a house divided, blog post 21- annie deitz

Right now, somewhere in the universe, a small, relatively unimportant country (in the universal scheme of things) is beginning to turn on itself. Citizens are beginning to despise their neighbors. Families are being torn apart. Protests are being led, fights are breaking out, and people are terrifying others.

Why?

Political affiliations.

The upcoming 2016 American Presidential Election plays host to a wide variety of candidates. Whether it be a Cuban American republican, or an affluent conservative white man, or a female liberal, or a democratic socialist Jew; this election seems to be comprised of the diversity expected from an America melting pot.

Yet, like usual, we fail to recognize a good thing when we see it.

Rather than celebrating our various beliefs and differences, we attack those holding opinions different from our own. Rather than listening to others ideas and incorporating them into our own, we disregard anything that contradicts our own thoughts. Rather than using conflicting stances to widen our global outlook, we remain close minded and ignorant. Rather than acknowledging the fact that varying political preferences is a beneficial effect of our development as a culture that in turn helps promote a positive and productive society, we strip people who maintain differing opinions of intelligence and even basic aspects of humanity, restraining them (in our own minds) to the bottom of the bottom, where their voices remain unheard.

Everyone, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum, has thought on at least one occasion, "this political idea is completely ludicrous and holds no actual substance." Then, without addressing counterarguments or listening to any opposing evidence, you decide that whoever supports that idea or claims that political party is an idiot. Uneducated. Completely ignorant to what's really going on in America today.

This happens to everyone.

Conservatives are stereotyped as wealthy men who could care less about the plights of the middle/low class. They were born into an affluent family and are completely unaware of things going on around them. They are bigots, idiots, and should not be trusted.

Liberals are stereotyped as poor young adults who hang out in coffee bars wearing their beanies and converses while complaining about the elite 1% and asking for handouts from the government. Freshly out of school, they have no idea how their radical and impractical ideas will negatively affect the nation. They are loafers, idiots, and should not be trusted.

Despite our flaws, America is a pretty cool place. But it won't remain a cool place if we try to attack our neighbors in order to place our own political platforms on pedestals. This is actually sort of what happened during the Civil War- Americans were so politically biased against each other that they tried to dissolve the things uniting them together, the things that make America a pretty cool place. Rather than focusing on and exploiting our differences, we should instead work together to create a safe environment that allows for healthy political competition- something that would actually end up being beneficial to American government.  Lincoln famously stated once, "a house divided cannot stand." Our political diversity has proven that we can stand even through division, but maybe we could fly if those divisions stopped being so hostile.

Assignment 23: the perfect playlist

A Blast From the Past

"High Fidelity" (2000) was a film that was remarkably ahead of its time. The film tells the story of Rob Gordon, a washed-up music junkie (played by the fantastic John Cusack) who spends his days creating perfect 5 song playlists. There's his playlist for his worst break up ever, his playlist of the top 5 soul tracks released between 1955 and 1965, and his playlist for his ex-girlfriend's dad's funeral.

Today, thanks to Spotify,  Limewire, iTunes, the "genius" Itunes feature, and Pandora, creating a "perfect" playlist has never been easier.

On the other hand, Rob probably would be appalled by the slapdash way some of us throw together any group of songs above a certain tempo before we head to the gym, or take all those below a certain tempo and thoughtlessly label it “chillaxxx.” As Rob forewarned, “The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. You’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”

So for this blog assignment, create a "perfect" playlist for something. It could be your perfect playlist to listen to at the gym (boring!), perfect playlist for a rainy day, perfect playlist for anything. . . be as creative as you can. Once you have chosen a topic, select 5 tracks for this playlist, noting the song and artist, and write a few sentences explaining why you chose this song, what this song adds to your playlist, why you put it where you did, and how it works with the other songs you selected to create a cohesive perfect playlist.

If you want link it to a spotify playlist and share a link.

