REHUGO+2

Sowell, Thomas. __Politics vs. Economics__ Thomas Sowell, a conservative columnist, in his article "Politics vs. Economics" claims that politicians make quick fix decisions that create long term problems. Sowell explains how quick fix ideas have hurt the oil industry, the American banks, the housing industry, and the mortgages bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Sowell's purpose is to warn the American public about the negative impact of short term decesions in order to encourage long term perspective to protect future generations instead of hurting them. His main audience is the American public who are eligible to vote, because they are the ones who have a say in which politicians end up in office and who can vote for politicians that are more likely to look at the big picture instead of just a portion, he gets the audience's attention because he explains the current problems he sees in common terms so that anyone can understand. Thomas Sowell does a great job explaining the consequences of short term fixes. The example that stuck out to me the most was of the banks. Before the Great Depression the America government had passed laws that stopped banks from having multiple branchs in order to prevent a national bank from arising that would have a monopoly over community banks. The problem with this was that whatever the major income of the area was whether it was agriculturally based or something else if that product did not due well then people did not have money to put into the bank. When the Great Depression struck banks in almost every community were shutting down. However at this same point in time Canada had a national bank and not a single bank failed. This was because the banks had many branches if one branch was not doing well it could balance out with another branch that was. I had never thought of banks in this way before, and I really liked the way that Sowell explained it so simply.
 * Thomas Sowell 9/28/11**
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**Leonard Pitts Jr. 10/1/11** Pitts Jr., Leonard. __Baked Goods as a Metaphor for Affirmative Action__ Leonard Pitts Jr., a liberal columnist, in his column " Baked Goods as a Metaphor for Affirmitive Action" asserts that different races deserve different treatment based on the way their ansestors were treated. He tells how a GOP student body at the University of California had a bake sale that tried to demonstare the unequality of races today by charging white people more money for the treats than the other races and gave women a discount, he states that the accurate way to portray today's society is the other way around with the white people paying the least and all of the other races paying the most for the baked goods, by setting it up this way he is pushing for better treatment of non-white races. His purpose is to emphasize the difficulties many non-white races have had in the past in order to reason why they should deserve special treatment today. HIs audience is the American public, he pulls his audiece in by starting with the bake sale story because people know what a bake sell is and they can relate. Leonard Pitts Jr. states that " the blacks, the Native Americans, the Asians and the Latinos would have to walk a gauntlet of gunfire, physical assault, name calling and legal roadblocks" to show the struggles that non-white races have had in the past. But the fact that he is missing is that white people have struggled too. My stepmothers grandfather was forced to go to the work camps in Russia created under Stalin's power. He and his uncle escaped while beig shot at, but no one else in his family was able to escape and they all died in the work camps. He went through gunfire, physical assault, name calling, and legal roadblocks. He was white. People all throughout history have been treated unfairly. Why is it that we continue this pattern today?
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**Thomas Sowell 10/5/11** Sowell, Thomas. __The 'Hunger' Hoax__ Thomas Sowell, a well known columnist, in his column "The Hunger Hoax" argues that the poverty in America is not really as bad as the politicians portray it to be. Sowell states that many families considered to be in poverty in America have air conditioning, microwaves, DVD players, and a car or truck, he uses this information to show that the American government's definition of 'poor' has been set to incorporate as many people as possible, and that more and more people can attain 'help' from the government which is creating a very dependent society. His purpose is to explain that the American society has become too dependent on the government in order to encourage the people of America to want to become more self reliant. Sowell shows the American audience the current dependency our society has on the government and helps the audience see some of the problems that can occur because of this unnecesarry dependency. I really enjoy reading Sowell's columns because he writes clearly and backs up what he says. It was interesting to learn that many of the people considered in poverty are overweight and have things like TV's that I wouldn't have considered someone in poverty to have. It made me realize how blessed America is. The 'poverty' in America would be considered the 'rich' in other parts of the world.
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**Leonard Pitts Jr. 10/8/11** Pitts Jr., Leonard. __The Autumn of American Discontent__ Leonard Pitts Jr. in his column "The Autumn of American Discontent" implies that the American people are not happy with the banks right now. He starts by showing the injustice in having to pay to use your own money and continues to list many of the other things that people have to pay for. His purpose is to show the problems that the banks are causing to the American people and relate this to all big corporations in order to create distrust throughout America of big corporations. He connects with his American audience by sympathizing with them, and making the audience feel like he truly understands their problems. This article was sort of weird to read because it contradicted itself. At the beginning Pitts quoted Bank of America's claim that the new fee " was needed to recoup losses caused by a new federal regulation..." Based on this quote he makes it seem like the government's fault, but then the rest of his article he bashing the banks and big corporations. His logic wasn't clear to me.
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Thomas Sowell 10/11/11 Sowell, Thomas. __Reverse Racism__ Thomas Sowell in his column "Reverse Racism", Sowell suggests that the United States of America is not a " post-racial society". Sowell demonstrates this idea by giving examples of modern day racial injustices, in one of the specific examples he talks about how the racist Attorney General Eric Holder gained control in the Obama administration and dismissed a case concerning a group of black thugs who had intimidated white voters even though there had been no legal defense offered. Sowell tries to show that racism has flipped sides causing a sort of racial pay back in order to prove that racism is still part of the American society today. His audience includes all races of adult Americans which he relates to through the common American goal of equality. It's sad but Thomas Sowell's article is pretty accurate. Despite people saying that America is no longer racists it is not true. Just a couple of days ago I could see this while taking the PSAT. Before taking the test we had to fill in a bubble indicating our race. Why should it even matter? If we truly weren't racist then we wouldn't separate ourselves by race. I also had to fill in a bubble if I was African American for a scholarship opportunity given only to blacks. Is America really past racism when high school students are rewarded scholarships based on the color of their skin?
