Semester Reflection Part 1

I am really proud of my American Icon project because it was actually good. I had a hard time choosing my American Icon and when I thought of one I would keep changing it. I finally decided that my parents were my American Icons. I was proud that I choose my parents because not that much people choose their parents and I also actually knew my icons.
The process of choosing my icon was the hardest part because I didn’t really know who to choose. Once I chose my icons then I had to write why they were my icons. I knew why my parents were my icons but I didn’t really know how I could get it down on paper. When I finally wrote why my parents were my icons I felt that I used the best example possible which was when they encourage me to never give up. The last step in the process was taking a picture that would depict two people in one photo. The way that I choose to take my picture I was in my dads cap and gown and I was looking towards to the future just like my mom is always telling me to do.

Im most proud of my blogs. Im most proud of my blog because at first I thought that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. The blog that I am most proud of are my honors blog because I get to tell people about the books I read and what they are about and what I thought about them.

The process of doing the blogs is to follow the directions of the assigned blogs on Randy’s blog. To do the honors blog you have to read a book and then complete an assigned honors blog by Randy based on the book. Usually for an honors blog you have to find the theme and choose three literary terms that connect with the theme of the book. So far I have completed blogs for Invisible Man, and War of the Worlds.

Check out my War of the Worlds and Invisible Man honors blog by looking in the previous posts

Blog #24

The three literary techniques that I found in Neptune’s Navy: Paul Watson’s wild crusade to save the oceans that I might want to use in my paper is context, point-of-view, and theme.

Context is a literary technique that uses social/historical background, time and place surrounding a given situations. Raffi Khatchadourian uses this in page 1 paragraph 3. “There are a number of rules belonging to civilization that outrage his sense of morality, among them the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which asserts that sovereign states alone are the ocean’s enforcers.” Raffi uses it to explain the rules of slaughtering whales and when they were enforced. Raffi uses this technique through out the paper and I think it makes his points stronger. I want to use this in my reviews for the beaches because I want to give my reader some background info on the beach so they know more about that specific beach.

The next technique that I found was point of view. The article is in third person. I think that in my review I would use this but I would use first person as if I was actually talking to the person reading the beach review and saying this is what I think about the beach.

The third technique that I found was theme. The theme that I found in Raffi’s was
“They belonged to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a vigilante organization founded by Paul Watson, thirty years ago, to protect the world’s marine life from the destructive habits and the voracious appetites of humankind.” In paragraph 1. In my beach review the theme will be beaches, of course.

Context, Literary Devices." Mr. Braiman's English Online. 5 Dec. 2008 .

Point of View, Literary Devices." Mr. Braiman's English Online. 5 Dec. 2008 .

Theme , Literary Devices." Mr. Braiman's English Online. 5 Dec. 2008 .

Blog

I think that Arana is right when she says, "Isn't it time for the language to move on?” When Arana says this I see it as her saying that its time for us to stop identifying with one race like Obama he isn’t only African American he’s also ½ Caucasian. I agree that the language should move because we shouldn't base our decision or opinions based on race. In my opinion I think that most people voted for Obama because he was different he wasn't the typical president and I think most races felt that they could connect with him since he's African American and Caucasian, or how Arana describes him as biracial and bicultural. I didn't really know who I was for, one day I'd be for Obama then I would change my mind back and forth; I just found it kind of ignorant how most based their choice on race; it should be more than that race is like how Arana explains it, “an unreliable marker, a deceptive form of packaging”. Most look at Obama as our first black president; I look at him as our first half Caucasian and half African American president so that's why I agree with Arana.

war of the worlds

I think that the theme of War of the worlds is survival of the fittest. The reason I think this is because its either the humans that will live off the aliens. The aliens die though since they cant live with the bacteria that the humans can so they die. So the aliens start out as the fittest and then they start to die off and the humans become the fittest again. The three literary techniques that contribute to the theme is conflict/plot, nemesis, foreshadowing.

The literary terms that I found were conflict/plot , a struggle found in fiction[i]. I thought that this literary term fits in because the conflict is that the humans are trying to stay alive and they are trying to destroy the aliens. “forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as each man were suddenly and momentarily tuned to fire.” Here the aliens have just started attacking and the men soon after start attacking.