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, April 3rd at 11:59 pm

(Last day to turn in make up assignments 21-23)

entry inspired by John Cowgill

Robert Blog 21- Somewhere

Somewhere in the Universe....... There are people who hate Freedom and want to wait in line for 2 days for bread... They are known as Communists ..... and they are in fact extra terrestrials. It is true! Communists are a race of parasitic aliens who seek to devour a planets resources with their self destructive nature. Much like Californians, Communists will ruin a planet with their ideology and social justice ideals, absorbing all that is good and free and ruining the planets they invade. One planet could not support the amount "Dude Free Stuff LOL" that accompanies a communist takeover, so they are constantly on the search for new planets to enslave. Somewhere in this Universe there are hot blooded Americans who are willing to fight of this Commie Invasion and to restore America to it's Capitalistic Glory! Somewhere there is a man trying to make America Great Again.....

Robert Blog 20- How to: Remove Communists

If, like me, you have noticed a dangerous increase in filthy communists in this blessed country of ours but do not of knowings how to remove this menace of society, than this the blog for you! Removing this dirty Red Menace can be quite tricky as dirty Commies are very good at hiding, but I know their secrets and will show you in (INSERT NUMBER OF STEPS HERE) easy steps how to remove them.
Step 1: Identifying Communist-
Communists can be hard to spot as they look like most everyday people, but they do have some features that will be easy identifiers once you learn them. Most communists have bad hygiene, they are to busy complaining about the lack of free stuff on the internet and spouting opinionated garbage onto the internet to actually bath. They also will wear filthy commie t-shirts with the Hammer and Sickle or a Che Guevara. They are also most often overweight and have their hands permanently covered in Dorito dust. There will also be an unmistakable aura of entitlement that will shiver your all American willies.
Step 2: Diagnosing Communists-
Like Cancer, Communists come in many varieties such as: Socialists, Maoists, Stalinists, and the Homeless. This step is irrelevant however because all Communists are deserving of immediate prejudice regardless of type. I just like to keep track of the types for sporting purposes.
Step 3: How to remove Communists-
There are several methods such as Napalm, Nuclear Holocaust, Running them over with your "Freedom Mobility Scooter" etc. This step is really up to you as an individual, just go with what feels natural there is no wrong answer! And don't worry about being "humane" as communists are not people anyways so again go nuts!
BONUS STEP!!!!!!!
Step 4: How to make America Great Again-

Holden Huffman Blog Post #22

If I could be any fictional character, I would probably be almost any character that Liam Neeson has played.  I think every movie I've seen him in, he plays a BADA$$.  Whether it be a protective father (Taken 1,2,3, Run All Night, etc...), a jedi master (Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace), or a savage (The Grey) his roles are always pretty cool.  He even manages to play a mean Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, and is still escaping the cops at 63 (Taken 3).  Now I know, not all of these movies were of the best quality, but regardless, who wouldn't want to be such a savage???  That's why if I could be any fictional character, I would choose almost any character that Liam Neeson has played.

Nathan Dutch Assignment 21

At this very moment, somewhere in the universe I am typing this assignment. I'm not in a very creative mood right now so I'm going to finish this response by typing exactly what comes to mind.  I am typing on a small lap top and it is annoying how sensitive these keys are, I keep accidentally putting in letters I don't mean to and it's frustrating. Right now Selection Sunday just went down so I'm thinking about how ridiculous it is that Michigan State didn't get a number 1 seed and Oregon and Virginia did. Oregon is poopoo just like every year and I'm not worried about Virginia either. Right now my brother is also playing piano and singing with my mom. They are both really good and it kind of makes me want to learn how to sing. Sadly, I'm to busy and I don't see there being any way that I could make time to learn. Well thanks for reading my stream of consciousness rant. Bye.

Assignment 22: Fictional Character, Fictional Life

Out of all of the books, all of the movies, and all of the television shows you have watched, consider your favorite characters. Then, answer the following:

If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, March 20th at 11:59 pm

(Last day to submit Blogs 21-23 is April 3rd)

Holden Huffman Blog Post #21

Somewhere in the universe right now, just about everything is happening.  Right now, someone is dying.  Right now, someone is entering this world.  Right now, someone is having the time of their life.  Right now, someone is going through a tough time. Right now, someone is doing their blog post for their AP class at Henry Clay High School. This idea is something that always interests me to think about.  Just imagine, almost anything you can think of, chances are it's happening at this very moment somewhere in the world.  That's crazy..... Right now, someone is trying to write a blog post but can't think of anything else to say so is just trying to get to that mark of 150 words.  Hopefully that person suceeds....