Signal Phrase Comparison

Looking back at my summary, my signal phrases sometimes usually showed some of my own tone while also keeping some of the author’s. I got the impression from the readings that we are suppose to use our signal phrases to help show our point of view, but I found it hard to express a point of view with a summary. I also was confused on assignment, in that I felt like I was suppose to be citing the sources that Beaty cited, rather than citing the article pages. If I did this wrong please inform me. And looking at my sources for the research paper, I am wondering the same thing, weather or not we are suppose to cite the article where we obtained our information, or where that article obtained its information.

Serial Killers

In the article, What Makes a Serial Killer, La Donna Beaty explores the many different aspects of serial killers. La Donna begins by first discussing what makes up a serial killer, then proceeds to discuss possible causes for their inhumane crimes, and concludes with conveying the importance of studying serial killers to in the future prevent other serial killers.
The article begins with showing what makes a serial killer by using series of facts and statistics about serial killers. La Donna acknowledges that “serial killings are not a new phenomenon,” then tells the horrific story of two serial killers from 1798 (315). Beaty then lists two estimates, one from Ann Rule, “that between 3,500 and 5,000 people become victims of serial murder each year in the United States alone,” and the startling estimate that“350 serial killers currently at large in our society;” both of which come from from Serial Murder by Holmes and DeBurger (315). Beaty finalizes the characteristics of serial killers with her rhetorical question; “what could possibly turn attractive, ambitious human beings into cold-blooded monsters (316)?”
La Donna goes on to explore many theories that cause people to become so destructive. Beaty reveals that one cause maybe from the presence of violence in society and the television (316). The result, as summed up by Beaty is that “it is, therefore, possible that after viewing increasing amounts of violence, such children determine that this is acceptable behavior; when they are then punished for similar actions, they may become confused and angry and eventually lash out by committing horrible, violent acts (317).” Similar to the influence of society, Beaty states the next theory, the influence of family (317). La Donna incorporates the prior theory of media influence, with the family influence theory to show two possibilities, that the television along with family encourage violence, or that the influence of the family determines a child’s morals, and this allows a child to neglect the influence of media.
Beaty’s third theory explores mental illness. She charges that the rise in serial killings could be result of the deinstitutionalization movement, and uses examples of mentally ill serial killers to back up her claim (Beaty 318-319). La Donna’s fourth theory presented is the possibility that genetic makeup and certain portions of the brain could be an influence in serial killing. Beaty reports that Lawernce Taylor’s Born to Crime found that unusual brain waves “have been found in only 10 to 15 percent of the general population, but over 79 percent of known serial killers test positive for these waves (320). Beaty’s final present theory is the influence of alcohol use. She defends this theory with stunning statistics noting the presence of intoxicating levels of alcohol in a majority of murders, and serial killers with family histories of alcohol abuse (320).
The article then concludes with Beaty showing the importance of studying serial killers, in that by studying then, we may find ways to prevent future serial killers (320).

Even More Articles

Author: Sievert, Ronald J. Source: Texas Review of Law & Politics; Spring2007, Vol. 11 Issue 2, p319-351, 33p Title: Patriot 2005-2007: Truth, Controversy, and Consequences
Patriot 2005-2007: Truth, Controversy, and Consequences by Ronald J. Sievert discusses the Patriot Act, its origins, amendments to it, controversy, and consequences of the act and its legal status. It begins with an introduction showing some causes of the Patriot Act, from a lack of communication between the CIA and FBI, FISA, and 9/11. It then goes into recent looks at the Patriot Act, and the publicity it received which caused the Act to be placed under relevant review. It then goes on to show how the Patriot Act has amended certain sections of FISA in order for the intelligence branches of the government to obtain information regarding terrorism. It then goes into how new technology is being targeted, (computers mainly), because there are few acts defending them. It then goes into further detail of how provisions of the Patriot Act which restrict National Security Letters from appearing in court obviously violate the First Amendment. After this discussion is the use of warrants. It shows how warrants issued by the Patriot Act are far different from the standard warrant, in that the subject of the warrant is uninformed about the search until long after the information is obtained, whereas a standard warrant allows the subject to be knowledgeable about the search. The author concludes by pointing out that the Patriot Act has been the subject of politics and emotion, where it really should be examined as a much greater threat, and seen as something more serious than a political stance.

Author: McNeil, Christopher B. Source: Widener Law Journal; 2005, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p109-133, 25p. Title: Shifts in Policy and Power: Calculating the Consequences of Increased Prosecutorial Power and Reduced Judicial Authority in Post-September 11 America
Shifts in Policy and Power: Calculating the Consequences of Increased Prosecutorial Power and Reduced Judicial Authority in Post-September 11 America by Christopher B. McNeil discusses the Patriot Act and the shift of power from the judicial branch to the executive branch. The article dives right into acts that are “amended” by the Patriot Act. One such example is the requirement that the INS bring an arrested person before an officer within a set time. The article goes on to show a history of the shift of power even before the Patriot Act. It also delves into laws and requiring minimum sentences for standards which came from the pressure of the executive branch. Next, the article compares the U.S. legal system to the Japanese, where the U.S. is evolving into the less natural rights granting government of Japan. The secrecy involved in obtaining information through the Patriot Act is then further compared to the government of Japan. The article concludes by noting that we can learn a lot by simply examining the Japanese prosecuting system of government, and realize that the Patriot Act is pushing us towards it.

Title: Challenging the Legality of Section 106 of the USA Patriot Act Author: Flint, Charles A. Source: Albany Law Review; 2004, Vol. 67 Issue 3, p1183-1205, 23 p.
Challenging the Legality of Section 106 of the USA Patriot Act by Charles A. Flint shows the violations of our natural rights and legal violations involved with section 106 of the Patriot Act. The introduction points out the hasty passing of the Act in front of Congress. It then shows numerous cases and other acts of congress which the Patriot Act disregards and violates. It then shows how its definition of an enemy is not properly defined and how the vague wording of the document allow for an almost limitless use of power by the government. After going into a history of International law from WWII and the 1800’s, it shows how the Patriot Act could contradict property rights set forth by international law. It then shows how the International emergency Economic Powers Act has been reinstated with the power behind section 106 of the Patriot Act. It concludes by pointing out how the government was too quick to grant the executive power to prevent more events after 9/11, and in doing so violated the law with the passing of the Patriot Act.

