"Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities"

     This article is a book review that appeared on October 29^th, 2013 in the online news source Democracy Now. It was written by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. In the piece the two discuss the new book by MIT history professor Craig Steven Wilder in which he makes the claim that our post-secondary education system has helped create and reinforce racism in this country. The work, entitled Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities, is both a logos and a pathos argument based on ten years of in- depth personal research. Through his narrative, the author implies that the warrant for his argument is that mistreatment of indigenous peoples by white colonial powers is deeply imbedded in academia. Wilder backs his claim with the individual stories of men like Henry Watson of Connecticut, who attended Trinity College in the nineteenth century prior to the abolition of slavery.  While conceding to the potential counter-argument or rebuttal that education has qualitative and measurable value within society; Wilder maintains that collegiate life and structure was still prone to historical revisionism and hopelessly intertwined with, “the founding, financing, and development of higher education” that was built on the backs of oppressed peoples. As such they became both “beneficiary and benefactor of the process.” In fact, argues Wilder, the process of Ivy League tutelage perfectly prepared graduates to operate within the slave system itself. The graduates of these prestigious schools emerged into the larger world as teachers, professors, bureaucrats and professionals who had been taught the acceptance and or desirability of American empirical dominance and superiority through conquest but without the context of residual effect.  One illustration of this skewed world view is the way in which Wilder says Mr. Watson was introduced to the Native American experience. Indian culture was reduced to human bones and possessions that were often presented as decorations to campus building or displays. Slavery too, was offered up as a sterilized institution that could be reduced to mere economic factors. In so-doing, schools effectively inoculated their students against the inhumanity inherent to its structure. While Wilder concedes that over time many of these men began to actively struggle with the moral and ideological hypocrisy of this mindset:  At core, Wilder makes an even broader claim which is that the schools which were built on the backs of colonial conquest of indigenous cultures, depended on that dynamic to uphold their society. He concludes that as such the active oppression and marginalization of those peoples by Americans, cannot logically be separated from the agenda of its academic institutions, or the later negative outcomes of their economic, social and political disenfranchisement.

p://www.democracynow.org/blog/2013/10/29/read_ebony_and_ivy_race_slavery?utm

Differences in Children’s Behavior toward Custodial Mothers and Custodial Fathers by Ambert Anne-Marie

  The article implis that the endeavor of the children, who were brought up in the single parent family, is not minimized simply. Since they would treasure all the assistance from others genuinely, this positive attitude provides them a way toward success. Also, it leads to develop pride in their work and achievement in the future. Moreover, the author expresses her opinions and shows the creditability of her evidences by using some realistic examples. She points out that those children handle conflicts or negative factor flexibly well because of making the good use of their communication skills and passionate but independent personalities. The distinct claim of the article, abundant realistic examples and well-developed analysis are shown obviously. All those make the information provided more reliable, and strengthen her point of view, but give the audiences a clear understanding of her argument and position. I consider that we can take this article as a reference and learn from her writing method, especially the logical flow. By following her clear logical flow, the audiences can comprehend the concept of her argument step by step without getting lost.

J Cole Makes a Social Criticism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzzMOMkjm8A

In J Cole's music video for his song, "Crooked Smile," he uses visual flags and value claims to portray the violence inflicted upon the public by law enforcement. In the video, J Cole plays a drug dealer who is throwing a birthday party for his daughter when his house is bombarded by the police. Upon the attack, J Cole's daughter is shot and killed by the police. This shocking turn of events in the video is supposed to cause an emotional response from the American public, demonstrating that the issue is not as grave to take a human life. He lets you make a warm, emotional attachment to his daughter, which makes her death so confusing and shocking, leaving an unsettling feeling. He also states in the video that this is a true story and at the end of the video he proclaims to the public to "please consider the war on drugs." He also uses metaphors within his lyrics to portray this message when he says that this issue in America is a "crooked smile even braces couldn't straighten."

Belgium considering unprecedented law to grant euthanasia for children, dementia patients

I read an article named "Belgium considering unprecedented law to grant euthanasia for children, dementia patients" on the Washington Post. This article argues how controversial this issue is in Belgium by providing several arguments people have made.

At the beginning of the article, the author gives some backgrounds on the position Belgium stands on this issue, and makes a value claim that Belgium is a euthanasia pioneer. The author uses some facts and statistic to prove the argument such as Belgium already legalized euthanasia for adults in 2002 and the number of euthanasia death cases. Also, the author makes this argument by examples that rare countries allow euthanasia. After that, the author claims that the Senate heard from both sides of the issue and argues the controversy of this issue. Some people who oppose the expansion of euthanasia to children make value arguments that children do not have the capacity to make such decisions. Others argue by definition that this is an unfair thing to allow adults do but not children. In addition, Dr. Gerlant van Berlaer, a pediatric oncologist at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussels hospital makes an argument by examples. He gives grounds that the children cases of euthanasia already exist, but they have to be done "in dark and questionable ways". Warrants are provided that "changes would legalize what is already happening informally." Also, the author argues the controversy regarding people with dementia. Although there are evidences that some countries allow doctor make decisions for dementia patients, some people argue that dementia patients would have different thoughts.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/belgium-considering-unprecedented-law-to-grant-euthanasia-for-children-dementia-patients/2013/10/31/67fd55be-4200-11e3-b028-de922d7a3f47_story.html

