TOEFL Essay - Sports and Academics Funded Equally

Q. Agree or disagree: Universities should give the same amount of funding to sports as to academics.

A.
My school spent millions on its “military athletic complex.” This term is no exaggeration: the FBI recruits at my school heavily. So true. Being educated among these, I must agree that schools should give equally to academics and athletics because both exercise different body parts and there's enough funding in any case.

Sports are obviously exercise. However, many falsely believe that academics do not cost us. This is only partly true when we study or engage in logic, proving and everything left is exercising as a totality that no sport addresses. In other words, working out might get regions reading doesn't, but the reading effort we put in boasts long term learning effects. For example, teach a man to fish and soon all the fish will disappear became too many do this. Give a man a fish, however, and you can earn money from his fish craving tomorrow.

Yet a final reason I might add that funding should be even is basically because there's just enough. Schools' funds' managers are hardy and resourceful. They know the gimmicks to get the money flowing. They show an enduring understanding of how to channel both money and devotion to sports and academics into broad-based investment opportunities. Nevertheless, these two fields – sports and academics – aren't competitors but complements that merged thousands of years ago to create an institution whose one with is that they now separate. Proper minds full of achieving ideas are composed of sports and academics. If you rebuke one, you are refusing to do business with an entirety. There surely is a gymnast in us all; therefore, we should create equal funding for teams and libraries.

TOEFL Essay - Adopt your new country's culture

Q. When people move to another country, some of them prefer to adopt the customs of the new country. Others prefer to keep their old customs. Which do you prefer?

A.
Everyone should travel at least once, so they say. When we live abroad, the difficulty is sometimes knowing whether to adopt another culture’s customs or not. In my time abroad, I have always preferred to adopt the home country’s customs to keeping my own in order to blend and increase my benefit from my new home.

Adopting another country’s customs is a method of blending. When we blend, we become another background. Going unnoticed in the background matters in countries and cultures with strong homogeneity. In other words, how we navigate another country directly responds to the group’s demand that we fit in. Rogue acting in situations which call for control and not indicating your correct emotional responsibility during sports are not smiled upon in foreign settings. For instance, imagine happiness during the tragic example of Holy Week in southern Spain, where everyone is incapable of joy. Adopting another’s customs is the appropriate response to everyday situations and avoid awkwardness.

One last reason I adopt the other culture is to squeeze benefit from this new place. Since I usually do not know how long I’m staying in a current location, I seek its complete benefits. More generally, in any situation we’re led to believe that expertise is unnecessary. This is false. Tourism, as an ignorant onlooker incapable of suffering or emotional response, is dead. What we need now to benefit translates from know-how and expectations. For example, while in Central America proper nutrition would have been impossible had I let long lines or language dissuade me. I kept my head and the line eventually moved. I was able to reach the cashier. Even paying improved after awhile. I could use the optional credit card with confidence. Adopting cultures plainly increases beneficent returns.

TOEFL Essay - my country requires development

Q. In your country, is there a need to leave land in its natural condition or develop it for housing and industry?

A.
In my country, our national landscape shifts and usually overcomes development and industry. I would urge that this land be developed because our spending great amounts of time underwater is not conducive and our social structure is hindered.

Our lives are entirely wet. The rain arrives and renews cycles, sure, but this nature show is tyranny. We accomplish little when precipitation only hypothetically abates. In general, we are hardly thinkers underwater, or worse, surrounded by water but unable to deal with it in a proper response. For example, our agricultural industry booms, but will eventually succumb to overwatering. Concrete development would greatly help to deflect this issue.

Another reason concrete should be laid, buildings planned and brought to towering monstrance, cities filled and peopled is to reduce silence and redo our social structure. Generally, the average laborer spends days alone without others’ speech, and these are missed learning extravagance. Currently, owning a lack of public spaces, we converse in most regions very little, and quality is the extreme sufferer. It’s difficult to engage in talk before too long becoming your own island. For example, inundation renders full marital vows impossible without boat access. Needless to say, this isn’t a windfall of public openness, and the watery slit in heaven isn’t conducive to wedding popularity.

TOEFL Essay - our country's pressing issue

Q. What is the most pressing issue facing your country today?

A.
We are surrounded by problems, some of which we control. In our country, the most pressing recent danger is identity theft due to the ensuing chaotic spending and the dangerous reaction taking place.

When our identity is stolen a violation occurs, a criminal in the world gains riches. Similar to burglary, though different from burglary. In this case the house is electronic and volatile, which we cannot touch to defend. Nevertheless, the danger lies in the spread of chaotic spending which costs your private life and residence documents. As those who consume expand, prices inflate; an entire marketplace whose function is to sell items to disguised buyers has emerged. These buyers who lack sincerity do not intend to use these items, so each item's use-value declines. Items are signals: Enter my online store for deals, is what boosted stereo actually represents. Instead, these goods furnish those who plan never to buy them with surroundings. Furthermore, discounts stamp legitimacy on a bilious mind. Conversely, money too easy is money not in our dominion, and using this easy money for a bargain is greater discount and a way to structure our domain afforded to those whose money this isn't.

Another indicator that ID theft problematizes our today is how we solve stolen identities. Most cases require extra fees paid exclusively by depositors. The assumption is that if the money is ours, we are responsible for the $4.99 encryption fee. Since the security failure is actually the bank's, consumers should rebuke fees as the cost of doing business, instead investigating viable alternatives, such as multiplicity. This responds to anonymity as a cloak. Contrary to a mattress holding our funds, since others know where we keep our mattress, and since a bank is no longer safe, we need a new name for such secure locations we fill with money. For example, we should become the previously stated anonymous personage. We should not assert our complex identifiers, lists of numbers, repeated dates of significance to us, passwords with alphanumeric combinations. As individuals in a population grow steadfast, windows to bilk them do too. Forming a direct link between vanity and theft is only facilitated by unique identification.

TOEFL Essay - We should be judged by our dress

Q. Agree or disagree: We should be judged by external appearances (dress).

A.
I agree that we should judge and be judged based on external appearances. My reasons are complicated, but briefly: we intend and act easily and predictably by our dress.

Our intentions adhere to how we appear. If I appear to waver or doubt, my doubtfulness is implied and I'm thereafter doubted. This certainly isn't factual, but I nonetheless expect to be judged as hesitant. I prefer to be treated this way, since our faces are realistic masks without keys that we use to signal. Regardless of how we feel deep down in our entirety, if our face dictates otherwise, from the depths of our hearts may not count. For example, politicians care to express the right facial and body language. One wrong snore/sneer and the election celebration is over. Honestly, how we possibly measure behavior without the look it belongs to is beyond me.