I think that nemesis is another literary term because the good characters are rewarded and the bad characters are punished[ii]. The way that I see it the good characters are human and they are being rewarded with being able to live and not all dying out. The bad characters are the aliens they are punished by dying off.

I think that there is some foreshadowing in War of the Worlds in the beginning. Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story[iii] When the star, which was actually the aliens, had fallen the author describes it as “He did not remember hearing any birds that morning, there was certainly no breeze stirring…” basically its like something bad is going to happen and you could tell by the mood and the surroundings.

[i] CONFLICT/PLOT." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008
[ii] Nemesis." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008 .
[iii] FORESHADOWING." The Nellen Family Jewels. 21 Nov. 2008 .

Thursday 11/20 Blog

I am most thankful for my family, friends and that I go to such a great school where you actually have fun.

Three specific things that I hope to accomplish during TG break

1. Continuning to test the waters even if it means coming to school during thanksgiving break

2. Finish the grading methodology so that its ready for the next critique

3. Make a report card layout

The water project

What I’m discovering so far is that this project is going to be hard. I don’t really know how were going to be going to all these beaches twice a week for three weeks just to test the waters. Its easy though to go and test the other stuff because we could do that on the weekend. I haven’t really found anything really surprising so far about the project because we just started testing and we haven’t gotten the results so far but I think that the results might be surprising. Our next steps are to get the test results and to start the beach reviews which we hope to get at least one near done a week so that if anything changes we could just change it.

Blog #19

In this article Orlando Patterson talks about how youth are of equal importance, along with African Americans and woman, during this presidential election. Youth have had a strong voice during this election more than any other election. The legal voting age being 18 wasn’t always 18, it used to be 21. It was that you had to be of 21 years of age so that you could vote but it was Richard Nixon who lowered the voting age in 1971 to 18 years old.

According to the Gallup Poll daily tracking taken in Oct. 20, 2008, voters 18 to 29 years of age preferred Obama, 62%, to McCain, 34%. This article talks more about the youth voting.

I think that the youth felt that they needed to be heard and that this was the right election for them to be heard since there is so much change with the Obama being the first African-American candidate and a women running for president too, they want their opinion on all this change to be heard.

• For my Water project I based it on how Heal the Bay graded the beaches of San Diego County during wet and dry weather.
o Heal the Bay determines the grade that the beaches get like this
• % Grade= Total Points available –Total Points Lost
Total Points available
This could help me when it comes to giving the grade
• When I am going to be testing beaches I could look at the grade heal the bay gave it and I now know what to expect bacteria wise.
•Heal the Bay has a Report Card Methodology which basically explains how they got the letter grade for the beaches.



This is an article that basically is a summary of Heal the Bay

• I could always come back to this website so that I don't have look through all the data HTB has collected.
• I find this helpful because I don’t have to look through all of information of Heal the Bay.
• There are related articles that are linked to it so I could look at those
  

11.5.2008 Part One Blog - Water Project

How do we as humans affect the beach and how does that effect us in return?

Grade the beaches Rubric:
1. Bacteria level
2. Ph level
3. Trash level
4. Environment around the beach
5. Runoff
A= 50 points; 10 points for each topic
Beaches:
1. Coronado
2. Mission Beach/ Mission Bay
3. Ocean Beach
4. PB
5. La Jolla Beaches

Products:
• Actual report card that would be sent to city officials
• Also would be put up around shops near the beach
• Dream Goal
Publish report card, Nyachare's article and picture of Vanessas Collage in newspaper and Kevins video on Union Tribunes website.

Overall products
Article
Report Card
Video
Collage

Our schedrule is still a work in progress should be up by tuesday along with resource list

11.5.2008 Part One Blog - Election Reflection

How do you feel about the elections?
· At first when I heard Obama won I was kind of scared, I don’t know why I was scared but I just was. But since then it has sunk in and I think that Obama is going to make a great president. I was a little mad that they passed prop 8 because gays should have equal rights. I could see why most would want to pass prop 8, which is because off their religion. A good example that I saw on the internet was that what if gay marriage was allowed and a gay couple wants to get married at a church the church couldn’t deny them their right to marry there since it’s a law and allowed. I could see why some wouldn’t want to pass prop 8 which is that it eliminates equal rights.

