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The booby trap and the blatherskite

April 17, 2007 1:03 AM

Emotional drama: the greatest waste of time and energy.

People spend so much time thinking about what people are thinking about them, when everybody should really be conquering homework, nurturing friendships and growing beautiful flowers. I have seen so much pain and suffering lately, both of which have been completely unnecessary and unfounded.

Español composición tres

December 14, 2006 6:11 PM

He soñado con poseer muchos negocios. Estableceré por supuesto un cierto tipo de negocio en el futuro, pero no estoy seguro de qué clase será. Cuando tenía diez años, mi mamá comenzó a visitar un edificio extraño antes de llevarme a la casa. No tenía ninguna idea de lo que ella hacía porque yo dormía generalmente en el carro. Un día en la casa, yo cenaba cuando mi mamá entró. Ella me dijo que compráramos una tienda. Era muy confuso porque no tenía ningún amigo que poseyera negocios. Comencé funcionando en la caja registradora en el almacén cuando tenía once años, y trabajé allí hasta agosto. En 2000, abrimos un segundo almacén. Los beneficios eran buenos. Todo funcionaba fácilmente cuando algo malo sucedido en 2003: todo se convirtió en mierda. Repentinamente, clientes pararon de comprar tan artículos. Básicamente, hubo poca actividad en la economía y la Bolsa. La gente comenzó a valorar la conveniencia demasiado, y por lo tanto ellos...

Global cultures take-home final exam

December 13, 2006 4:41 AM

Question One Both the Dalai Lama and the United Nations have indicated a belief in the potential existence of a global culture. Each has striven to improve conditions for and relations between various sectors of that culture, though their methods differ.(a) In Ethics for the new millennium, the Dalai Lama points out several sufficient conditions for achieving an ‘ideal’ global culture. He states, “…a generous heart and wholesome actions lead to greater peace (21).” This reflects the Dalai Lama’s belief that the ideal global culture is a peaceful one, and being generous and acting on that generosity are sufficient conditions by which peace is achieved. He also writes about the importance of recognizing all humans’ needs as being interrelated: “When we neglect others’ well-being and ignore the universal dimension of our actions, it is inevitable that we will come to see our interests as separate from theirs. We will overlook the fundamental oneness of the human family (163).” Neglecting the well-being...

Reading response paper five

November 30, 2006 6:30 PM

Easwaran, “A man to match his mountains: Badshah Khan, nonviolent soldier of Islam” “If we are on the road to ruin, it is because we have neither the true spirit of religion, nor the true spirit of patriotism nor love for our nation… A great revolution is coming and you haven’t even heard about it! (p. 108)” Behram Khan, a famous Muslim, Pathan, and octogenarian, spent much of his life trying to influence his people to do better for themselves. Among his achievements is the Pathan Youth League, an organization that fought for educational, political and social reforms. The role of women was a key issue for the League. Khan believed women were essential to gaining freedom through nonviolence. Khan also started a literary journal in the Pakhtu language. Apparently no such journal existed, and Khan wanted to raise the spirits of the Pathans, and their pride in their own language. The journal was innovative and cutting edge, as it...

Reading response paper six

November 30, 2006 6:30 PM

Rohan Gunaratna, “Inside Al Qaeda: global network of terror” So if we defend our people in Palestine, the world reacts by ganging up against the Muslims under the banner of fighting terrorism, falsely and unjustly (p. xlvii). The piece by Osama bin Laden was very blatantly anti-American. I think there is some truth, however, in his message. I never like to read documents that are laden with religious “imagery,” such as “Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe…,” “Peace be upon those who follow…,” or Christian phrases as well, such as “Praise the Lord… something, something… Promised Land of flowing milk and honey,” etcetera. I must have attended church one too many times when I was younger to appreciate such wording… Another characteristic of the text was how bin Laden brought up numerous acts of the US, twisting them from what an American would think to something that might motivate a Muslim to hate America. His comparison of Bush...

