WOW!
We are living history tonight, boys and girls. As I said on Monday, no matter the outcome today, Wednesday will be very interesting.
It’s worth taking another look at John McCain’s concession speech and Barack Obama’s victory speech which I’ll embed here once the respective campaigns post them on their YouTube channels.
Tonight in Minnesota
John McCain’s running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will officially present herself to the American people shortly according to CNN’s countdown clock. Although, she’s not the first woman to run on a presidential ticket (Geraldine Ferraro ran as Democratic candidate Walter Mondale’s vice-presidential pick in 1984; they were demolished in an uprecedented 49 state win by Ronald Reagan and his vice-president Geroge HW Bush), Palin is part of a historic race that will either result in the first black American winning the White House or the election of America’s oldest president and the first female vice-executive under the oldest. I hope you’re watching.
Some interesting news has followed Palin’s candidacy, notably the Governor’s admission that her seventeen year old daughter is five months pregnant. The media storm that surrounded this admission’s been intense and has engendered much discussion particularly about the boundaries between the public and private lives of elected officials. Yesterday I heard this piece on NPR: “Social Conservatives’ Support For Palin Unwavering”. (Pay attention to Summer Vanderbilt’s comments about the “exciting party” full of “different turns” at the end of the piece.)
Is it possible to separate the public and private lives of our leaders? Of ourselves? If our private morals and belief govern our behavior and decisions, how can we leave these at home, so to speak, when we walk out our doors? What think you? Click “Leave a Comment” to share your thoughts.
Wondering about the history of the modern Republican-conservativism? Have a listen to this NPR piece which details the national rise of one of my heroes, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (whose autographed photo sits on the northwest bookshelf in T-12): “1964 Convention Established GOP As Conservative”.
July Birthdays
Lots of 2007-2008 Englishers had July birthdays. They were: third period E9er Michael E9 on July 1, fifth period APELCer Danielle on July 4, first period E9er Skyler on July 6, both fourth period E9er Alex and APELcer Kourtney in fifth on July 7 (sharing a birthday with Riongo Starr who turned 68), fifth period APELCer Emily on July 14, first period E9er Megan on July 15, fifth period APELCers Hannah on July 17 and Michael on July 21, E9er Heather in fourth and APELCer Ryan in second period on July 26m and, finally, third period E9er Amber on July 27.
And I do believe that covers all of the birthdays of the freshmen, juniors, and seniors I met way back in August 2007.
I hope your summers’ been restful but productive. See you in August.
May and June Birthdays
Here’s a quick shout out to all of the freshmen, junior, senior Englishers who had late May and June birthdays and missed their time on the board.
E9er Sam in first period had a birthday on May 22, and APELCer Sam in second on May 23. E9er Christina in fourth had a birthday on May 26. Second period APELCer Addie celebrated on June 11, first period E9er Ashley in first on June 12, fifth period APELCer Logus on June 16, and E9ers Jose in third on June 19, Edith in fourth on Jun 21, and Rags in third on June 28.
I hope you’re all having a great summer break.
Campaign Art
Well, Tuesday’s poltical action in Rhode Island, Ohio, Texas, and Vermont turned out better for some than others. Hillary Clinton survived, and Mike Huckabee didn’t, the former (arguably) less expected than the latter. Maybe it all came down to campaign art.
Campaign graphics and logos are important, more important, perhaps, than many of us realize. Indeed, I was suprised to learn about the intricate rhetorical subtleties of the various campaign logos while I listened to a recent interview with Wired magazine’s Scott Dadich on campaign art at the The Economist’s “Democracy in America” blog. Salon.com also recently posted a piece on the same: “May the Best Logo Win”.
William F. Buckley
Guardian of American Conservatism and founder of the National Review, William F. Buckley, Jr. died last week at the age of 82. (He’s the author of the most recent piece you just read.) Buckely was an unusually keen observer, agile debater, prolific writer, and imaginative intellectual, but it’d be useless for me to write much else since others who knew the man and his work far more intimately than I have been offering their thoughts since the news of his passing.
National Review has begun an archive of appreciations on its founder, and other media have produced their own, NPR’s “Remembering William F. Buckley”, New York Times’ “The Mighty Political Legacy of William F. Buckley Jr.”, and Charlie Rose’s retrospective (below), among them.