Plagiarism. YIKES!

This article made me afraid of citing my sources. Noah made great points that plagiarism is what is and not something that can be bent to meet the wishes of those who unintentionally partake. Noah’s links serve to provide a direct reference along with showing where he precisely got his information from. The links help to show the unaware audience what happened in the case along with evidence to back up the fact that she plagiarized despite her claim it was unintentional. I felt that many of the articles that were linked were helpful, whereas the link to the History News Network along with the Barnes’s and Nobel’s selling the book Goodwin plagiarized from was not relevant to the case. I would definitely use links to make an argument on a published website. Links give a direct source as well as where the information came from and other useful information relating to the subject. I thought that Noah’s claim was very persuasive, he simply showed the definition of plagiarism and then showed how Goodwin, despite her intent, committed plagiarism. I find the direct quotes from Goodwin’s writings and that from which she plagiarized to be most persuasive. The argument is simply a logically argument, if she committed plagiarism, then she copied and poorly cited their work. The similarities in the evidence are the only questionable part of the argument, which appear to be closely related.

Freedom of Hate-Speech

I found myself agreeing with what Alan M. Dershowitz had to say about the limits of speech. I especially found myself agreeing with the point he made that if speech that is offensive to one group of people is prohibited, then speech to all groups of people must be prohibited. I agree with this because when you prohibit one group and not another, you have an inequality, which is not equal. This article reinforced my views about freedom of speech. I was Re-reading posts and comments from last week, and most seemed to agree with the idea that speech should not be prohibited. I still feel strongly about this, and feel often that too many people complain about things that are said about them. People should remember that they have the same right to say things back to those people as long as they don’t cross the lines of harassment.

Toulminizing GE

The general electric advertisement claims that GE is making the world a better place. The qualifier is that ecoimagination is “just one way” the world is better. Their reason is that their locomotive is the cleanest GE locomotive ever. Their warrant is implied that a clean environment makes the world a better place. They back this up with the advertisement which focuses on nature while leaving their locomotive in the background. The evidence leaves out the cleanliness of other competitors locomotives along with how clean their other locomotives are. It also leaves out any numbers, research, or statistics to support that their locomotive is eco-friendly.

Toulminizing my article on Patriotism

After rereading my article, I found the necessary elements to be considered a Toulmin argument. The claim I made was that to be patriotic, one must question their government’s actions as well as support the troops regardless of the government’s actions. The reasons for this argument were that as citizens of the U.S., we help decide what our government does, and our troops serve to protect our freedoms. A warrant I made was that supporting the troops does not mean that a patriot also supports the war. My backing for this was that a patriot becomes informed with the actions of their government, and takes action to either support or rally against the government’s actions, by using their rights. My evidence for my claim was a series of quotes along with the definition of a patriot. The authority of my evidence ranged from a dictionary, to the president, to academic officials and simple newspaper columnists. My paper contained the consideration of rebuttal for a patriot supporting the government despite the government’s actions. My response to this was that a patriot supports their country, and our country is run by the people, so a patriot does what they see fit rather than what the country sees fit.

Laughing at my Big Brother

http://unclehornhead.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_unclehornhead_archive.html
http://www.sivacracy.net/critical_information_studies/
www.inthesetimes.com/article/2130/before_sunset/


I choose two more politically humorous visuals and one used to evoke emotion. I have always felt that behind jokes there is always at least a little truth, but I feel these visuals use the humor to expose a lot of truth. Also in an age where A.D.D. is now a diagnosable disorder, humor is a great device to capture the attention of an audience. The picture of the man with Patriot duct taped over his mouth clearly shows the view that the Patriot Act limits freedom of speech. Humor alone won't sell an argument seriously, so serious images are needed to be portrayed as well.

Pictures

http://www.evergreen.edu/library/govdocs/hotopics/usapatriotact/index.html
http://www.theonion.comcontentnode27421
http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0512/051232.htm

I think these images will work well in persuading as well as enlightening. The one image has various violations of the patriot in the image itself. Another is a political cartoon criticizing the lack of effectiveness of the Patriot Act, along with who is searched. The third image shows that people are taking action and that more people should, because the act is unconstitutional.

More Articles

Title: When Patriots Dissent. Author: David Weigel. Source: Reason; Nov2005, Vol. 37 Issue 6, p32-38, 7p, 4c
This article began with the events of 9/11 that led up to the passing of the U.S. Patriot Act. It also showed how the media along with the Republican support of the bill put a man into the Senate, and since then, has had the popularity of the Bill has declined. It then goes onto to show the hasty passing of the Act through Congress in that it was met with little opposition and even fewer people who cared to read through the four-hundred some pages of the act. It then goes further to discuss various anti-legislation acts against the bill, but none really were effective until 2005, because of violations of the power in the Patriot Act that occurred against a professor in 2004. It then concludes with how the margin of victory in congress over the bill has been declining as attempts to amend it have come to the table.
Title: The Civil Rights of “Others”: Antiterrorism, The Patriot Act, and Arab and South Asian American Rights in Post-9.11 American Society. Author: Sekhon, Vijay. Source: Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights; Spring2003, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p117, 32p.
This article begins with how the Patriot specifically targets Arabs and other races by simply placing their race in the very articles of the Patriot Act. It then continues to various other violations of the 1st Amendment as well as violations of cases previously decided on matters involved with the right to privacy. It finished by pointing out the unconstitutionality in obtaining warrants to search suspects.
Title: STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGARDING SECTION 215 OF THE USA PATRIOT ACT: Author: Agency Group 07 Source: FDCH Regulatory Intelligence Database; 07/30/2003
This was a statement released by the Director of Public Affairs, in which Barbara Comstock defended section 215 of the Patriot, one of the most criticized sections. She did so by noting that the Patriot Act was passed almost unanimously, that section 215 has a very narrow scope of power, and that it cannot be used in domestic terrorism crimes. Furthermore, it can only be used with a court order, and the Attorney General is required to address Congress with the amount of times it has been sought after, granted, denied, and/or modified.

