Shutdown myths find home on social media

The article I read from the New York Daily News. This article explains that the government shutdown claims in social media are starting to get a little extreme. And for the twitter users, they placed two statements for this situation. The one is the Obama administration shut down the Amber Alert program because of the government shutdown, another one is the Obama administration shut down the ocean.Amber Alerts notify the public when a child has gone missing or is abducted. The alerts are put out by the Department of Justice and give information about missing minors. The public can then contact authorities if they recognize one of the children.The alert system appeared to be shut off over the weekend, due to the partial government shutdown. The shutdown of national parks has angered Republican lawmakers, who this week passed a funding measure to reopen the landmarks and memories but the Democratic-controlled Senate has refused to consider the bill.

There has more articles are related to this topic, 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/05/Feds-Try-to-Close-the-OCEAN-Because-of-Shutdown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/liveblog/live-updates-the-shutdown-2/?id=47d7c37d-039c-4eed-8f8d-7fa980a6d227

Traffic Shutdown? Truck Drivers Plan 3-day Protest on Capital Beltway

The article entitled “Traffic Shutdown? Truck drivers plan 3-day protest on Capital Beltway” addressed the claim that a caravan of truck drivers was looking to shut down traffic around Washington as a way of protesting. The grounds of the article were that truck drivers planned to clog the Beltway by driving "three lanes deep" for three days to attract participants for a demonstration on the Capital Beltway. Commuters who want to pass their block must have a sticker on their window showing that they support the group. The backing of the argument was that truckers were complaining about wages, gas prices, and federal regulations on the truck industry as well as the debt on the National Security Agency's surveillance practices. More than 50 thousand Facebook users declared their support for those truckers. Earl Conlon, who claimed to speak for those truckers, declared that congress members should be arrested.  As a rebuttal, Conlon was challenged by supporters of the campaign. They believed that the plan should be carried out peacefully. Actually, the truckers’ real purpose was to show complaints about crimes against the United States and unconstitutional executive orders nullity.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/08/traffic-shutdown-truck-drivers-plan-3-day-protest-on-capital-beltway/

Shutdown Proposal

Shutdown Proposal

            This article explains John Boehner stepping forward for the republicans and conveying to Barack Obama and the Democrats that they would like to enter talks about how they together could reduce chronic federal deficits. While Boehner claims that the proposal could be voted on by Friday, this clearly means that what they come up with will likely be a quick fix that opens up the government but is incapable of solving our nations debt issues.

            While opening the government after this ten day shutdown is clearly step one, I still believe that it is important that we get to the source of our issues and attempt to clean our government up before it forces itself into a shut down once again.

            Democratic lawmakers such as an unnamed person from CNN mentioned that these are all short-term deals to raise the federal borrowing limit. Yet again I just want to make it clear that this is nothing that will be sustained.  

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

6 Reasons We Share Too Much Online, According to Behavioral Scientists

I read an article called "6 Reasons We Share Too Much Online, According to Behavioral Scientist." It makes a value claim that there are 6 reasons to explain why people share too much online from a behavior perspective.

The author uses the quotes from Facebook founder Mark  Zuckerberg and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the start of his article. Their words tell the current situation that "people share too much online" to the audience. Here, because both Zuckerberg and Schmidt are experts in social media and internet communication, this using of ethos helps to build the credibility of the author at the beginning. Then the author provides a fact claim that only few internet users try to keep away from being tracked. The explanation of a behavior scientist gives one reason that people do not care much because people do not know much about how data is used by others. And the behavior economist answers this from the information asymmetry perspective. After that, the author gives the main value claim that this phenomenon occurs because people’s bounded rationality on privacy matters.

The first evidence is that according to a research, people who started with more privacy valued it much more than those who started with less. The second reason is people get used to accept the default privacy settings. Thirdly, based on study, people tend to share more when they feel they have the capability to control the way of sharing. In the fourth, fifth and sixth reasons, the author argues further. Every reason is a small value claim  and the author uses the research results to convince the audience.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/10/science-behind-why-nobody-cares-about-online-privacy

Alzheimer's and Slowing finding a Cure

According to the Fox News article "Scientists stop brain cells in mice from dying in potential Alzheimer's treatment breakthrough" we seem to have stumbled upon a drug that can reverse and prevent Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease -- in mice. Although they do seem to jump the gun on saying that it is a break-though and even the original source mentioned, "if only it was that straightforward" (SkyNews).  So I would also argue that it really isn't a "breakthrough". What the Fox News people did was that they kept throwing out "fact" claims, in were close to what Sky News was saying but not yet there. What the actually scientists involved with the study and Sky News were trying to get at was, realistically they found something that was essential but not necessarily a major major finding. Why? Because they still have about a decade and a half to go and make sure that the drug can be used specifically for humans. 
On top of that, the original source mentioned that the proteins in the neurodegenerative diseases are only similar to that of Alzheimer's. So FN again speaks too soon. That how I would refute them, they do seem to make the situation a little more hopeful.
I also think it is kinda funny that they provide the source of their information, and the source says something quite differently than what they do. 