Our actions, what we do after intention's apparition, are also determined by how we appear to others. We impress or depress them. We will and should be judged by how we look because looks indicate stance, position, bearing, and action. We see where we're going by our clothing and whether we're appropriate. In general, we dress a certain way or create a certain look when we take part in distinct activities. If we appear to be playing ball, chances are we are. We would not want police officers to assume criminality when we're clearly playing at a team sport. Arms flailed during a drowning doesn't receive bad judgment, it's rather expected. A calm bather in passive release sinking to the bottom would, in our judgment, be assigned a set of behavioral epithets. These are just some examples of how dress and appearances indicate action, largely tolerated through uniform. We should therefore judge actions based on personal appearances.

TOEFL Essay - Pets being treated as family members is good

I read about one woman burying her cat with a full funeral, while another wed her dog. These two deeply loved their pets. For a love this deep, more than mere petting usually suffices. I insist that while people treat their animals like more than friends, how pets affect self-esteem and their consistent behavior result in positives.

Pets really foster high self-esteem. Generally speaking, glimpsing a smiling dog behaving well moves our hearts and rekindles our ancient belief in connections. Pets signify the caring of someone else who exists and cares for our person who exists and cares, too. This is who we are. When we recipients congratulate ourselves, often in pet company, our capacity to be a dependable entity awakens. An illustration is that many pets help with depression and worthless feelings because duties occupy our maneuvers. In a way, pets regard us as heroes and as our own self-esteem thermometer.

Another section of pet difference is their actions: pets don't choose to act, and therefore act consistently. In other words, a cat will continue to be a cat. In many nations, people are so stressed they forget vacation and we're unsure how they might react. Our moods strain and split. How a person reacts is very unlike a cat or larger animal would. Pets, however, will act consistently cued by their interests. We shouldn't perturb our thoughts with why, but can rather count on pet solidarity in behavior. For example, nationally American dogs are the same as Chinese dogs only with different words for paw.

TOEFL Essay - The best room

The most important room in the house is where we eat, our dining room. Here, we thrive on great food and a strong feeling of togetherness.

The dining room is the most important room in the house particularly because we eat there. Satisfaction and nourishment are essential to good familial hygiene, and it's in this room where we receive good infusions of both. After all, no other room in the house is so closely associated with our five senses as the dining room is. Consequently, without one no house is complete. For example, most of my fondest childhood memories involve our dining room and my mother's wonderful cooking. Here, in this room, the meals were showcased and heartily enjoyed.

In addition to satisfying our stomachs, the dining room is a place where we fulfill our social needs: U-N-I-T-Y. Talking with our family face to face isn't happening during the day when we work, so it's refreshing to be able to use the dining room as a centerpiece for coming together. At no place in the house does conversation flow the way it does in the dining room while we slowly devour the loving meal. The room itself is a social catalyst, and this fact propels it to the #1 slot in the room category of houses. An illustration of the social bonding that takes place in the dining room is the lengthy conversation topics we discuss as a family, and how my family in particular has had numerous arrays of social justice issues discussed. Granted, we never solve the issues, but these discussions establish ideologies for future arguments.

TOEFL Essay - Coaches are the best teachers

Q. Agree or disagree: Coaches make the best teachers.

A.
I remember my bellowing coach. Each player to him was just a last name. He was a loveless functionary of my school. He did, however, teach me some facts about the human body, like that we're not built to climb ropes or ever engage in square dancing classes. My coach was the best teacher; he was often yelling and frequently popular.

A booming voice can teach us multiple factoids. We listen when we hear yelling. Yell, and others run toward you. They want to see the fuss. When we meet a person with a personality that screams we imagine their voice when they disappear. Obviously, absences happen, but we picture their voice and live with their memory. Appropriately, a voice emphasizes with yells and highlights that we are in school to learn. And we learned from my coach. His voice is what I remember. All those several yelled messages, shouted at me as if I were the only importance.

Coach was an item of popularity, and he taught us students how to share popularity. We students knew his name, his likes and dislikes, how to provoke him, what not to do. Once you knew Coach, your popularity was insured. But if you were on his bad side, you felt uncertainty asleep. I knew several students who refused to learn from our coach. In short, they refused to designate him as their favorite teacher and to relax under his conditioning. These students became lazy. I do not think these students ever succeeded, because navigating coach was like driving through life: if you didn't succeed here with Coach, you were like a less successful drunk driver elsewhere.

TOEFL Essay - Tradition is a Road Trip

Q. Many families have important traditions that family members share. What is one of your family’s traditions? Use reasons and examples.

A.
after Michael Stewart

Nothing would be the same in America and in my family without road trips. Each year my family picks a destination. This destination is plucked from the map: we sharpen the quills of our pens and throw them. The sharpest wins, sticking into the new location we will soon become acquainted with. It’s for this reason I cannot accurately imagine summer without a car taking me on a road trip. The beating sun; the lemonade; the long gas lines when we refuel, even when we don’t; and suntan lotion are all components of years past. One year, we ran out of suntan lotion. This was the year of our burnt skin. I remember this year specifically because of that fact. On another point, lemonade is refreshing, and that particular instance became known as the lemon. Now, whenever anyone in my family has a moment of intense craving during the summer, this is their “lemon memento.”

It is because these road trip components all eventually signify something greater and evolve into touchstones for familial behavior that I cite the road trip as my family’s tradition of excellence. A ritual or routine that takes on significance of its own, most traditions detach from whatever occurrence that inspires them. To this day, I don’t think any family member can supply a definitive answer to why we started these road trips. Nevertheless, they are part of our dynamic. My sense is that if we miss a road trip, we would suffer bad luck or a family loss. Our tradition is so deep that it induces superstitious behavior, which is honestly another argument indicative of most traditions: there must be serious consequences, either implied or real, for those who break with tradition. That is to say, to miss a road trip would be a form of sacrilege. Traditions need this idea: that breaking them makes you unwell with the gods. Without this, no new adherents would be on board.

TOEFL Essay - Theater or no

Q. It has been announced that a new movie theater will be built in your area. Do you support or oppose this plan?

A.
Everyone loves movies, but not their houses. Recently, there's talk of a new cinema in our town. I propose that we fight against one company's desire to forever change the face of moviegoing in our area by building a theater for two prime reasons: movies are junk and theaters bring garbage.

First off, movies are junk. When we seriously ponder how humans have used pictures and film in history we conclude with porn. Pornography is the end result of moviegoing. An illustration of this is that all movies suggest darkness by having need of light to project themselves. In the darkness, bodily creative notions occur fluently. In this vast darkness, too, our only recourse is to make pornography. Consequently, this is why before lightbulbs all we did was reproduce.