Freedom of Speech

I found myself agreeing with Derek Bok’s essay “Protecting Freedom of Expression at Harvard.” I have always thought it to be hypocritical to say freedom of speech and then not allowed to say certain things. Logically, the two contradict one another. Even in a situation with “hate speech,” one needs to be allowed to speak, even if what they are speaking about is immoral. If we restrict speech from others, what prohibits others from restricting our speech from us? If someone wants to give “hate speech” on a campus, they should be allowed to. While I think this would be a very bad idea, if someone wants to do this, let them. If you know what is right and wrong, what will someone else’s opinion matter? While we may not like what someone is saying, to allow them to say it is one of the few costs to be able to say what we want. It seems like the current way to deal with a situation is to say what others want to hear rather than what one actually wants to thinks about a situation. When our rights don’t interfere with the rights of others, they don’t need to be restricted. It’s when our speech harasses others or directly interferes with their rights that speech needs to be restricted. I often don’t say what’s on my mind simply because I am afraid to offend people, and most people wouldn’t realize that in most cases I am joking. Although I feel pressured to not say certain things, I have never felt that my right to say them has been violated, I have always felt that I could say them if I truly desired to. In summary, you can’t restrict certain speech and turn around and say that there is freedom of speech, if someone wants to say something, let them say it, it’s their right and yours.

Darfur (#4 pg. 135)

This visual argument is made to persuade people that the genocide in Darfur affects everyone. The image creates an emotional argument that appeals to all audiences through its simplistic image of having relatives simply crossed out. The visual assumes that its audience knows about the genocide occurring in Darfur and creates sympathy through our own connection with our own relatives. It relates this through the simple phrase at the top “what happens to Darfur happens to us.” The main argument here is that its not only Darfur that is affected by the genocide, but everyone, which is why the argument is effective in persuading its audience.

Poverty (#3 pg. 135)

This advertisement makes a rather emotional argument that poverty in Lagos is ignored. This could be an argument for the claim that poverty is a problem. The picture along with the few words depicts how poverty is ignored and how awful poverty is. The picture is very emotional, seeing the poor struggling person whom is ignored by everything around her, even the vehicle passing by which could have easily crushed her mistakenly. The picture evokes sadness and pity for people affected by poverty and works to persuade an audience to start caring.

Articles Using Academic Search Premier

Title: The Patriot Act Illuminated. Author: George A. Pike. Source: Information Today; May 2007, Volume 24, Issue 5, pg 17-18
This article, The Patriot Act Illuminated, dissects and illuminates the errors of the Patriot Act and its revisions. The article points out very clearly the issues involving civil liberties, the investigation, and records. The Patriot Act’s powers are also presented clearly and shown. The article has many numbers and supports statements well.
Title: Audit FBI Misused USA Patriot Act. Source: American Libraries, April 2007, Vol. 38, issue 4, pg 19-21.
This article pointed out the misuse of power given by the Patriot Act. An audit of the FBI revealed that the FBI has misused and not properly recorded their use of the National Security Letters. The FBI director expressed it was his fault that he did not set up a proper audit system to prevent illegal misuse of the Patriot Act.
Title: Criticism Over Patriot Act Use. Author: Norman Oder. Source: Library Journal, 04/01/2007, Vol. 132 issue 6, pg 14-15.
This article showed the Office of the Inspector General’s criticism of the Department of Justice’s poor governing of the Patriot Act. The article discusses two reports issued on the Patriot Act, specifically regarding misuse of National Security Letters. The American Library Association thanked congress for looking into the matter and asked that the Patriot Act be more specific.

Biased Interview Questions

Here is a list of questions which show bias in persuading an answer. Are you in favor of the protection of the United States because of the Patriot Act? Do you favor the Patriot Act even though it takes away our right to privacy? Do you support or oppose the Patriot Act? Do you believe the benefits of the Patriot Act outweigh the costs of freedom?

USA Today Claims

I made three rather ridiculous claims from a graph of adults behind bars that showed that nearly 1,900,000 were men and only about 200,000 were women. The U.S. criminal system is extremely sexist, seeing as there are nearly ten times more men in prison than women. Men are much more likely to become criminals than women. Women are faster than men, because there are more men in prison than women, showing that women can outrun cops faster than men.

OVRC, my favorite

I was very impressed with the information the Opposing Viewpoint Research Center had to offer. Considering myself a moderate, I thought this website offered awesome information on a lot of subjects, I found myself looking into other topics aside from the one I choose this week. However, the information that was on the topic of the Patriot Act was excellent. I found many well argued points from both sides, pointing out the contradiction of the act as well as the necessity for the act to protect our rights. I’ve been undecided on this subject, and after looking at several of the articles the OVRC offered, am still undecided. I know right where to look to make a supported argument on the topic, or many others if I need to.

Big Brother and the Patriot Act

I read an editorial article, “spies, lies, and FISA,” in the New York Times about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Patriot Act. This article interests me because these Acts have been around and gone about practically unchallenged while they invade our right to privacy. This act affects nearly all communication you have with others through any form of technology, whether it be your cell phone or the internet. This topic is researchable because there is a great deal of information and arguments on whether or not it is unconstitutional. I believe it is a very important topic, because our rights are what our country tries so hard to defend, and if our country is violating the rights it stands by, then something is terribly wrong. People should care about this topic because without our rights, we have no protection against anything, so we should learn the truth about if in fact our rights are being violated by these acts.