http://news.sky.com/story/1152725/alzheimers-research-offers-no-quick-cure
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/10/scientists-stop-brain-cells-in-mice-from-dying-in-potential-alzheimer-treatment/ 

The Politics of Pot

In light of a recent effort made by a group of Florida citizens to collect signatures in favor of allowing a question about the legalization of medical marijuana on next years ballot,  politifact.com published an article this morning confirm truths and debunk myths about marijuana use. Politifact Florida writer Rochelle Koff uses this article as a space to fact check popular ideas surrounding marijuana, including marijuana is "less toxic" than alcohol, and one cannot get addicted to marijuana. Upon closer examination, Koff utilizes some logos to explain that there are enough statistics out there to support the notion that marijuana is indeed technically much safer than alcohol. This article does not argue for or against the legalization of marijuana in Florida, but rather does its best to be unbiased and present the facts. I can definitely appreciate the presentation of the truth over something obviously intended very persuasive in a purely informative article such as this one. Upon the completion of the article, I learned that both trips to the hospital and deaths are more likely to result from alcohol use over marijuana use, in fact, there are no documented deaths on record due to marijuana use. Koff does utilize the dreaded "one study suggests"type of reference which kind of takes away from her credibility when she claims that a study maintains marijuana is 100 less toxic than alcohol. What study and what elements of toxicity did the study measure to compare the two drugs? Koff also mentions the other side of the argument which is despite popular belief, you can actually get addicted to marijuana. Floridans are currently deciding whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, such the potential of addiction. I found a few spelling and grammatical errors in this article which also took away from the credibility for me. Over all I found to be a nice short informative piece that really should've sited more specific sources to enhance the credibility of the information being shared. 

Click here for more: The Politics of Pot

Obama's 37% Approval Means Something!

            In this article Rush Limbaugh argues why Obama’s approval rating is not being objectified. Why aren’t we taking anything from the fact that Obama’s approval rating is at 37%? Rush then goes on to argue that large sums of people are clearly against Obamacare and that most will not benefit from it. This is the reasoning for the low approval rating, and that it is fairly clear, whilst the analysts are claiming, “well the republicans aren’t doing anything right”. He is clearly angry and his reaction to the conversation was clearly negative. He believes Obamacare will help some, but that alone will make people unhappy. It is interesting to note Obama’s low approval rating in correlation to Obamacare and those who oppose it. They have a strong voice, clearly looking at the giant disapproval Obama has received.  

Sean Anisi 
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/10/obama_s_37_approval_means_something

Every day is a special day

The article I chose is a very touching essay from People Daily (a Chinese newspaper) and its name is Every day is a special day. The claim of this article is spending every day for achieving your dream.

This article is a typical patho-centric structure article. At the beginning of this essay, the author uses a short story as an introduction and then explains the relationship between the story and the argument. The story he used is very interesting and also appropriate for his topic. And the story is also the reason that the article attracted my eyes. After a the introduction, the author writes his own experience when he was a 20 years young man- he dreamed a lot, for example travelling all over the world, but the dreams were just left in his memory.

Then he raises two questions: what make us forget our dream? Why we only leave our dreams in memory? After the first question, he analyzes how we spend our every day and how we are pushed by the pressures of lives to state that we never really work for our dreams. For the second question, he uses another story to claim that every day is a special day. The story is about an old lady have a beautiful scarf, but she never wore it until she died because she always said she wanted to use it in a special day. I think this is a short but impressive story and make a good contribution to support that we should treat every day as a special day.

In the conclusion, the author reclaims his thesis and also develops a little- always remember you are in a special day when you think about your dream and spend every day for your dream. I think this conclusion is good. As the content included in Chapter 11, the one new topic we can discuss is about what further work needs to be done and this is exactly the article does. 

DEA still dubious despite fresh report of nightmare drug Krokodil surfacing in Illinois

This article displays the skepticism of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with regards to the flesh-eating drug Krokodil having reached American soil. The drug, which displays a similar high to heroine with extremely gruesome side-affects, like gangrenous limbs, has not been accepted by the DEA as a threat in America, despite possible cases that have recently surfaced in Joliet, IL. The author, Joshua Rhett Miller, brings some factual claims into play when he articulates information that the drug could be on US soil since three women were emitted into a suburban hospital displaying the similar disgusting skin deformities to those who use the drug in eastern Europe. The DEA first brought light to the threat of this drug in the world when they said in 2011 that they are monitoring its growth in Russia.  However, they have not said anything regarding its presence in the US. Regardless, something is happening in the US that needs to be taken care of.

Government Shut Down, Libertarians Still Angry
Ted Dehaven from the Cato institute presents a libertarian's view on the government shutdown in this article. Traditionally, the libertarian viewpoint has been that the government should restrict itself to only national defense and the security of the populace. Now that government has effectively been restricted to defense and security, libertarians are understandably upset. Disdain was expressed specifically for the NSA's monitoring activities, which is understandable, and also for military expenditure, which is less understandable.  He is rather unexcited about the national parks shutdowns, which seems like exactly the sort of frivolous spending that Ronald "McDonald" Reagan, first prophet of libertarianism and founder of McDonald's, the cornerstone of capitalism, would abhor (according to them). On the other side of the political spectrum, there has been a mass outcry from liberals bemoaning their fate. According to one of the least informed ones, "Weed is finally legal but I can't smoke it in my favorite National Park." Truly it is a classic catch-22 for the disenfranchised privileged college students. Finally, and possibly most importantly, in the article, Dehaven claims that Libertarians are most upset becausewhile the government shutdown should lower the budget expenditure, it is not likely to make any lasting impact on the National debt, and the Debt ceiling will likely be raised anyways.