Video Gaming Can Increase Brain Size and Connectivity

Psychology Today writer, Christopher Bergland, shares details from a very compelling new study entitled, "Playing Super Mario Induces Structural Brain Plasticity: Gray Matter Changes Resulting from Training with a Commercial Video Game". The study, conducted at the Max Plank Institute for Human Development and the Charité University for Medicine in Berlin, explains that video gaming can actually increase cognitive function and performance. We learn from this study that certain areas of the brain can be trained to work differently by way of video game use. This is a major breakthrough study that scientists believe suggests could be potentially beneficial for patients with various psychiatric disorders. The claim is that by training with certain video games, symptoms for mental health problems such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's dementia and more may be reduced as a result of repeated video-game play. Of course, scientists stress, that it would have to be the "right" video games. The main warrant here is that not all video games are bad for our brains. Some games have the potential to improve hand-eye coordination and actually increase intelligence, among other things. Researchers call on qualitative and quantitative data to provide us with plenty of credibility (ethos) and logos. The hope in this article is that researchers will continue to test more educational video games that are specifically created to increase brain functioning and have benefits beyond purely just entertainment purposes. Evidence is continuing to suggest that video games could be a very beneficial tool for children starting at a young age. It is a technology that youth really wants to interact with, so the sentiment is that we may as well start trying to make more games that can help steer our society in a positive direction!

For more, see here: 

Video Games as a Beneficial Tool

Reality Confronts Obama’s False Promise

In "Reality Confronts Obama’s False Promise" by Brooks Jackson the author explains that factcheck.org has been reporting for years that the Affordable Care Act will cause many Americans to lose and or pay more for insurance coverage than they currently were. Despite President Obama's constant assurances that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan”(Obama). The article states that estimates of up to 15 million Americans or 5% of the population mainly the young and healthy will lose their current coverage and be forced to pay thousands more on the new exchanges. While the previously un-insurable will now be able to get insurance because it is law as well as the elderly many of their current plans will cost less now. The author argues that over the last three years factcheck.org has been reporting this would happen, but just now are we seeing the evidence of those first effected. Due to the Presidents position of authority most Americans believed in the Affordable Care Act and the lie he told that if you currently like your health care you will keep it, despite the fact that the administration has known for around three years that many Americans would lose their current coverage. This fallacy is a perfect example of argument from authority, Z is true because X authority says it is true. As we are currently seeing and may be experiencing that is not always the case.

Conservatives Punish Fox News for 2012 Election Failure

An interesting article by Kevin Drum takes a look at the 2012 vs 2012 GOP brand trust rankings. In 2012 Fox News channel was first with a 64.5 score, in 2013 it is not even in the top ten of trusted brands. Drum goes through the potential that Fox News being blamed for the 2012 election failure but attributes it to something else, using evidence. When he refers to the other brands, like Chick-fila and History channel going down, it in some sense refutes the claim that the Fox News brand is untrustworthy being credible. It is interesting how the numbers have changed so drastically in the last year, but it may have just been the election being over. I would use inductive reasoning to determine that the numbers are fairly skewed by recent events, including the end of the election, and general loss of interest.

 http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/conservatives-punish-fox-news-2012-election-failure

Gender inequality still rampant in cyberspace, UN ad shows

A new global women’s rights campaign poster by United Nation attracted attention of public to use popular Google search terms to highlight gender inequality. The poster is four women’s faces. The women are Muslim, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic. The interesting thing is Google search boxes cover their mouths. There are four key input terms inside the blocks. “women need to,” “women should,” “women cannot,” and “women shouldn’t." Below each keyword are further related popular search terms. The search terms are Google’s automatic results generated since March 9. This automatic results make full sentences with the keyword. These include such terms as “women need to be put in their place,” “women should stay at home,” and “women cannot drive,” all reflecting an entrenched misogynic bigotry in today’s society. According to Christopher Hunt who designed this campaign poster, "this campaign uses the world's most popular search engine (Google) to show how gender inequality is a worldwide problem. The advertisements show the results of genuine searches, highlighting popular opinions across the Worldwide Web.” The claim is media like popular search engine, Google, have to show how gender inequality is a worldwide problem. The warrant is automatic result of Google with keyword by women.

High school beer brewing assignment draws controversy

A Colorado high school chemistry class offered an extra credit assignment involving the anaerobic fermentation performed by yeast cells, commonly used by humans to produce beer. In fact, the assignment involved taking a tour to the local Coors light brewery. Because of this little detail, some parents are upset, just as I would be. I wouldn't want my kids growing up to be Coors drinkers either. It's simply unethical to push bad taste on students that young. According to the article, the legal drinking age is 21. First of all, this is news to me. Some parents object to exposing children to anything about alcohol on a moral or religious basis. This same discretion is unilaterally applied to any other ways to make education interesting. However, in the context of the aftermath of some recent high school rape cases involving alcohol, I can see why they might be on edge. At the same time, however, high school kids drink. Always have, always will. So if the last thing you want to do is educate your children about alcohol, then I believe you need to reevaluate your priorities.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/30/high-school-beer-brewing-class-draws-controversy/

NSA denies report it eavesdropped on Vatican

In the article the author claims that the NSA tapped the phone calls to and from the Vatican from late December 2012 to early January 2013. "The calls were reportedly categorized in four groups: leadership intentions, threats to the financial system, foreign policy objectives and human rights. "The warrant of the Vatican is that no one should have their privacy infringed on this much. The rebuttal made by the NSA was simple; they sent out their national spokesman to make a statement, all he did was deny the allegations. The claims made in this article are tricky because it is unknown if they are fact claims, because each side has an opposite claim. However there are definitely a few value claims in their, for example the end when a director defended secret surveillance. Policy claims are also tricky in this one. The only one that i see that could be a policy claim is when supporters of the NSA are calling for close examination of the white house. The ethos of this article is not really in question, even though they do not state who the author is. Fox News is a news station that is criticized often, but is also famous worldwide and considered a leader in the news world.