Haha... Haha... Haha...

The distinction between people laughing instead of thinking, and not knowing what they were laughing at and why they had stopped thinking is crucial to understand what Postman is trying to leave the reader with at the end of chapter 11. The thought of people losing all thought and going along with laughing with the television is terrifying but it is happening today. This can be seen especially on shows on kids channels such as Disney and nickelodeon when there is laughter that is prerecorded and edited into the show. By distinguishing between the two types of laughing Postman shows the sense of urgency that he feels about the problem of television as a media. The absence of thought is bad, the unintentional and prolonged absence of thought is a recipe for a cultural disaster.

I Failed

The night before the day where I was supposed to be limited to communicating only through illustrations, I had high hopes. I even thought it would be fun. I was wrong. The amount I communicate through words was evident as I sat struggling to get through physics class without talking. I made it through the hour, only after resorting to not trying to communicate at all. The media limited me, and my communications to others.
Another interesting experience was lunch. By that time I had already given up and embraced the idea of taking a quiz. Everybody at the table was not a quitter at this endeavor like I was. It was a very boring and confusing lunch. If the people at the table could of communicated better it might not of been a problem. However, the real problem lied with the media they were using to communicate their message. No matter how hard they tried they were limited by what they had to communicate to me with.

Postman on Youtube

When Postman talks about Marvin Minsky and his prediction that "humans will become merely pets of their computers" I could not help but to make a connection to when he writes "our own tribe is undergoing a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics. His statement in the video expresses fear of this transformation mainly by using the word "pet" and being owned by computers. This fear that he creates with the word is the same type of fear he tries to create when he rights "trembling shift" and "magic of electronics". By giving the computers and electronics characteristics of ownership and witchcraft, he effectively creates fear in the listener/watcher to get his point across.
The second parallel I noticed was in the video when Postman discusses humans and adaptation to mental and social situations and in his writing when he wrote about how the run for presidency has adapted into more of a good looks contest. In both of these adaptations he has a negative attitude about a humans capacity to tolerate adaptation such as when he talked about women adapting to abusive husbands, and when he goes on to say that bald people, and all other people with sub par looks are excluded from the presidency. Postman seems to like to put negative spins on situations by blowing them out of proportion.

Diction In the Cross Hairs

1. Chavez makes it clear from the beginning that she believes that being polite in public discourse is important, and to clarify her position on her argument.
2. Chavez chose to use the word bellicose because it fit with the theme of metaphors about violence, war, and guns. It means favoring or inclined to start quarrels and by using the word to describe politics, she accurately captures the argumentative nature of politics, and shows that good politics are filled with bellicose people.
3. A) Chavez wants the reader to believe that it is possible to think before speaking, and not be bland at the same time.
    B) I feel that when she brought up Mark Twain and his use of questionable language it showed that by censoring meaning was lost.

4. I agree with Chavez. I believe it is important to choose your words carefully, but I also do not throw out metaphors in my vocabulary because it might be offensive to someone who experienced a situation very remotely connected in word but no connection in incident, such as when Chavez brought up how people were arguing that target should be removed from political language, because of the non-related Tucson shootings. I agree with her statement “It is rarely the words themselves but the context and intent that matter.” Words themselves are just collections of consonants and vowels, it is the prejudices that people assign to them that can be hateful and lead to issues. People need to realize that the context around questionable words can lend insight to the speaker or writers intent, and not jump to worst case conclusions.

Being Green Post-Death

1. Conserve, reuse and recycle are the keywords here, but mostly the "reuse'" my favorite.
2. The theme or point to this essay is that reusing can take many forms, and that donating your body to be a future cadaver is a legitimate way to be green by reusing. When the author, Semrau, keeps information from the reader early on it better communicates the theme to the reader. The theme and Semrau’s sly way to reinforce his theme can be seen when he writes “Conserve, reuse and recycle are the keywords here, but mostly the "reuse'" my favorite.” He puts reuse in quotes to hint that there is other ways than a normal person would think of to go green by reusing. “My favorite” shows the reader that Semrau endorses this portion of going green. The rest of his theme can be found in his simple statement “Please consider joining me”. By withholding the advertisement to be a cadaver until the very end he has opened the readers mind to other ways to go green that may not be obvious to the reader. The whole story about his previous career and his dreams of being a surgeon set the stage for him to finally reveal his point, by engaging the reader in a green reusing mood than throwing his point out in the open.

Language tools in Hymns?!?

The theme of Martin Luther’s hymn “Savior of the Nations Come” does not stray from its title. The whole song is centered upon Christ and has his birth as its theme. Luther has several language tools in his arsenal to help get his theme across to the singer and listeners. In his arsenal it is clear, however, that Luther likes using pathos to affect his listeners by going through their emotions to get his point across. Pathos is prevalent in the line “Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child of the Virgin undefiled!” Luther targets the emotions by using exclamation points and moving adjectives like “Wondrous”. While using pathos to describe the incredible birth of Christ through emotion he slips in another language device also. Repetition joins with pathos to create a sense of overwhelming joy. Another language tool that goes along with Luther’s use of pathos is rhyme. Although it may be over looked in the hymn because it is a song, it makes the verses flow and create emotion in the singer by making a beautiful tune. This delicate web of language tools effectively portrays Luther’s theme of Christ’s amazing birth flawlessly, in the form of a catchy heart-warming tune.

An A+ Sermon

1. Reverend Borghardt used Christ 28 times. The verbs and verb phrases he used with Christ as the subject were: makes Holy, sets apart, took on sin and death, stain, lives again, died, rose and reigns, slain, put on our flesh and blood, makes us alive, puts his name, gives us songs, gives, came, make the blessings more, feels your pain, calling you home, on the face of God, died, lived, reigns for you.

2. The themes of Borghardt's and Edward's sermon differed most greatly on how the path to Salvation was portrayed. In Edwards gloomy sermon he used scare tactics and the horror of Hell to teach his listeners that they had to do work to obtain Salvation without emphasizing that Christ has done all the work already. On the contrary, Borghardt used Christ very effectively, correctly portraying the fact that Jesus is the answer to all of our troubles in life, and we do not have to do anything but accept the Salvation he earned for us. Borghardt had Christ as his theme.