Theaters also bring gossip (about porn) and garbage. We should concern ourselves with the latter, the garbage. Employment of local teenagers shall be put aside, and instead do you realize how much garbage audiences watching movies consume? If you guessed “pornographic magnitudes” you'd be correct. This is why we don't need this garbage, which will only clutter and defeat our free space and time; and this is what a theater's goal is: the defeat of leisure time in our eyes.

TOEFL Essay - Picking or assigned roommates

You can either have your college roommate assigned to you or you may choose, which would you prefer?

My first year of college, I was obliged to deal with the school's choice. They chose who was sent to live with me. Every other year, however, the responsibility was all mine. I chose my fate. If I had to pick between choosing or being assigned a roommate, I strongly would prefer not having to choose because of feelings and diverse scenarios.

Feelings are a tough thing. In fact, they are not objects at all, but are part of our welfare's personality. Damage a feeling, we hurt welfare, and we damage our entire soul from beginning to end. Repairs are virtually impossible. I would rather be unfair than conflict. And I would also rather be stuck with unhelpful and ignoring me strangers than to live with the insupportable idea that I destroyed a friend's chain of feelings by obscuring him or her from my choice process. Let's face it, we forget a lot of friends, and reconnecting is difficult. But I wouldn't want ot do this intentionally. And when the university chooses, I blame others for my indecision of them. “the school put me here.” this is what college teaches us, after all.

Another reason why I am steadfast to dominate my opinion advocating university assignment of roommates is the bringing of new scenarios which are exciting and some of pain or humor, joviality. When the school picks for you and you surrender your freedom of choice, you are now in the position to become the school's second class citizen. So close to number 1, really. Just imagine living with adventurous newness or even relaxing boredom or focusing taking advantage of you. We all want to exploit university's choices and giving up who you live with for a complete surprise will freshen your opinions. Once again, college teaches us this.

TOEFL Essay - Parents jailed for childrens mishaps.

Q: Underage drinking is an obvious problem in the US. Should parents be penalized (jail time, community service, fines) if their children are caught drinking?

A:

Something like ninety percent of all teenagers will drink at some point prior to turning 21, the age in the US when we're legally allowed to consume alcoholic drinks. Therefore, most drinkers are mere children. This is common knowledge, and many people know it. However, lesser known is the new pressure to punish the parents of underage drinkers. We might fine them, make them pay somehow, such as community service and a likelihood of jailtime. What a terrible idea with suspicious outcomes for several reasons. Among these are issues of a finite lack of responsibility and an overestimation of familial influence.

Responsibility for the acts of another is a foundation of our legal code. In this way, conspirators are pressured to surrender their accomplices. Since we're all tried equally, it makes sense to bring everyone into the courtroom to face the law, which is blind. However, this applies to concrete crimes. These are concrete when a victim is present. Usually, a victim is there. Nonetheless, in crimes free of victims, these are called victimless crimes. Crimes where no one is present, and the victim is non-existent. Because no one can find an excuse for a victim, do we need to treat the criminal as someone who commits a crime? There are no major consequences for these actions in the absence of a target, and placing blame on anyone other than the minor law breaker seems misguided and inaccurate. The law is meant to instill accuracy, and hit the target with legal compensation. Imagine if parents were being blamed for every time their children were accomplices, or if they had to watch their offspring constantly for fear of fines? Should we blame parents for schools' plagiarism? How about for graffiti? When a student litters, should we pick up the parents? The fact is, parents control their children only so much, and we can no longer pretend that the family is the sole influence on childhood decisions.

With regard to this topic, that there are more influential factors in our lives of our children that are living. We cannot argue that there is much meaninglessness, that boundaries are fluff, and that this fluff disturbs us, especially if outside influences encroach on what we build in order to take it under, to drown it. The family role in upbringing is less than in decades past. Previous families were perhaps stronger, had better shows, stronger fabrics. In fact, the least of our concerns lie with parental oversight. If we blame parents for the result of whatever the peer-pressured and pop-cultured machine spits out, we're overlooking our kids' ability to be accountable and the necessary knowledge they need to judge. This knowledge interprets what peers and pop seek to transform them into. In sum, blaming parents only teaches children that they can further blame parents for their own drinking actions, as if they didn't control what their own hands put in their mouth.

TOEFL ESSAY - Cities, Destroyed and New

The world's surface is riddled with many old cities and buildings. These latter charm and enhance real estate values. Nevertheless, their existence is dangerous, and I fear for my life often inside them. If I had to choose whether to keep or destroy these oldies, let's destroy them. It's the safety issue that has me thinking about destruction, but it's also the money-saving equation.

New buildings are safer. This is because of their materials. Newer mining techniques succeed in extraction of newer, stronger materials and scientists then assemble them. Later, construction workers assemble these previously assembled products. What results is an enclosure. These enclosures are frequently grandiose. They usually come equipped with most necessities, and most dwellers don't seek outside life as a result. While inside, they are safer. Regarding most construction cases, forepersons advise and with this force, we may choose which forewarning suits us. Safe environments offer savings too. You might be stressed about crumbly old instruments of government. This organ obviously raises more serious questions. And under these questions, a beauty and newness similar to the buildings but the same as skin. These layers. An illustration could be the Bank of America building, which is moral and ethical. Inside, our waste is used to power air conditioning. Old buildings don’t make use of this technology and are therefore not so efficient. I would opt to destroy them, and we should do it ceremoniously.

Architecture is the vest of our worries. Usually, architects are big with equal size khaki vests. They point at a building to indicate this location’s numbered days. But, for example, if suddenly many buildings were destroyed and replaced by new ones, our city would be changed. In other words, the changing city face means that we don't get bored. We aren't bored by alternating landscapes. It would not be difficult to imagine ourselves in a totally refurbished city. We would gradually accustom. This would be a new city, and we would be moved. Gas would be saved, and energy as well. And since relocating means a change in weather and geography, total destruction would be the one way to avoid this.

TOEFL Essay - Reasons against lighting up for Mother Theresa

To honor the 100th anniversary of Mother Theresa, many wanted to light the upper 30 stories of the Empire State Building. This is the empire state, after all. This plan was rejected by the building management. I agree with the building's decision because Mother Theresa isn't insignificant enough and because she's too serious.

Mother Theresa was a very famous and respected celebrity. There's no way any edifice in midtown would decide to have any connection whatsoever to high culture. Mother Theresa was too significant. Usually building facades and lighting patterns are geared toward advertisers and other tokens of meaninglessness. For example, Target ads or the work of Shepherd Fairey. For fame's few seconds these pieces enjoy under lights, the price is expensive: never again will anyone take you seriously. But more than this, if a figure achieves such transcendent significance, no building is safe from rejecting. Mother Theresa rejected the glamor of tall buildings, and those buildings are now fit to reject her. In other words, the official life rejects meaningful embodiment of virtue, since it is this virtue which destroys any and all significance the official life might otherwise have.

