Slaughter House-Five

Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is a book that explains how Billy Pilgrim jumps from various times in his life in which he can not control. One reason I liked this book is because the various symbols used to represent something in the book. Another one is the use of fable; Billy refers to “Aliens” as Tralfamadorians. In this book they also use Anecdote, in the chapters it will usually be a story about the time period he is stuck in and he will explain what is happening during that time.
In this book the writer uses a bird that says “Poo-tee-weet” as a symbol. This word would come up when someone would mention something that was not correct or stupid about war. In the last few paragraphs on the book it talks about war, and the very last sentence to the book was, “One Bird said to Billy Pilgrim,”Poo-tee-weet”. He also says, “So it goes” after a death occurs or gets mentioned in the book.
According to Billy, Tralfamadorians are aliens that have a shape of a toilet plunger and on the palm of their hand they have an eye. Tralfamadorians usually come up in the book when a death is mentioned, they are known for helping in the time of death. To them time is moments and not a long period of time.
The book is separated into chapters and in each chapter he will explain where he is and what is happening. They are kind of like little stories because he will only talk about what is happening where ever he is and he will explain his thoughts and what is happening. Since he is jumping from different time periods through out his life, I think that is what makes these little stories that he tells.
The conclusion of this book is just basically Billy Pilgrim creates a whole new world in his mind in order to help him with the real life of reality. Reality was too much for Billy to handle so therefore he would create his own life in his mind and that would help him thorough life. In his mind he saw death as not a big importance so Billy felt comfortable enough to go.

ACORN

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is a non-profit organization that basically provides many people to cast their vote in the election, these people are people who do not have the resources to vote such as poor people, low income people, etc. In an article I read from the New York Times, Acorn states, " that it has paid more than 8,000 canvassers who have registered about 1.3 million new voters, many of them poor people and members of racial minorities."

ACORN is also known for there scandal. The Obama campaign gave ACORN 800,000 dollars and had told them to use the money to get more votes for Obama. Even though ACORN well supports Obama they didn't get the vote out, it was a waste of money. The votes that came back to them were pulled off as a joke from the voters and ACORN was put at blame.

In an article that read it talks about how republican voters can be at risk for identity theft. This was told to voters after only a few hours when a poll showed that Obama was in the lead. During the call it was highlighted from an Assosiated Press Report by the Republican National Committee Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross and Communications Director Danny Diaz, "That the nonprofit engaged in voter registration efforts, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ("ACORN"), had hired seven former felons as employees." But why would ACORN hire former felons, criminals? They respond saying,

"ACORN employs a dedicated staff of hard working citizens from the communities which we serve.... As a rule, ACORN doesn't discriminate against former felons who have completed their sentence and served their debt to society. ACORN believes in second chances when earned."

During an Interview Diaz was asked if he can name or describe any cases were Identity Theft happened and he responded no that he cant name any.

Reid: "Can you cite any actual instances, because this is something we've heard in multiple cycles, can you cite any instances of people who were working for ACORN being convicted of identity theft?"
Diaz: "No, I can't tell you an instance of identity theft."

So is the ACORN scandal as big as it seems? Is it even a scandal?

I read that ACORN is not allowed to trash any fake voting forums that is left to the government to decide. Eventhough they are not allowed to do anything about the fake voting forums they still point out to the ones they think are fake.
Sources

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17fri1.html?_r=2&scp=5&sq=acorn&st=cse&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
2. http://www.monkeywhale.com/blog/acorn-scandel/
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m.s.-bellows/gop-fear-tactic-register_b_131383.html
4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/acorn-voter-registration
5. http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2008/10/the-acorn-scand.html

The 2008 Presidential Debates

Barack Obama a Democratic and John McCain a Republican are competing at a chance to become president of the United States of America. Both, Obama and McCain have their own ways and thoughts on how they would change our country, they might agree on a few things but for the most part they are have total opposite ideas. They expressed their ideas and thoughts on how they would make changes, through three debates that took place. I was quite surprised as I heard them talk. I was even more surprised by the way they acted during all debates and how they answered to the questions. I think that both candidates had weak spots during the debates. It seemed that when McCain would talk he would just talk about what he experienced through out his life and what Obama didn't experience, to me it was kind of like he was comparing his experiences with Obama's. Obama also did explain his experiences but he didn't over do it like McCain did. To me, Obama would get to the point eventually when he was given a question to answer, it might of have taken him a while to get there but he would. McCain on the other hand didn't really answer the question, when he talked he went on and on but never really fully answered the question.