#4 on pg. 201

As video recording technology becomes less and less expensive, video cameras will become more readily available. Like most laws, video cameras today serve to protect our rights and reveal the truth. Although they are serving to protect us, cameras also seem to be interfering in our rights to privacy.
Video-recorded events involving cops disobeying the law has increased greatly. I believe that this is one of the benefits of video devices, the protection of the citizen against the executive branch. You can see the amount of video cases just by typing in “police brutality” at youtube.com’s website and seeing that nearly 2,500 search results pop up. The more present the devices, the more likely law enforcement are to obey their own laws.
Also among the government employed, teachers also are not wishing to be video recorded. Many schools are prohibiting students from carrying any form of electronic device. Teachers are also being caught doing things that they shouldn’t be because of students with pocket-sized video-recording cell phones; and schools are taking the heat.
In the same ways that government authorities are caught abusing their powers on citizens, citizens are being caught disobeying the law. Cameras placed on roads are a primary example of cameras used to catch citizens disobeying the law. The article “Caught” by Erin Mahoney and Joanne Helperin revealed that eighteen states along with the District of Columbia have had traffic cameras installed. With the cost of technology decreasing, the amount of cameras and the states they are located in will more than likely increase.
Some are arguing that these cameras aren’t merely defending the law, but rather abusing the law to create revenue. The same article points out that the cameras are found primarily in wealthy cities with large amounts of traffic; not in small cities with high-risk traffic areas. If the purpose of the cameras was for the defense of the public, then cameras would be placed at high-risk intersections rather than solely in high-traffic intersections.
So do the benefits of cameras out-weigh the costs? For now they seem to; they protect us from police brutality, bad teachers, and many others, all for the cost of the occasional traffic violation (assuming you don’t always obey traffic laws). But are cameras a good judge of a situation? A camera can only offer a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional situation, which many people forget. And like cameras, our eyes have only a two-dimensional view (with a tad bit of depth perception). Cameras help to bring everybody to the same perception, whether or not it is the right one.

#1 on pg. 200

When I say a topic is worthwhile to people, I am saying that the people will take some action, whether it being simply spreading the information, or becoming active in marching, giving donations, or joining organizations.
Hurricanes are increasing in number and ferocity. The statement doesn’t seem like a very worthwhile cause by itself, and seems lacking in a purpose. However, the claim would probably carry more weight at costal colleges rather than land locked colleges.
Many people die annually of cancer. This claim seems to be too wide and not personal enough. A better claim might be: every year, more and more people are affected by breast cancer. I think a revision of the claim that narrowed the type of cancer would be worth arguing to a college audience, to encourage action and donations for causes against cancer.
Fewer people would die of heart disease each year if more of them paid attention to their diets. This seems like a worthwhile argument seeing as heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.
Japan might have come to terms more readily in 1945 if the Allies hadn’t demanded unconditional surrender. This claim I don’t feel would appeal to a college audience as much as it would veterans, war historians, and history majors.
Boys would do better in school if there were more men teaching in elementary and secondary classrooms. This statement I think would be very intriguing and meaningful to college students, especially ones pursuing educational careers.
The ever-increasing number of minorities in higher education is evidence that racial problems have just about ended in the United States. This claim is very weak by itself. Even with further evidence, I think the claim would be fought with resistance at most colleges.
There aren’t enough high-paying jobs for college graduates these days. This claim would probably appeal to college students. Most college students think about starting salary after college, and this argument might help inform them about the cost of college and salary decreasing.
Hydrogen may never be a viable alternative to fossil fuels because it takes too much energy to change hydrogen into a useable form. Fossil fuels are a hot topic, so I believe this would draw the attention of many college students. It would also raise awareness to find other sources of energy.
Only one of the first forty-three presidents of the United States was a Catholic. I fail to find the argument in the claim, the claim is merely a statement of fact.
Political activists have grossly exaggerated the effects of the USA Patriot Act on free expression. Our first amendment rights are always a hot topic, and the truth behind the Patriot Act would be worth arguing to college students.

Pink think and Geek think

The concept “pink think” brought about by Lynn Peril seems to be very much alive in our society today. Our society is surrounded by pink think in advertising, with nearly every other ad glamorizing products with near pornographic images of models. However the biggest promoter of pink think would probably be popular beauty pageants such as Miss America and Miss universe. These pageants go about by first determining weather or not the contestants are beautiful enough to go onto the further rounds by letting them show off their bodies in wide variety of revealing and excessively expensive swim-suits, dresses, and night gowns. After making it to the final rounds, the contestants are then asked what they would do to help solve various world problems. Of course, this idea that because one contestant looks better than fifty others that look nearly identical in appearance provides for hilarious responses showing their true intellect. These pageants are the standard that many women in society find their pink think ideals from. They create the image that women that want to change the world should also look great in high-heals and underwear. Of course, these pageants are reflected upon today’s society. Younger girls are now wearing more revealing clothes and reading more about how they can fit into these impossible standards. More girls are looking up to these models and have come to behave like them, because its become the standard for society. We see it everyday in advertisement, and even see it appealing to younger audiences with cartoons such as Bratz or Barbie. Children of course know nothing better than to mimic their idols, and this is reflected in their behavior.

Geek think on the other hand seems to be a stereotype that is dying. Often portrayed in movies of the 80’s and 90’s as the chess-playing losers of school with large glasses, pocket protectors, and their own handy calculator pouch for quick mathematical solving, geeks have since then become more accepted in society. I believe this so because of the growing popularity in electronics and technology. While the top-of-the-class members of the computer club were once terrorized by jocks, they now have come to find a new friendship with one another. In our age, we are surrounded by popular electronic devices, such as cell phones, video games, computers, and mp3 players, which need regular repair. For the electronically challenged, geeks provide their vast knowledge of electronics willingly. It seems that the geek has come to be accepted because our society is becoming more and more dependent on electronic knowledge. As this is happening, geeks are starting to blend in with non-geeks. It’s becoming popular to be good with electronics and to get good grades in school. The video game industry is attracting even more geeks and is growing rapidly with the video games such as Halo, which is setting sales records exceeding a billion dollars. Geek think is a concept which encourages people to become more knowledgeable about their surroundings. Geek think is becoming even more influential over society as we realize that knowledge is power. One day, we will all be geeks.

reflections on milblog

Before I started this class, I didn’t think a lot about the Iraq War. As with most things in life, if it doesn’t affect me, it doesn’t matter a great deal. I never have really felt strongly about taking a stance to one side or another, because I never really tried to keep up on the news. I have always felt that the news is a greatly biased source of information, and is always directed to convince you to believe one thing or another rather than to actually try to present stories in an unbiased fashion. War is of course, a necessary cost of freedom, but can always be an excessive tool of greed as well. I never really decided which one this war was and never really cared.

