Global Warming - A Logical Fallacy

It's been argued by many people, especially liberals, that global warming is caused by human factors. Factories, cars, ad power plants are to blame for the warming of our planet. This argument is a NON SEQUITUR. Correlation does not indicate causation - There could be a bunch of different reasons why the planet is warming, and just because it started happening right at our industrial revolution doesn't mean we're the cause. We COULD be the cause, but you can't make a logical argument that we are just based on the fact that how we live and how the planet is warming are correlated.

Music Piracy - Not as Bad for the Artists as it Might Seem

People today are getting all upset over music piracy, how it's ethically wrong, how it hurts the artists, etc. In reality, many artists really don't mind music piracy, and many have turned to embracing it instead of fighting it. Artists such as Kanye West, Radiohead, Pretty Lights, and more are putting their music out for free, and are making money through donations and concerts instead. Artists don't make the majority of their profits from CD sales - those go to the greedy record companies. Artists make a lot more money performing live and touring - what if we moved toward a system that lets artists put their music out for free, and they make just as much as they would have from people attending their shows? Maybe that would work out better in the long run.

America Runs on Dunkin - Fallacy

Dunkin' Donuts' current advertising slogan is "America Runs on Dunkin." This is a logical fallacy - it makes the assumption that since a select amount of Americans start their day with a caffeine fix at Dunkin' Donuts, all Americans (or just the absolute majority of Americans) run on Dunkin' Donuts. This advertising slogan is what's known as a HASTY GENERALIZATION. A hasty generalization is a logical fallacy where a person draws a conclusion about a large population based on just a small sample population. In this case, Dunkin argues that, based on the people they see roll through their stores in the morning (and afternoon as well), all Americans run on Dunkin' Donuts, which we know is just not true, given that Starbucks and Seattle's Best are still in business.

Dunkin' Donuts' slogan is also a BANDWAGON fallacy - it is an attempt to a person think that everyone is starting off at Dunkin' Donuts in the morning, and therefore he or she should too.

Media piracy is a topic that is becoming more and more prominent in our country, especially as the debate of internet regulation is continually growing. Some argue that stealing intellectual property is as heinous of a crime as stealing physical property, and people should be punished as such. Others argue that you just cannot regulate music and media like you can physical property, and since artists and production companies experience no tangible loss per song stolen.

In the article in USA Today, the writer explains his experience in China where he bought a CD, and was sure it was pirated, since most of the CDs sold, even in legitimate CD stores, are pirated and sold for dirt cheap. The pirated music was of excellent quality - indistinguishable from areal CD. This lead the writer to realize that musicians in China use CDs not as money makers but as promotion tools. Artists in China make their real money off of donations and concerts. The writer argues that this is a good thing, and that the artists are okay with the system as is.

In a different article in TNJN, the writer argues that music piracy is still an issue, and needs to be fixed. The article states: "Music piracy is not only stealing music from the artist but the producers, technicians and everybody involved in the music making process. By pirating music, individuals are being put out of jobs and limiting the flow of new bands entering the industry." It discusses how the RIAA has sued 159 students at UT, offering a $3,000 settlement in place of challenging them in court.

Both of these articles highlight the extreme endpoints of the media piracy debate; There are many people with much more moderate views in between. Personally, I think the actions of the RIAA are disgusting, and I cannot comprehend how a court actually justified making some poor lady pay 200K for a couple downloaded songs.

New Museum Idea

I've decided to change my museum idea - I'm going to do a museum based on nutrition. It will be a lot easier to form a good paper around this topic because it's a topic that I am more interested in more and feel more passionately about. There are going to be several exhibits that are fun and interactive, that show people the dangers of some of the foods they eat, and how easy it is to pursue delicious, easy, healthy alternates. The reason the museum should exist is because obesity is a terrible epidemic in the United States, and obesity related complications kill more people than anything else.

Dictator Museum

There should be a museum dedicated to history's worst and cruelest dictators and revolutionary leaders. Stalin, Hitler, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, etc. While these people were terrible men who were responsible for the deaths of an unbelievable amount of innocent people, they need to be remembered. When people think of, for example, the innocent people that were killed in the Holocaust, they need to be reminded that there was a person behind all of it. In the case of Hitler/the Holocaust, it's what happens automatically anyway, but a sole reminder of all the terrible things certain people are capable of with certain powers (such as a museum) would go a much farther way in raising awareness and helping to prevent people like this from ever abusing their power again.
I could do a lot of research for this on things like the Holocaust museum in DC (I've been there, it's an incredibly graphic but enlightening experience) to see what was successful there and what I could incorporate into my museum. I'd also have to research into a couple dictator's specific lives/reigns/crimes, so I could use them as examples in the paper.

San Diego Museum of Man

I visited the San Diego Museum of Man. I don't think it was quite as interesting as some of the visits in my blog group. I kind of wish I had gone to a science or aerospace museum, but I decided to try something new. It wound up being pretty cool - It was fun learning about where man came from and everything that made us what we are today. The museum definitely managed to make it a lot more interesting than my high school anthropology class did! The museum had some interesting exhibits, from one on ancient Egypt to one investigating the evolutionary curiosities of the human skeleton. All in all it was a pretty good trip, and I definitely learned some cool stuff. Not enough to make me switch from a technical major though!

Museum website: http://www.museumofman.org/exhibits

Would an Apology Help or Hurt?