Leading up to the final and more serious reason, Mother Theresa is too serious. Granted, serious faces surround us. But these faces are light, and are easily dismissed with no lasting significance. We plaster serious faces but traffic isn't stopped. It's really only fanatical lightheartedness with the seriousness of purchasing behind it that we glue to empty walls. While both significance and seriousness are supplements, imagine as an example a significant, serious face that we all know floating visibly above tourist droves. This is highly distasteful, and what building would bring that upon itself.

TOEFL Essay - The Travel Location I Prefer.

Obviously winning a cool million would be my preferred motivation for travel. But winning millions isn't always possible, and we can understand why. Nevertheless, if I were free to travel to any country for two weeks, I would choose Liechtenstein as my destination because it's secretive and I've always thought it would be wealthy. 

Inside Liechtenstein, no news ever escapes. Media outlets there -- extremely well-funded -- are very satisfied with how the government runs the country. Because this relative silence breaks down even group discontent, Liechtenstein is secretive. No international news hears rumors of secret dealings because, naturally, dealings in Liechtenstein are secret. This secretive nature is essential to consistent social policy. Namely, if nothing is knowable, then no comparison exists. We cannot know this, because we do not live in Liechtenstein; hence, no secrecy. A country that values secrecy must be a pleasure.

I often contemplate why perhaps this secrecy breeds wealth, or just that wealth betrays a less forthcoming bundle of choices. It's as if others don't know. Since others are frequently competitors, secrecy ensures lifelong earning. A secret is something you don't share, like wealth. More for Liechtensteiners. The wealth of this small country reveals itself. I imagine this country as a wealthy place where we can imagine the riches, similar to surroundings. We hear stories about paving of gold and money trees, but these don't compare with a doubly landlocked microstate in Western Central Europe surrounded by varieties of wealth. Visiting guarantees our comfort, as tourists, and that we see Liechtenstein as comfortably as possible. An illustration might be that while taxis are expensive, a special something is gained when taking a voyage in a hugely overpriced cab. We feel like we should appreciate it, or else remorse sets in. Our appreciation of a Liechtenstein cab is based on what we don't want to feel, and since secrets are easily retained there, no one else will know my business of remorse in a Liechtenstein cab. 

TOEFL Essay - A custom I would share

Celebrating Thanksgiving is a custom other countries should invest in because everyone needs to give thanks occasionally and the list of traditional food is expansive.

The most important reason I believe that other countries should celebrate Thanksgiving is to have an entire day devoted to thankfulness. In general, there's not enough of this. We humans forget what we possess and it helps to slow down and contemplate what is right with our lives, not always what is wrong. Not only does accounting for what we have help to reduce stress, but it helps to reduce wasteful pursuits of double items and to avoid overlooking the goods and beings we should be thankful for. For example, if I stop to think about what I really appreciate, I realize that even though I have occasional setbacks, life really isn't rotten. I would like everyone to have access to this feeling and to have a day to celebrate.

Yet being thankful for what we have would be incomplete without a sampling of classic American cuisine, and this is the second and most delicious reason why I'd choose to share Thanksgiving with the world's nations. There is no Thanksgiving without Thanksgiving Dinner. I have missed several meals in the past and on these days, the holiday was non-existent for me. This delicious spread features samples from centuries of pre- and post-colonial cooking, but represents traditional Native American offerings too. This meal symbolizes the amicable or inharmonious mix of cultures that history in my country has witnessed. I want to pass these scrumptious dishes on to others. For example, cranberry sauce and stuffing are two of my favorites and have their origins in the first Thanksgiving meal celebrated hundreds of years ago. It's important we celebrate the non-fast food aspects of American culture, and that others see it and try these treats.

Post #501! TOEFL Essay - I prefer to hire employees that make quality equipment

There's nothing more frustrating than work done poorly, no matter how little you pay for it. If I were a boss, I'd hire experienced workers at a higher salary to avoid extensive training and expensive errors and to ensure a higher quality output.

I've experienced the sting of a poor salary for poor work, and I've also been bitten, having occupied the lone position of expert. And from this I have accrued the knowledge that inexperience, while cheaper from the start, ends up costing more as necessary training, needless errors and obvious fixes pile up. This cluster of experiences creates uncertainty and disables the whole's ability to progress as one team. Since errors and time-consuming training create lower efficiency and are hallmarks of inexperience, hiring experienced employees works to cut costs and boost production.

An analogy I might use to illustrate my point is that of shoes. I've paid for cheap shoes and mildly expensive shoes. The latter always lasts several years. The price-per-wear of the more expensive shoes is cheaper, and these inflict less damage on my feet. Clearly, it's important to protect our feet, and buying expensive shoes is a method many adopt to save later trips to the podiatrist. As to how this applies to workers, a higher quality output is afforded a company whose workers are satisfied and want for nothing. If I were a boss, I'd make sure my workers had great shoes and healthy feet, in addition to a fair and progressive salary.

TOEFL Essay - Community Service is a No No.

Colleges and universities need to relax and not require community service hours from students in order to graduate. This policy is dangerous and unnecessary. I'm prepared to offer examples of the perilous and needless consequences brought about by implementing such a community program.

One main reason I wouldn't adjust college policies to include a more rigorous community service requirement is because academic interaction with the community is a dangerous fad. Once we move into communities, we cannot return the clock. How would you enjoy it if suddenly thousands of college students descended on your town's projects, each offering to “lend a hand for free” and expect college credit? Why would you pay for townspeople to work when you have free smart folk? The college credits become a new money, and are exchanged for an action that most laborers do each day, only for mere sums. The town comes to rely on cheap labor, but prices drop. Incredible!

It's this idea, that soon the town cannot live without the institution, that is quite dangerous, which tangentially brings me to a further point: community service touted as edifying behavior for students is needless. In most towns, there is nothing we need, and so students would in essence engage in activities not inside, but outside the community's needs and desires. As outsiders, students exist as less than a supplement to the environs. They might work first, but they never will understand what being innate to the country is similar to. In effect, different agents with different statuses and who aren't laborers can try, but they will never truly contribute to real and immediate wants and projects.

Stan Apps in ACTION YES!

I have long been a fan of Stan's poetry, and he knows this.

What I really enjoy about this piece , not just enjoy but what stands it out for me is the ability of the piece to exhaust the metaphor/allusion/imagery going on (I use all three because all three happen) and, as a result, to then create new metaphors/allusions/imagery. I like what Stan has been doing for awhile because I see his work as tapping into -- not only bathos and/or cutesy (a word that always looks like courtesy to me) -- but also what I want to whimsically refer to as Child Poetry (not Children's Poetry nor Childlike Poetry nor Childish Poetry). I mean this in the best way, but mostly I mean it because his recent work which I've read combines "adult" observation and concerns with images borrowed from the observations of a child. They're textured and provocative (e.g., the snot example in the above-linked piece in ACTION YES). This voice speaks from a position of passive authority. It doesn't tell you to obey nor that it's observations are unique. But it's a position from which, in many ways, more can be said because more is possible when it's uncertain which position of authority is addressing us. Call it magical realism that's not annoying and that doesn't involve aunts n' uncles who levitate. Call this child voice an attempt to disrupt our signs.