This milblog helped me to feel more towards the war, but really did not sway my attitude towards it one way or the other. So many of these stories from the milblog are so moving and touching, and can’t help but make you feel happy or sad. They also have given me new light on the life of a soldier which I have found to be rather interesting and far from the stereotyped vision I had before. They also give a much less biased view of what actually goes on than what the news seems to. This milblog has definitely been the most worth-while assignment I have done in my educational career.

definitions

I would define serious literature as any literature that is not for the purpose of enjoyment, but rather enlightenment on a subject relating to human nature. If a graphic novel can reveal something about human nature, then I would say it is serious literature, but to say all graphic novels are serious literature is a very large statement which would need someone to analyze each and every novel and determine if indeed they reveal something about human nature.

A hate crime might be defined as a crime against a specific group of people. Burning a nation’s flag would imply that the hate crime is against that nation. Assuming of course that to burn that nation’s flag is a crime.

A royal family is one that consists of royal blood, or descended from a sovereign family line. To say that the Bushes have become America’s royal family is a fairly unsupported statement. To say that because George W. Bush and his father were president creates a sovereign family line is a slim, but valid statement, because a line only needs to consist of two points (George and his father.)

A journalist is merely someone who journals or writes about observations. To say that Matt Drudge and Larry Flynt are legitimate journalists are to assume that they legitimately wrote about their observations.

Big businesses is a very vague definition. A big business in America would be McDonalds, whereas a big business in a third-world country to could be a flee market. That is because big is a comparative term, not a definite term. You can say a mouse is big or small, depending on weather comparing it to a bug or an elephant. So to say college sports programs have become big businesses could be a valid statement, if comparing it to other businesses smaller than it.

I would define civil disobedience as willfully disobeying in order to create a point about a rule. To say plagiarism could be an act of civil disobedience could be true. If the purpose of plagiarism was to make a point that the information was already stolen, then it could perhaps be defined as plagiarism. If it were used to simply not have to write a paper, I would say it would not be civil disobedience.

A religion is merely beliefs with rules on how to live life. Saying Satanism is a religion is a proper statement, assuming that the religion has certain beliefs regarding life.

Free speech is being able to say what you want without consequences. To say campaign contributions are acts of free speech would be wrong. Campaign contributions are physical, whereas speech is audible. To say you will do something and to do something are two different things, which is presented here.

A state is simply a territory of the government. An American State on the other hand has more requirements than just the territory of the government, such as a certain number people and proper representation.

Marriage is the union of a man and a woman. To say gay and lesbian couples should have the legal privileges of marriage is a valid statement, because it does not say that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry. To be able to marry, they need the criteria of a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman.

Coldgay

I probably would have given this an essay an A because I agree with it so much. Of course, without my biased opinion, I believe the content in backing up claims would receive a grade of somewhere between B and a C. The paper had the feel like Jon Parales had a grudge against Mr. Martin. While Pareles makes his claim against Cold Play, he only uses a single album as his defense. Aside from Mr. Martin’s voice and lyrics, he only seems to criticize very minor aspects of the album which he views as flaws. He even defends the instrumental ability of the band by saying that they have “mastered all the mechanics of pop songwriting.” The structure of his writing also makes his arguments less convincing, as he devotes one paragraph to ranting on how awful Mr. Martin’s lyrics are or voice is, while he turns around to praises their instrumental genius or compares them to much greater bands the next. He also devotes three paragraphs to show how popular they have grown (which doesn’t give any real argument as to why Coldplay shouldn’t be considered a good band), in what seems like a cheap-shot attempt to gain sympathy from the loner/anti-bandwagon crowd. Aside from lyric quotes, their was no real evidence to support any of his claims. Pareles made to big of a claim that coldplay is “the most insufferable band of the decade,” and failed to back any of it up. His only real argument was that Mr. Martin can’t sing well, and Mr. Martin has bad lyrics, which took him an entire paper to rant about instead of making a convincing argument in a couple of well supported paragraphs. This is why I would give Parales a B to a C.

Navajo Rugs and Peyton Manning

There are many factors that go into evaluating an NFL quarterback. The main judge of an NFL quarterback would be his statistics and quarterback rating. There are many statistics which contribute to a quarterback rating. Passing yards, touchdowns, interceptions, and sacks are just a few of the many statistics on quarterbacks. By looking at several quarterbacks’ statistics, you can determine the better quarterback by which quarterback has the better numbers. Other factors that could be used to help determine a quarterback’s quality would be when they were selected in the draft, their income, and experience.

I know absolutely nothing about Navajo rugs, but if I wanted to, I could probably find ways to distinguish between a Navajo rug, and a bad Navajo rug. I would first see what factors determine the quality of making these rugs. I’m guessing that the fabric or material involved, the design of the rug, and the quality of quilting, stitching, or however one fuses the material together would be good for distinguishing between a high-quality Navajo rug, and low-quality Navajo rug.

Circlemakers.org

Circlemakers.org is a very well designed website. The main page is organized very logically and chunks the information very conveniently. The font, despite being a little hard to read, makes the text seem out of this world, which seems appropriate assuming the site’s main audience is a bunch of alien-loving conspiracy-theorists. The same background dark blue background with odd geometric objects is used on each page furthering the science feel of the website. Each topic page has large font headings making information easy to find. Even more helpful, when you scroll the mouse over each of the major sub-pages, there is a little description of what they are about in the upper right-hand corner. These aspects of the page make the argument that crop circles are mysterious and interesting, and you should read more about them. I found myself curious to what information the page had, just because of these tiny details that contributed to the appearance of the page. I was fascinated by the pictures of crop circles and from their, I was led into the other articles of the site. I bought into what the site was trying to sell, because it made a great visual argument just by having an attractive format.

