my non-reading blog.

This blog has nothing to do with the reading, in fact this isn't even a blog. More like just me ranting aimlessly. I just felt i should give my opinion on the fact that currently my thumb drive has gone MIA, two weeks worth of work, my annotated bibliographicalithingy, and my rough draft- gone. My opinion- FML right now, not to mention my truck, bedroom, and office all look like they were raided by the flipping DEA now. So i will be spending the rest o' the night re-writing (No Harris, not your style of "re-writing", literally re-writing) the effing paper, and cleaning up my vehicle and my house. Gotta love college right? =P.

Stop, Drop, and....Listen!

So we've been reading this book, What Orwell Didn't Know for a little while now. We just got done reading an essay entitled "Bad Knowledge" by Alice O'Connor and one called "Reporters and Rhetoric" by Geoffrey Cowan. Bad Knowledge is basically about how scientific and social knowledge is being replaced by ideas. She really rails on the right winged side of things and talks about how ideas, or beliefs based on faith are often passed off as facts. The other essay we read was "Reporters and Rhetoric" by Geoffrey Cowan. Cowan focused on NBC's decision to call the struggle in Iraq between the people a "Civil War" instead of going along with the White House in calling it a war on terror. It really demonstrated how much power mainstream and big time media has to influence issues and debates through a simple choice of words.

I really enjoyed Geoffrey Cowan's essay. O'Connor's essay wasn't bad, but lets face it, you can't just blame people who lean right for throwing ideas, and faith based beliefs out there as facts. Both sides do it, but nobody will admit they are wrong so whatever I'm not gonna focus on that essay. haha.

Instead I want to focus on what Cowan wrote about. He is absolutely right. And until i had read this i had never really thought twice about how much power media and news networks have to influence the way people feel or think about an issue. Most news networks called it the war on terror while only NBC called it out for what it truly was, and rocked the boat a little bit. Cowan's essay was generally targeted towards journalists and reporters because they are the ones that must choose their words very carefully. It happens alot if you really think about it, just sit and listen to the news for an hour but go between stations to see how every one of them will use slightly different rhetoric depending on what that stations political agenda is. (Get real most news stations now have a political agenda) We all have to be more aware and actually listen to what reporters are saying and how some say things differently than others and what effect or response they are hoping to get by using different words. Its not a matter of "tomatoe-tomato", its a matter of things like "economic crisis" or "recession". "Pro-choice", "Pro-abortion". These are just a couple examples of how media twists words to communicate different ideas, or merit responses. So stop, and LISTEN to what the news is saying, don't just listen, but truly listen and take it in because you may find that things are not always what they seem.

who knows??

The past weeks reading titled "Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show" was a really great essay. It was written by Marty Kaplan and basically explored the idea that language has been distorted as a tool to entertain, captivate, distract, and in some cases deceive people. He points out that many news networks and shows simply through using selective language can make a kidnapping front page news, and a genocide in Africa an afterthought of a story.

I had always thought that the English language was twisted as a result of society's over stimulation and constant thirst for more entertainment. but since reading Orwell's essay, and some of the essays in the book i am now more aware of it and am simply amazed at how much everything we see, hear, and read on a daily basis is all twisted and distorted in a way that is meant to draw us in, make us feel a certain way, or have a certain response. Its a huge tangled web of twists and turns that has gotten so out of control, no body really knows what the truth is anymore. One station claims that the other is wrong, while another network claims they are right. Politicians do the same. In all honesty, who really knows what is actually true, no body gives out facts anymore....just opinions. Every one "thinks" they know....who actually knows?

really???

Ok, so i know we are supposed to do blogs about the readings from now on, but i also am going to do one this week about something from the news. Earlier this week an Army major, who was a psychiatrist apparently "snapped" and went on a shooting rampage. If you haven't watched the news, or haven't heard this story, you can find it on just about every major news network's homepage. In most of the news, the shooting was called, an unfortunate crime. Some said that the man snapped over stress from the war in Iraq. I was really disappointed that many major networks (Like NBC, CBS, CNN) didn't give any coverage to that side of the story. However a couple did, and after the facts that he was in contact with AlQaeda came out most networks began talking about the possibilities of this being more than just random violence.

Apparently He had gotten a hold of the weapons and ammunition a couple of days ahead of time, and gotten rid of his apartment. He had been planning this for at least a week. Now army officials have come out and said that in 2007, the man had requested that Muslim soldiers be released from the Army as conscientious objectors to avoid as he called them "adverse events".

I'm not gonna go really in depth with this whole thing or take much more time to write this i just think it should be adressed, that while its important to respect and tolerate other's beliefs, that we should also be aware of threats within our own military. Its getting scary now because our own soldiers could be in danger from other soldiers.

Recently there was another bombing in the middle east, killing eight US troops and several Afghan civilians. It really is sad to see that these men and women are getting blown up by cowardly radicalists in the middle east. The article said that October has been the deadliest month this year for US troops with a total of 53 casusalties.

I read the article on the NY times website, and saw it on Fox news, the only bummer about the article is that they don't specify what type of bomb it was, they don't say if there was any confrontation between the troops and insurgents, or if the bomb was triggered by anything. I just would have liked some detail about the specific incident instead of stats about deaths in the middle east.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28afghan.html?_r=1&hp

My only problem with the article and with most of the news on casualties in the middle east is that we seem to be forgetting that this isn't the first time we have lost american lives overseas. Don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to downplay the sacrifice of these brave young men and women who deserve our respect. I'm simply saying that does no one remember World War 2, World War 1, the Civil War even, Korea, Vietnam, where 53 casualties could happen in one day let alone a month. We have a long military history in my family and i understand sacrifice, and i also understand that men and women who enlist know full well what they are getting themselves into, people in America don't seem to understand that being in harms way is what the military does, we are all like " we need to get our troops out of harms way"...well if you didn't know thats what military is for, they put themselves in harms way to keep us here at home out of harms way. anyways...I'm done ranting. Bottom line is i would still have liked to known if this was a car bomb, suicice bomb, or some other type of bomb. and what do you think about sending more troops to Iraq, or bringing some home??

UConn School Stabbing

This weekend, a cornerback for UConn (University of Connecticut) was stabbed and died from his wound after a football game. if you haven't heard or read about the story here is a link for it:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568547,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r4:c0.000000:b0:z5

Apparently after their game which they won there was a school sponsored dance and party going on in the student center, from what the story said an alarm went off and the students were forced to evacuate the building, i guess during the evacuation the altercation broke out resulting in the death of sophomore cornerback Jasper Howard and the wounding of Brian Parker.

My only issue with the story is that there was not much at all about the details of the altercation, even teammates who witnessed it and were by Howard's side when he died seemed to say nothing about who or what started the fight, who was involved (obviously the attacker had to be strong to overpower and stab a D-I football player) but there was nothing.

However, this is a very serious subject and this incident should not be taken lightly. UConn is not considered a dangerous school, in fact Howard evidently went there to escape the violence of Miami. it just goes to show you that no place is really any more safe than another, not that we should be paranoid, but simply more aware.

fml i'm behind two blogs.