Soundtrack To My Life

Finally Moving by Pretty Lights: Because Pretty Lights (a single man) makes all of music through electronic digital sampling, he has very few words in his style of music. This song is basically all different beats and synthetic rhythms he created and it’s almost impossible to describe by words. But just like the chorus and the only line of the song says “sometimes I get a feeling, that I never never never had before”. This song puts makes me think of all the happy and satisfying times of my life not only by the words but by the rhythm and tone the song maintains throughout the whole song.

Ramble On by Led Zeppelin: I’m very big into classic rock of the 60’s and 70’s and thought I would be pretty stereotypical and pick one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. I really like it mainly because the guitar rhythm and the drum beat, however the lyrics represent a large factor in my life that helped get to where I am today. That is being able bounce off different hardships and being able to turn them it into a positive lesson. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes but if I’m able “ramble on” then I can look at the mistake as a joke that happened in the past or just turn into something I’m able to improve on.

Still Dre by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg: Classic old-school west coast rap (or at least rap not in the 2000’s) w/ a very sick beat and surprisingly and very good moral. In the song Dre raps about how people are assuming that he changed true self b/c of fame, but in reality he knows only he himself is capable of changing his own actions. Ultimately, what other people think doesn’t really matter because he believes his fame has not changed him. This relates to how there will be many people in my life trying to force or at least guide me a certain direction, but ultimately I know it could only be myself who knows what is best.

Research Paper Quote/Explanation

“Our current system incarcerates people like Iowa's Mr. Becker who had no culpability for their actions. It keeps sane people involuntarily committed, and gives potentially violent mentally ill individuals the right to go off violence-preventing medications. That's not justice, it's mayhem” (Jaffe A19).

Jaffe, D.J. "The Trouble with the Insanity Defense." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition,                       

            255.70 (2010): A19-A-1. ProQuest.  Web. November 21, 201.

This could be used in my paper in paragraph explaining how it’s morally and physically wrong to throw the mentally ill in jail for extended period time, opposed to limiting their sentence and sending his/her to a psychiatric institution. Although I don’t particularly agree with what this author says, it’s always good to look at why people might feel the insanity defense ultimately hurts the mentally ill. The author thinks that because people are so caught up on how criminals abuse this defense solely to limit jail time, the actual mentally ill, like the man this author describes, has to suffer in a jail cell with little psychiatric help for a long period of time. Overall this quote is a good basis for the troubles with the current American court system in response to the insanity defense.      

Fowles/Advertising Coca-Cola Commercial

I decided to choose the T.V. ad for Coca-Cola with the Simpson’s characters. It is called Hard Times and it follows Monte Burns a very rich character who is the stereotypical old, selfish, greedy billionaire mogul who controls all the power in Springfield. However, in the commercial he loses all of his fortune and becomes very sad and down. In the beginning, it shows all of Burns’ stuff being sold to other residents including his very large mansion and all his accessories such as stone statues etc. Then, very disappointed and sad for his loss, he walks in a park full of many Simpson’s characters and sees them all very happy and drinking Coca-Cola. In a very comical and cliché way, the residents all come together while drinking Coke and then when Burns walks by Apu, holding many cokes,  offers him a Coke. He drinks it and immediately becomes happy and joins the Springfield residents in fun and games. The commercial ends with Millhouse running into a large Coke bottle in the sky that says open happiness.

This commercial’s goal seems to be on the surface to get the viewer to think of Coke not only as refreshing beverage, but as a drink that brings people together in happiness. Coke probably wanted to use the Simpson’s characters because it a very popular show while also being a very cheerful/colorful scene. Burns in the show is a very self-centered and emotionless, but the presence of Coke and the Springfield community is able to cheer him up from his losses. The commercial uses a few of Fowles’ appeals such as need for affiliation and guidance. Burns is alone walking in the park, but when being around happy people drinking Coke he cheers up. And also the actual Coke is the symbol for happiness in commercial and guides Burns away from being depressed from losing his fortune. The Simpsons characters are very likeable people and combined with a very cheerful mood, in my opinion Coca-Cola does a fantastic job of promoting their product without really saying anything about the product itself.         

Roberts/Research Blog

Research Question:

When a criminal gets a sentenced reduced due to “reason of insanity”, is this fair and legitimate?

 This topic is very controversial and interesting because of the overall vagueness of what “insanity” really constitutes. In this paper it would be very crucial to get the opinion of different doctors/psychiatrists/psychologists on what it means to be so called insane. For some people, having a mental illness constitutes as being “insane”, but what if a murderer had all the resources to get help? What if a murderer with a mental illness took his/her medication, and fully knew what they were doing at the moment they murdered someone? Or if they just neglected to take his/her medication? These are very interesting questions and could be debated either way in explaining if someone is truly insane. I would integrate a case study in my paper in which a man got a sentenced reduced because of “reason of insanity” and study the true illness, if had one, this person had. It would also be reasonable to study how the insanity plea came about in American law and ultimately determine if pleading “reason of insanity” should be abolished in the American courts.

Although there are obviously different situations of people abusing this law and other situations where people probably had no control of murdering someone, I would have to make a clear argument on if or if not I believe pleading “reason of insanity” is a fair or unfair.    

Racism- Ayn Rand

            In Ayn Rand’s piece on racism her main objective is to argue why, in a political and social sense, it is not acceptable to collectively place a certain race or any group under certain laws or guidelines. Individualism rather than collectivism, in Rand’s opinion, is what makes a country and its individuals successful. It is only acceptable to look past different races and look at individual success and motivation.   Likewise, capitalism compared to communism places an emphasis on individual success rather than having everybody forced to do be split up into different groupings by the government or some communal force. In her piece her main objective as seen in the end of the piece is to argue against The Civil Rights Act of 1964. She believes that even though African Americans would gather more rights and wouldn’t be as repressed, it is not right to separate different races. She thinks it unacceptable for black leaders to be in favor for this “separate but equal” philosophy in which they “would become victims of the same racists by succumbing to racism” (Rand 134). She believes racism is merely objectifying people by the way they look like rather than looking at an individual’s morality and intelligence. Ultimately, this civil rights act would only hinder the struggle for an equal, individualistic, capitalist America.

            I believe this piece is very informative and it is very easy to follow her arguments on racism and other political views. She makes it clear that she favors a nation in which individuals are able prosper on how they act and think after they born, rather than being born into a certain situation in which it is impossible to escape. The only place where I could see some flaw in her argument is when she talks about communism and how she believes communism is a form of racism. If everyone, no matter the race, is held under the same laws, then I cannot really understand how this would be racism. I see how communism rejects individualism in which individuals are not able to prosper and work for a prosperous life, but this would be the same for everyone. Overall, her views on capitalism and racism might have been pretty extreme, but her arguments, whether you agree with her not, are very logical.   

Sedaris- Solution to Saturday's Puzzle

Solution to Saturday’s Puzzle by David Sedaris is attended to be a funny piece with many jokes all revolving around this one situation he had on a plane going to North Carolina. Sedaris intended for the whole piece to be a running joke especially with the crossword puzzle words he uses and the cough drop dilemma. His situation with this one lady is pretty humorous in that he’s put in an awkward situation and doesn’t really know how to handle it. Also, his thought about the stewardess liking him and the lady jumping off the plane was pretty funny as well. It was pretty apparent that was piece was meant to be a humorous right from the start because of him sneezing up a cough drop on this woman’s lap. However, he keeps up this style and makes running commentary on the humorous situation he has gotten himself into. One last note, in the last paragraph the crossword clue he gives us is supposed to be “shithead” if I’m not mistaken.

Joke:

Where does the one legged waitress work?

The Ihop