What are your hopes for America and your community in the next few years?
· I hope that the U.S. will be back to its great self and that it won’t get worse. I hope that as a state when prop 8 comes again, that is if it does, that it won’t be passed because its discriminatory. I just think that it should be equal right. One thing that I wouldn’t really care if it gets passed or not is the train prop, if it gets passed great if not than oh well we still have the Amtrak.

What are your concerns for America and your community for the next few years?
· My concerns for this country over the next few years is that wall street wont go up and that we will stay in the economic crisis that we are.

..........

What have we done well as a class to build your understanding of current events?
We just have gone over current events a lot and have discussed it a lot and looked at the different view points of many topics, I feel that I understand this more.

What can we improve as a class (or you as an individual) to better build your understanding of current events?
I think that maybe we could review every week or something like that so everything would be fresh in the brain every week.

How do you feel in the numerous conversations about current events that take place outside of class?
I felt that I was supposed to have a side. I felt that I was to either have supported McCain or Obama but I really didn’t know whose side I wanted to be on. I understood what each candidate I stood for I just didn’t know which one would be better for the U.S. I guess that’s why I was scared when Obama won, because I didn’t have a side. I think that if McCain would’ve won I would’ve been scared.

..........

Research Questions

The HTB (Heal the Bay) Report they provide a letter grade for county beaches during dry and wet weathers. I would be cool for our class to do that. Well maybe a couple of people probably could go out and we could assign letter grades to the SD County beaches. In the report SD beaches have a lot of A's and B's but during wet weather it has all of the grades A's, B's, C's, D's and F's. During dry weather one beach has an f but thats about it. These grades that they get from Heal the Bay are based on a 100 point grading scale and based on the severity of bacteria the number of points could decrease.

In the SDC Report years 2000-2006 there were 277 closures of beaches due to sewage spills from the run off of the Tijuana River. There was a total of 60,385,408 gallons of sewage spilled into recreational waters. I would like to test whats in the water or interview the people who clean it up, if its even being cleaned up by anyone.

Honors Blog: Invisible Man

The way how the people react to the invisible man develops the theme throughout the story. The theme, being fear of the unknown, develops when the people of the village that the invisible man, Griffin, is staying at, become so curious of who he is. As they come to learn more about Griffin they become more fearful of him and when he finally reveals, or tries to reveal who he is and what’s wrong with him, everyone becomes fearful of him. I think that they become so fearful of him because they don’t know where he is and what he will do. These are the literary terms that I believe are in the Invisible Man: H.G. Wells.

One of the literary terms that I found in the Invisible Man would have to be flashbacks from chapters 20-24. Flashbacks allowed the writer present past events during current events, in this case when Griffin is explaining to Kemp how he got to be invisible. I think that this literary term is important because it’s the way that we learn how he became the way that he is. Reading how he go to where he is we learn how he go the way he is and how being invisible gives him so much power.

The second literary term that I found was antagonist. Antagonist is someone who prevents the main character from living “happily ever after”. Griffin is preventing the entire village from living “happily ever after”. In chapter 24 paragraph 27, Griffin mentions to Kemp, “… That invisible man, Kemp, must now establish a reign of terror. Yes-no doubt it’s startling. But I mean it. A reign of terror. He must take some town like your Burdock and terrify and dominate it.” Even though only Kemp heard this I think that this is what the village felt he would do. Griffin was preventing the village from going back to normal.

The third literary term that I noticed was parable, a story that has a moral. I think that the moral of the story was that an power tend to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely, meaning that Griffins morality lessens as he gets more power. I think that this is more like a story with a moral because when Griffin tries to create a reign of terror he just gets killed in the end.

In the end Griffin is killed after he goes on a rampage killing people of the village. One thing that I debated with my dad, who has read the book too, is it the drugs that causes the invisible man to go mad, or is it just him having so much power that makes him go mad. Which do you think it is? Leave comments.