To be a winner in a debate I believe that you have to answer the question fully and honestly. You can't say something that is untrue because it will only show that you are not ready to become president. McCain does get caught al ot by fact check, so does Obama, but McCain mostly. I see McCain as focusing more on winning the debate, even though that's what he is suppose to do, but instead of him focusing so much on winning he should focus on satisfying the people more because it will show that he is ready to become president. Another thing I notice about McCain is he can be a little bit immature during the debates, for example he said the following,

"You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it?

In this quote you can clearly see that he was referring to Obama as " That One", which I think was rude of him. So far from watching the debates I can see Obama winning.During all three debates that I watched there was a graph that showed woman and men votes while the candidates were talking. Most of the time the graph would seem to go up when obama would talk but when McCain started talking It would drop of slowly go down.

Sources

"Transcript of second McCain, Obama debate - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World,Weather,Entertainment&VideoNews. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/07/presidential.debate.transcript/ (accessed Oct. 22, 2008).

The Internet & Democracy

I read an article that has to do with the Internet and Democracy and basically talks about how the Internet can help in getting Americans to participate more in the democratic
process. In the article they talk about back then presidential candidates use to get a hold of the audience, which includes connecting by radio and using that to talk to their audience. They also mention how John F. Kennedy used television to connect with his audience. Now presidents connect to their audience by the Internet, Television , and Radio.

"In 1999, Steve Forbes became the first presidential candidate to announce his bid for office over the Internet."

So there clearly is a big difference from how Americans used to hear the presidential candidates. I think that now it is so much more powerful, because of the Internet. Not only does the Internet affect the way people view the presidential candidates but I think the Internet is powerful for many things like peoples privacy.The Internet now a days is a very power full and can be easily controlled by many people. I think this because so many people can do different things over the Internet without actually physically hurting someone.People might think that they have a better way of getting away with something, such as posting a article that is tells untrue thing of a person, or photo shopping photos to make it look like the person is doing something that they aren't. Even switching up words in a video make it seem real when in reality it is fake most things found on the Internet can be Untrue but yet so many people rely on it.Now a days there are some many things that can be done online, so much personal information which can possibly be viewed by others.

Newspaper Reflection

My group and I did a project in class were we had to create a newspaper cover about the Lincoln-Douglas debates we were assigned, we got assigned the first debate. The newspaper had to cover topics in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Each member of my group including me wrote an article that would be featured in the front page. I decided to write about the questions that Douglas was asking Lincoln.
The first workday we had in class I went over the transcript for Douglas's part of the debate and highlighted some main points that I saw his part of the debate. When I was reading this I didn't know what I was going to write my article about. As I went over the reading the transcript over and over a few times I decided to write about the questions that Douglas was so desperately wanting to know, claiming that Lincoln knew the answers. Well I did that the for the first and second work day. Then I created a article, like a outline to my article, it wasn't a full article just a little bit and I asked my group member who was working on the Lincoln side of the debate and she gave me some quotes so I added that to my article, and just kept writing from there. I also had to come up with a Headline, I had come up with one before but the teacher explained to us that we had missed putting in an action verb so I then rewrote that.
I did think that our Newspaper came out good. Even though it had a few mistakes it was I think well written. I liked how the headlines for our Newspaper and the subhead lines kind of summarized what was going on in the article. The design of the Newspaper was okay, we could of have fixed it a bit more. The boxes on the text looked kind of weird because one column was boxed but the other one wasn’t. One typo that was found on our Newspaper wasn’t major but it was still a typo I think we should have maybe read through for typos our selves instead of relying on word spell check. I think that I could have improved on the quotes that were used in my article; I don’t feel like they were the best possible quotes ever. They didn’t really get to my main point. I think if I would have really looked into the transcript, both not just one, that I would of found more or better quotes that would match up better of what I am trying to say in my article.
I do think that during this project everyone’s ideas were put in as a group If some one had an idea we would use it or at least incorporate it some how, so I think that we did work well as a team.

Photography!