In this case, an apology was not necessary. Kanye West was speaking out against a political opponent of his, and although he did it in a rash and controversial way, he did not need to cave into people pressuring him to apologize. All that did was force an insincere apology anyway. Kanye is allowed to think that George Bush hates black people - maybe a statement such as this could have pressured George Bush into putting a little more time and effort into helping Katrina victims more swiftly and effectively, in order to avert the image of being a racist. Instead, Kanye instantly rescinded his statements, and George Bush was allowed to go on and on in interviews about how "offended he is by being called a racist." Here's a hint George Bush: don't get "offended," SHOW people how you do care and you can make a difference. That's the best way to make Kanye look like an idiot, not by drawing an insincere apology out of him like a grade school teacher draws out of a kid who pulled his classmate's hair.

Kanye West Apology

There was a lot of political unrest and government criticism after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the surrounding area. One of the most controversial statements made about the government was Kanye West's attack of then-president George W. Bush: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Not only did this attack severely offend the president of the united states, it negatively affected many people's opinions of both George Bush and Kanye West. Kanye West later went on to apologize and state that his statements were made out of frustration, and stemmed from the emotion of the moment. He then went on to state that human beings in general don't "choose the right words" in states of emotional distress. George Bush, in an interview with Matt Lauer, said he forgave Kanye, but said that he was still troubled that anyone would ever call him a racist.
Some people were surprised that Kanye openly apologized for this incident - The only reason he did so was to regain public support. No one really knows if he meant it or not. He could very well still think George Bush is a racist. That being said, maybe an apology was not necessary, because he was just criticizing a public figure, something citizens in this country are expected to do.

Example of partisan rhetoric being dangerous

Not all partisan rhetoric is as safe as we'd like it to be. Sometimes, when someone has a very strong view on a subject or has a very determined agenda, he/she can say things that could have very dangerous results. One example of this kind of dangerous partisan rhetoric is the civil rights activist Malcolm X. He had the same basic agenda as, say, Martin Luther King Jr., but he went about it in a very different way. His speeches often include talks of civil unrest and violence, such as this quote: "Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." It's obvious that he's just trying to tell people (mainly black people in the context it was said) to stand up for themselves and make people regret disrespecting them, but it's obvious how it could be argued that Malcolm X incited more violence than was necessary, and that his partisan rhetoric proved to be very dangerous. Now the question is, did Malcolm X help more than he hurt?

Problems involved in "Feel Good" Bipartisan Arguments

People talk non stop about having a "bipartisan" government, and how great it would be to have a system where everyone would decide what they think on an issue-by-issue basis, and there would be no political parties that would force people to go one way or another on every issue. If you think about it, it seems like a great idea at first, but most people who are pro-bipartisanship lack the ability to see the benefits of the side they oppose (but then again, how is that different from any other argument or conflict?).
The biggest problem with bipartisanship is a lack of support for issues that many people have in common. Take the issue of abortion for example - Not ALL Republicans are pro-life, and not ALL Democrats are pro-choice. However, the majority of Republicans are pro-life, and the Republican party provides an outstanding organizing point for pro-life persons. The Republican party can organize protests, rallies, etc., and know that it is making MOST of its people happy. It can also send people to elections that carry a political platform that will gel with people's beliefs as well as possible. You might not agree with every belief held by a Republican politician, but most Republicans can rest assured that the majority of their values will be taken care of. It is much harder to do this in a bipartisan system - political candidates' values would be all over the place, and it would be much harder to select a candidate that would effectively represent most of your political beliefs.

Follow Up Blog Entry

I'm very glad that I wrote this paper on the song Californication. I had always kinda of known what the Chili Peppers were saying in this song, but I never really thought about it and analyzed what they were truly saying. Turns out, they have a much more grim view of the California dream than I originally thought they did. The metaphors to Alderaan and the biblical Great Flood paint a very grim picture of the California Dream in the listener's head, and make them rethink what their opinions of the beautiful people and epic partying in California really are. I know I did - I used to think the California Dream was absolutely awesome (It's why I came out here in the first place). While I don't think the California Dream is actually going to crumble our society, my analysis of this song did make me realize that I need to make sure I keep my head on straight and that I don't get sucked up into it.

Californication

     The song I'm going to write about in my paper is the song "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  What intrigues me most about this song is that I do not know exactly what the Chili Peppers are saying about California, even though the song has hundreds of plays in my iTunes library. I know a little bit about what the song's saying...It talks about how self absorbed and fake California is, but it doesn't have the absolute negative view of this aspect of California that some songs, articles, etc. have about it.  It more says, "This is what California is.  It's a unique place, but if what you want is the beautiful people, plastic surgery, Hollywood obsession, California is the place to be."  It also implies that California is exactly what most people dream about, which might be the Chili Peppers trying to make a blanket statement about Americans in general.
     I just talked about several different things about the song that could initiate my paper's thesis, and I'm sure there is much more to the song then I've realized so far.  That is why this song is so intriguing to me, and why I chose it for my paper - I don't know what I think about this song, and I don't know what the Chili Peppers are trying to say here. Lines like, "Psychic spies from China/Try to steal your mind elation/Little girls from Sweden/Dream of silver screen quotations" confuse the heck out of me, and I'm hoping that this assignment will help me figure out both what I think about this song, and a deeper level of what the Chili Peppers are trying to say.

The music video:

Dummy Post

I know how to do it