It's a strong piece of writing. I know because before I read it, I was tired of poetry and writing about writing and poetry. This kind of writing usually uses words like PoBiz, whose meaning only people within PoBiz understand. And so even if you'd rather not read more pieces on poetry and its loss/lack of accessibility, this piece will have you reconsider.

black AMEX

I want a black AMEX
the card speaks to me
advertisements come out of the page
Their blimpy eyes blink when the cat's unfed.
Oh attack AMEX kitten,
black and a puzzle
you are like a wife with freedom
surfing the English channel.

A sheep in wolf's clothing and why it always behaves like a sheep

Proverbs tell us that clothes make the man and also that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But clothes don't make the man. Rather, they make us warm. They deflect what true relationships with nature and atmosphere we might have. 

There are reasons why clothes cover us: They are masks, and we never truly crack the pretty unknown kernel of our true identity. It's even more impossible for outsiders (those outside our own minds) to distinguish us from the clothed us. And while many believe that self-expression lies in our cloaking devices, what exactly is cloaking us outsiders manufacture. Therefore, cloaking represents at best only a partially successful attempt to capture human complexity in fabric.

In other words, covers modestly fail to decode who we are, even when we ask for ourselves. On the contrary, it's clothing that hides and obscures our true selves.

While human behavior is frequently dictated by how we dress, our values and set patterns of reacting and making judgments are freefloating and detach from appearing outward. Ghosted. Another way of looking at this is taking the example of a funeral. Sure, ways of acting while we mourn might alter slightly, but no wholesale transformation takes place. Funeral attendees might look respectful, and even pass for respectable, but to please value on their outward appearance during a time of death is to mistake the box for the present.  

sorry about churchill downs

Really? You went?

My skinned knee origin is human.

Fr nk S n tra f c s human.

Potentiality

A car bomb in Times Square?

Note that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano referred to the incident -- a carbomb near a crowded civilian area -- as an act officials are "treating as a potential terrorist attack."

Since the words "terror" and "terrorism" now possess a variety of meanings (many referring to violence against military and representatives of the US State) it seems timely that Napolitano is here to remind us that terrorism is, in fact, the use of violent acts to provoke terror and fear in civilian populations, usually as a means of coercion.

I know, I know: a spokesperson is supposed to say such things. But it seems odd that it warrants such obvious underlining, almost as if the act -- the act of announcing what another act is -- is one of denial that terrorist bombings could or would ever take place in the USA.

Whether we've dealt with terrorist threats successfully is not the question: no government is equipped to deal with terrorist threats successfully. Why would we think we wouldn't botch this as well? To be clear: the act is dealt with, but the threat, which is another act and then another, does not merely recede into baldness.

So, in relation to the "rest of the world" terrorism generally dissipates; but it isn't, cannot be, defeated. These same tenets that now threaten us will never disappear, returning to haunt in newer iterations. The fading naturally occurs, usually withering due to a weakened message which no longer resonates with the upcoming demographic. Perhaps the message fades from external factors, which we might dub sea changes, like most civilians realize that the groups tactics are outmoded or a new nation is formed. By this rationale, the method to combat terrorism isn't tactical, but rather systemic. How are systems stimulated in ways that offer new rational options for all, not just a few, actors? Or rather, how are systems stimulated and redacted in a way that suggests change to and for all without actually changing anything?

If the use of grand narratives only appeals to some, how about changing the function of the narrative? We are no longer the good guys. And our brand has performed poorly. That's a start.

Once we admit we're good guys no longer, narrative will not function as the propaganda or delusional cheerleading of a corrupt regime which supports its own actions and which needs others to believe. In fact, it will no longer be necessary to recite our virtues over and over, and we will become much less of a standout. Just another country vying to protect its identity against those who seek to erase it. We will seem oppressed.

On the other hand, since this is largely about warring symbols, the symbolic representatives of both sides cannot be seen as civilians: Civilian contractors and "enemy combatants" alike are seen, by those opposing them, as operatives. Terrorism has expanded to include those who speak the language (literally and figuratively) of the enemy, and all "sides" in this conflict actively engage in the confusion.

[Caveat: My knowledge of Zizek's work on this topic is rather weak at best, so bear with me.]

There is less symbolic efficiency in the persona of a civilian contractor,
said contractor would most likely deny affiliation with the US Military,
not uniform, without the dress of military targets.
But the Other does. To the terrorist, these "civilian" contractors are extremely representative
of US dominance.
Contractor X has a family and a dog and loves the children of the world
and probably even donates to Sally Struthers' ChildFund International,
but Terrorist Y sees Contractor X as the enemy,
and no amount of child-loving or dog-petting will convince T-Y otherwise.

Entertainers are Ours, a TOEFL essay

Many volunteers have seen the headlines about various entertainers and athletes who make 7 figures, and many support these ludicrous payments, fearing that they might cease to be entertained or expressing our belief that they somehow earn it. As if performers whose bellicose careers were media-made are able to now demand playoffs from the media. Needless to say, none of this is true, which is why entertainers and athletes should not receive such obscene amounts of cash: they don't own the public, the public owns the performers. The endless parade of wannabes won't soon cease, so why award the flash in the pan with millions when his or her replacement awaits.

We can only shoot at each performer with so much junk. Unfortunately, to aim and fire whatever canned surplus tuna we can't smile upon. Then, our entertainment refers to a monster. Every person feels needs to be at earth's center, and holds a gun wishing to occupy the mechanical bull. In the case of a celebrity or an entertainer, no one's yearning to return favors: we own them; they are paid to perform. And perform they must. Then they go viral and the multitude's eyes pop out viewing the fame, the melting hands are uncertainties. If such an entertainer were to lose interest or engulf their hand in the door. We are #1.

Logical Problem

politicians are jam in a dog butt
listing to one side, had been condemned
the dog creation of small cookies & treats
these are free eats
which politicians offer, but we must pay taxes to eat!
What different dog butt jam offers politicians escape
from the tax bracket drudgery with monster propelled treats?

Here it is, Palinspeak decoded

Like a toddler to the slaughter...

And...Language Log responds.

I agree -- what little linguistic experience/research and general lack of expertise I boast, as well as general experience with hearing this oft-employed phrase -- that using "that" as in "give me some of that old time magic," is an attempt to allude to a better and previous time. Not now, but then. That time, you know, when we were better. There was magic. Then. That point. That palpable moment. Grasp it.