In this blog I will be explaining different rules of photography, along with a photograph for each one. In class our teacher gave us a quick lesson on different rules of photography and we got some notes down to help us understand these photography rules.

Rule of Thirds- On some cameras they will have a feature, it looks like this. This rule is to catch the main or important points of the photo. The main doesn't have to be centered in the rule of thirds it can help you place the object to the side. This rule also includes focus on the background. The photo will look much better if there were an open background, or big sky. It makes the photo catch more eyes. The most important is the points of interest. It is where the focus points of the image should be.

I think that this photo is a good example of what I would say passes the rule of thirds. The two main focus points are the boat and the beach chairs, but the photographer also left and open sky and ocean. In the background there is like a silhouette of an mountain that looks like it was photo shopped in but I still think it flows in with the photo.

2.Eyes, color, fill the frame- This rule was made up from our teacher and he explained to us what it is and how it improves a photo,Less cropping is better,Get on eye level,Eyes are important it draws in the viewer, & find interesting level.

By eyes he means the eyes of the object no matter what it is, human, dog, for a car it can be headlights, bird, etc. So the object should have strong eyes. Also getting down on eye level with the object you are taking a picture of. When taking picture of an animal get down on their level.If you take it from standing it would look very normal to people, it wouldn't be eye catching,but if you take it from the animals level it will give the person a whole new view.

I think that this photo is a good example of eye , and the how the dogs face is fully positioned in the frame. There isn't much space that is left out from the dogs face.

Depth of field- The depth of field is a type of photograph that has a focus point that looks very clear and high quality while the rest of the photo is blurry and out of focus. On cameras they have a feature called "Macro" this feature focuses on a point of the image while the rest of the photo is blurred out.The part of the photo that is blurred out is most likely the least important part of the photo that has no meaning.The depth of field can have more than one focus point.

Interesting use of light

There is so many different ways of using light in a photo. You can use it as a focus point,to highlight an object in the photo. In this photo they use lighting in multiple ways they use the sun setting as a focul point. The lighting in the sky is also different colors and the back of the photos it gets darker.

Shooting at eye level-

This photo was not taken at eye level,but I still think it looks okay.

Because maybe that was the look the photographer was going for.

If you would of have taken this photo at eye level then it wouldn't really look the same because it wouldn't show the dogs emotion.

6. Macro Photo- This photo is in

very good detail.It shows the

water drops and it is very clear.

7. Interesting Format- I do not know what they call these types of photos that are very long but I like the format.

The First Abraham Lincoln & Stephen Douglas Debate

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held seven debates which took place in different cities each time. They mainly debated about slavery and their beliefs. Each debate took about three hours, and a variety of people came to watch the two debate. Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery shouldn't be allowed and that the states shouldn't have to the option to choose if they want have slavery or not. Stephen Douglas was mainly for slavery and how states can choose if they want to have slavery involved in their states our not that was called popular sovereignty.

Stephen Douglas and the Nebraska-Kansas Act
Douglas proposed the creation of new territory where there would be a Transcontinental Railroad that would be built along the northern route and would cost Illinois big economic aid. This land had no territorial or state governments so therefore it was claimed as "uncivilized". Once this proposal took act it would be called Nebraska. Well it didn't Southerners disagreed with his proposal and did not want another Free State because the territory was on the Northern line that was established by Missouri Compromise. Douglas then responded and proposed that two territories would be created. These two territories would be called Nebraska and Kansas, Also that the Missouri Compromise should be repealed. The Kansas-Nebraska act was passed by congress and allowed the people of the states to decide if they want slavery or not. Kansas had to go under a civil war of its own as pro-slavery and abolitionist settlers are rushed to establish their own governments in the territory. "Fall-out from the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act included the splitting of the Whig Party." Many got upset because of the Missouri compromise breaking. Anti-slavery voters who are in the North abandon the Whig party in favor of the newly formed Republican Party.

