Going in a different direction

It has been nearly 2 years since I was in the English class that required me to create this blog. My posts will no longer be required English assignments, but insights that I learn in the school of hard knocks. My family continues to grow up and pursue thier educations. I am not currently enrolled in school.

Commercial having technical difficulties

The commercial for The Independent Magazine can be viewed on Gary or Sabrina's blog
http://gethestudent.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-independent-magazine.html or http://theyellowcanary.blogspot.com/2009/04/civil-liberties.html

The Independent Magazine Commercial

America The Beautiful!

Reading the essay, America the Beautiful, I was very enlightened to the history of the world and how religion has impacted government, society, and lifestyles of people. Even the morals of nations. The idea of freedom giving an individual the choice to have morals or to just to conform to morals that are forced. When it comes to defending your morals, the ones in your heart are of greater value than the ones that your community forces on you.
D'Souza writes about the lack of moral self confidence that America has, and then goes onto give examples when America has absolute moral self confidence such as the passengers on Flight 93, the firefighters and police personnel in New York who rushed into a burning building to save lives, thinking nothing of their own. When we need to have moral self confidence in America it is there, in a diversity of religious and moral backgrounds and belief. But in the absence of tragedy we seem to be hyper sensitive to individual moral self confidence.
The Muslim history in this text gives perspective to the forced morality which is imposed on people of the Islamic world has perhaps squelched their creativity, as very few inventions or advances come from the middle east in recent years. They do offer the world oil, but there was a time when the Arab world offered many more contributions such as number system which replaced Roman numerals and lended itself to arithmetic much better, also coffee, cotton calico and other things were invented in the early years of Muslim history. One other distintion this article makes is the true context of the Muslim concept of jihad, which is now the cutting edge that they are known for.
The American way of life thrives on individual freedom, and ability to create and improve one's own life. This is the basis of American values. The United States does have religious pockets of predominant religions, however they do not take political or government leadership and impose the religion upon others, rather they all have to operate within the laws of this great nation. In America, the beauty is that we have freedom of religion, and religious leaders often exist harmoniously side by side and occasionally take up a common cause to make a better place for everyone.

50 Questions

1. When did the 10 commandments first become visible in public areas?
2. Does the 10 Commandments posted in public pose a public safety hazard?
3. How many lawsuits have been filed over the 10 Commandments being placed in public areas?
4. Do the 10 Commandments, being a tenet of many different religions,and represents the morals of many people and faiths, really bring up a seperation of church and state issue?
5. Has anyone ever been hurt by seeing the 10 commandments in a public area or a court house?
6. Has the ACLU brought awareness of the 10 commandments to a higher level in the United States?
7. Are the 10 Commandments displayed in public places in other countries?
8. Are the 10 Commandments banned in other countries? Which ones?
9. What were the circumstances of the first court case involving the 10 commandments?
10. How many states are currently being challenged for having a 10 commandments monument?
11. Were the 10 commandments offensive to anyone before television media told us that it was?
12. What do the public opinion polls reveal about how Americans feel about having a monument of the 10 commandments in a public place?
13. WHat is the cost for legal fees for the public to defend the free speech aspect of the 10 commandments monuments.
14. Do the courts have to answer this question separately in every, city, state and county to see if it is constitutional in some cities and not others?
15. Are religious civil liberties less valuable than Atheist civil liberties?
16. Which state has had the most law suits over the 10 commandments?
17. When did the 10 commandments first become controversial?
18. Are there other occasions in history that the 10 commandments were not allowed to be displayed?
19. Who first brought the complaint to court and what were the damages?
20. Should the court allow 5 of the 10 Commandments to be displayed for a compromise?
21. What type of displays have been challenged, were they equal, or is there more added which adds to the public objection?
22. What does covet mean?
23. Are the 10 Commandments part of our legal history?
24. Should the 10 Commandments be displayed in schools, and civic buildings?
25. Should public leaders be allowed to speak of God or Prayer in public speeches?
26. Is there a different context in which the 10 commandments are displayed which could be acceptable to all people?
27. Why is the 10 commandments monument such a big deal?
28. Were the monuments already there or did they start sprouting up all over the place after litigation processes began?
29. How many organizations are funding the legal battles for the public right to display the 10 commandments?
30. How many organizations are funding the legal battles to ban the 10 commandments displays on public buildings?
31. WHat is the purpose of a court decision on this issue anyway since it is always appealed?
32. Are the 10 commandments necassary?
33. Have the 10 commandments monuments ever done anyone any good?
34. Do any of our US laws or State laws look similar to any of the 10 commandments?
35. Are Lawyers getting richer from the 10 commandments controversy?
36. Are Religious leaders jumping on the bandwagon to make money from the 10 commandments controversy?
37. How much money does it cost the tax payers to remove the 10 commandments displays? How much of that is renovation cost, and how much is court cost?
38. Does the 10 commandments displayed make society a better place, reducing crime etc?
39. Was there a time when there was a movement to display the 10 commandments? Was there a controversy regarding their being displayed in the first place?
40. Who funded the dispays, Public or Private?
41. Are the 10 commandments the basis for civil laws as well as religious laws in other governments?
42. How does the display of the 10 commandments reflect the history of the United States?
43. Where was the most recent monument of the 10 commandments placed? How long ago?
44. Is it more tolerant to see a 10 commandment display or is it more tolerant to remove one?
45. Is the ACLU making money on these constitutional legal battles>
46. Are cities removing 10 commandment displays to divert liability to a lawsuit in reference to recent cases?
47. Is ousting the 10 commandments considered a good cause by many American Citizens?
48. Are there 10 commandment displays in other languages in the Untied States?
49. Are there any remaining public monuments of the 10 commandments in Kentucky or Texas?
50. What will the future be for historic monuments that have 10 commandments displayed on them?

Grammar Post March 11, 2009

The / is called a Virgule. Also known by other names such as, Slant, Slash, Solidus. Virgule separates extended dates like 2008/09 school year.
Virgule represents "per" as in mi./sec (miles per second).
Virgule stands for the word or as in boy/girl.
Virgule separates lines of poetry.
And of course Virgule is used by computer users as you know.

For more information about Virgule go here


http://essayinfo.com/sguides/virgule.php

"Two Ways a Woman Can get Hurt":Advertising and Violence By Jean Kilbourne

In this essay by Jean Kilbourne, many points are brought up about how advertising about products by using women in a visibly vulnerable situations, has become accepted and more common. Speaking of word economy, the pictures were worth 1,000 words and that was definatly utlized in the essay to make a point. Her analysis of the advertising was insightful and informative. Certainly some of the advertisements are cultural abuse due to the fact that what they are showing is criminal in nature, however I think that advertisers choose to sell their products this way because the public does have an appetite to see these types of images due to to popularity of these things in movies as well as in the porn industry. Putting porn into advertising is a sure way to get their product noticed either way, such as the Calvin Klein ads that were pulled, leading to more attention in the media and resulting in higher sales. The gender reversal test which Kilbourne applies to some of the advertising shows the slant against women very effectively.