The Political Blogging

Blogging is not my literary forte by any means. I'm quite a novice to it as a matter of fact seeing as this is my first blog. I can't help but notice, however, that most of the political blogs I visited had no flow in their writing. I couldn't exactly understand what the author's point was when they were writing about different stories. Nevertheless, I did find a fallacy or two in some posts at www.dailykos.com.

One of the fallacies that I noticed was not one pointed out in a presidential candidate's speech, but one made by the author of the blog. The author writes, "Of course this only proves yet again what a dishonorable and dishonest man John McCain is." This is an example of an ad hominem argument. It seems to be challenging what he says or does but really is directed "to the man."

Another fallacy found in the same article is an example of an either-or argument. When summarizing up the article, the author says that there are a number of conclusions one can draw from the information given. "Sarah Palin doesn't know very much about energy, John McCain doesn't know much about Sarah Palin, John McCain and Sarah Palin are both liars..." were the choices given. There is no option that gives McCain or Palin the benefit of the doubt. All choices go against either one of them.

These fallacies were not pointed out by the blogger, however. They were also not spoken by any political candidate but were published by the author of the blog. These fallacies were used as arguments to get the reader's attention and for the reader to side with the blogger. None of the arguments were explained as ad hominem or either-or. The blogger was just using it as a strategy to gain the reader's trust.

This author apparently is not for McCain in the slightest. Most of the articles are slams against the Republican campaign. The blogger of this site also tries to strengthen his/her argument by using dogmatism. "Why would anyone believe anything this campaign says?" is a direct quote from www.dailykos.com. This makes it seem as though there is no argument to be made with the legitimacy of the Republican campaign.

This political blog held several fallacies and flashpoints that the author used to swing reader's interest or vote to the Democrat side. Just about every article contained slams against McCain and his running mate Palin. The arguments were not explained because the author used them for his or her own motives.

New Milblog Posts

After reading the milblog post titled, "An Ethic Dilemma" I was immensely frustrated! I realize that whoever controls the military spending is trying to control wasteful spending of taxpayer's money, but this is ridiculous. Just because an item is on a "no-no list" does not mean it should be a forbidden expense indefinitely. I'm sure that right now, to get an approval for an item means going through an entire ordeal filling out enormous amounts of forms for just a digital camera. I think all orders for expenses should go through a panel of people to review the order. Then an interview should follow regarding the item(s). If there were any questions regarding the purchases, the reasons would be stated. I'm sure it would be hard to hold a conference like that in the middle of Iraq, but it would be infinitely better than needing an item you can't buy.

The article about Sgt. Joel L. Murray really made me think. It isn't too often in life that you find someone that truly inspires you or makes you think about things the way that author made it seem. Joel seemed to be an inspiration to all of the troops around him, giving everyone hope and someone to look up to or ask questions. It sounds like the narrator was right by saying he already was a great person. My prayers and thoughts go to his family. I'm truly glad we have people like him in this world.

My Very Own Wiki

www.allabouttony.pbwiki.com

I think having a wiki would be a great idea for someone who has something to teach others. If a person has an idea about how to make their own graphic t-shirts, they can create a public wiki on how to do so. This could be accomplished by using different pages to show different steps or how to create different designs.

For me, however, this wiki seems to be sort of a bare minimum. How much can I actually put onto a wiki that I want to say? I'm sure there are a lot of different topics to make pages for, but how can I get it to "chunk" the way I want it to. So far, I can tell designing a wiki is going to be pretty tricky.

My most visited website

http://www.thesaltinez.com

A web site is the best way to present the information on this page because it is the most organized way. It is set up as a forum and people post their thoughts on whatever they want. Also, there are different sub-forums for download of different applications and other software. There is also a search box to find exactly what you need whenever you need it.

The advantage of having this information on the internet instead of on print is the organization and information retrieval advantage. It's easier to search through all the pages and documents with just a click of a few buttons than having to riff through hundreds of pages. Another advantage is the immediate supply of outside links that lead directly to other references and downloads. This way you can just copy and paste the url into the address bar and be on your way to another place.

In order to "translate" the argument of this site into print or live oral format, I would need to write a speech about pirated software and music. This site is mostly involved with the free download of music albums, gaming and application downloads, and movies as well. There really is not much of an argument for the website, however, the message is clear that the owners think that such items should be legal to download for free.

