Guest Blogger: Rosie B.

This past week we learned about logical fallacies and how to best avoid them in our writing. It took a little practice but the concept itself seemed simple enough. So I am posing the question, “Why are we still surrounded by logical fallacies?”
Is it because they are easy to fall back on? Have they proven to be affective?
Yes and No.
While there is no doubt in my mind that politicians have had success using Ad Hominem, and circular logic or reasoning. While watching a political debate I often feel like I am watching two men talking in circles in order to not only best avoid what is being asked but to leave the audience in such a state of confusion that they cannot make an educated decision on the information they received in the previous two hours. While we only touched on a few logical fallacies in class, I have noticed politicians often also use fallacies such as appeals to emotion, fear, flattery, popularity, and tradition.
While I could continue to go on about politicians, I think it is also important to realize when others use logical fallacies. You don’t have to look far. I realized that the Opinion Section of newspapers tends to be a logical fallacy gold mine! Much of the general public doesn’t look for logical fallacies, nor are they trying to discredit anything they are reading. Slipping in a few here or there has proven to be a successful tactic for some writers. How else can you stretch your point to make the argument that those signs that tell you how fast you are going help the American obesity problem but encouraging more parents to let their kids walk to school. It’s a bit of a stretch, but add in a fallacy or two and you are well on your way to success!
Now am I in any means condoning the use of logical fallacies, absolutely not, leaving them out of your writing makes for a much stronger argument. I am just exploring why something we have labeled as bad or ineffective has become so popular.
So now I challenge you, the next time you are reading the newspaper, or a magazine article. Play a little game; see how many fallacies you can spot and then decide if and how it influences your thoughts on the article.

QUIZ TIME: The Judicial Branch

Here is a little pre-test on the Judicial Branch. By the end of our unit on the Federal Courts a 10 should not be out of the question. By the way the quiz is at the very bottom of the page and upon completion it is scored for you. Might not be a bad idea to read the content either particularly about judicial activism vs judicial restraint.

Mr. Thompson

Guest Blogger: Abir M.

The other day I pulled up behind a Prius with a bumper sticker proclaiming “George W. Bush: The President Quayle we never had.”
Bahahahahaha. A Prius. Oh, and the bumper sticker was pretty funny too.
But it did get me thinking about the vice president and- ah- what does he do again?
The Constitution has plenty to say about the President. He has Executive Power; he is Commander in Chief; he can make treaties with other nations; he can sign or veto a bill. The president can do pretty much whatever he wants, as long as it’s within reason (and sometimes it doesn’t even have to be that).
But when it comes to the VP’s job description, the ambiguity is ridiculous- he’s president of the Senate, he takes over if the president of the U.S. becomes incapable of leading any further… and that’s it.
That’s it! And he gets paid $221,000 a year to do it!
Joe Biden tries to explain the other parts of the job to us little children here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqlGmBMjo1E
I suppose it makes sense.
However, it also really depends on who the VP is and who he’s serving under.
Joe Biden? Sometimes I think I might forget he is the vice president at all. Seriously. What is he up to these days?
Maybe Obama’s trying to veer away from his predecessor's footsteps; we poked some fun at the Bush regime the other day, saying it was Dick Cheney who was really president for 8 years. But ultimately it’s true that Cheney was one of the most powerful vice presidents the U.S. has ever had.
On the other hand, I haven’t been able to find a proper article about what Dan Quayle actually did during his term as vice president. I have, however, amassed a list of quotes by him that seem like they might have come from Jack Handey trying his hand at serious political commentary. Why was Quayle vice president? I have no idea. And I don’t think anyone else does either.
The vice presidency, it seems, is one of those weird positions where the president gives you however much power he deems necessary, and your duties depend on the power you are given. You usually don’t end up getting much of the spotlight; you do end up doing stuff, but oftentimes most of your constituents have no idea about what you’re actually doing. Constitutionally, though, you’re really only required to preside over the senate and, more importantly, wait around in case the president kicks the bucket.
And when he does, it’s your turn to have all the fun.

Guest Monobloge: Kelly A.