Here’s a portion (check out all the segments) of the 1968 debate between Buckley and famed MIT linguist Noam Chomsky (whom he notoriously threatened, as he had once Gore Vidal, to sock in the face) over American intervention in Vietnam:
The videos are interesting, but it may lead you to wonder more about what I mentioned to you in class: “Why Did William F. Buckley Jr. Talk Like That?”
I’d encourage any student to sample his work from the National Review archive of his opinion and analysis. Observe closely his broad, deep, and lucid understanding and command of social, political, and cultural issues.
National Grammar Day
Students, imagine I was teaching you astronomy and I instructed you that our sun and planets revolve around the Earth. Or consider I was teaching you history and I advocated the oppression of the lower class because I believed its constituents socially and economically incapable of functioning autonomously in society. Or imagine even that I was teaching you biology, and instructed you that certain races of people were inherently physically and intellectually superior to others. At best, you’d think me ignorant and bigoted, at worst, stupid and racist.
Unfortunately, many pop-grammarians and even educators happily perpetuate the unscientific, incorrect, and prejudiced belief (as unscientific as the Ptolemaic conception of the relationship of heavenly bodies, as incorrect as a class of people’s ability based upon its economic disadvantage, and as prejudiced as the idea of inherent racial superiority) that certain grammars are better, purer, more acceptable and palatable than others. Ideas like these that give rise to such inanities as National Gammar Day, sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.
Nathan Bierma, at the Chicago Tribune, weighs in on the dubious festivities and admits his ambivalence: “Don’t get carried away on National Grammar Day”. Arnold Zwicky, linguist at Stanford, is a bit more pointed, though: “National (OMIGOD) Grammar Day”.
So what’s the controversy? Well, it has to do with the distinction between grammar and usage and the surrounding language myths. These myths began many centuries ago and persist to this day and vex the uniformed usage-police (who curiously give Shakespeare a pass) and hurt the usage-violators who suffer under the scornful red pens of the former.
Well, what’s grammar? And what’s usage? Objectively, grammar is the machine that makes capable, drives, and accounts for human speech. Usage is a list of prescribed rules of written English and has to do with mere matters of taste and preference, for example, that one should not split infinitives. In her book Ancient Rhetorics for Modern Students, ASU rhetoric professor Sharon Crowley argues that “usage rules are the conventions [. . .] Americans use to discriminate against one another” (282).
For the real story about how language and how it works, PBS’s site Do You Speak American?, born from Robert MacNeil’s documentary of the same name, and inspired by his previous work on The Story of English, is a rich resource for earnest, curious, amateur linguists and for ill-informed, pretentious, pietistic pop-grammarians alike. A good place to start is with Edward Finegan who describes the differences between prescriptivism and descriptivism in “What is Correct Language?”.
Other contributions to the site include John Algeo’s chapter from the book Language Myths (I have a copy in my room) in which he tackles the idea of language decay, “Americans are Ruining English”, and Walt Wolfram’s article in which he describes processes of linguistic evolution, “The Truth About Change”. And if you don’t believe these linguists, who can doubt trustworthy NPR contributor Geoff Nunberg who discusses the “the decline of grammar” in “Language Diplomacy”.
I encourage you to begin to really examine your own assumptions about the relationship between language and society by further investigating language prestige and prejudice at the PBS site. Then check out Peter Patrick’s Linguistic Human Rights page, particularly his Ten Linguistic Axioms (and see also his page on African American English).
Happy National Grammar Day!
Linkjam!
With Chris Jordan’s photo series still stuck in my head, I thought it time to post the art links that have been backing up.
First, Peter Plagens asks in a Newsweek article if, with the advent of new technologies, “Is photography dead?”. Probably not, as publications such as National Geographic continue to celebrate the medium with its list of the top ten photos of 2007 (dig the cloud leopard of Borneo, third picture in). But then who needs photographic images if others can capture with paint and canvas what light imprints on treated film, such as these “9 artists who will blow your mind”.
It’s easy to be fooled by the photoreal images at the former link, but how difficult is it to fool discriminating art professionals? Apparently, not too difficult, at least not for Freddie Linsky who, according to a Daily Mail article, fooled “the art world into buying his tomato ketchup paintings”.
