Hw Stick it to the Man!

A online dictionary would define patriarchy as the structure of society on the basis of family units, in which fathers have primary responsibilty for the welfare of these units, such as family. Unfortunately, for Virginia Woolf she is apsolutley correct in her assumption that England is a patriarchal society. Til this day nothing has changed, although the king no longer has power, the parliament does and it consists of for the most part men. America is no different, as Brenden said in his blog Hilary Clinton is a woman and running for president, but she hardly gets the media attention of say New yorks golden boy guiliani. Woolf mentions the fact that women are the most documented animal in the world, and contributes the fact that men are not documented to the fact that women are not interested. This in a simple way of thinking is merely just a delusion. She believes that women can't get published simply for the fact that they are women. Although, there is truth in this it seems to be more of a defeatist atitude. She imagines these authors to be ugly and lonely, but since she is famous author why not write her own book about women? Take the power into her own hands? Make a spot for women in a world of women repression! Fight the man! Stick it to the power! Survival of the fittest! Viva revultion! Now, this book you could say is all those things; making people think for themselves, but people can't thing for themselves just ask Al Gore.

Hw 21 Fish and Chips with a Woolf

Sup cuz:
You are in luck, I have in fact read the first chapter of Virginia Woolf's book. As to wether my analysis is correct I'm not very confident about, but I'll do my best. The chapter is centered around Woolf, she has been ask to decipher a difficult question and as the nature of difficult questions, it is giving her some difficulty. That question is, "what is the role of women in fiction?" She puzzles this question out as she sits on the banks of a river in the campus of Oxbridge, which is really just a joke, combining to the two schools Oxford and Cambridge. She comes up with the term "A woman must have money and a room of her own to write fiction." I believe what she means by this is that a woman must have respect and a creative atmosphere in order to write good literature. Several times she refers to World War One, she contemplates on the fact that perhaps, the war took the romantism away from the people. Which would explain why there were no memorable modern poets, or why her luncheon no longer permeated the same humming noise of life. There are no need of paragraphs in this chapter, because it is merely a stream of conciousness of Woolf's. You're english teacher might be right to conisder this an important work, it brings you into the mind of literature of the time. Literature greatly differs among the ages and it is good to know the mindset of a different time. Well, I hope I came close or was of any help to you cuz, good luck!

HW 19 " blog heard round the world"

This post is in regards to a paragraph from the article by Daniel Drezner and Henry Farell, "Web of Influence." Several paragraphs in the article mentions a 29 yr old Iraqi blogger with the pseudonym Salam Pax otherwise known as the "Baghdad Blogger." During the Afghan war, Salam was keeping an online journal about his feelings and hardships caused by the war. I believe it is apsolutely essential to get stories from both opposing sides in a war. Since, you cannot trust anything that is said via mainstream media, perhaps a blog such as this one is a good way to get valuable information. For example if i were a Native American and it was the time of english colonialization I woul have greatly apreciated the oportunity to let people across the world know how I felt and what was really going on. To put it another way, the blog humanizes Iraqi's in a way. The Bush administration constantly tries dehumanize the people of the middle east. To see first hand that they are just like us might help people understand this fact. Essentially, I am arguing that reading the views of people that are culturaly different than you can only help you to broaden your horizens. People like Oii and Mao speak with a voice of the people a voice which is hard to ignore.

HW 18 "Rubbish Journalism"

Upon investigating the Wonkette page i ran across mostly articles that I was indifferent to or that I agreed with. Then I ran upon an article that seemed to be just a sad form of negative propaganda. The article was called "Obama Targets 17 Yr Old Girls in Iowa" the link is http://wonkette.com/politics/obama.s-underage-harem-dept%27/obama-targets-17+year+old-girls-in-iowa-309163.php. Let us go under the illusion that i momentarily forgot the voting age in America, why is Obama talking to all these young girls? Oh, thats right the voting age in America is 18, how absurd for a presidential candidate to target the demographic of soon to be voters. It is nothing other than a good campaign strategy. Image for a moment if he had targeted an adult audiance in Iowa or another midwestern state. These states are so full of Evangeslists and rascism that it would have been a joke and a waste of his time to try and converse with them. On the site there is a picture of Obama standing in front of a large gathering young people, the majority being women. What the article fails to mention is that roughly 40% of the group is boys, and he is merely shaking their hands. Why, that seems like a quite common campaign procedure to me. "Perhaps not satisfied with wife Michelle anymore, Barack Obama has been wooing and cooing 17-year-olds in Iowa." This quote is something I'd fully expect to see on Fox news or a Tabloid. Rubbish journalism without any investigation.

