HW23: With Apologies to Virginia Woolf

By splitting up the reading lists for 14- to 15-year-olds by gender has some going out of whack. Then again, it could just help widen the already outstretched gender gap in the United States. Perhaps the idea is to help “weed out” those who don’t follow the self-defined “norms” during gender identity stages in childhood. Or maybe it is thought that the boys and the girls would both be more interested in reading books that they could relate to. That could be a very efficient learning style. That is exactly what this blog, Collective Voices, talks about. Although biased, the article raises very important questions involved in our children’s education.

HW 18: Let's vote for him...yeah, no.

The Democratic Party (democrats.org)

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/10/out_of_touch_ro.php

The post is so sad because it talks about how presidential candidate Mitt Romney is so unfit to be our leader, yet a lot of people still support him. It’s my least favorite blog because it gives two examples of the candidate’s weakness…talking. In one example, Romney completely disregarded a woman’s complaint about her personal economic hardship by offering her a volunteer job for his campaign since she “could talk on the phone.” Obviously, Romney wasn’t completely ready to show support for her hardship, but even if we give him a break on that one, he also completely disregarded a wheelchair-bound citizen’s question asking if Romney would arrest patients who use medical marijuana to ease pain by walking away from him and not even attempting an explanation. Now that I’m done complaining, let’s keep Romney and any of these other dopes who are simply on an agenda out of the White House before we all get completely disregarded.

HW 17B: Information vs. Gossip

After reading “Blogging the Presidency: An Interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga” (Kline and Burstein 41-48) and “Sex, Lies, and Political Scrapes: An Interview with Ana Marie Cox” (Kline and Burstein 56-62), I’ve concluded that Daily Kos would be more likely to influence the way I’d vote in the upcoming election. Zuniga’s blog covers underground political dirt, injustices, and other very important political matters. This blog is much more statistical and factual compared to Cox’s Wonkette, which is basically just a political gossip blog. Although somewhat important, Wonkette’s topics just don’t dig quite deep enough for me to form an opinion on a politician. Sure, I can learn about their sexual orientation and who they’ve been seen with lately; however, I’m not able to judge whether the candidate or politician is working up to the standards that his job requires, which is the most important value for a politician to possess. I also found it very interesting that Zuniga’s blog has, “forced the resignation of Senator Trent Lott, exposed the fraudulent documents at the heart of a CBS 60 Minutes story on President Bush’s National Guard career, contributed ideas and slogans to both candidates’ campaign speeches, and mobilized millions of party activists to raise money and get people to the polls.” This quote shows the importance of Zuniga’s political blog as another way of getting information and news that needs to be informed out to the public.

HW17: Favorite Blog of the Week (Bush Administration Caught Overspending…Again)

www.democrats.org/a/p/bush_administra_37.html

The blog of the week that I chose was from Democrats.org. The post explains how in a year’s time, Bush administration officials spent over $145 million on first-class travel, and over 65% of it was unauthorized and/or unjustified. This blog makes me want to go crazy. I, myself, am usually an extreme liberalist so it makes me even MORE ANGRY that the Bush administration has been doing the extra spending with all of the other very expensive political mumbo jumbo that is on their menu (a quick example: Iraq). It’s very easy to see, now more than ever, why our government is in such great debt. I’m also angered by the fact that this news comes after President Bush vetoed the bill that legislated funding for millions of low-income children’s health insurance because the bill was “excessive” in cost.

The author of the blog, Stephanie Taylor, states that the report is “further evidence of the need for government sunlight laws requiring agency disclosure or business-class travel to Congress.” I agree with her completely because I think that if the information was being fed through Congress it would be easier to spot over-spending and even more scandal inside of an administration crawling with them.

HW16: The Five Things That Make Blogging Hot

Blogging is so popular online because of five things, according to Robert Scoble (Kline and Burstein 130). First of all, being able to publish your blogs with simplicity and ease is very important. Next, tags and pings help with being able to discover the overall subject of a blog if you needed relevant information. Thirdly, being able to communicate to other subscribers over the blogsite seems to be infectiously popular. The fourth thing is being able to click on a URL that will bring you directly to a blog post, keeping it even simpler for new or beginning users. Lastly, with syndication, blogging is the owner of the most simple syndication system on the net, keeping users as far away from frustration as possible.

HW14: Internet as a dangerous tool

Since the Internet has become so popular and vital for us to be constantly connected, it has also become an equally as dangerous tool assisting terrorism, pirating, and even child molesters. On the other hand, the Internet is the strongest tool for spreading information (For example: news sites, chat rooms, instant messaging, email, blogs, search engines, academic sites, etc). After all, that was the original intent of the Internet—to help communicate and send information at a rapid pace. Conversely, the Web has become a massive public pool full of kids with uncontrollable bladders. In addition, there is no declared security force (or life guards) providing any kind of limitation to what goes onto the Web. However, as stated in the First Amendment of the United States constitution, our freedom of speech is protected…and valued. Therefore, we as United States citizens are free and protected by our country to post just about anything, as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of any other United States citizen. In conclusion, the Internet is a very valuable tool as well as a dangerous place.

HW 13: Communication Over Business

In my opinion, I think the impact that blogging has on communication that is not business- or profit-related because it creates a new portal and yet an always important different viewpoint on news and other issues in the world. Of course, business-related blogging has its advantages and it works in its own way; however, when it comes to importance of our well being on this planet or in this country, international communication is key. Blogging can change the way global communication is offered, received, and stored.

In Baker and Green’s “Blog’s Will Change Your Business” (Kline and Burstein 221-233) the authors discuss how blogging is important as an online journalism center:

Blog reporters showed their value following the Asian tsunami in December.

Thousands of them posted pictures, video footage, and articles about the disaster

long before the first accredited journalists showed up. MSNBC, which ran hours

of tsunami footage on its Web site, has since opened an entire page devoted to

citizen’s journalism. (Kline and Burstein, 232)

In this quote, the true importance of a global view on global events. Never before blogging have we been able to discuss and understand viewpoints from a different area, unless you consider photojournalism and even international journalism. But blogging makes it so much more readily available.