Perhaps art appreciation is a matter of perspective, but in the case of several sidewalk painters, perspective is everything as can be seen here: “New 3D Sidewalk Paintings”. And there’s plenty more unusual, and non-traditional art to be seen the world over; just witness these “33 Weird Statues and Sculptures Around The World”.
The sculptures at the former link may make some scratch their heads and wonder: “Do all we or others say is ‘art’ qualify as such?” Some creative graffiti (pay attention Danielle) might be argued to have artistic merit. Consider, for example, these “7 Unusually Geeky Approaches to Graffiti”.
Innovations in science, math, and technology offer other new opportunities for artistic expression. Dig these exploding nano-wires, these fractal art contest winners , and these symmetric energy pictures.
Enjoy the art, boys and girls.
Linkjam!
Mostly for APELC students, here’re some links I mentioned to you which are germane to our recent activities.
After reading “On Compassion” by Barbara Ascher, I referenced “A Dollar a Day”, a recent, four-part BBC documentary. Worth listening to and wondering about when you plunk down $4.00 or more for a Starbuck’s macchiato.
Eric Wilson, author of Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, was interviewed on NPR this week about engaging melancholy. Interesting listen in consideration of our late encounter with John Stuart Mill’s and his thoughts on happiness.
Finally, here’s an article from Newsweek, particularly noteworthy for Blaise and Eliza who’ve recently referenced the “safety” of one of Amsterdam’s most famous attractions for their argumentative papers in favor of legalized, regulated prostitution: “Turn Out the Red Light?” Seems like the fun’s over in that very special and unusually aromatic section of the city.
Linkjam!
Last week I came across a series of photographs by Chris Jordan, Running the Numbers, in which he makes manifest the vast consumption habits of the American people. (His other series include another on American consumption, Intolerable Beauty, and one on the the devastation suffered in the Gulf Coast in 2005, In Katrina’s Wake.) Several APELCers asked me to post the link to the very remarkable images, and, certainly, they’re rhetorically rich and worth looking at in class.
I’ve collected a few links in the past couple of months about consumption, waste, and recycling. The first is a piece about Ari Derfel, who kept his trash for an entire year to see just what one person was capable of generating.
Another is an opinion from The Economist entitled “The truth about recycling”. This is particularly important when one considers the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, continent-sized patches of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean.
Perhaps you’re not aware of just what can be recycled, so you might check here: “21 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle”. And get active and get more information from the National Recycling Coalition.
Linkjam!
The primaries are in full swing. The race for the Democratic nomination is 243 delegate-strong Hillary Clinton or 158 delegate-holder Barack Obama’s for the taking. And it appears as if John McCain has edged out over his Republican competitors for the GOP nomination (with 97 delegates, currently), but Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney (29 and 74 delegates each, respectively) are still fighting. Super Tuesday is just a few days away though, and it’ll mean the end of the road for some, although the imperturbable Ron Paul (6 delegates) and the unflappable Mike Gravel are refusing to concede.
It’s unbelievably important that you’re paying attention to the rhetoric of the day, kids, and how the press is covering it all. For example, consider the analysis of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s curious evasions about a possibly running as a third-party candidate: “Nature Abhors a Vacuum, and Politics Abhors Clear Statements”. (For more on third-party possibilities, check out The Economist’s latest “Democracy in America” podcast.)
Evasion, chicanery, and scandal, though, isn’t new in American politics. If you interpreted Bob Roberts as an attack on Republican conservatism, understand that evasion, chicanery, and scandal are not the domain of any one single group or party as Shawn pointed out when he cited the Chappaquiddick incident involving Senator Ted Kennedy. Serendipitously, US News & World Report recently surveyed “Great Moments in Campaign History” that included many other noteworthy political and campaign missteps.
How do media manage, frame, and spin all the information streaming in, not only from all of the United States, but from around the world? Dig the recent BBC Documentary series “Making News”. (Discover more the implications of alternative media such as blogging and the role of the press in democracies in the documentary “Press for Freedom”, and go even deeper with FRONTLINE’s extended series, News War.)
For a break in the midst of all the press and politicking, have a look over at the PBS program NOW’s episode on the tradition of American political satire, and then head over to the The Borowitz Report for a laugh.