HW 17b Zuniga > Cox

Without even a question of a doubt, if I were looking for helpful election tips I would towards Zuniga over Cox. I don't trust the Esquire to give me reliable tips about celebrities, I certainly wouldn't trust a similar work to give me my political advice. I have broad sense of humor, I love political satire. However, I also have a strong interest in politics and hearing about a senators sex life does not interest me in the least. What that politician does on his own time is his own concern, I'm more interested in his political values. To discredit Cox further, I also would not accept her article into my political reasoning simply because she is not a credible source. Fired from every job as she puts it, does give me the urge or desire to get my sources from her site. If she published a funny in the newspaper I might be more likely to read her work. Now, since i have clearly stated why i would not choose Cox's article I must explain why I would chose Zuniga's. First off he is a former GI and a democrat. I feel like this is a good mix, if you can be part of the army and then still retain liberal values, you must be an opinionated person. Like me even directly post 9/11 he was still able to see the injustices with our government and was able to voice them. All things considering he might actually be worth listening too.

HW 17 "More than friendly"

Cruising around Jezebel.com i ran into several interesting articles as I knew I would. Gossip, women's experiences and celebrity antics are abundant on this page. I picked an article that jumped out at me; actually I'm sure it would be hard to miss. The article is called "Sluts: They're Not Whores, They're Just Friendly! The link reads, http://jezebel.com/gossip/sexplanation/sluts-theyre-not-whores-theyre-just-friendly-308648.php. With a title such as that i could hardly keep myself from investigating further. The article went on to say that perhaps promiscuous people do not deserve their bad labels. Suggesting that instead of it being a bad thing to sleep around, that people do it because they are warm and friendly individuals. It actually states a line saying that there are two types of promiscuous people, warm and friendly people and cold and distant people. Cold and distant people are people that have sex with no regards for the feelings of others. Which i think is oft the case. However, it is fun to think that maybe instead of labeling the word slut with a negative connotation, you could put a positive spin on it. For instance, instead of saying "what a slut, she is shaming herself." You could say, "what a slut, i wish i was as giving as she was!" Not likely to happen anytime soon, but hey i would like to look at it from the optimistic side from now on

hw 16b "RSS is better than IRS"

Scoble says in his article "Humanizing the Faces of Corporate America" that there are five things that made blogs hot. He called them the five pillars of controversial software. The first pillar is "ease of publishing." This means that virtually everyone can publish their own blogs, all you need is an email address and no prior knowledge is necessary. The second pillar is "discoverability," which basically means that blogs are extremely well linked up to one another. If you are searching for a blog on a topic, it will be very easy to find that topic. The third pillar is "cross-site conversations," which means that if somebody has linked your blog to their own, you can see who that person is. At which point you could talk to that person, because you are very likely to share and express some equivilant views. The fourth is known as "permalinking." A permalink is simply a URL that points out a specific blogging entry. Making it easy to navigate a blog. Finally, syndication is the last pillar. I am a little confused about this last pillar, but what i can take from it is that syndication may be a method of organization. There are many reasons why blogs are as hot as they are now, i don't neseccarily agree with scoble that these are the reasons, but they certainly helped.

hw 14 " a joy to read Joi"

to sum up my thoughts on Joi's article, I could say that i agreed with everything that he said. There was not one topic that he brought up that was not well thought out, furthermore i feel as if everything he said was true or to become true. The community aspect of blogs allow people to feel more free to speak their minds, as a result blogs have become an open area of discussion. A person is much more likely to share their views on a blog like Joi's than for instance, a place where they will be shot down for their opinions. The old round table trick, or in other words putting everyone on an equal footing. however, i am also on gaurd against the things Joi warns might happen. Joi was worried that in time the internet may become censored, along the same lines that mainstream media has. Ultimately, this would put an and to any source of media would could bring biased opinions to the table. This is a line of thought that i likewise share with Joi. To put it bluntl, I feel that if this occurs we will have litterally no way of knowing the truth about world affairs besides word of mouth. As a result that whole new world order thing may come about, but i would delve into the conspiracies here. In conclusion, Joi's blog seems to be a good place to relax and talk controversies in a non-threatening setting.