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html

If you had plans to visit Yellowstone National Park, you’re out of luck until the government reopens. However, the NSA will continue to track our private conversations, the military will continue to expend blood and treasure protecting the interests of wealthy allies, and the federal entitlement system that’s the source of our future fiscal imbalances will continue to pump out the checks.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/Libertarian_view_The_government_non_shutdown.html#t2byIx3t5pP1keyy.99

The Military Death Benefits Outrage

     In the article from Rush Limbaughs’s radio show titled “Military Death Benefits Outrage”. Rush argues that the government particularly the democrats are incompetent. The article talks about how death gratuity benefits that are part of the Service Members Life Insurance (SGLI) and were not being paid to the families of deceased service members who died serving this country. The outrage is that the families are left with a deceased loved one and no compensation to pay for funeral services or even travel to meet their loved one as they arrived at Dover Air Force base where all deceased service members are brought back “home” to the continental United States before being moved to their prior homes. The families in their greatest time of need are not being taken care of by the government that their loved ones swore to protect and serve and gave the ultimate sacrifice to.  This Rush explains is a shows the great incompetence of the current government or “regime” as he calls it. He also speaks of the veterans who have been unable to visit monuments that were erected and dedicated to their personal sacrifices like the WWII monument, which like all national parks is shut down due to the ongoing political fighting. He voices his disgust at the incompetence of a government that would not pay death benefits to its nations fallen and bar veterans from their own monument but would allow, non citizens the ability to protest and hold a rally at the national mall that is closed to citizens of this “great” nation. The complete backwardness of this example is used by Rush to garner support for his views and dislike of the current “regime”.

      The logos of Rush’s argument is that the government is incompetent, while the ethos is his radio talk show where he voices his opinion to his target audience. The pathos is the play off of patriotic sentiment as well as basic human dignity that those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country and people should have their families taken care of regardless of any politics. Rush’s kairos or knowing when to speak is directly after this become public knowledge that families were not given the meager monetary compensation guaranteed to them for the loss of their loved ones. Rush is a notoriously conservative political radio talk show host who is very good at speaking to his target audience about his and theirs particular views of the shortfalls of the current “regime”.

The Military Death Benefits Outrage

Rush Limbaugh the article "The Military Death Benefits Outrage." In the article Rush claims that the United States Government is incompetent, not only because the government shutdown all together, but what has happened during the shutdown. On the grounds of their acts that have angered the entire nation. There has been a delay in funding to the military death benefits, which gives benefits to the families of soldiers who die while serving and people our outraged. Furthermore, the government opened up the National Mall so people could rally for immigration laws. Rush and a lot of Americans believe that most of the people rallying were in fact illegal immigrants. The fact that the national government is letting illegal immigrants walk in those monuments, but they will not let any Americans, even veterans visit the monuments it ridiculous. The only rebuttal the government has is that they don’t have the money to open the parks and fund the military death benefits. Which sounds ridiculous when at any given time the president can hop on his plane and fly anywhere around the world. The article states that Michelle Obama had to cancel her dinner across the nation probably because it would bring some bad press to the white house if she hopped on Air Force 1. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RushLimbaugh-Transcripts/~3/sKUUQn4ckE0/the_military_death_benefits_outrage

Avatar by James Cameron

The film I chosen to talk about is Avatar by James Cameron, which can the top Box Office not just because of its high-tech special effect, lovely background music and beautiful finesse, but also its touching and meaningful storyline.

  The main character, Juke Sully, who is an disable former Marine took part in the Avatar Program, is distributed to get in touch with “native” in the Pandora in order to benefit the US occupancy. By getting closer and closer with them, Juke Sully accommodates the new living environment and culture or even become part of their members. With building up a good relationship with the native, he does not want to occupy the Pandora by forcing them to move away. Meanwhile, he understands that as a soldier, acting in unquestioning obedience to the orders of their superior officers is priority. But, lastly, he still chooses the way, that he considers it is correct and justicial. He asks the native to fight back the US army to protect their territory.

  For me, I totally agree with the Juke Sully even he disobeys the order from his superior official, and I appreciate his positive attitude, that he is willing to fight for justice and his bliss bravely. In the reality, many people would like to obey and follow the order or instruction from their bosses, leaders and others with the great social status and power. Sometimes, they realize that the orders are immoral and atrocious, to consolidate their social status and secure their livelihood, they just obey with keeping silence. In fact, everybody in the society needs to take the responsibility for maintaining the justice. Without the justice, the society is no longer for development but collapse. Therefore, before taking action, we ought to consider deeply what is right or wrong but not just obeying with covering our “eyes”.