The McCain campaign accused ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) of voter fraud. They supposedly intentionally submitted invalid registration forms. ACORN has said that the forms they are talking about are ones that they had flagged. ACORN was said to be “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter democracy” by John McCain. My personal opinion is that John McCain is blaming ACORN because he is behind in the polls.1

ACORN though shouldn't be at fault for voter registrations. They shouldn't be at fault because it is illegal for them to not turn in any voter registration forms. ACORN has flagged voter registration forms but election officials publicize them to bring it to voters attention. There is a past history of voter registration fraud from ACORN. 2005 Colorado Springs there were 73 cases, and a recent one of an ACORN Las Vegas office in the case, ACORN submitted over 1,800 new voter registration forms, and all but six of the 1,800 names were fake. More recently, 27,000 registrations handled by the group from January to July 2008.

Voter suppression is when the government or other organizations discourage or stop people from voting. I found this chart on the Union Tribune site of San Diego. The chart includes a list of 4,655 San Diegans whose registrations were rejected due to a number of reasons :

Form not signed
Printed name and signature do not match
No birthday provided and over 18 box not filled
Incomplete signature(first name)
Too young( over 18 more than a year)
1st name only provided and cannot read signature and phone number either not provided or not good
Incomplete residence address phone number not good
Out of country
Printed Signature
Business address
Foreign born and citizenship bubble not filled

the thing though is that what if it wasnt the persons fault what if the person gave the right information but the person who was filling it out was the person that made the mistake. These are questions that have been bought up.

Debate Reflection

Describe the 2008 Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates in their historical context.

 

The main topics of the 2008 debates were mostly based on the economic crisis, Wall Street and the $700 billion bailout. The McCain v. Obama debates were not that different from each other, the candidates were just kind of saying the same thing. McCain would say what bad choices Obama has made in the past like, “We had an energy bill before the United States Senate. It was festooned with Christmas tree ornaments. It had all kinds of breaks for the oil companies, I mean, billions of dollars worth. I voted against it; Senator Obama voted for it.” Obama would do the same, “Over 26 years, Senator McCain voted 23 times against alternative energy, like solar, and wind, and biodiesel.”   The Lincoln and Douglas debates were based on slavery and whether or not whites would remain the dominate race.  The format that they used is now different then how it was during the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The Lincoln Douglas debates was 60 Minutes for person A to make their point, 30 minutes for person B to respond to what person A said, 60 minutes for Person B to make their point and than 30 minutes for Person A to respond to what person B has said. The McCain v. Obama debate is now divided into about 9 minute segments and about 2 hours long. 

How has the Internet affected the way that Americans approach democracy? How does the Internet and it's effects fit into the historical context of technology and democracy in America?

Democracy is a form of government in which citizens chose president. I think that internet has affected the way that Americans approach democracy because the internet has so much sources. Take the presidential candidates Obama and McCain for example, they both are topics of many sites some sites criticizing them and some praising them. People also go to sites to research which one would be the best choice for them or not. I think that the internet now is the main source for presidential candidates to do campaiging since most people are on the internet back when there was no internet they used posters, commercials and stuff like that.

Newspaper Reflection

Something that I contributed to the paper that I really liked are the headlines, that could be found throughout the whole newspaper, at the the bottom of the page. I did 1/2 of them and Ashley did the other 1/2. I like them because there funny.



Something specific that I contributed to the final product that I think could've been better, would be the spelling mistakes. There some spelling mistakes that I should've caught like in the headlines at the bottom of the mewspaper page it says physic intstead of Psychic. I also think that the layout couldve been better to. A way I think I couldve helped make it better is by over the weekend I couldve drawn out some ideas so that when we had to do it on Monday it wouldnt have taken that long.



What I did throughout the project is on the first day Ashley and I sat together and brainstormed some topics for articles and then assigned them. I looked over the Charleston debate transcripts and highlighted some important quotes from Douglas. I critiqued my partners work while they critiqued mine, we did this a couple of times. I worked on the headlines for my article, found a photo and made a caption. We all worked on the layout and design equal amounts of times too. I think that I used my resources well until it came to the layout and design. I definitely think that it could've been much better and looked more like a newspaper.

Photography

Rule of thirds
Imagine a grid 3 by 3. Where the lines intersect on the grid is where the main focus should be.



Depth of Field
Its a photo where one specific thing is in focus and the rest isn't.


Eyes, Color, Fill the frame and macro photography
The photograph should filll frame it should be filled with color. the photographer gets more of an emotional response from the viewer when eyes are the main focus. Macro Photography is close up photography.