Español composición dos

October 31, 2006 6:06 PM

Hoy en día, las familias tradicionales están menos comunes. Lo que era extraño es más normal ahora. Ha habido cambios en la manera en que la gente piensa en la religión, formas de vida, y dinero. Combinados, estos cambios han causado diferencias en cómo la gente piensa en las familias. Hay muchas familias en que los padres están divorciados. Mis padres están divorciados. Muchos de mis amigos tienen padres divorciados también. Esto es verdad porque la población es menos religiosa y menos tradicional hoy. Las familias son más complicadas cuando los padres están divorciados. Los niños en América tienen a menudo dos casas, dos cuartos, y a veces dos grupos de hermanos. En mi opinión, el divorcio es una cosa buena. Si los padres no son felices juntos, es difícil criar a niños sanos. Otro concepto para consideración es que mucha gente cambian durante sus vidas. Esto es verdad para el amor también. Un efecto del divorcio es que hay...

Reading response paper four

October 30, 2006 6:29 AM

Christopher Columbus, “From a letter to Gabriel Sanchez” “… But I forbade giving them a very trifling thing and of no value, such as bits of plates, dishes, or glass… So, too, for pieces of hoops, jugs, jars, and pots they bartered cotton and gold like beasts. This I forbade, because it was plainly unjust; and I gave them many beautiful and pleasing things, which I had brought with me, for no return whatever…” The preceding sentences really seem to clash with all of my preconceptions about the European “explorers” and the overtaking of the Americas. Typically, I think of the peoples who lived on this continent as being the victims of a foreign invasion. I always thought that the Aztecs, Mayans, Incans, and other civilizations were brought down by the greed and diseases of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and other European peoples. According to the letter from Columbus, though, these conceptions might be wrong. Apparently Columbus and his men had...

Reading response paper three

October 27, 2006 5:24 PM

One Country, “At the UN, women rally” In addition to an overall agenda for women’s empowerment, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action dealt with 12 critical areas of concern for women: poverty, education, health, violence against women, armed conflict, economic structures, power sharing and decision making, mechanisms to promote the advancement of women, human rights, the media, the environment, and the girl child. I am pretty sure that most people will acknowledge that our society has underplayed the role of women in history. The specifics of this assertion, however, are harder to grasp, especially for men. The above sentence was quite eye-opening for me because it showed the extent to which women have been cheated by men. I usually try to “stick up” for women in the things I do and say. When writing a phrase such as “…when a president declares that he or she…,” I tend to simply write “she,” since it is acceptable to substitute “he”...

Global cultures take-home exam one

October 18, 2006 6:23 PM

Question OnePolitical economies: John Stuart Mill, p. 325(a) “Women employed in factories are the only women in the labouring rank of life whose position is not that of slaves and drudges; precisely because they cannot easily be compelled to work and earn wages in factories against their will. For improving the condition of women, it should, in the contrary, be an object to give them the readiest access to independent industrial employment, instead of closing, either entirely or partially, that which is already open to them.”This statement suggests ready access to independent industrial employment is a necessary condition for improving the condition of women.(b) Mill argued that the only women who are better off than slaves and drudges are those who have access to employment. He even states that the women are better off precisely because they have the power to choose where and if they will work.(c) If some women who don’t have access to independent industrial employment are...

Español composición uno

October 9, 2006 6:09 PM

La ciudad de Milwaukee tiene una herencia muy rica. En 1795, el francés Jacques Vieau construyó un establecimiento por el lago Michigan. Milwaukee fue incorporado en 1846. En aquel momento, la gente de Alemania, de Francia, de Irlanda, y de Polonia viajaba a la ciudad. En este tiempo, Milwaukee es la vigésimo segundo ciudad más grande de los Estados Unidos con una población de 579,000 personas. El área de Milwaukee fue habitada originalmente por muchas tribus indias. Los primeros colonos en Milwaukee eran misionarios y comerciantes de piel. Durante la industrialización, la gente construyó muchas cervecerías en la ciudad. Por lo tanto se conoce Milwaukee como “Brew City.” ¡Dicen que los estudiantes en Milwaukee beben más cerveza que estudiantes en Madison! Durante el principio del vigésimo siglo, Milwaukee era el centro del movimiento socialista en los Estados Unidos. La gente de la ciudad todavía tiene una reputación de desconfianza a negocio grande y de apoyar gremios. También, una comunidad africano-americana...