In class today, while analyzing Brave New World, we discussed the repercussions that Bernard Marx suffers for acting “unorthodox.” On dictionary.com, unorthodox is defined as an adjective meaning breaking with convention or tradition. In the World-State, unorthodoxy affects stability because it would create factions within the uniform society and all hell would break loose. Bernard’s antisocial behavior was deemed unacceptable as an Alpha-plus, and was thus exiled to Iceland. Obviously this is an extreme, but considering this is a radically different world, how do we, in modern America, treat unorthodoxy?

In class, many students argued that people today try hard to be unorthodox and unique, but I feel that trying to be unique has, in a way, become orthodox. If everyone is striving for their own eccentricity, are they individuals? Or are they just part of the non-conformist scene? [PARADOX!] In America, more specifically high school, I see everyone trying to be an individual or create their own personality without actually stepping outside of the norm. You can get a tattoo, pierce weird body parts, and top it off with some creepy plastic surgery, but so can the next guy. Mr. Edmonds also pointed out how commercialized unorthodoxy has become, and I couldn’t agree more. We’ve all seen the oh-so-clever t-shirts that say, “Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.” While that pokes fun at people who are trying to be unique, it’s undeniable that industries altering physical appearance have benefited from this trend in society. They teach you to obey the propaganda. Let’s face it, it’s cool to be weird, and it’s weird to be normal. So if it makes you feel better to gauge your ears, tattoo your eyelids, or dye your hair blue, go ahead and flaunt your individuality, just be grateful you don’t live in the World-State or you’d end up somewhere colder than Rochester, Minnesota.

2008 Plum Book

In case you are wondering about a career path, you can access almost 9000 jobs that the president gets to possibly fill upon taking office. WARNING Job security is not great and you will probably only last 4-8 years tops.

Mr. Thompson

Guest Blogger: Hannah F.

Now that we are finally completely finished with both Brave New World and the Tempest, I thought it would be an appropriate time to bring them back to our attention again…… We know that the Tempest was mostly written to demonstrate many types of power that people have, or can acquire. It provided a good compare/contrast with the Prince, also. And we know that Brave New World was written for the same reason that many dystopian novels are- to warn us about the future with the way society is headed. It seems as if the subject matters are mostly unrelated. But then, what led Huxley to take the title of his book from Miranda? Miranda’s line was in response to first seeing Ferdinand, the first boy she’s ever seen, as well as all the other men who have been shipwrecked on the island. She’s being introduced into a ‘brave new world’ that’s full of such new, beautiful, (and sexually tempting) things. However, when John said it, it was more of a mockery- The Savage stood looking on. "O brave new world, O brave new world ..." In his mind the singing words seemed to change their tone. They had mocked him through his misery and remorse, mocked him with how hideous a note of cynical derision! Fiendishly laughing, they had insisted on the low squalor, the nauseous ugliness of the nightmare. Now, suddenly, they trumpeted a call to arms. "O brave new world!" Miranda was proclaiming the possibility of loveliness, the possibility of transforming even the nightmare into something fine and noble. "O brave new world!" It was a challenge, a command.- Ch 15 of Brave New World He has seen that this novelty, similar to what Miranda experienced, is no longer a good thing in his eyes. The words are teasing him and showing him how horrible it was and even compelling him to do something about it. John obviously has deep ties to Shakespeare. But it is here that they take on a new meaning for him. Brave New World was meant to be a good thing, and now it has turned bad. =John and Miranda have even more in common than just that. They are both seen as the pure, virgin characters amidst a society of evil. They are both chased by a character that represents the epitome of the ‘bad’ society they live in. I guess John is even more connected to Shakespeare than I thought.

Rent a Skill (Hannah F.)

I talked to some people during class today, but I need everyone to send me a few things for the talent auction for Christmas Anonymous.
I need a description (preferable a funny one) of what you'll be auctioning, a picture to go along with it, and your contact information for when the bidding is over and the winner needs to contact you. Here's an example if you're not sure of what to do:

Learn How to make Delicious Peanut-Butter Rice Krispy Bars!
I will teach you how to make the greatest, most delicious, amazing, and easy-to-make rice krispy bars ever! And the best part is, you get to keep the ones we make! You'll become instantly more popular as people request this delicious snack over and over.....

Please respond below with your name, skill title, and description. If you have images you would like to include, send them to me: hefmusic@charter.net

DUE November 23.

Guest Blogger: Hilary B.