Interesting use of light



Shooting at eye level



Thanks for letting me use the photos Nick

1.The Charleston, Illinois debate was focused around whether or not the senator candidates were for equality of whites and Africans and slavery. Stephen Douglas was for whites having all the rights. Douglas said, I say that this Gavernment was established on the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and never should be administered by any except white men. Lincoln said “I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]-that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.”



2. My initial thoughts on the first presidential debate were that it wasn’t all that exciting. I had expected it to me more exciting but it wasn’t really like WOW. I don’t think that anyone won the debate. I do think though, that Obama made more sense with what he was saying and with what needed to be done, for instance, when the question that came up that was, As president, as a result of whatever financial rescue plan comes about and the billion, $700 billion, whatever it is it's going to cost, what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan? Obamas answer was that he knew we that we weren’t going to be able to do everything because of the $700 billion bailout. So instead of saying what he would cut back on he answered with what we would not get rid of. He started out by saying that we need energy independence so he has put a plan forward to make sure that in 10 years time we will have freed ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern Oil and to do that we would need to start more production here at home but mostly invest in more alternative energy like solar, wind, and biodiesel. He will fix our health care system since it’s a mess, people are going bankrupt cause of it and the third thing being that we need to compete in our education invest in science and technology and make sure our children are keeping up in math and in science and to make college affordable for every young person here in America. McCain just says that we need to cut spending and to do that we need to examine every agency of government. He brings up examples of the past spending like how we built a little ship called the Littoral Combat Ship that cost $140 million and actually ended up costing $400 million and it’s still not finished. I think that Obama made more sense here because he reassured people that he wouldn’t cut back on these things while McCain just said he would cut spending.

In the vice presidential debate I thought that no one really made a great point but if I had to choose I would choose Biden because he answered the questions clearly unlike Sarah Palin. Palin even said, "I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record".

In the second presidential debate I didn’t really like. I like the formal way instead of the towns hall-style, more because it just seemed like they were giving one of their speeches. There wasn’t really anything new that I had heard.

Demographic Blog

I don’t really have any questions regarding demographics, except on how do they get their information?

The amount of those with in the city I live in, National City, is 11,652 or 24%. I believe that these people will be impacted if Obama becomes president. I think that they will become impacted because Obama wants to make health care available to everyone. As in this article of “Barack Obama and John McCain on Foreign Policy the Economy and the US Healthcare system” it states that “ Obama wants to provide universal healthcare coverage for Americans”

My personal repsonse to this article is that I dont think that everyone should have free healthcare because I don't think everyone deserves healthcare. Anyways how are they going to pay for the healthcare for everyone?

Democrats:Then and Now

I have chosen to compare and contrast the difference of the democrat party during the great depression and now because the Great Depression was mostly due to stock markets collapsing. Right now stock markets are dropping too. One thing that I noticed with these two comparisons is that they both still seem to be aware of the same thing which is helping the people.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: President during Great Depression

October 29, 1929 the NY Stock Exchange took catastrophic collapses of the stock market prices. The next few years the stock market didn’t bounce back quickly. Next three years stock prices continued to fall. Late 1932 stocks dropped to about 20% of the value they were worth in 1929. The stock drops strained banks and other financial institutions causing 11,000 of the 25,000 banks to fail. The result of production, due to reduced levels of spending, led to a downward spiral. The Great Depression caused Unemployment to rise 12-15 million workers, which was about 25-30 % of the work force then.[i]

When Roosevelt was elected as president, in 1932, 13,000,000 were unemployed and almost every bank closed. What Roosevelt proposed was a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those that were close to losing their farms and homes. Roosevelt’s new program of reform was: social security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new control over banks and a work relief program for those who were unemployed. [ii]

First 100 days of Roosevelt in office, The Emergency Banking Bill, passed during Roosevelts administration, was to strengthen, reorganize and reopen banks; this was passed overwhelmingly by congress. March 12 Roosevelt made an announcement that “soundest banks would reopen.” The next day banks exceeded withdrawals according to Raymond Moley “Capitalism was saved in eight days.”[iii]

Obama: Democratic Candidate

Right now stock markets are fluctuating like the Great Depression. $700 billion was said to be needed as the bailout but it was voted against and didn’t get approved. Soon after DOW Jones plunged around 600 points. It has gone up 485 points now and as of today its gone down again 348 points[iv]

During the Presidential Candidate Debate, of Obama v. McCain, one of the lead questions was, “As president, as a result of whatever financial rescue plan comes about and the billion, $700 billion, whatever it is it’s going to cost, what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?”. Obama responded what he wouldn’t stop, “We have to fix our health care system … make sure that we’re competing in education… make sure that college is affordable for every young person in America… new electricity grid to get the alternative energy to population centers that are using them.”

