Bowling for Columbine

American values about gun control have changed in the recent years --  events such as Columbine have the power to morph and persuade opinions to wanting stricter gun control laws. Moore provides a very compelling, however one sided argument that addresses this issue with first hand examples. His documentary connects many different events together and addresses gun control as well as political corruption, and poverty. As this documentary unfolds, the viewer gets many different opinions and sees real change being made before the documentary even was released.

America is place with an ever changing system of values. America today is a different America than it was when Columbine happened, and a very different America from when the Declaration of Independence was written. When reading the article about Japanese and American gun control laws, I found it interesting that Max Fisher connected Americans need for guns roots from its violence with Britain when it was first being made. Being able to bear arms was important to Americans In today's world, that is not really a huge part of our culture anymore, making lots of gun freedom not very important. What has become more valued is safety. Events such as Columbine have been widely known as a tragedy, and there has been many steps taken to try and avoid other events like that.

I think that overall, in his documentary, Moore did create a compelling argument. He talked to people on both sides of the argument, but did tend to stay on the side of wanting more gun laws. This did make his argument seem one sided. I think the people that he interviewed did help to make his argument more convincing. What was really impressive was that while promoting his argument, he also was able to touch on concepts of poverty. When he was talking about the mom of the boy who shot the girl, he seemed to blame it on the welfare system, and was able to get people to think about that as being a problem as well. At the end of the documentary, the viewer is really left with the impression that steps need to be taken to avoid any more gun related tragedies, and they can see some of the corruption in the system.

Sound and Fury

When watching this movie, I was quick to make snap judgments especially about Peter and Nita and their decision to not implant Heather. Being from the hearing world, it was hard for me to understand where their arguments were coming from. I had to take a closer look at the Discourses at play and put myself in their shoes, and while that might not change my opinion on the topic (probably because of my own Discourse), it does broaden and blur the lines of this controversial topic.

The first, and most prominent Discourse that I noticed in this movie, was the deaf community. I hadn't known very much about how close the deaf community was before this movie. I don't think that Madison, Wisconsin has a huge deaf community which is why I haven't been exposed to it too much. What I did learn, is how close knit, and almost cult-like it is. They don't define deafness as a disability. The also take everything concerning deafness, very personally. I saw, in this particular documentary, how sensitive and defensive they were. Anyone trying to get a cochlear implant was seen as being ashamed of being deaf, and that they wanted to escape the community. People who were deaf, were proud to be deaf, and wanted to stay in the community. I'm not sure if they felt like this because they were afraid of trying to connect more with the hearing world, or if maybe it was just easier to stay around people who were like you.

Some other Discourses that were shown throughout the documentary included the hearing people with deaf kids, the medial cochlear implant doctors, and the hearing people from deaf families. One difference that I noticed, is that hearing parents with deaf kids were much more on board with getting the implants. Not being a part of the deaf community, they more thought of the benefits of their children, instead of feeling the pressures of the deaf community looking down on them. They didn't feel like they would be disgracing the deaf people by trying to escape the community, they just wanted the best opportunities for their kids. The doctors, being from the hearing world also didn't really understand why people wouldn't implant their kids.

My personal opinion about the Artinian family, is still that they are afraid. I understand the Discourses that they are apart of, and that only strengthens my belief in this. Because both of the parents are deaf, they don't want to be left behind if their kids go join the hearing world. This was really proven to me when, Nita was looking into getting implants herself. If she could have gotten implants, and hearing, then she would have gotten them for Heather too. She was pro-implants until she found out that the surgery wouldn't work on her. When the Grandma called her out on it, she got defensive again and started crying. I think that the parents knew that they were limiting Heathers potential and instead of staying and being around people who would point that out, they moved to a community that they could hide in, and try and convince themselves that they made the right decisions. They were thinking about themselves, and not heather. The world is a different place now than it was when they were little, and life is going to be even harder for heather as a deaf person now than it was before

Garden Snakes

Garden Snakes

not just your ordinary shoelace

Rattle snakes, cobras, and vipers: It’s easy to be afraid of these deadly crawlers, but I would take any of those snakes any day over the common garden snake. This fear of mine is not the fear of death, but the result of a horrible, traumatic event in my past.

One fall evening when I was about 10 years old, I was taking a walk with my family. I remember that we were talking about shoes, and how I obviously needed a new pair. Walking by, something caught my eye. It was a light brownish color of an old worn shoelace-- one that seemed like it belonged exactly where it was, not in a shoe. “What a coincidence!” I thought. I picked it up to show my parents. On any other day I would have left it alone, but since we were talking about shoes, it was just too fitting to leave it be.

I held the “shoelace” for a solid five seconds before I felt it move. Startled, it took me but an instant to see the eyes. Every single person in the neighborhood probably thought I had been stabbed by the sound of my shriek after that. Dropping the spider, I did what any rational 10 year old would do: I cried. I straight up bawled my eyes out because I was so traumatized by what just happened.

Since that day, I have learned my lesson, and NEVER picked up anything off the sidewalk again, especially anything long and slimy.

Blurred Lines Controversy Creates Sucess

On July 28, 2013 Robin Thicke's controversial hit Blurred Lines hit 242.65 million listeners breaking the record for biggest radio audience. This is but one of the many awards that this song has won in the past year. The success of this song has not come without a great deal of criticism, but with the music industry in the state it is today, are the critics the reason for the success?