“The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” When I first read this line, I thought “Oh cool, that means we have a President.“ But then as Thompson pointed out it really means that all of the executive power is given to the president.
This confused me. I thought the idea of the constitution was to get as far away from a one man rule as possible. Why would they then include a “necessary and proper” clause for the president? Well as Mark pointed out, because they really can’t do much of anything else. But then we got our vocabulary list and the term of Executive Privilege and Executive Order came up. Executive Privilege -refers to the assertion made by the President or other executive branch officials when they refuse to give Congress, the courts, or private parties information or records which have been requested or subpoenaed, or when they order government witnesses not to testify before Congress (http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/exprivilege.htm). So they can keep secrets. Executive Order is a presidential directive with the force of law. It does not need congressional approval (http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/executiveorder.htm). And they can do stuff without the approval of congress.
So wait, isn’t this kind of going against the whole idea of checks and balances and oversight? Um yeah it is. So wait, then why is it allowed? Oh yeah, the first line of the second article of our constitution says that all this is fine and dandy.
Ok so is this a good thing? Well since our government is made up of men; not angels, it is bound to be abused. I guess your opinion would come from your faith in the integrity of mankind.

Guest Blogger: Amelia K.

BLOG.

Today (Monday the 16th) we talked about big picture ideas of Brave New World. Mostly Mr. Huxley prophesized about what would happen in the future based on trends he saw in his daily life. These included the decline of religion and family, changing sexual behavior norms, increased importance of consumerism, and human experimentation. All of these play into the main idea that Mr. Decker told us today, “Will humans choose comfort over pain?” Mr. Huxley sets the scene of this question up throughout the whole novel showing the control of technology, lack of religion, the extreme consumerism, and the shallow happiness and satisfaction everyone has. With John, the savage, Mr. Huxley can explore the nature of humanity. The Savage hasn’t been completely conditioned to be superficially happy and unknowing of the real truth. The bulk of the philosophical implications of this novel occur in the last scenes between Mustapha Mond and John. John wants to know why there has been a decrease in art, science, and religion. Mond disappointingly explains that since art is old and used to express individuality there is no need for it any longer. Mond also explains that there is no need for religion as no one is scared of death any longer and has no hard times to deal with that soma can’t help. Mond’s revelation that science is dangerous to the society shocks John as well. Mond says that new things and testing variables would create instability and change in society, which the World State can’t handle. Though you don’t think about it--art, science, and religion can all cause pain. You can’t deal with only the good times in religion, only the good discoveries, and only happy art. Like John says, “Art, science [and religion]—you seem to have paid a high price for your happiness” (236). The path that we’re headed down is one that is trying to make everything easier for everyone. There are now phones that have music, cameras, internet, and any applications that you could ever want all in one place. Huxley is warning us that comfort, ease, and happiness aren’t everything. When John claims the right to unhappiness, he is standing up for humanity. Throughout all of our human truths being destroyed in this novel (friendship, love, family, art, science, religion), humanity is destroyed. John shows us that we need pain and unhappiness to continue to be human. Like we talked about with paradigms and The World is Flat in the beginning of the year—paradigm paralysis can kill. A society can’t grow and transform for the better without the pain and unhappiness that come with truth and thinking outside of the box. Shallow happiness isn’t worth the price we would pay for it. So although most people would definitely choose comfort over pain (I know I would) Mr. Huxley is urging us to see past that and decide whether we have a higher purpose in life than just happiness and easy living.

Obama Goes to Shanghai

Today's news about Obama's 1st trip to China as President.

Electoral College set to retire?

So you want to get rid of the Electoral College. You say it has outlived its time. Got an alternative? Here are some options that have been suggested.

Mr. Thompson

2008 election

Click on the title to access a plethora of data from the last election. You can access info all the way down to the county level. Now that you are all experts on the Electoral College, the presidential election info should all make perfectly good sense to you.

Mr. Thompson

Federal Budget Tradeoff

Since we have talked so much about the budget and a little about the recent bill passed by the House, I thought I would whet your appetite for some thought.

Taxpayers in Rochester, Minnesota will pay $307.4 million for Total Defense Spending in FY2010. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
88,436 People with Health Care for One Year

That is almost every man woman and child in the city of Rochester based on current average health care costs. Click on the title above for the site and you can play with other budget data. eg How many Pell Grants for students based on the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Enjoy,
Mr. Thompson

PS Happy end of first quarter. You made it to the half way point.