All this stumping, reporting, informing, judging, deciding, and fighting may seem a lot to keep track of, boys and girls, but some day soon it’ll all be yours to deal with. Be prepared. You can get a start at DeclareYourself.com or RocktheVote.org.
Tales from Shakespeare
During class, freshmen, I mentioned Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb and his sister, Mary, a children’s book that distills the Bill’s comedies and tragedies to a manageable form for kids. You can read an illustrated version at the University of Florida’s Digital Collections.
In it is contained, of course, our current drama Romeo and Juliet. It’s worth a look, maybe have a read for clarification purposes. It’s pretty simple, but it’s at least better than Cliff’s or Spark’s Notes.
Philosophizing
In the past several weeks, Nigel Warburton has produced four most excellent podcasts over at Philosophy Bites. Take some time to expand your thinking beyond your immediate familiarities and really examine the struggles we deal with daily. You’re gonna hear these names in college anyway, so why not be prepared? Check’em out:
- Ludwig Wittgenstein on philosophy, language, and logic;
- Plato on war;
- Edmund Burke on politics,
- Richard Norman on Humanism.
And, as a supplement to that last one, dig this recent NPR broadcast of an interview with Steven Pinker on the idea of morality as a ’sixth sense’.
Peace out.
Top of the World
Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, conquered Mt. Everest in 1953, has died at 88. Here’s a groovy 360 of Mt. Everest, which, at a staggering height of 29, 029 feet, is the highest point on our little planet earth.
Sir Edmund and Norgay were on top of the world when they reached the summit of the killer mountain. It was only a matter of time before the story of their pioneering experience was put to song.
Linkjam!
Charity and goodwill aren’t fixed to the holiday season. Here’re some items I found (some that go back to November that I just didn’t have time to post) that may provoke thought or even inspire action for the new year:
There’s the curious story from CNN I mentioned tp some of you before break that highlights an ironic coming-together of the word’s three great monotheistic faiths: “Muslim helps Jew attacked on New York suway”.
In effort to get technology into the hands of learners in underdeveloped nations, One Laptop per Child was highlighted on the NewsHour: “Laptops Offer High-tech Hope in Developing Countries”.
Of course, kids need to be healthy in body as well as mind, and you can help feed families and expand your vocabulary at the same time at FreeRice.com. (Kind of chintzy, but every little bit helps.) And Country Crock has partnered with America’s Second Harvest to help feed families right here in the States, but they need you to tell your story of sharing.
And still back at home, the Alliance to End Homelessness released a study claiming that our veterans make up one quater of the of America’s homeless. While this and other shames are perpetrated on our doorsteps, conditions are even worse in other parts of the world. Doctors Without Borders released it annual Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian stories of 2007, and NPR followed up with a piece on the same.
There’s plenty going on in the world boy and girls, but you’re not helpless when it comes to taking action by digging in and helping out.
See you soon.
The Republican Debate
Kickin’ it here with Ryan, Laura D., Carli, Taylor, Tony, Chloe, Hunter, Simone, Mark, and Kelsey. And Marie, and Clay, Paul, Brennan, Laura P., Michael, Julia, and Elise. And also, Aislinn, Katie, Tiana, Alex, Danielle, and Matt. We’re watchin’ Tom, Mitt, Rudy, Mike, Fred, John, Ron, and Duncan battle it out.
Thanks Michael for the pizza, Katie for the popcorn, Aislinn for the cookies! Yeah coming to school at night.
Hey, Hey, My, My (Updated)
As I mentioned to many of you, there’s sad news from the world of music: Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of the pioneering 1980s metal band Quiet Riot, died Sunday at the young age of 52. “So what’s it got to do with class, Mr. Girard?” you’re probably thinking. Well, this is mostly for APELC, but the freshmen can enjoy it, too.
