantern in a matter of seconds, his concept is mundane and unappealing.