McCain(left) and Obama (right)

here September 26, 2008 debating

at the presidential candidate debate.

The topic during the presidential was

focused around the $700 billion bailout.

Republican View

___________________________
[i]About the Great Depression." University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign :: Department of English. 30 Sep. 2008
[ii]Biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt." Welcome to the White House. 30 Sep. 2008 r32.html>.
[iii]"THE FIRST 100 DAYS." Tom Huppi. 1 Oct. 2008 .

Suing for freedom

Describe a an important Supreme Court case that took place before 1865 in it's historical context--what precedents were set, what impact did they have and what is the case's relevance today?

An important Supreme court case that took place in 1957 was the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott was a slave that sued for his freedom in 1847. Throughout ten year there were appeals and court reversals, the case was finally bought to the U.S Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court Justice concluded that those of African ancestry, whether they were slaves or not, could not become citizens of the U.S. and therefore Dred Scott couldn't sue for his freedom.

The precedents that I found were set is that this was an example that slaves arent citizens and it was meant that they would never be citizens. I think that this had a great impact because I think that this paved the way for slaves to fight for their rights. I also think this case has an influence on the Civil war. I think that it impacts today because its a case that we look back on and see how we have changed as a country today.

Blogicon Reflection

What are you most proud of on your blog? Why?

• I'm most proud that my stories I have choosen are different. Im most proud of this because I noticed a lot of people have been leaning more on the political side and going towards political news articles since its election time.

What will you improve during future blogs? Why? How?

• I will improve on making stronger class connections on the articles that I choose. In my first blog I didn't have a strong class connection but after discussing it in class someone made a suggestion. With the suggestion I got I fixed the blog entry so that I would have a stronger class connection.

How can we better connect our blogs?

• So we could better connect our blogs, as a class, I think that we could have a limited amount of news stories and we choose one of them for our blog topic, thus the class won't have a big cariety of different news stories.
• I also think that we could connect our blogs more if we were to comment each others blogs more often.

Energetically Wrong

The most interesting thing that I found on factcheck.org is how Sarah Palin said Alaska produced 20% of the U.S. domestic supply of energy. This stood out to me because it seems like she got her information mixed up. I think she was addressing how Alaska produced 14% of the oil from U.S. but instead she said that they produced 20 when in reality Alaska only produced 2.4% of the US energy. I don’t think that this will affect peoples view of Palin by much but some might look down on her.

Energetically Wrong
9.12.2008
Fact Check ,Justin Bank

Merrill Lynch & Company Inc.

Merrill Lynch & Company Inc.
MER: NYSE; Financials/Investment Services
September 15, 2008, New York Times
Thesis:
On Sept. 14, 2008, Merrill announced that it had agreed to be purchased by the Bank of America, rather than run the risk of being pulled under by turmoil surrounding the industry, as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers had been.
Class Connection:
The class connection I found is that when classmates gave their advice they all were federalist, anti-federalism or neutral. Those who were anti-federalist thought that it would be best for the government to not step in and let the companies work it out. Those who were federalists thought that the government should step in and probably print more money. Those who were neutral thought that they should wait a bit then the government should do something.
Personal Response:
My advice for the Federal Government for solving the current financial issues with Lehman & Merrill Lynch & the stock market is to not do anything. The way I look at it is that it has to get worse before it gets better. I don’t think that the government should change the rules for them at least not now they should wait a bit and if it continues then they could probably change the rules a bit. I don’t think that the government should print more money because I that would just lead to inflation.