Quiet Riot scored the first real heavy metal hit with mainstream appeal in 1982 with their cover of the 1973 Slade single “Cum on Feel the Noize”. It was a significant piece of popular rhetoric (ah, there’s the connection), that, along with its sister hit “Metal Health”, argued in the careers of other heavy metal glam and hair bands like Motely Crue, RATT, Twisted Sister, and their (mostly) Los Angeleno contemporaries. The scene was dubious though, in that while it heralded the coming of totally sweet groups like Guns N’ Roses, it also gave unfortunate rise to some real weiner bands like Bon Jovi, and tympana-torturing power-ballad specialists like Poison, Cinderella, and (shudder) The Scorpions (who’d actually been around for years, but whose German rock sound somehow, bafflingly became irresistible to a large segment of the American listening public in the 1980s).
When I was eleven, a classmate, Nate Garza, introduced me to Metal Health, the Quiet Riot album on which “Cum on Feel the Noize” appeared. Obviously I wasn’t the intended audience; the cover freaked me out. But even I couldn’t escape the 80s metal juggernaut, which was very cool and informed the decade’s music culture which was divided among the hair rockers, synthpoppers (who thankfully died relatively early deaths), the burgeoning alt rock/pop and hip-hop scenes, soulpoppers (think New Edition), and the top 40 horrors that were Richard Marx, Phil Collins, Mike + The Mechanics, Tiffany, John Waite, and―the very tired―Starship (to name a very scant few). The death knells of heavy metal officially sounded in 1990 with the simultaneous debut releases of “supergroup” Damn Yankees’ self-titled album with its hit “High Enough” and Nelson’s After the Rain and the hit of the same name it spanwed. (And that is two paragraphs of solid, value-laden context, kids.)
Here’re three different presentations of the venerable “Cum on Feel the Noize”. The first, the Slade original (link is now working), is followed Quiet Riot’s take, and then a version by Oasis sung by perennial cry-baby and all-round jackball Liam Gallagher. Pay attention to the different (musical and visual) schemes in each; the Slade and Oasis bookends are live performances, but the tasty Quiet Riot center is the band’s original video with obvious tropes. Ask yourself as you observe: What personas are the bands attempting to effect? What audiences are they trying to reach? What are their arguments? Which is the most effective or are they all effective in their respective contexts?
Raise your lighters to Kevin DuBrow and enjoy the sounds. Hey, hey, my, my…
Slade, 1973
Quiet Riot, 1982
Oasis, 1996
What Would Emerson Think?
In an effort to continue to encourage you students to question your own assumptions and think clearly, objectively about culture and society, let me quote Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words from “Self-reliance” to frame the story that follows:
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it. A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition as if every thing were titular and ephemeral but he.
How then would Emerson respond to this: “Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes and Jail”? The authorities did offer an explanation, “Saudi: Why we punished rape victim”, in which they even justified more than doubling the victim’s original sentence from 90 lashes to 200 as a result of her appeal, and offered further details to validate the punishment.
If people are laws unto themselves and can determine by consensus what is good for their own communities and what is bad, that is, they readily apply the labels good and bad to this and that according to their preferences, can others’ criticism of the such systems be justified? Should we do anything to stop that with which we don’t agree?
What think you? Leave a comment by clicking the link above?
Freaky!
Hey all, as timely as last Friday’s, pre-formal annoucement urging students to avoid “freakin’” at the Pima Air and Space Museum Saturday night comes this controversy out of Texas: “Freaked Out: Teens’ Dance Moves Split a Texas Town”.
Oh, Kevin Bacon, thou shouldst be dancing at this hour: freakin’ teens hath need of thee!
Podcasts
Marie C. was inquiring after podcasts today after I mentioned that I listen to the Online NewsHour’s daily podcast, among many others. Another I listen to is Philosophy Bites, and this week’s discussion about the relationship of philosophy to literature and rhetoric was especially interesting. I recommend you give it a listen.
What’s great about many podcasts it that they’re free and plnety are downloadable through iTunes (you can grab a feed’s link, click “Subscribe to Podcast” under the Advanced, and paste the link in the box that appears, and you’re set). You can find all types of stuff if you look around the iTunes Podcast directory: daily podcasts produced by print and online periodicals, college lectures, documentary programs, and plenty more to keep you occupied and learning. In fact, here’s a link to a former podcast of the BBC’s In Our Time about a subject near and dear to many of you juniors and seniors.
You can find links to some of the podcasts I listen to regularly in the sidebar near the bottom of this page. I recommend them all to help you increase your awareness of the events that have shaped and are shaping our world.