Guest Blogger: Mark J.

A quick note: I use he when referring to the president (sometimes) because it’s easier than typing he/she all the time. No offence to any females aspiring to the presidency. Also, my main source of information for this post is our government book.

About the President:
Hokay. So. Here’s the President. Dang, that is a sweet Office, you might say. WRAONG!
So, Assuming the majority party in both houses is still the same as the one the President is from, President man there is still going to have one heck of a time trying to get anything done. He’s called ‘The Chief Legislator’ but that phrase is way out of whack. His powers over congress are as follows:
1. he can veto stuff. All or nothing. Yippee. (this usually isn’t overridden, but still, it’s like trying to pluck a chicken with a sledgehammer). Also, this is only useful for negating stuff he doesn’t like. It doesn’t actually get stuff done.
2. Party lines help the President quite a bit (legislators voting to support things he supports), but they don’t give him any real power. Also, on super controversial items, they break. Not very useful.
3. Favors. Hey, how about you support this bill and I give you a ride in Airforce One and a picture of us together? Does that sound like it would work?
4. Coattails. Nowadays, they work less than favors.
5. Public Support. This is the first real tool, but if the president doesn’t have it, he can’t really use it to influence congress. Mandates are a big sign of public approval, but still only go so far.
6. Bribery. It’s disgusting, but no one said politics were beautiful.
7. Being ready to go and organized. The first hundred days in office weren’t just for Kennedy; the honeymoon period is important for every president, as is prioritization. Not really powers, but still useful.

Checks and Balances at work here. I just wanted to make sure that we’re all clear on how much influence a president usually has over congress (that is, not much at all). So will those who do please quit complaining about how the President never gets anything done. Getting legislation passed is not his job. Well what is, then? Let’s talk about that. Here are some things that are clear responsibilities of the president:

Ummm….

Hmm. Well…

Commander in Chief, but only on congress’s say-so. There was the War Powers Resolution thing, and presidents have been trying to kill it ever since. No wonder, since being head of the army seems to be the only ginormous responsibility they have.

Crisis Fighter: Great, he gets all the problems that Congress would completely fail at dealing with. Yippee.

Oh, and did I mention he gets to work with Congress? That’s got to be the highlight of Obama’s day, going to visit all these politicians who spend the vast majority of their time fighting with each other (or him).

It’s a very good thing that the Constitution was so obscure and vague about the President’s duties; however, vague as it is, there is still a lot of lack of concrete power in his office.

We should give the president more power. I think it could do us good to have somebody who could do (almost) whatever they wanted instantly. Things would go much faster. Even if they weren’t in the exact direction we wanted. It would definitely be interesting in Obama suddenly had complete control over and responsibility for the budget.

Guest Blogger: Keenan B.

Power, the word has appeared so much in our studies up to this point. We have discussed where it appears, what it is for, how it works and also, how it is gained. Power, is behind everything that we learn and what we do.
The Tempest particularly showed how power can be wielded; the character of Prospero makes his power grow throughout the play, mostly through the use of Ariel, whom he makes serve his own ends. He makes Ariel serve him so much that in fact he refuses to honor the contract he had with Ariel, (Locke would be appalled!) Yet Prospero is able to keep control over Ariel by fear, the fear of being locked up in the tree again. What Prospero uses is intellectual power, which he uses to think of the fear that can keep Ariel after he is supposed to be free. Intellectual power is the basis of Prospero, and in fact, is the reason for his captivity on the island, by giving up his Dukeship to his brother, in favor of studying. The character of Antonio, used his social power instead to gain his ends, political power, and in order to get that power, he even attempted to kill his brother.
As can be seen there are many types of power, but which one is most important? If we were to follow the tempest, it would have been intellectual power; he used that to get back what he desired. Yet, people can also use physical power; the Senators removed Caesar through physical force, (the knife) even though he had the intellectual edge over them. It goes to show that it is how that power is used makes a big difference.
Political power is also an incredible power, people who hold political power can win over many people, groups, or even nations. The different types of political power often require another power, or a combination of powers to gain it. Political power can be gained through many different ways, succession, election, or by force. For succession, you must have power from your family, which is a type of social power that is endowed by birth. Election requires intellectual power, which gives the ability to recognize problems and make social connections to put them ahead of the others to be chosen. Forcefully, of course, is carried out through physical power, to remove the person in power by their own brawn.
But why do we need power? It is in our nature, to get power is our meaning. Whether it is through the cruel, physical ways of Machiavelli, or the intellectual prowess of Socrates, or Aristotle, or by the social peaceful means that most rock bands seem to use to gain over their fans; power is the force that runs our lives, and without it, we would be without meaning.

