I’m rooting for the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Barack Obama, for reasons that go beyond his policies. He’s a strong candidate for the Presidency of the United States, yes I know, but even though he’s a democrat and I am a registered republican, he is still braking new barriers that might somehow affect me and that is a strong reason for my support. But I’m starting to think this race is going to be much tougher than what I originally thought it would be.
Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, couldn’t look and sound more like a soccer mom who’s not afraid to wear pants. She made something out of nothing on her introduction speech. I say that because she has accomplished relatively small things: she was the mayor of a small town in Alaska before becoming governor of the same state, this is not a remarkable curriculum for anyone running for Vice President of the United States, but what is impressive is how she can connect with the people.
She’s got 5 kids, the youngest child was born in April of 2008 and how Down Syndrome, the oldest and only son enlisted in the U.S. Army on 9/11 of 2007 and is on his way to Iraq on 9/11 of 2008, one of her daughters is 17 years old and pregnant, and will have her baby. She has been married to the same man for 20 years, her high school sweetheart… do I need to say more? She can connect with a lot of voters. I’m thinking about all the democrats, especially women, who were rooting for Hillary Clinton, who knows if they’ll end up even switching votes to another party, like I did, simply because Palin represents the voice of women across the nation.
My report: I can’t imagine how it must feel for a soldier to return home after risking his/her life fighting and not receive a warm welcome or any type of appreciation. I don’t know if I could ever do that. I’m just not good at doing things for the sole purpose of someone elses’ benefit or sacrificing my life for a little money. I respect those who do it and I wish them well. This was a good and entertaining movie. You do end up wondering what happens to everyone at the end of the movie. I guess there is a second part.
Rating:
About it: A 23-year-old Peruvian Navy veteran struggles to re-integrate himself into society only to hit a series of roadblocks both societal and psychological, in the feature directorial debut from Peruvian filmmaker Josue Mendez. Santiago Roman (Pietro Sibille) has just returned to Peru following six years of military service. Coolly received by his parents and unable to find a stable, well-paying job, the dejected Santiago’s attempt to further his education is quickly squelched when he discovers that his military pension doesn’t offer the money needed to pay his way through school. Though Santiago eventually lands a low-paying job as an inner-city taxi driver, his disdain for the scum of the city finds the formerly virile young soldier sinking into a deep-rooted depression. When a group of Santiago’s former military buddies hatch a plan to rob a local bank, the conflicted veteran must choose between an honest life of poverty and an act of desperation that could end in tragedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Part of the homework I was working on today for my Spanish class was reading an article by Cristina Peri Rossi and she believes that menlovewomen that are superior to them and women also love men that they see as superior. It got me to thinking about it ’cause it just doesn’t sound right. No one with enough self esteem will actually admit that the reason she is with his or her partner is because they are superior. In fact, I think we all prefer to believe that we fall in love with people we see as our equal.
It’s not that we look at someone and feel they are superior, what we see is a person that can bring something to the table. Nobody likes having a partner they feel they are carrying or babysitting. We all want someone we can depend on and will have some qualities we either lack or are not as strong. This is the reason why men and women with money and fame prefer to marry someone like them. It is also the reason why men who have money, but are not very handsome will most likely marry a trophy wife and good looking women with no money are looking for men with deep pockets.
Like I said, it’s not superiority that makes a person fall in love. It’s that feeling of completion the other person brings. I think Cristina has some issues she might need to work on… she never used any names in her story, but she was way off about my feelings as a man.
My first day of school… I’m actually glad to start school again. I like have responsibilities and being more productive. I know I haven’t exactly done nothing with my time off, but now I’m doing more.
I saw a lot of good friends. For a minute I was feeling popular, talking to friends while others stopped by to say “hi” and so on. Ha!
I’ve only got one problem right now and that’s trying to get into the Spanish 302 class. It would be good if I can take that one because I would be taking it with Elizabeth, a friend I met last semester, and some other students I recognize from Spanish 301. Right now there is only one available spot and about 10 students who want that spot. Three of those students have priority and I am one of them. We’ll see what happens.
Tomorrow I get to meet my Marketing professor for the first time. Everybody that has had his class keeps telling me how hard he is and that I’m going to shit my pants… I’ve never met a person that made me feel that way. Especially someone I was paying to teach me something, but I guess there is a first time for everything. We’ll see…
Ah yes… I’m finally over the hardest part of the semester. How did I do? I don’ really know yet. I feel like I did pretty well, but we’ll see when the waves come in. I got the last exam exam on Saturday for my Spanish class. Luckily, yo hablo un poquito de español so it shouldn’t be a hard test. I’m kidding, it’s my first language, bitches…
Relationships man… they are the key to a lot of things. People always go easier on you when you’ve got their emotions on your side. I have a reason for saying this, but I promised my professor I wouldn’t tell. Ya dig?
Even if it seems like it, what I’m about to say now is not related to the previous paragraph: I just discovered Facebook. I mean, I’ve had an account for a while, but I never actually gave it a try. Now I see the power it has to connect with old friends. I mainly use Myspace, but what I like about Facebook is that it makes it so easy to find people I know. I just had to put in some major events that go on in my life like high schools and universities and it found a whole lot of people I know from the past and the best part is that it tells me when I may know somebody else.