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Leonard Pitts Jr. 10/12/11 Pitts Jr., Leonard. __GOP Looking for Someone to Love__ Leonard Pitts Jr. in his column " GOP Looking for Someone to Love" asserts that political parties base there support for a candidate on first impressions instead of what the candidate actually stands for and believes. Pitts Jr. bases his article on the disappointment evident in the republican party because of Chris Christie's statement that he will not be running for president in the 2012 election, Pitts Jr. states that people don't really know much about Christie however the media thought he would be sellable and therefore supported him he compares this to the Obama administration in that Obama was highly supported, yet has not quite seemed to live up to the expectations he was given. Leonard Pitts Jr. tries to stress the misconception of popularity being the most important part of a politician in order to show that what a person stands for is more important than their popularity. Pitts uses the upcoming presidential election to draw the reader in because the president plays such an important role in our society the public is drawn to the information concerning America's future president. I agree with the idea that people should be educated about who they are voting for. It is important to know what the candidates have done and want to do in order to pick the one that has the same ideas and beliefs as you. If your vote is based solely on the popularity of the candidate than you don't really know what you are voting for.
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Thomas Sowell 8/25/11 Sowell, Thomas. __ The Media and 'Bullying' __ Thomas Sowell in his column " The Media and 'Bullying '" suggests that political propoganda through the topic of bullying is being pushed through our society especially in schools that is encouaging unequal treatment of different races and groups of people. Sowell states that when a black student is bullied than it is made into a huge ordeal by the media, but when it is the black student doing the bullying the media turns it into a minimal offense, not only does the media focus on black students, but gay students as well, Sowell then states a law passed in California that forces schools to teach about the success of gay people. Sowell's purpose is to show that the media is pushing an agenda in order to make the public aware of the inequality that the media is encouraging. His audience is the public of America he relates to them through the anger that is felt when a person reads about inequality. I think Sowell is a little bit extreeme in his examples of bullying. Just becuase one school is racist when it comes to bullying, that doesn't mean that all schools are. The gay laws being passed in California are not suprising however, I would be suprised if the same laws were passed in Texas.
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Leonard Pitts Jr. 8/22/11 Pitts Jr., Leonard. __On the Road to Equality__ Leonard Pitts Jr. in his column " On the Road to Equality " confronts the idea that gay's are not recieving equality in our society. Pitts Jr. explains how Zachary Quintos confessed that he was gay in honnor of a 14 boy named Jamey Rodemeyer who commited suicide becuase of the bullying put on him for stating that he was gay, Pitts Jr. says how even after his death bullying continued with kids saying they were glad he was dead. Leonard Pitts Jr.'s purpose is to show that gay's are not being treated as they should in order to push for better treatment and acceptence of gay's in our society. He uses the sadness of Jamey's suicide to influence the American audience of the need to accept gay's into society. It's sad that Jamey thought life was so bad he created his own noose and hanged himself. I can't imagine hating life so much. I mean the kind of depression it would take to kill yourself, I can't even comprehend.
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Thomas Sowell 11/1/11 Sowell, Thomas. __Democracy Versus Mob Rule__ In his column " Democracy Versus Mob Rule ", Thomas Sowell persuades the reader that the mobs, or protestors as they call themselves, in the Occupy Wall Street movement are unaware of what they are protesting for and are disrespectful of their surroundings. Sowell decribes how the "protestors" trash the places they are protesting at, make loud noises during the night that make it hard for people to sleep, and some are so disrespectful that they are peeing in the streets, he shows how riduculous it is that these people go around trashing the city instead of working, and then expect the people who are working to subsidize their college education. His purpose is to explain that the "protestors" do not know enough about what they are protesting and are protesting the wrong things in order to diminish their crediblility and bring out what he see as the true problems. He connects with educated American audience using logical reasoning that they can understand and follow easily. I really like a comment Thomas Sowell makes in his column when he says " I protest against all sorts of things — and don't get arrested." He really shows how unorganized and how disrespectful some of the Occupy Wall Street protestors are being. I agree with him that if your doing something that will get you arrested, you should probably take a better look at how you are protesting.
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Leonard Pitts Jr. 10/25/11 Pitts Jr., Leoard. __Iraq War: We Should Have Never Been There__ In his column " Iraq War: We Should Have Never Been There" Leonard Pitts Jr. argues that America never should have gone to war in Iraq. Pitts Jr. describes the emotions of the American citizens after 9/11 and explains that the decision to go to war was based on the anger and sadness throughout America, not on reason, he questions the results of the war and states that we should not have been there four times. His purpose is to show the reasons America should not have gone to war in Iraq in order to help the people recongnize these reasons so that we can avoid uneccessary war in the future. He gains the attention of every American citizen when he states the statistcs of the injuries and deaths that have come to the American soldiers in Iraq. It's very sad to think of all soldiers who have lost their lives in battle. War is never pretty, but it is a necessary part of life. Without our couragous soldiers we would not have many of the freedoms that we enjoy today.
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