We can't catch it, but NOT because it's gone. We merely lack the correct leadership, apparently.

But don't you wish someone could lead our country, our people, back to that?

And that's the appeal of that in Palinspeak: positing yourself [Frau Palin] as she who will lead us to the good ol' days.

Found Poetry

I got this dude all figured out.... he likes nasty trashy girls for sex and living on the dark side. BUT he like perfection, wealth and stability of the wife side.... problem is only one man. you know jesse all it takes to turn a girl into another girl... close your eyes and poof you are with a hot green alien girl in the 23rd century.

Thanks, comment field!

On Medication

There is a distaste toward medication. This stems from a belief in individual power. If individual power leads to true healing, then we must blame the need to pull through and force oneself into healthy thoughts and aftermath.

Many of the contras who sit against medication profess a firm trust in homeopathy. Science is there to cost us. Doctors -- they don't speak plainly -- many times over-medicate: instead of addressing the nearest need, we should attend to the entire body. Yet there is no whole body medication, no pill to crush up and return to your whole self again.

However, homeopathy is a decentralized medical alternative: there are no authorities. I wonder if this is why it appeals to freedom-loving foes of big government. You may shop freely and have a good conscience that the correct product is chosen by you and only you. You triumph. You, the center of individual power.

Taste of Cherry, a mini review

Dir. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran

Long, wandering sequences coupled with descriptive sound work capture our proximity to the earth- the desert bed - and the impending storm.

sun n fun

[A "response" to this.]

girl running along beach
girl swinging her arms
girl open mouth
girl laugh
girl brushes hair
girl flails arms
girl runs toward water
girl runs away from water
girl shot from behind
girl turns around
girl smiles at camera
girl does a dance in the water
girl splashes water at herself
girl swing around arms in windmill
girl turn around
girl run back other direction
girl subject ass close up shot
girl is focused from the front again
girl runs past the camera
girl is lying down in sand
girl is making frontal angel in sand
girl shows breasts very close
girl opens and closes mouth repeatedly
girl is showing breasts very close
girl rubs hands together
girl pushes herself up
girl brushes off legs
girl brushes off stomach
girl brushes off breasts
girl brushes off cleavage
girl brushes stubborn sand
girl continues to brush in various directions
girl smiles at camera like oops
girl opens mouth and closes mouth
girl lifts bikini string to clean more stubborn sand
girl giving more mouth opening and oops look
girl shot from back
girl turns around
girl acknowledges camera
girl sit now standing and brushing off sand
girl cannot remove all the sand from her butt
girl is bending over
girl is blinking
girl is opening and closing eyes
girl is possibly suggesting that we go somewhere else
girl is now crawling on sand
girl is sticking out her tongue at the camera
girl continues to crawl on sand as camera close up of but
girl is now showing close breasts
girl is now crawling in a hip moving way
girl is opening and closing mouth and eyes
girl is moving shoulders close together to press breasts bigger
girl is stationary on sand
girl is allowing camera to focus on her butt and torso
girl is opening mouth

Here is a short piece I wrote about biting the inside of my mouth very badly

buzz just bit
my mouth so audibly bad
I was sending news to followers
from various continents
while spitting blood
porcelain indeed dyed.

you could hear the meat crunch
like Genghis metal
rubbed and urgent tartar
drip dry. PS.
even the kitten notices.

La caída

las piedras de mayor tamaño tienen 50 toneladas
un niño juega como un niño, entonces que ¿como
un culo?

O al revés, el mundo es discípulo
de todas esas hijueputas que no usan basureros
de economistas pragmáticos de varios paises

que se visten de mujer pero ¡que va! De acuerdo
con lo del culo
sin control, el mercado va al espectáculo
en busca de opiniones: saber es saber ir para atrás
abre el mundo payaso

su juego llega al finca rota de símbolos desconocidos
por el mercado
un amigo más tetas es un sabor.
Grandes pechugas, más

grandes con impuestos al pasar la frontera
en camion con chofer bajo la influencia
el niño menos malo, camino al culo
el palo, mas un mundo culon reconoce un don.

drop in gold

gold drains cover the remnants of
ancient ducks, unable to breathe
the old man who sells his land
and becomes a spectator in his own family
is also patronized in what looks like gold

covered, he preserves his family
and so covers them entirely in gold
because to him they are worth the extreme
resale of his own farm as extreme, he's criticized
by people not in his shoes
who with nicer shoes sold their farms first
but did not cover every possession with gold
not like this man.

The man decides gold later is too heavy
and that if you were born on the land you remained
because dappled in gold you inveigh enough
no one will contest your rightful claim
with land at a premium it's not surprising
an easy way for business grads and success
by marketing and involved alchemy:
of human flesh + gold bones

one explanation for Maya infidelity is gold, fate
since its glow was first shown irresistible
by Spanish invaders, the Maya were exposed
vulnerable to fancy, being wooed by beards that loved gold
they first put their feet in, and wet, sunk deep into gold ponds
and were soon stuck and carried home, they remained
lack backs, European muscle not being impressive

the Maya struggled on their land, as theirs
as the statues indicate pride until Spain
Finally, with a move to rid Mexico of gold
arrived in ships instead of muscle to cart home
obstinate artifacts staking the jungle possessions

once on the continent the statues treasures
were put in towers, stored, patted
behold these relics, statues of warriors, our riches we found
while occupying a small terrain.
Most used the language they had
and some sang or built storage units
keep the gold away from subjects increases its value

But the Maya ingenuity created calendars, astronomy
left behind, unready to surrender to a wooden boat
plotting a course for populated cities whose little regard
is a great place for vengeance, where no one expects
a few armed soldiers smelting to bring down a nation
because – the township opines – the union is soft
and incongruent with colonization and puppet regimes

so Maya, tight in the hold, patient to destabilize
Europe's method economy, the Dutch bankers
sold the idea Spain keep the gold abroad
charged interest, a win/win, but Spain between gasps
sputters to kneel, because Maya gold now liquid
there now phalanxes of Maya warriors disguised as gold
Coat Europe, gold went cheap, the Dutch smile.

I will be teaching "A Worn Path" later in the semester so here's this...

The revolution will be atomized

The new ticket

it's who you know

A CEO or a baron, a multimillionaire by all estimations, could befriend all of Washington, and it is then said that all of Washington has befriended a wealthy aristocrat with ties to global capital via his infinite commericial network, an aristocrat capable of sealing the fate of thousands of children through the most basic economic decisions made at his companies.

