The Media & Obama

LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE: BONUS JOE WILSON EDITION!

Written by Ann Coulter

In an online Yahoo editorial, Coulter (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20090916/cm_ucac/liberalliesaboutnationalhealthcarebonusjoewilsonedition, Retrieved on 9.18.09) argues that liberals are lying. Everybody's lying. She suggests that Senator Joe Wilson is right and is apparently “the greatest statesman.” She then provides evidence that the liberals are lying, and then shows how the liberals are wrong about how the Republicans are lying.

She also brings up the imaginary stereotype of Republicans as racist illiterates, as though that's what all liberals feel.

This is what all Republicans look like!

Coulter has some valid points but she includes too much extraneous information, likely to appeal to the pathos of her audience.. She has few facts to back up herself. Her writing is less persuasive and more catered for inciting an angry mob. She uses popular culture and rumors to beef up her argument.

We've just read Ann Coulter!

She says Obama is lying. When Obama said no illegal immigrant would be covered by his public option, Coulter says he was misleading.

She quotes a subsection that reads :

"Nothing in this subtitle shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." (Section 216 , HR3200)

What is a subtitle? Why is this not in the entirety of the bill? Coulter argues that this section, which details giving out vouchers to poor health care clients, is the only part with an anti-illegal immigrant section.

She claims Obama was only technically not lying, and was rather misleading.

YOU'VE MISLED!

Coulter's credibility is practically nothing, she only uses that one disagreement, everything else is biased, stereotyped, or a story that does not seem to connect with her main point.

Her main point is that health care will be given to illegal immigrants. They will use up taxpayer money. Obama has said, that illegal immigrant will not be given health care. If he's pushing that policy and pushing for public health care, then he's not going to just let a bill pass that gives it to illegal immigrants. That would be lying.

This problem is easily rectified with a requirement for a Social Security number.
Coulter is screaming as though will bring down the entire health care bill, this little issue. There is no disagreement between parties. Both do not support illegal immigration.

This I Believe

I actually wrote an essay for this for my English class last year... I used my first thing for my topic.

I believe in...
Fun
Serving your community
Making the world a better place
Honesty
Pride and Integrity
Following your dreams
Making every day as if it is your last, learning as if you would live forever
I believe in friendship.
Love
I believe in democracy.
I believe in diversity being the foundation of the world.

Nafsi in Lunsford

The one argument that Nafsi is making is that empathy is a major driving force behind life. She supports this argument with a story about her expulsion from the University of Tehran, and an analysis of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

This is an factual argument, however, she uses emotions as evidence. The word 'empathy' requires emotion to be discussed. In the reference to Huckleberry Finn, she points out that Huck's empathy changed his view on slavery because he put himself in Jim's shoes. Huck's emotions and perspective caused a change in his behavior, and this thus changed the direction of the story. It is a perfect example of how empathy drives the story that is life.

She then goes on to connect this with another story about herself. She was a teacher at the University of Tehran. In 1980, when she was kicked out, two students of hers who vehemently disagreed with her defended her. Why? They put themselves in her shoes. They understood that being kicked out was wrong, and they stood up for her. This definitely altered their lives, despite that she didn't get her job back.

Only empathy could make someone decide to go to hell on behalf of another person.

A good phrase she uses is 'shock of recognition'. I like this phrase. She uses it to describe how a person feels once they start thinking about another person. She feels this when she watches the news.

This feeling is recognizing that that person is human. They are struggling, they are different, they are strangers to you. Nafsi argues that this is what drives diplomacy and dialogue, this feeling to reach out. This is what causes things to be more than just trading and grabbing and warfare over something the other wants.

Empathy is the driving force behind drama.

Intellectual Standards

This article is sound, well-written, and clear. I also agree with it's message.

It emphasizes the importance of staying on topic, presenting only relevant information, and assuming that everyone knows what a word means unless it is being used differently. Standards are important because they focus the mind and force the writer to present the information in a tidy, precise manner.

Amy Tan : Engrish

The message behind Amy Tan's article is that perfect, American-sounding English is important. Foreigners with 'broken' English will be discriminated against and assumed to be ignorant or stupid.

One example from Tan's article is when her mother was at the hospital. Her broken English made the doctors tell her they couldn't help her. Only when her perfect English-speaking daughter called did they respect this old foreign woman enough to give her the services she expected.

Amy Tan's article seemed to be more a complaint rather than an article with a true essay. She was raging in quiet, polite English against how the world just happens to be. She is angry about how intolerant America is in terms of foreign accents, language, and expressions.

I feel that America is very inviting to foreigners, this country wants foreigners to like visiting here. However, once they get serious, once they need something besides how to get to the hotel or where a museum is, Americans can get incredibly ignorant and judgmental. They will assume they do not know anything because they can use English in a native sounding way. This is the basic message of Tan's article and it is really not convincing me of anything except that she is whining.

I agree with her thesis, and she supports it well, but her attitude is less logical and more passionate in a biased, emotional way that undermines the point of her paper.

Using Language

Informing is about telling. I recently told everyone that the late night shuttle bus for Friday and Saturday nights was cut. You should all probably know that too. Now you have to walk to Gallaudet from the subway station at night. Probably should never go alone ever, just a recommendation. Not exactly a safe neighborhood.

Sometimes people don't believe you when you inform them. Or they get their facts wrong. Then it's time to pull out my favorite method of communicating: Convincing. Sometimes I get convinced, too!

I remember two weeks ago I went to Ocean City. The first bus back to Gallaudet left at 2:00. My friend convinced me that that was just the meeting time and that it really left at 2:30. Turns it he was, indeed, wrong, and that we had to wait two more hours for the next bus. Just because you convince someone of something doesn't mean it's right. Good lesson to learn, and embarrassing to fix.

Another way to use language is to explore. You can explore ideas, cultures, knowledge, the list goes on and on. You can ask, you can guess, you can learn from others using language. That's what college is all about. Using language to communicate, and learn from it. Rather than be informed that this works like that, college is about exploring topics that interest you.

An introduction of sorts

My name is, well, I can't tell you. Let's just assume that I did. Great.

I love buttered popcorn. I want butter to be dripping from every kernel I take from the pile. I want it greasy, yellow-orange, and warm. It tastes like the food of the gods. And no, not that ambrosia stuff from the South. Gosh.

My favorite brand is Pop Secret. Pop Secret is to gold as Orville Redenbacher is to a rock painted yellow. ACT II popcorn is a mere cardboard cutout compared to Pop Secret. And don't even get me started on the Boy Scouts.

I was not a boy scout when I grew up. I always wondered what they did, how they signed up. It seemed like some sort of military group. Being a male in elementary school, I thought that was fully awesome. Later I learned it's really just meetings and activities and camping trips. Not that there's anything wrong with meetings, activities or camping trips!

That line, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!", came from an episode of Seinfeld. Seinfeld is one of my favorite shows. That line was said after Jerry was asked if he was gay and he quickly answered no, pause, and then that line. Classic. The show about nothing is, in my eyes, the best show ever made.

I love the woods. Trees make me feel comfortable. When I go out west and I can see for miles and miles because of the mountains, I get irritated. Forests mean that every corner, every turn, reveals a new place, a new sight. You don't know where anything is and you're forced to explore. Mountains are less adventurous. You can see your destination before you even get in the car.

Who wants that? Not me.

So that's just a few tidbits and incoherent rambling for you to read.