2008 Debates
My thoughts on the Presidential and Vice Presidential debate were that it wasn't very fascinating. Neither of the candidates really stood out to me but I did think that Obama did better than McCain. When Obama would talk I can more easily follow along with what he was saying and agree with some of what he was saying, but when McCain was talking I did get a bit confused and his answers didn't really catch my attention. During their second debate they had a Town hall style of debating. I did like this style better because they seemed more relaxed especially McCain. During the most part of their debates it seems like all they are doing is accusing one another of something they said or did.
Sources
"Welcome to the Lincoln-Douglas Society Web Page!." Welcome to the Lincoln-Douglas Society Web Page!. http://www.lincoln-douglas.org/ (accessed Oct. 10, 2008).

Demographics

A question I have regarding demographics is how accurate are the statistics listed on American Fact Finder? How do they record all of these different facts? How often do they update these facts?

I think that the females who vote will be impacted by either of the presidential candidates. Woman's rights on abortion can be affected because McCain doesn't support abortion and Obama does. McCain believes that abortions shouldn't be allowed and that it will only be acceptable if the woman has been raped, Incest, or if it is putting the life at risk, that is the only exception that McCain proposes. Obama, who is supporting abortion, believes that woman able to make the decision on their own and he claims to trust them enough. So woman therefore woman can be greatly affected by who becomes presidents.

I personally don't have a side to abortions. I guess I am kind of in the middle, because I do think that abortions should be a woman's choice but at the same time I think that it is mean to take a child's life away. I believe there should be certain exceptions to who is getting an abortion and for what reason.

Roe V. Wade

Choose a case in which the Supreme Court used the power of judicial review. How is this case relevant to American society? How is this case relevant today?

The Roe v. Wade case occurred in 1973. It's about how the supreme court of the U.S. ordered that a woman has constitutional rights to an abortion only during the first six months of pregnancy. Before, abortion was illegal in all states unless the life of the mother is at risk. The court reversed the case, and ruled that all states could restrict abortions, only during the last three months of pregnancy. Supporters began a campaign called Pro-Life movement, and opposed to support and restore abortion rights. Different views on abortion impacted the nomination for judges appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and to lower federal courts.

After Jane Roe, also known as Norma McCorvey plead her case she had just had her third child and that child was put up for adoption. She then went public in the 1980s and wrote a book about her life and how hard it was for her. In 1995 it all changed for her, she began to hate the Operation Rescue's. Soon on after talking with a preacher about Christianity she developed a more friendly relation ship with the Operations Rescue's. She was then baptized after switching to Christianity. So the end result to Jane Roe's thought on abortion was that it is wrong. So Roe never had an abortion she just supported it. CNN asked her on a telephone interview, her thoughts on having a abortion she replied, "I can honestly say no I wouldn’t have".

How does the legalization of abortion affect the society, and the way people make act upon it? Several people and religions support abortion for various reasons, they believe it's a woman's right. Other's think that it is a cruel thing to do, that you're destroying the life of another human. Catholicism is anti-abortion. Hinduism believes abortion is okay unless the mother's health is at risk. A reason why they disbelieve in abortion is because it violates religion teachings of non-violence. Michael Griffin an Anti-Abortionist saw David Gunn an abortion doctor. Michael believed god told him to go up to Gunn and tell him "I thought it was Providence". Michael followed the doctor to work and waited outside for Gunn to come. When Gunn came out Michael said, "'David Gunn, are you going to kill children next week?' Gunn said, "Yeah, Probably". Five days later Michael shot Gunn, killing him.
This case not only affected the U.S. but also took affected abortion rights worldwide. Abortions are legal to have in the U.S., but vary by state. In Hawaii you don't need parent permission, but In Arizona girls under the age of 18 must have parent permission. Abortions also vary by country. In El Salvador abortions have been illegal in all cases, even if the mother's life is at risk.

Sources
*Risen, James, and Judy L. Thomas. "Pro-Life Turns Deadly: The impact of violence on America's anti-abortion movement." The Ross Institute Internet Archives for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements.http://www.rickross.com/reference/a-abortion/a-abortion2.html(accessed Oct. 2, 2008).
*"CNN - Roe vs. Wade - 1998."CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/roe.wade/stories/roe.profile/ (accessed Oct. 3, 2008).
*"Roe v. Wade - MSN Encarta." MSN Encarta : Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas, and Homework. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595572/roe_v_wade.html (accessed Oct. 3, 2008).

* Here are other Court Cases my group members did.

(1)Brown Vs Board of Education

(2) Brown Vs Board of Education

Bowers Vs Hardwick