I had forgotten all about my friends from Panama. Looking at all those faces it makes me realize how much I left behind when I came to the U.S., how many people I actually know from around the world even though I’m always simplifying my life and how good looking I still am. A lot of them have gotten fat. I’m not even going to try to sugar that. Some of them were already ugly so they got nothing to worry about.
This one friend I found was always tall and skinny. The kids used to laugh at her because she was so skinny. Now I see her photos and I know nobody making fun of her now. I remember she was so excited to ware a bra. In classroom she told me once that she was and let me take a peek. She used to let me watch her get undressed in the ladies locker room after gym class. One time I got caught coming out of there and the professor gave me a detention. That meant I got to stay in school doing some bullshit for however many days my punishment was. It was one of my first detentions and I must have been in 7th grade. Having to stay in school extra long on birthday wasn’t fun. I remember that. Ha!
I see some of my old friends are married. Some pursued their dreams and are actually making them happen. Some I can tell have the same personality they always used to have… shy, friendly, cool, whatever… Some have also moved to other countries and still study just like me… It’s good to see everybody doing well.
Things started getting more and more interesting by the minute back in the room. After drinking the cheap bottle of wine, which tasted horrible but what did I know back then, it was the first time I tasted wine, Louise called it a night and me and Tracy stayed up on the terrace talking. Getting to know each other better.
I remember the conversation was real smooth even up to the point we first kissed. I’m trying to remember how it went exactly, but I can’t. Maybe it will come to me one of these days. I do remember staying up all night ’till the sun came out, just making out to the point my lips were numb. Good lord, I don’t think I have the patience or excitement to do something like that again. That was high school stuff and even though I was already in college to me it was what I should have done in high school, but never did. I was nineteen and that kiss was what I consider my first real kiss. No “I dares” or other type of external pressure. Just a nineteen-year-old guy and a twenty-five-year-old girl getting together because they wanted to.
We didn’t talk about that night again. But the next day we were holding hands on the bus back to Panama City. Again, like high school kids, I guess now we were together… ha!
It was the beginning of the love I’ve discovered for the female body. It’s like they say: once you’ve had it you can’t go without it. Something about the curves, the smoothness, the delicacy and the smell of a woman… I really don’t understand how women just don’t touch themselves all day.
A woman’s body is the most valuable piece of art in God’s gallery. You can admire it for it’s beauty and you can also use it to create more art.
Immigration has always been an important factor in the functioning of the American economy. With the advent of highly competitive industries, new technologies and globalization, businesses thrive to find the right candidates to meet their needs. We all know that the number one goal of a business is to make a profit and while many businesses try hard to operate within the moral standards set by societies, others will do whatever it takes to meet that number one goal. Yes, this does include the price of labor and yes I am talking about illegal immigration. One of those hot topics that continues to widen the divisions amongst American politicians.
The editorial board for the USA Today newspaper published an article that rejects current American policies on immigration laws while congresswoman Sue Myrick published an article in the House of Representative editorial in favor of strict immigration laws. The purpose of this article is to rhetorically analyze both arguments in favor of logical, emotional and ethical appeals.
The USA today focused their argument on pathos, the “simple humanity” aspect. Their main argument in pro of illegal immigrants is that while they are here illegally, most do not brake the law and are only looking for a better chance at living. They state that state laws on immigration show no mercy on “immigrants with steady jobs, deep community roots, a history of paying taxes and children who are citizens.”
Most of the logos used by the USA Today editorial board is mainly to fuel the emotional appeal they are trying to build on the reader. For example, they state that 25,000 illegal immigrants have left the state of Oklahoma after the implementation of stronger laws in the state against immigration and end with the statement that families are being “uprooted, and parents are separated from their kids” because of these new laws. They further use logos to communicate that according to a study, Oklahoma’s new laws could end up costing the state’s economy about a billion dollars. The source for such study was not given.
The overall tone is one of compassion. However, little credibility is established. As a national newspaper, the article is targeted to all Americans. The conclusion offers “President Bush’s immigration bill” as an abandoned yet best solution for current immigration problems, this was one last attempt to appeal to the reader’s emotions.
The first positive aspect any reader might find on Sue Myrick’s argument is in ethos, her personal credibility. As a congresswoman, the reader expects her to know what she is about to argue. As a representative of the state of North Carolina, she makes sure to establish full credibility on the subject of immigration through ethos by stating “North Carolina has the 8th largest illegal alien population in the country.”
Mrs. Myrick wastes no time in appealing through logos, the basis of her argument. In making a strong argument, she provides the source of her statistics, a report titled “Dropping Out: Immigrant Entry and Native Exit From the Labor Market, 2000-2005” and written by Steven Camarota, of the Center for Immigration Studies. Her statistics include numbers that support her argument such as the low composition of immigrants in the 473 major occupations in America and the high percentage of illegal immigrants with no more than a high school education.
