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America the Beautiful

The article by Dinesh D'Souza "America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For" is an article that has a good purpose,a good use of historical facts, a good thought process, but was written too early. This article does not bear a date, but I would presume it was before 2005 and the escalation of the Iraq War and the "Taliban Strikes Back". I agree with most of his arguments and points, but the ones that I don't agree with, are possibly the ones that matter most.
I support the "War on Terror". My uncle, who I am very close to, has served in Iraq and my cousin has been in Iraq 3 times and Afghanistan once. He was among those that invaded Iraq in 2003. After serving my LDS mission, I plan on joining the National Guard, if I am not accepted into the USMA at West Point. I would not be surprised if in 4-5 years I am deployed to either area.
I disagree with D'souza on the idea of "Liberal" Islam. I think that liberalizing any religion to better fit the masses is wrong. A religion is not a popularity contest and it shouldn't be one. While all religions I think as religions teach the same basic principles, honesty, hard work, sacrifice, charity, and supporting your neighbor, there are some branches of each that find grey areas they use to advance violent programs. "Liberalizing" is the same as secularizing in my opinion. A religion should either stand up or sit down.
Also, I belive that the determination of the American people to fight this war to its end has failed. The American people no longer want to win, they want to withdraw and be left alone. Isolation has been popular in the past and is becoming so again. With the advent of a recession, they want energy, focus and resources centered here. We can not win this war, because we don't want to. We claim the cost is too great, the lives (both ours and theirs), the monetary cost is too great, and the time is too great. And we believe it. This war will never be won, because we don't want to win and because we won't finish it, it will go on forever.

My 2 Styles

1-Exemplification. My idea for my paper is a little abstract, because you can't really measure the effect in dollars, lives, years, etc. So I'm thinking about this one.
http://www.paper-research.com/howto/22-Exemplification___Illustration_Essa.html
2-Description-I like how you take all of the context of what you are talking about and kind of run with it feel of this one. And how you take all the little facts of the journalistic approach and flush them out into ideas.
http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/Describe.html

A Cow, An alligator?

Ok, this may seem really juvenile, but it wasn't until my senior year in high school that I finally realized why the computer liked to put green squiggles under my a's. And it wasn't until this year that I started to regulalry put an's in my papers (without spell check) and I still have to watch myself. So, I thought I would go over the rules for a and an.
A is used in front of consonants
A Jedi kicked a Sith.
An is used in front of vowels.
A Jedi kicked an Ewok. (and frankly, they deserve it)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

Jean Kilbourne and Marketing

In Jean Kilbourne's interview with Campus Calm, she raised some very important points. She mentioned the targeting of younger and younger audiences for brands and products. I had heard of the tobacco companies attempts to target children with toy cigarettes and a Camel Joe cartoon show, but that they were shut down after the full effects of cigarettes and tobacco came out.
I remember getting my first letters from credit card companies and my parents firm no as they cut them apart. Instead we went and got a debit card, so that I could realize how much things really cost. When you only make $6.75 a hour, and you work out that to buy a $20 shirt would cost almost a whole day of work (4 hours a day during high school), you quickly have to think about what you want.
I liked her insight in how all of the tobacco, alcohol, gambling and clothing companies make so much money off of your being insecure. I've seen this a lot, coupled with the brand name loyalty, in some of my friends with the Hollister, American Eagle and Abercrombie brands. There is nothing wrong with any of them (except maybe with the highway robbery they use), I own several of each, but some get so wrapped in that brand that is all they will wear. They are like a walking billboard advertising for the company.
Secure and independant? I don't think so. More like a minion for the company.

Grammar Blog

Their and There and They're. Similar to my problem with its and it's. Very similar words, very different meanings.
Their-possesive. That is their lawn chair.
They're-conjunction- They're (They are) over there.
There-There goes the ball.

You don't want to mix them up, because you it looks pretty bad. I used to mix them up and my teachers would always want to know why "they are lawn chair" and how they become a lawn chair. Very embarrassing. So keep 'em straight.

Washington State University
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/their.html

Show me the money

The article "Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption" was somewhat interesting with its use of examples of TV shows and companies that I recognize, but it was quite dry. The author seemed to be stating the same thing over and over and I had to keep checking what I was reading.
But the points that were brought up, about how the media does give the public the idea of what we "should be" wearing, doing, driving, and living in. My younger brothers are constantly asking for new clothes, toys, cell phones, iPods, etc; because whoever is on the Disney channel has one. Maybe we aren't so far away from the early television shows as we thought we were. I feel lucky I don't have a TV. I guess...