Drug Abuse

The image I choose was by Clarence Williams of the Los Angeles Times. This is just one of the many photographs he took that documented the plight of young children with parents addicted to alcohol and drugs. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for the category feature photography. I thought the image created a powerful argument on the effect of drugs on children. You can see clearly the innocence of the little girl and how her entire world is cramped around her. From the caption we know that they are living in a shed, and the two women that are awake are using drugs while the child sleeps peacefully. The angel of the shot from above creates a feeling of smallness and the black and white help the viewer to see the sadness. The cluttered and dirty shed reveal the poverty and despair of these people. All of these details create the larger argument and built sympathy within me for people affected by drugs. This picture helped me to see this girl had nothing to do with the situation she is in. And it helped me to realize that there are many others like her who are as helpless as she is. This photograph won me over.

Milblogs4

The soldier from the first milblog I read this week talked about his “alive day.” He had never heard of an “alive day” and neither had I, but it was the title from an HBO special where wounded soldiers told about their near death war experiences. The soldier had almost been hit by an RPG. He described the moment as if he had transcended time and all the laws of physics were broken. He decided to get the date of his alive day tattooed on his fore arm as a reminder. Although his story was fascinating, I found the most relevant part to be his conclusion, which was that even a bad day alive is better than a good day being dead. It reminded me of how ungrateful I am sometimes over little things in life and how I should be more thankful for the time I have.

The next milblog was an excellent slideshow put together by an operations officer. The slideshow had “Like a Rock,” by Bob Seager playing as the pictures progressed. The slideshow showed a lot of happy pictures of soldiers and what they do everyday. Some pictures showed soldiers drinking, soldiers joking, soldiers repairing vehicles, soldiers posing with weapons, and just soldiers enjoying themselves. It was a very happy look at the soldiers in Iraq.

The last post I read was by an RN. She posted about 9/11 and about remembering the terrified people running down the street and all the other events that happened that day. The smoke and black clouds made her realize that day that this country was no longer safe. She took part in a freedom walk to remember the victims and the soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom. A marine told her during the walk that he was often asked why although he has been on three tours already he still wants to go back, and he said this (referring to the march) is the reason why. I thought it was great to see a march out of respect like this going on.

My Wiki!

Here is the link for my wiki. Right now my wiki is a very basic couple of pages devoted to me. I currently have a list of music I enjoy, and within the list are hyper-links to the artists' web pages. My wiki reminds me very much of a myspace.com or facebook.com account, but I can see how it has potential to grow into a much more informative page. Wiki's in general have an amazing capability to house a nearly infinite amount of information. I wrote an entire blog on wikipedia.com and how its the most efficient and effective encyclopedia there is. So far, I have only a couple of pictures on my wiki of me, my drum set, and my piano, and only have several hyper-links to band websites. The process of creating this wiki is going well so far, and I think my wiki will continue to grow into a helpful resource as I start to put other information on it other than about me.

Milblogs3

This week I read three happy milblogs. One of the blogs, airborneparainf82.blogspot.com, went through a seemingly average day with several potential situations for danger. Eddie, the blogger, began by telling his agenda, which was to check out some banks in the sector. He tried to get his own bank account, but couldn’t because they didn’t allow Americans to have accounts. From there he heard an explosion in a car garage which he went to help with. At night, his troop went on a raid and heard several shots fire, but nothing escalated. I thought it was neat that Eddie tried to open an account just to say he had an account in Iraq. I was glad it wasn’t a sad story and his troop made it safely through the night. Another blog, desertflier.blogspot.com, talked about a ice day he had where he was invited with others to a part of Ramadia by the Euprates for weapon range time. The place happened to be one of Saddam’s general’s house which was rather luxurious. Most of the time, I believe people imagine the Middle East as they see it on T.V., lots of abandoned buildings and poverty. This article helped me to see there is more than the ruin that we generally see on television. Another blog helped me to realize that it’s not just some desolate desert, actuepolitics.blogspot.com. The author described the landscape in an almost poetic manner, and was very descriptive. I liked this blog the most, because it showed the soldier’s hope and how you can either look at what’s around you as bad, or good, and this soldier choose good. All these blogs helped show me just how much hope there still is when everything seems so gloomy.

Political Blog

I went to dailykos.com where the blogger, kos, criticized the Abercrombie Bill with support from the article “House Dems signal a shift on Iraq plans.” The Abercrombie Bill, as put by Mike Soraghan, “would order Bush to draft plans to withdraw from Iraq but not require them to be implemented.” Kos’s blog,“pre-emptive capitulation in the House, as well,” points out the fallacies in the Abercrombie Bill to prove his points that “Democrats have to pre-emptively surrender for fear that ‘some’ might criticize them.”
The blog first points out that the article shows the support for the bill, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (a Democrat) is in favor of the bipartisan legislation, along with the authors of the bill, Neil Abercrombie and John Tanner (also Democrats). The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (a Democrat), already put the Abercrombie Bill off before Congress’s break in August. The article claimed that Pelosi has “been encouraging Democratic representatives to employ any personal relationships they’ve developed with Republicans to find bipartisan ideas for Iraq legislation.”
After pointing out these major Democratic players, the blog shows the fallacy in the Abercrombie Bill. Kos made the rhetorical question “does this bill even pass the logic test?” While he does not go on to show the non sequitur in the bill, it is easy to see. The purpose of a bill is to become a law, and then to have that law enforced to create a positive change. This bill requires the president only to create a plan for troop withdrawal; the bill doesn’t require that he actually goes through with his plan.
Kos then uses a statement made from Pelosi, “We probably will take it (the Abercrombie Bill) up with another piece of legislation that I’m not about to announce right now,” This statement shows that she is not even certain that she will take up a bill that does nothing out of fear of offending. Furthermore, the article commented on how Pelosi has been encouraging bipartisan relationships. Even though the bill has had bipartisan support, Pelosi shied away from it, and is only now looking to possibly bring it to the floor. Kos points out that Pelosi has been searching for bipartisan support in vain, because Democrats control both the House and the Senate.
To sum up the argument, Kos plainly showed that the Democrats do not need this bill. Aside from the point that the bill does nothing, he makes the points that Democrats don’t need bipartisanism to get a bill passed, and furthermore, there is already some bipartisanism on the issue of the safest troop withdrawal. Kos then concluded by stating the two well-known Democrats running for president, Clinton and Obama, are also afraid of the issue and its possible effect on their campaign, so they are sticking to “banal fluff.” After looking over the article, it is easy to see that Kos utilized the best points in the article to make his argument. Examining the situation further, Democrats have had control now since 2006, and have still failed to take noticeable action. Even now, they continue to debate over a bill that does nothing for the war effort. Overall, Kos made well-supported and convincing arguments on Democrats fearing criticism.