Reading response paper two

September 28, 2006 4:56 AM

Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations” A multicivilizational United States will not be the United States; it will be the United Nations. Not many ideas are more challenging for me to think about, much less take a side on. The discussion in class and in Huntington’s article about the United States and its identity were interesting and confusing. I always thought of the United States as a land of people united by their ideas of freedom and democracy – maybe not 100 percent united, but for the most part I usually think Americans share similar ideas of how a government should relate to its people. The Huntington article suggested several times that the United States may need to become more isolationistic, and focus more on defining what Americans stand for. This may be true, but this idea conflicts with my previous notion that the United States is a melting pot, and always has been. I do not say melting...

Reading response paper one

September 28, 2006 4:53 AM

R. Culler, “Saussure’s Theory of Language” …Not only can a language arbitrarily choose its signifiers; it can divide up a spectrum of conceptual possibilities in any way that it likes. Moreover, and here we come to an important point, the fact that these concepts, or signifieds, are arbitrary divisions of a continuum means that they are not autonomous entities, each of which is defined by some kind of essence. They are members of a system and are defined by their relations to the other members of that system. This quote, though fairly long, was more or less a revelation for me. After I read it, many concepts about languages suddenly made sense. For instance, in Culler’s text about Saussure and also in Hudson’s “The Great Issues (Grey Tissues),” the variation between any two languages was a popular and complicated topic. French encompasses many terms to describe flowing bodies of water, as does English. Not all of the French terms translate...

Shakespeare’s motives

May 2, 2006 12:00 AM | -1

No writer enjoys as much recognition and acclaim as William Shakespeare, and perhaps that is rightfully so. Many famous works, such as Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, owe their popularity to him – even if the stories were not entirely original. Nobody disputes those facts. Shakespeare’s motives, however, are seldom agreed upon. Some scholars postulate that he was a subversive liberal, attempting to effect change in Elizabethan society through messages hidden within his works. Other people believe Shakespeare was actually a conservative, working toward preserving and reaffirming the social order of the time. Both of those conclusions are flawed. Based on evidence within his writing, it is likely that Shakespeare was neither conservative nor radical, but rather that he walked down the middle of the road, concerned mainly about making money. Shakespeare incorporates many conservative messages, mostly revolving around an idea that chaos is the result of interruption to divine order. People...

A fish out of water, finally

March 7, 2005 1:42 AM

Everybody wants to be normal. We all strive to fit in, to conform for fear of being judged. That is what I used to think, and I am pretty sure most other people my age did too. For a nation built on the convergence of many cultures with different languages, customs, religions and morals, one would be led to believe that Americans must be pretty open-minded and accepting. However, in the halls at schools across the country, including HUHS, another picture is painted. “Fag!” “Queer!” “Gay!” “Homo!” The list goes on. The standard derogatory phrase has become “that’s gay” or “don’t be a queer.” Regardless of the traditional meanings of the words “queer” and “gay,” today everybody uses them to refer to homosexuals. Nobody would dispute that. Growing up hearing such phrases constantly throughout the day pretty much ingrained in my head the idea that “gay” was a bad thing, and that nobody wanted to be called gay, or much...

Why I have faith in my catholic school

October 8, 2001 4:53 PM

I have attended St. Hubert School since I was four years old, and I am very thankful for that. Although I do not know what it is like in a public school, I can still say how proud I am of my school. There are numerous advantages in being taught in a parochial school, which I will talk about in this essay. Not to be mean or anything, but a lot of the kids I meet from public schools fall under three categories: bullies, “shallow-minded,” and “player.” Once again, I am just saying it like it is, and I am not aiming to insult or condemn anyone. Many kids, especially the older boys, exhibit qualities of the common bully. They push little kids around. They are bossy and often command a group of two or three “squires” or “underlings.” They are mean and not very friendly. I believe this can result from much pressure at school and with homework. They...