We don't fault these Washingtonians for the friends they keep. We never say, “He has links to murderous global capitalism. His candidacy should be questioned and he should be imprisoned without trial.” Service to capital, no matter how destructive to human life, is never regarded as terrorism.

not ilk

Will there be prizes leftover
when the incentives are refunded
the refund is a refusal to engage
flanges get a refund when unsuitable

a momentary takeover of rebuke
missile comfort
hang your head from the lintel
urge pace
Dock in heaven we are told
I'm honestly guessing

coherence please
as to the esophagus plain adheres
collusion must
as it tramples a bile twentysomethings
shouldering the musket
shouldering AR15s (widowmakers)

an empty reference pest
refuels the reply to return politely
make Amens

I gave back my body as a refund
I gave back my rent check
I gave back my quarterpounder
I gave back my dead guys
The only questionable project is the food.

A small scout should promise entirely possible rebates

do you plan on addressing this conflict
we have with the spaghetti

order one pfaltzgrapf urn I have popped my head
floating outside the tent
based on reordering times

until my face is what a writeup contains
we constructed
we built this teeming
we are selling for Hershey Park

every participant with an opportunity to coagulate this donkey
and the preternatural fields were awag

bet i'm thinking i'm so parsley
cannot be assimilated into a proper cheese

but my nerve adventure nears its friend territoriality
and I want the amusement rides
why not write two essays

discuss the barbarity skin slap to rhythm
and recoil from nuke 'em

coat

I am going to dress in a big puffy coat
this will double me in size
over that coat, I'm going to make sure I put another coat
and over that coat
i'm going to put another coat, another coat.
I'm going to put another coat until I'm mobile.
When I'm mobile I can move freely in the cold
because of several coats which I'm now invested in
I'm going to keep dressing until I don't own a coat.
If anyone asks me for a coat, I'm going to respond
that I have all I need, and to avoid complication
I can't start handing out coats because I don't have enough
to go around. Then I'll shiver and scrunch in my shoulders and
grab my coat.

DFW, interviewed.

"solo"

Únicamente, nada más, sin otra cosa:

no me atrevo a cruzar el bosque

Expresamente, sin otra intención

te escribo solo para felicitarte.

Único en su especie

Porción de terreno donde se destina a edificar

Que está sin otra cosa o que se considera separado de ella

Dicho de personas, sin compañía

Que no tiene quien le ampare o consuele

Desierto: Composición o parte

de ella para una única voz o instrumento

interpretó un solo de piano.

"punta"

Extremo agudo o afilado de algo, generalmente alargado
Extremo de una cosa
Ángulo externo de algunos objetos
Clavo pequeño y delgado
Pequeña cantidad de algo
Lengua de tierra generalmente baja y de poca extensión que se mete en el mar
En el fútbol, posición avanzada o de ataque
jugador que la ocupa
Zapatillas de ballet con un refuerzo en el extremo
En gran abundancia

"el menos malo es el más bueno"

Similar to many other democracies, the world of Costa Rican political commercials is usually pretty grim, with candidates portrayed as either scions of the community, conveyed by action photos of each interacting with others: helping their constituents; or as eloquent and dutiful public servants, shown speaking candidly to the audience directly "though" the camera.

Costa Rica is a direct democracy; you vote in your own president and congress directly, no electoral college, which fact is important when the above commercials are made, since the only requirement is to win a majority of the popular vote. Costa Rican presidents don't have primaries and they aren't required to win in otherwise innocuous battlegrounds like Ohio and Iowa.

So needless to say, I was much surprised with Christian Democrat Luis Fishman's series of commercials, "el menos malo es el mejor" (the least worst is the best). The most hyperbolic and outlandish of these being this one here.

I'm not sure about the baby and the chorus of pregnant women, but if you're interested, there's another video of his explanation of the video's symbolism: something garbled about babies representing new starts and days after elections...blek.

Here's the song's translation:

I'll vote for Luis
my baby will be born soon
The least worst is the best
that's why i'm voting for him
He's the best.
A realist, w/o illusions, I believe him
that's why in February
I'll give my sincere vote to Luis
I'll support the least worst
with flags and a banquet
I'll celebrate it honking*.
I'll follow him.
I'll vote for him.
He's the besssssssssssst!

“The least worst is the best. Fishman.”

[*In Costa Rica, soccer and election victories are celebrated with incessant car honking.]

every Scout should replace water periodically

This is from a longer piece called swords with lord baden-powell


our great wetlands
where land is wet so sure

there will be abuses (hold on
to your auto fruition

not to mention unclean subject)
to nominal rejection by opposite sexos

where these are in opposing
life into a gamer's game schedule

small ants collect around scouts' middles
these are food the real slow food
ant vs. whoever grasshopper

enormous vs. steadily enlarging
swollen for a reason vs. taking up inordinate planning
for the family planning entry

small stork wage a war for survival
in a scout's nurturing hand, the charges democratize
and the stork learns a to appreciate fragile homes
a lesson from here:

these lands opened up for development
without asking
no one with permission and rules
is interesting enough to flying animals.

It is (adjective) to (verb) with your (noun)

Don't tell me your noun/verbs w/o telling me first what those adjectives mean!

Elements of Style

I missed this when it was initially posted, but look: funny!

Or worse yet...

"I thought I was going to die, we were so high up," the card said. "I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet landing [sic] in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet, end up on some place like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters, speaking of headhunters, why do they just eat outsiders, and not the family members? Strange ... and what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth, landed on Gilligan's Island and then lived through it, and the only woman there was Mrs. Thurston Howell III? No Mary Anne (my favorite) no Ginger, just Lovey! If it were just her, I think I'd opt for the sharks, maybe the headhunters."

White People Ruin Stuff

Today, illegally surfing while I should have been teaching, I found this

rules me hates rules

A big book managing

Can challenge

While the book slept

Unearthing occurring

My privilege was inept

A soul wept

Into it’s darning

My fever went swim

In stocking stuffing.

arts we draw

Deeply soul

knew my grown voice

knew it

kneel and paint

kneel to paint

individuals choices

arts really makes me

feel my heart

desires are telling me

see the worlds, the voice

the colors picked for

the arts we do

imply the feeling

of the artist while doing.

Arts we do

contain colors

reveal our hearts

what these colors do is revealing

and clothing can too

kneel and paint

does your heart feed reveal?

Maybe your heart feed reveals

like a pig or like me

who paints for escape

words safe words

A big word like banana

to see the inside of your heart.

Yogurt Most Certainly

I stick my spoon in halfway
Then you stick your spoon in halfway
And we’ll share this yogurt its new
Flavor returns beat investments only with good taste
Spitting out yogurt wastes the money you spent
Spitting out yogurt with money you spent is actually a waste.

Never hasten to probe yogurt you’ve learned to correctly taste
The smell sitting before your tongue is taste in a haste:

Your body is becoming harder while you wait
For the yogurt that renews your litmus
When you hold something so sacred on your tongue
Changing colors will reward you with an answer to boldness
Hold your tongue, feel the yogurt medicate.