Advertisements Dehumanize Women

Jean Kilbourne used many different strategies to help deliver her persuasive speech on advertising. She used effective and startling statistics, pictures, video clips, and humor to show the negative influence advertising on women.
The presentation was logically organized utilizing diction, straightforward syntax, and memorable arguments. There were no run-on sentences or parts of the speech that were difficult to understand. Jean spoke very clearly and fluctuated her tone to emphasize certain arguments. Each point was backed up effectively by verbal as well as visual evidence. The speech itself logically progressed from the beginning by simply showing the rise in advertising costs to the more effective arguments of how advertising has dehumanized women, created an unobtainable ideal which has helped increase eating disorders, and has even gone as far as to glamorize battering.
However, to make her points effective, Jean used visual arguments. Her bar graph in the beginning gave a visual representation where numbers fail audibly. After which, she simply used advertising against itself to argue her point. She showed how women are dehumanized through video clips and pictures how most of the time the focus of the advertisement is a women’s body or part of a women’s body. Sickly skinny women were also presented to show her point that women desire to look like these models, because simply saying that women are skinny would not have been as effective. She then used ads that portrayed beaten and battered women in a glamorous way to show how truly negative the advertising of women has become.
Jean’s delivery of the speech was just as effective as were the visuals involved. She had dressed professionally, while not too much to distract her audience. As I had mentioned before, she fluctuated her tone to emphasize certain points in her arguments, and also spoke fluidly. She maintained eye contact throughout the presentation and by doing so showed how well she knew the subject of her speech. The presentation of her arguments was as essential to persuading her audience as was the arguments themselves.
I thought that the last points Jean made on the glamorization of battering were most effective. I had always seen the dehumanizing of women, but had never seen advertising that had glamorized abuse. This really pointed out to me just how far the dehumanizing of women in advertising has undergone. The pictures startled me, and made me feel sympathetic to the victims of such horrible advertisements.
Overall, the presentation I felt was very effective. Jean made very effective and convincing arguments as well as statistics to defend the points she made. However, it seemed as though she were only addressing women. Although she called on everyone to help the cause in the end, her presentation seemed very much toward the female audience. It would have been more appealing to a male audience if she had even mentioned men in advertising as well. Also, she did not present any actions to undertake in the end of her presentation to stop negative advertising. I felt that advertising was bad, but then I did not know what to do help fight against the dehumanization in advertising. Aside from these points, I felt the speech was tremendously effective and well-delivered.

wikipedia.com

Wikipedia.com is a website that I go to whenever I need knowledge on just about anything. Then name itself is a combination of a wiki, and an encyclopedia. A wiki is an internet-based collaboration of information which can be modified by its users. The combination of the wiki and encyclopedia has made wikipedia.com vastly popular, but also extremely convenient.
The internet provides wikipedia.com with many advantages over regular encyclopedias. The first advantage is its enormous amount of information. Where encyclopedia volumes normally cover a single subject (such as World War II), wikipedia.com covers all subjects that its millions of users have shared (which is nearly every subject covered by any encyclopedia). Its second advantage of wikipedia.com being on the internet is its hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are parts of text that allow users to access another internet article based on the text they clicked. Hyperlinks are a much more efficient and quicker way to find information that it would be to look up the word and find the page number in a regular encyclopedia. Furthermore, you can find a much more extensive amount of information from wikipedia.com than most encyclopedias.
To transfer the information of wikipedia.com into printed text would be impossible. Where an encyclopedia contains very detailed information about one subject, wikipedia.com contains very detailed information about nearly every subject. Wikipedia.com currently contains a little less than two million articles. Assuming each article averages two pages (which is a safe under-estimation), a printed version of wikipedia.com would be four million pages. It would not be physically possible to create this, nor would it be convenient to locate any articles.
Wikipedia.com is a great source of information and does what printed information cannot. It significantly reduces research time, while also providing more details about related subjects. Although it has these many advantages, it has one weakness which is credibility. Because it is a wiki, anyone is allowed to alter any articles content. By allowing anyone to edit it, the truth can be changed into false information. However, Wikipedia.com does have guidelines that must be followed in order to make changes, and quickly finds and corrects vandalized articles. Wikipedia.com is the ultimate encyclopedia.

Milblogs 2

This week I read two more soldier stories. One soldier told about his own departure to Iraq nearly a year ago, and how he felt like he was leaving everything behind. As he was leaving, a fellow soldier passed by and asked if he was staying or leaving. When he said going, the other soldier pulled a laminated four-leaf clover out of his wallet and told him that it had been given to him by another soldier. Nearly a year later he was returned home, and this time he met a soldier who was going to Iraq. He gave the clover to him, and made the point that it’s better to pay it forward than backward. I thought this story was really cool, just because of the simple things that seem to make a difference.
Another soldier told his story about a Romanian soldier who was his friend. Wherever he was stationed, the Romanian soldier had constructed a wall and had been asking other soldiers for patches to put on the wall. The post had pictures of the wall and was really cool to see. It looked like there were around fifteen to twenty patches from different countries. It seemed to bring a message of global unity and just made me feel like there is still good going on in the world. I enjoyed these stories even better than the ones I read last week. They seemed to convey lots of hope even through all thats going on. As always, God bless what these soldiers do.