9 year old boy gets big surprise

9-Year-Old gets Huge Surprise by: Faith Sidlow, August 16, 2008, CNN News

Thesis- 9 year old wants to be a garbage man when he grows up.
Class Connection: For the American Icon project we had to choose a person who inspired us. I know someone chose fire fighters as a person who inspires them but just like how a fire fighter inspired someone , a garbage man inspired this 9 year old, from Fresno, to be a garbage man when he becomes older because he wants to help the community. My point is that just like how in our class there was a wide range of icons because we were able to choose whoever we wanted, this 9 year old boy wasn’t limited as to who inspired him and who inspired him was a garbage man.
Personal Response: Some were saying how this boy’s parents should encourage him to become a garbage man but I think they are just encouraging him to follow his dreams which I think is ok. Everyone has different dreams and I think that we shouldn’t limit them.

You need experience

McCain:Experience Count by: Dana Bash, CNN News

Thesis: McCain said experience counts and obama lacks judgements to lead this country.

Class Connection: The class connection I see is McCain is a federalist. I think he's federalist because he says you need experience to run a country. Local governments don't really have any experience to lead a country maybe a state or a city but not a country thus making me think that McCain thinks a strong central government would be better.

Personal Response: I think the country would be better if we were to have a strong central government it would mean we would connect more as a country instead of having every state or city different. I also don't think McCain should be talking about how Obama barely has experience when he choose Palin who doesnt have much experience either.

American Icon Interview: My parents

How do you think you became an icon through your daughter’s eyes?
Francia: By being there for her no matter what.
Carlos: I think we are her icon because we are always supportive.

Carlos, how did you feel graduating?
Carlos: I felt I finally accomplished one of my biggest goals; it’s a great feeling when you do.

Carlos, how did you feel about graduating at your age and what’s your advice for people who haven’t graduated from college but want to?
I felt it was important. It doesn’t matter when you finish but how you finish that counts. My advice for those who want to graduate is, do it. Take the step and do it.

Francia, how do you think you inspired your daughter?
I felt I inspired her by encouraging her that she could do whatever she wants to do and that can’t isn’t in her vocabulary.

Who inspires you now and why?
Carlos: Those individuals that make things happen inspire me. Like those who don’t complain about what there doing and just do it no matter how hard it gets. Those who are not looking for a way out and embrace what’s hard and still doesn’t give up.
Francia: My kids because they try hard in school to be the best not because we tell them to but because they know it’s what’s best for them.
Carlos: Oh and yeah my kids inspire me too, because I want them to do well in my future.

How do you encourage your children to never give up?
Carlos: By telling them when there dreams they die (laughing) I don’t mean physically dieing but I mean spiritually. When your dreams die your basically just a mindless person walking around doing what people ask you to do.

What’s one instance where you encouraged your daughter and it helped a lot?
Francia: Well there have been a lot of instances like when she wanted to come here to HTHMA for an example she didn’t get accepted the first time and he was sad for a bit but we encouraged her to never give up and eventually she got accepted.
Carlos: The were also plenty of times that she wanted to give up on some of her homework but she knew what she needed to do and why and well does it.

Land-use rules designed to fight global warming: revised blog

Thesis: California is on the verge of initiating a historic rewrite of local planning laws, fusing for the first time the issues of urban growth and global warming.
The class connection that I found was that this article connected to common sense article because there changing laws without needing the president. One of the issues that came up in common sense is that the king made laws that he thought was right.
My personal response is best put as how State Sen. Darrell Steinberg puts it,“This bill will change the way California grows.” I think that it will change the way Cali. grows because its making a change of the way that California will work and probably set an example to other states.
August 31, 2008

Blog Entry #1

, Teacher’s Tried in Love Triangle Slaying, September 3, 2008
Thesis: The thesis of this article is “A high school teacher's husband has admitted killing his wife's teenage lover, her former student, but it will be up to a jury to decide if it was premeditation, the heat of passion or an accident.”
Class Connection: I think that this has to do with the Locke and Hobbs thing. I think that this is Hobbes because Hobbes thinks government is necessary which makes sense since we need to punish this guy for killing someone.
Personal Response: I think that this guy doesn’t really deserve up to 25 years in prison. I think that Eric McLean was acting out in rage and that’s what caused him to kill the student his wife was having an affair with.
update: As we were discussing this article in class one of my classmates brought the point up that this also adresses how everyone should have a right to a fair trial just like John Adams thought.