Mrs. Myrick tone is defensive and unapologetic. Her audience is first and foremost the non-immigrant citizens who reside in the state of North Carolina. This is a clear because she always returns to statistics involving the state and, of course, the title of her article. After stating her argument through the use of statistics, she goes back to pathos by providing solutions that she believes will benefit her audience: “American workers would find jobs, and obtain wages that would help them get off government programs. Businesses would create new technology that would lower costs, and could actually help our economy expand further.”
In the subject of 12 million illegal immigrants living in America and the effects this causes on the rest of the population, judging strictly on a rhetorical analysis, congresswoman Sue Myrick makes a much stronger argument than the editorial board of USA Today. However, as an immigrant I can’t help but add my two cents to the debate. Yes, illegal immigrants must be punished, but before we try to round up and deport the 12 million illegal immigrants that are now part of the force the keeps the American economy moving, let us study the full outcome of those actions and other possible solutions. In my logic, illegal workers would not try to call attention on themselves by taking jobs away from people who rightfully deserve them and might get them deported. They are not drinking from our glass of milk, they are collecting the cookie crumbs that fall from the table. Congresswoman Sue Myrick said it best:”immigrants (legal and illegal) compose the majority of workers in just four out of 473 major occupations in America.” It seems to me we have enough time to come up with a plan that will put an end to the problem of illegal immigration once and for all.
My report: This sequel had nothing new. The first one, “28 Days Later”, was about an infectious virus destroying the British Isles. This sequel, “28 Weeks Later”, is exactly the same shit. I wanted to see the virus spread to a new country. The worst part was the end. I felt like the people who made the movie had to cut it short because they ran out of tape or maybe they’re trying to squeeze as many sequels as possible out of the story. I don’t think they’ll get another one like this. I was disappointed.
Rating:
About it: The devastating rage virus that annihilated the British Isles mysteriously resurfaces in Goya Award-winning director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s sequel to the Danny Boyle-directed horror hit that terrified audiences worldwide by offering a breathless new take on the familiar zombie mythos. Six months has passed since the rage virus caused British residents to indiscriminately murder and destroy everything in their paths, and now the U.S. military has declared victory in the war against the rapidly spreading infection. As the reconstruction process gets underway and the first wave of refugees return to British shores, a family separated by the devastation is happily reunited. During the initial outbreak, Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) and his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) sat holed up with a small band of survivors in a remote farmhouse. Their kids well out of harm’s way at a remote boarding school, Don and Alice’s outlook for the future is decidedly bright until all hell breaks loose in the country and Don just barely manages to escape the clutches of the infected. The joy of later seeing his son Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) and daughter Tammy (Imogen Poots) as repopulation efforts get underway in London is short-lived, however, when an innocent bid to reconnect with the past sets into motion a tragic series of events. Now, just as society struggles to sort through the rubble and rebuild London from the ground up, the virus that nearly destroyed a nation strikes back with a vengeance. Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, and Harold Perrineau, Jr. co-star in the frightful sequel, which highlights the dangers of declaring victory in the calm before the storm. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
I didn’t take any notes on chapters 7 and 8 so I must have considered them stories with nothing too important that I could apply as a teaching. At this point in the book Malcolm went to jail on burglary and received a sentence of 10 years instead of the usual 2 years Malcolm saw other inmates receive. Malcolm says it had to do with him having white girls as partners in crime.
It was in jail when he first learned about the religion of Islam and that’s when his life started changing for the better.
In chapter 10 the following note caught my attention:
… your number in prison became part of you. You never heard your name, only your number. On all of your clothing, every item, was your number, stenciled. It grew stenciled on your brain.
I’ve never been to jail, but this reminded me of when I used to be in boarding school. How everything piece of clothing had to be marked with a number. Although I was only in a boarding school for about three months before I got my chance to move back to the city, I still remember that number from thirteen years ago: 133. The same way I still remember my social security number from Panama and the U.S. and my driver’s license number. Is that what we’ve become? A number? I see the importance of having one; it would be almost impossible to differentiate millions of people without giving each one a unique identifier. It is also important that we not forget we are still humans with personalities that can’t be defined by a number or any other sort of generalized classification.
It always seems like there’s never enough time. I don’t know what I should do about time. I mean, I can forget about it but then I risk wasting it, or I can live always conscious about it and then I’ve become a slave to it. Time is that constant in all of our lives. In everything.
I started working on a school project around 10:00 a.m. this morning and stopped around 5:30 p.m. Time just flies and it doesn’t come back, that’s the part I hate some times… It doesn’t come back. How often have I said “I wish I was younger and knew what I know today”? I told that to myself today, but come to think about it, I wouldn’t know what I know if it wasn’t for the things I’ve experienced when I was younger. So I have to forget about yesterday and embrace today. Make sure I do things worth my time. That’s it…
Now this is going way back. This is one of the first cartoons I can remember watching, if not the first. I don’t think I was in school when I was watching this. As old as it is, I could still remember how the intro song goes. It’s interesting how things get embedded in the memory and they become unforgettable. I’m curious to know if this cartoon was ever televised here in the U.S.