Milblogs

I recently responded to the milblog website. I wish I had known this site existed sooner. The blogs of the soldiers were so touching, sad, and yet had hope in them. I enjoyed reading them immensely; they were so personal and informative. I never thought about contacting soldiers via internet. I felt like I couldn’t say enough to them, and that I couldn’t thank them enough, but I knew that if I were in their shoes, any response would help. I responded to a soldier who had posttraumatic stress disorder and told him how sorry I was and that my prayers were with him. I also read about a soldier whose friend named Ski was in a coma, and how compassionate he was even during combat, but thankfully is back to normal. Reading these blogs renewed my sense of what is actually going on in the world, seeing as how the media has been seemingly slipping slowly away from the war.

Social Websites

The internet has hosted for some time the continually growing sites of myspace.com, facebook.com, and other social sites like it. These sites are enormously popular among teenagers, which has led to large advertising and profits for the sites. Employers as well are cashing in by performing additional background checks on individuals through these sites. Many individuals who use these sites have the delusion that their information is safe and private on these websites.
During my early high school years, I maintained my own MySpace. Like many of my other friends, I assumed that MySpace was a world where only kids communicated and interacted with one another privately. I of course was wrong. I didn’t realize this until one day my mother asked me if I had a MySpace. I told her I did, and she then wished to see it. I was shocked and felt she had no place to see it. Of course she was my mother, and what I felt was no defense against her decision. Thankfully, she had and still has a very limited knowledge of computers, and I was able to remove anything that would be particularly hazardous to my well-being. This experience led me to realize that anyone with a slightly more extensive knowledge of computers than my mother could easily and readily access a wealth of information about me, like who my friends are, where I attend school, and my interests. I was smart enough to not post anything incriminating (not that I ever did anything that I could be incriminated for) or personal (such as phone number, or where I live).
As senior year came along, MySpace became immature with the newly found Facebook. And because it was senior year, students were partying. Under the same delusion of MySpace, students felt that they were safe on Facebook. They were wrong. Pictures from a party appeared with captions suggesting under-aged drinking. The administration stumbled upon these pictures, and immediately suspended students in the pictures. However, my school has a large number of wealthy families, many of which were the families in the photographs. Their lawyers arrived that day in response to this outrageous assumption of illegal activity, in which my school quickly surrendered and recanted.
So is the issue of safety and privacy a serious problem? I don’t believe there is any problem with safety or privacy on these social sites. People who use these websites should have enough common knowledge about them to enjoy them safely. Someone should know that when they access these sites and give information, that information becomes obtainable by the public. Kids should be monitored on their internet activity, and teenagers should be given rules to follow to keep them safe from internet predators. As for employers using these sites for additional background checks, I congratulate their resourcefulness. Even so, Facebook is eliminating some of the problems associated with unwanted viewers by letting the user allow only their friends to view their information. MySpace and others like it are also increasing the privacy settings on their sites. And as more problems materialize, believe the sites themselves will rise to fix these small problems.

Hyper-reading

The article Hyper-readers and their Reading Engines by James Sosnoski discusses his practices of hyper-reading by defining and explaining the characteristics involved. Hyper-reading is defined by the terms: filtering, skimming, pecking, imposing, filming, trespassing, de-authorizing, and fragmenting. Through defining hyper-reading, Sosnoski defends his practices and shows the benefits on what some view to be hyper-reading’s negative aspects.
Sosnoski begins by pointing out that all reading involves a process of selection. He defends filtering by using an example of a 17th century poetry class, which interpreted a list of names to be a poem. Because readers have a bias of a text based on previous notions such as genre, the reader transforms the text to fit their own expectations. Sosnoski then points out that a search engine selects much like an encyclopedia, except for the technology behind search engines makes them much more thorough and efficient than an encyclopedia.
Next, Sosnoski briefly goes into skimming. Skimming is merely a way of finding the outline of a text. He makes the points that readers rarely remember small details, and after completely reading a text only have a good enough memory for the outline. Skimming in hyper-reading is a necessity, because there is too much available material to be read in a reasonable amount of time. Similarly, Sosnoski goes into discussing pecking, which is merely skimming without forming a structure for your information. Pecking lacks coherence, but this is not a problem to hyper-readers, because they take information and assemble it to cohere to their own wishes, even it the information is used for the author’s intention.
Sosnoski uses imposing to show that the reader and a text play a part in the meaning. The reader controls what text they wish to pursue, and as a result, search to text that contains relevant information. Without the reader, the text holds no significance, only information. Once they utilize the information of the text, they imposed their own meaning into it. Sosnoski points out that films impose text, which is another one of his points; filming. Filming merely transforms textual information into visual information as envisioned through the director and those involved in creating video.
Sosnoski goes on to readily admit that hyper-reading is trespasses, de-authorizes, and fragments texts. Hyper-readers all are guilty of stealing text, and are described as ardent plagiarists. In their burglary, they also de-authorize the text by using it over and over again. When one person credits the source of the information, they really credit another hyper-reader like themselves, who obtained the information from someone else, who likewise received the information from someone else. Except for this process could go further, with the real author losing all relation to the original information. In this process, the reader fragments, or takes the information out of the text, as an organizational tool to assemble many bits of information to support their own coherent purposes.
This eight-element design clearly defines the many steps involved in the hyper-reader’s process of obtaining information. From reading this article, it seemed as if Sosnoski had put a science behind hyper-reading. Like any science, Sosnoski broke down the large picture into small fragments to create a definition and to reveal how the larger picture works. Likewise, he had a logical scientific process, involving hypothesis (theories) based on observations and experiments, from which he came to his conclusions. He also forecasted his own predictions concerning the future of hyper-reading based upon the current circumstances. His paper seemed to successfully cover the essential aspects of hyper-reading, and to inform his audience about the design of hyper-readers and their practices. Sosnoski has created a practice for hyper-reading, and realizing that its not going to disappear anytime soon, has encouraged his readers to partake in the practice and be teachers of hyper-reading. Hyper-reading is a more efficient way to work, and to do our work well, we must simply use the modern tools we have before us.

My First Blog

I'm a blogger! Hooray! I hope I did this right.