Guest Blogger: Josh Piens

Now that you have hopefully read the image that goes along with this post, I have a confession to make. It’s true. Every word. The picture is exactly right. It very succinctly and humorously portrays the taxation and national debt problem in the United States. Basically, we are in the situation we are in because of several reasons.
Reason one: Nobody likes paying taxes. This is pretty obvious. People work hard for their money; so why should they have to give it away? With this comes the lovely graph in panel 9, tax rate vs. motivation to earn money. As the tax rate increases, people are less motivated to earn, because more of it will be taken away from them. So, the government doesn’t want too high of taxes. Pretty self-explanatory.
Reason two: People want stuff from the government. Again, pretty simple. The government gives out handouts, why not take some? Even funds for road construction and similar public works projects count as government “stuff”. When people don’t get as much back from the government as they pay in their taxes, they tend to get mad. In order to keep the services flowing, the government has to borrow money from foreign countries like China. This creates our national debt.
Which brings me to reason three: people don’t realize this. Most people have no idea that this philosophy of “less taxes, more services” creates debt and other problems. When an elected official tries to tell his/her constituents this, they get pretty mad and as soon as possible, vote in another person who is less honest. This is why politicians never say “STOP SPENDING!”, because the public doesn’t want to hear that.
This cycle of less taxes, more services, borrowing from China, seems to be the style these days. It doesn’t help that our current fiscal year is also burdened with bailouts and healthcare, as well as two foreign wars. This isn’t working so well. As the final panel in the cartoon says, we may have to cut down on services like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and, yes, maybe even scrap national healthcare. It may be time to pick between the lesser of two evils: being owned by China or providing fewer services to our citizens. Well, we could always raise taxes. But of course, if anyone advocates that, they may need to find a new job.

The House in 2010: Five seats that could change parties

Hot off the presses! An article discussing the upcoming election in Nov. 2010 for teh 435 House seats. The article also has some info about tomorrow's special election in NY. Could be some foreshadowing of the midterms next year!

Mr. Thompson

Budget Hero

For those of you concerned about the future (eg. whether Mr. Decker and I will be comfortable in retirement) click on the Budget Hero link and solve our nation's financial dilemma. You get to chose what is important, how you wish to spend our tax dollars, and what you wish to do to taxes. Make some important decisions about the US and see the impact it has on our budget. Be sure and respond with how successful you were at balancing the books and what you had to do to Mr. Decker's health care, my Social Security and our grandchildren's education to do it though.

Enjoy,
Mr. Thompson

Pork Assignment

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find an example of pork barrel spending by Congress. You need to provide a brief description of who (member of Congress) and where (the state), what (the project) , and how much (your tax dollars). I need something contemporary though and not something from 1976 (that means 2009 if you aren't sure). It needs to be original too; you can not post something one of your classmates has previously responded with.If you can link us to the site great.Otherwise just copy the website address in your response.If the info comes from a periodical, then cite it for us.

Citizens Against Government Waste CAGW) has released the 2009 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in the group’s 19-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. While the number of specific projects declined by 12.5 percent, from 11,610 in fiscal year 2008 to 10,160 in fiscal year 2009, the total tax dollars spent to fund them increased by 14 percent, from $17.2 billion to $19.6 billion. You need to find ONE.

Here is an example: I am a huge baseball fan but Sen. Levin from Michigan crossed my line when he tucked $3.8 million in an appropriations bill to "preserve and redevelop old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. That would be like asking America to pay for a facelift on the Metrodome after the Twins leave to go to their new ballpark next year. www.cagw.org/

This is an assignment not extra credit. Credit given to the first 29 original entries and is due by the start of class on Nov. 5th.
Happy hunting for "pork".
Mr. Thompson