Their is no denying the nature of the lyrics and music video for this song are pushing the boundary. When you think about it, what popular pop or rap song isn't? The lyrics leave room for interpretation as to weather the song supports rape as Mrs. Lai pointed out; however I have to agree with Tricia Romano under the fact that the video clearly points to a male supremacy role. At the end of the day, I think it is personal values and beliefs that will decide weather females dancing naked around clothed men is appropriate. I will stick by my opinion however, that this song would not be half as popular without the raciness that promoted arguments.

Making it in the music industry is one of the hardest careers to start. It is clear that fame can take a harmful toll on a person. It can drive people crazy trying to get noticed and get their songs played. In todays world, songs that push the boundaries get talked about and in turn the buzz gets the songs popular. Before this song, everyone was chattering about Miley Cyrus's Wreaking Ball. Pop culture saw her career take off again after all of the controversy of that song.

Coming from Robin Thicke's perspective, can you blame him for trying to push the limit? This controversy makes me think of rhetoric and about arguments. While Thicke is getting a lot of criticism for this song, at the end of the day, he "won" because his song is super popular and listened to. Critics might think that they are beating Thicke by butchering his motives and lyrics  but in the end they are only helping to boost Thickes career.

Ebola and the Fiction of Quarantine

Every couple years there is a disease that comes around that brings up the debate about the ethics of quarantine. a few years ago it was the H1N1 virus and now it is Ebola. In this essay that I read, Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley bring some interesting new arguments to the table regarding violation of rights regarding quarantine.

In the beginning of this essay when the authors were giving some background about containment systems, I was very curious about what they actually looked like. because of the article I understand all of the components of it but I wanted to have a picture to compare it to. I found this picture online of what a containment system would look like.




after seeing a picture I can understand the author's comparison of it to an "amateur greenhouse" or "a children's fort."

The article went on to go in depth on some examples and arguments of where attempted quarantines went wrong and how dangerous that can be.  it really made me think about my stand on the issue. I would have to agree with the authors on the account that not quarantining people can have monstrous effects on everybody not just the infected one. It's easy for people who are uninfected to agree with quarantining infected people for the greater good but its not easy to be quarantined when you are the sick one.

At the end of the day, I think forcing people to be quarantined is violating your rights and you can't do that. I think that there is many other ways that the CDC can try and control disease without forcing people to be quarantined such as making vaccinations more easily available or even mandatory or offering incentives for infected people to become voluntarily quarantined.

Lost Girls

For my choice nonfiction book, I chose to read Lost Girls an Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker. Kolker, an investigative reporter, shares the facts of a search for a serial killer in Long Island. The book is written in short segments about each of the victims, who were all young girls working as escorts using Craigslist. In the end, the individual stories all piece together to make one big story. If I am being honest, when I was assigned this project, I was not looking forward to it on the account of the requirement that the book be nonfiction. I cant say that I usually browse the nonfiction shelf for a fun book to read. I am very happy to say that this project and book have changed my view on nonfiction dramatically. In this particular instance, the fact that this book is entirely true makes it that much more powerful. it is not "based on a true story" it is one hundred percent true.

Thinking back to the story and the victims of this serial killer, all of the victims have several traits in common: young girls using Craigslist to further their business as escorts. While some might see the girls' chose profession and think things like "well they had it coming" or "its just because of the profession that they chose". I would have to disagree with that, I think that the bigger link between the girls and being discovered by the serial killer is their connection to Craigslist. I find this very funny because until I read this book, I did not know that you could even use Craigslist for that type of business. Its a very commonly used website, used for everything from buying and selling cars to apparently prostitution. I don't think that people are as cautious using Craigslist as they should be; I think that people can be too trusting when in reality you are most likely meeting a complete stranger to make a purchase. I think to when my family has used Craigslist to sell some of our things, and we have had strangers come to our house to look at them. We know nothing about the person but we gave them our address. That is probably not the smartest idea.


With just a quick Google search, if found thousands of other cases of Craigslist purchases and meetings going wrong. One of the many lessons that I took away from reading this book is a reminder to be careful on the internet and what information you are giving out. The internet is only growing and I think that internet safety has to be something that is taught and enforced at home as well as in school. No one is invincible, I was reminded of this reading Kolker's book.

Ape-Woman, Artist

This article, written by Adam Gopnik, was very interesting to me in the fact that he attributed evolution of man kind to social tolerance and explained that how we act is interconnected to our survival as a species. Overall, I would say that I agree with Gopnik's argument; however, I think that at times Gopnik is overestimating the amount of control that one has in specifically explaining evolution.

The section of the article that really helped me to best understand the main point is when the author uses examples from an experiment with Siberian foxes. In this experiment, when geneticists selected and breeded only foxes showing traits of tameness, they found that the newer generations also showed many other changes. The bred foxes showed floppy ears and soft muzzles and were much like dogs. Gopink then said that selecting the trait of social tolerance as an evolutionary benefit, lead to many other changes including tone of voice and organization of our brain. I think that this is really important because it shows that selecting one trait affects many things and that you can't control or predict what trait caused another from an evolutionary standpoint.

There were several points throughout the article when Gopnik referenced specific scientists along with their perspectives and theories. Having taken AP psychology I am familiar with some of the work of these scientists such as Pavlov and Freud. I thought that contrasting some of views of Pavlov's classical conditioning to this new theory of evolution showed again how unpredictable and uncontrollable this topic is. Also, Gopnik talked about Freud and how he explained civilization as the denial of unconscious wishes and desires. I think that this point helps to tie in the authors new theory. Overall, I would say that not only did Gopnik make an interesting , new argument regarding the topic of evolution but he also backed up his argument very well.