In the process of translating the website, the visual image would be lost. The organization is a very visual aspect of the website. To find what you want to find, you need to see exactly where you're going throughout the forums, sub-forums and posts. Members of the site can also interact with other members, so the message system would also be lost.

The Adverstising Lecture

Mountain Dew, Calvin Klein, Taco Bell, Best Buy, Macy's, American Eagle and Hollister. These are just a few of the companies we see ads for each and every day, continuously, throughout our lives. We can't get away from them. Pictures of food and models wearing brand name underwear are everywhere. Billboards, television commercials, newspapers and radio commercials are just a few places we see these numerous advertisements. It's actually getting really out of hand, and Jean Kilbourne points out this fact quite well.

Jean did an amazing job of combining pictures and video clips to emphasize her words. One part of the speech that impacted me was when she was speaking about what the ads might convey. Jean spoke of ads selling "...concepts of love and sexuality, of romance and success, and perhaps most important, of normalcy." The images she used with this section of the lecture really helped to show that modern advertisements really DO try and convince customers to buy their product or service.

Kilbourne not only enraptured the audience using different images to coincide with her argument, she also used several instances of humor to keep the attention that she had already gained. One example is when she quoted someone saying that advertisements do not affect them and they just tune them out. To this she says, "I hear this most often from people wearing GAP t-shirts, but that's another story." Another strategy she uses to keep people's attention is using interesting statistics. At the beginning of her lecture she showed a graph of how much advertising has increased between two years. Not only that, but she continued and said the average person would spend three years of their life watching television commercials. I found these to be interesting facts and made me want to hear more.

The speaker's tone and appearance really plays a factor in a presentation. Jean obviously was dressed comfortably enough, but was not so casual as to be considered "dressing down". By having a nice clean look, it helps to convey to the audience that the speaker knows what he or she is talking about. From the presentation, as seen online, I was not able to tell if she made eye contact throughout the presentation, but from the small clips that I saw of her she seemed to be doing well. Hand gestures were kept to a minimum but were still there which also helped to animate her thoughts about her presentation.

Kilbourne's transition from topics were quite fluid throughout her presentation. I can tell when a topic change is about to happen by the pause she takes after speaking about a certain topic and the sudden drop in her tone. A good example is when she says "To a great extent, advertising tells us who we are, and who we should be." at one minute at forty-six seconds into the presentation. This is the transfer from general advertising, to the discussion of dehumanizing woman's bodies.

Considering all of the aforementioned techniques, Jean Kilbourne's presentation was a prime example for anyone else looking to inform. The nice balance of spoken information with supplemental media was essential to conveying how she felt about her topic. Her appearance showed that she was serious about her topic and it worked well for her. A few clips of her audience even showed that they were paying attention. I say she did a very good job with her presentation.

Iraq Milblog

It's amazing what our soldiers go through in Iraq. Some people here don't even know how many incidents and crisis they suffer. Seeing several of the poems written on the milblog, however, make it clear. The images they paint in the mind as you read them are graphic and intense images of death, suffering and liberation. The poems they write is a powerful way to release how they feel inside and also a way to get away from the violence. Another example is the T-walls that our soldiers decorated. I'm sure it gives them a reprieve from the fight. It's basically an alleviation of reality for them.

Pitfalls of the Read Write Web

I think this really is a fairly serious problem. If people who are applying for a job get offended by managers or college recruits looking at their facebook or myspace pages, get over it. When you post information on a public domain, it's public, one way or another even if you do set it to private. Posting pictures of drunken parties or obscene photos is not even welcome in my eyes either. I don't want to see it, employers don't and neither do some of these people's friends. It's really just an attention getter, and people should rely more on their own personality to gain friends or romantic interests. The problem is not just with the older students, but with the younger children too. Kids in middle school should not be allowed to have profiles on either of the domains. Parents need to keep a closer eye on them.

My Take On the Sosnoski Reading

Upon my reading of the essay about hypertext, I realized that every teacher that taught me how to read a text was wrong. Why do we absolutely NEED to read, word for word, the entire document in question? People skim, peck and filter constantly throughout daily life to get what they absolutely need out of what they read. The internet and phone book were great examples, but not only that but the newspaper and magazines as well. Not very many people go through every article on every page of a newspaper. They find an interesting news report and filter out what the title of the article really means. I realized it's really not all that bad to just get the information I need out of a text.