Stick your spoon in three-quarters way
Then I stick my spoon in three-quarters way.
Let’s play swords.
The first to be satisfied by lengthy curtains
Touched up with new yogurt’s powerful ambitions

Your eyes are softening and running out of your head
They are transformed into yogurt
And a nice neighborhood with activism.

Yogurt, the spelling bee of the mouth!
A champion discus tosser hurls a new flavor into the region
Of your face and you should react by opening up
And saying, “Pro-biotics”
Which are boring remnants of God from being dead.

I have nothing but boots in my yogurt clothing routine
When I decide which yogurt to commandeer and
Non-fucking-fat cottage cheese is what entirely happened!
Normal cottage cheeses don’t stick so often
Haphazardly peeling the ripped foil before you’ve taste experimented
Is like going to a firefight with only a rubber glove on your head.

If you want to know what a lifelong bout with terminal diseases feels like
Understand how yogurt is made inside a cobra’s poisonous glands
When and only when the snake turns
Fire a missile and fill the yogurt enough into a latex glove.
Now you are safe, now you can curl up and comprehend.

The Necrosocial

Dying to study?

Can we co-opt a position already co-opted by opponents?

Reading this piece after reading The Coming Insurrection, there's particular resonance in the idea that protest is only acceptable when its form and meaning are both managed by power. But I can't help thinking that the perpetual deliberation as a delaying tactic can't also be used to protesters' advantage. Delay is usually seen as the inactive moment between anticipation and doing (action), but this assumes that while protesting, the mobilized group is only protesting with its end being negotiation. If the goal is prolonging debate, then, delay would be beneficial to anyone but those seeking to "manage" the situation.

samesies

is here, either highlighting the sameness in human experience, or the fact that amateurs are unoriginal.

Job Search

I’m still sitting here hour 1003rd job search I’ve performed this year. This is a wonderful way to end a college career made up of heady research and fixing appliances and never eating. I never ate because I was job searching.

My job search contributes to my healthiness and spanking new uniform. When employers see my work, they turn the resume over, face down, kissing whatever implements they have. My credentials kiss candy. A boss would hire me after the interview, but I’m not given the interview. After I’m buzzed in, I’m hiding from boss. Bosses overly interfering with employee health so reprehensible.

For this next year, my costume will mix horny and scary. Appealing to all aspects of street life is what makes a decent costume. They built the Yankee home before they built the 9/11 memorial. Both were horny and scary options. These were costumes that could be exchanged for better-made uniforms.

And now for my body cavity. Since my entire body is unreliable, potential hirers reduce my presence to a quick meaning. Comparing my difficulty to Thanksgiving. Giblets and hiring practices, stuffing that is piping hot and razor sharp. You fill that cut up parking layout. You, human pond.

Wednesday, October 28th, 1:13 am

Currently, on yahoo.com, the most popular search is for "Homemade Halloween Costumes."

Subprime

The sheer connivance perpetrated by the lending industry has been this: to turn blame away from the industry itself and offer up borrowers as a kind of financial aggressor or predator.

There are needs I require fulfilling. Housing and comprehensive medical coverage, particularly in an emergency, are two needs. The medical aspect is a topic to avoid for now. It is, after all, the "mortgage" crisis which is blamed for the problems we're now facing.

If I need shelter, housing, a roof, then what I'm going to do is accept the first offer to help, especially in an economic system such as ours, the best offer wins out. If I were to lend money to friends who I knew were unable to pay me back--because I have access to their banking and credit history--then my ruin is whose fault? Had lending companies bridled their greed, had they shoved their fists in their mouths instead of wadding cash in it, then solicitation of near-bankrupt and poverty-stricken debtors might not have been on the menu.

I fail to see how predatory and poor lending choices should be brought to bear on borrowers. I fail to see how my need to extra funds indicts my need for extra funds and for not being able to pay those funds back. If I could pay them back, I would not need them.

On Pause

My "much awaited" second post on Bill O'Reilly is owed, and is forthcoming. However, I feel the demands of teaching three levels of Eng Comp + additional job search are a priority. And so, I'll promise a Talking Points Memo breakdown weekly, but certainly not daily. Lo siento mucho!

In the meantime, YIKES!

NPR (ethnocentrism) Watch, Part II

When NPR’s chief reporter on this “case, Daniel Zwerdling, goes out to investigate, first we hear what appears to be a car alarm, then birds chirping. Then--and this might work on television, but it's more confusing here-- he asks a man if he's one of the mechanics. The man responds, "Ehhhhh," showing that he doesn't speak English. Zwerdling asks him: "Do you speak English?" And the conversation is quickly cut.

The problem when reporting employs tactics that rely heavily on geographic- and language-based stereotypes has nothing to do with the article's aim. It's obviously worthwhile and super-virtuous to find out whether or not the mechanics in these outsourced countries are competent and capable of doing just as good a job as any mechanic anywhere else. The problem is that we don't know if the man Zwerdling "accosts" outdoors near the airport in this opening segment is a mechanic or not. And this crucial information of who we're listening to is kept from us. "Ehhhh" isn't given time nor a translator; he's not allowed to answer. Instead, the cut is made back to the real reporting, the non-English speaking "Ehhhhh" guy is dropped, and we're left thinking: Geez, this mechanic can't fix shit. How can he read how to fix things if he can't speak English (This might not have much to do with competency handling complex avionics equipment, but readers are left to believe that it most certainly does.) And that's the problem I have; why El Salvador? Why not Britain, France or other nations in Europe where these pieces are also repaired? It's plain to see on the map that US airline companies use numerous locations around the world, so why does NPR devote two out of three segments to the tiny nation of El Salvador?

Add to this the trade and commerce complications a foreign corporation such as Aeroman would risk were it to constantly turn out faulty repairs and this argument—that this small Salvadoran factory’s lack of competence is systematic and highly regular—just doesn't make sense. Why not, as the article clearly states, figure out what FAA Regulators have been doing, if they haven't been making the rounds at these factories? Where's the story there? (This is glossed over, when Zwerdling so clearly states that a Government Investigation has found that Federal Investigators haven't been to these factories in years. Italics are mine.) So instead of blaming the Salvadorans, we should be asking in unison with them: Where are our fucking Federal Regulators?

NPR Watch

Note: The below is a response to the audio portion of the linked article.]

“When you fly, who do you think has been taking care of your airplace. Mechanics in Chicago, San Francisco perhaps?”

Right from the intro, the reporting overwhelmingly appeals to an “us vs. them” mentality. "Aren't you comfortable that your airline is undergoing repairs in a US city?" This isn’t said, but it doesn’t need to be. Nor is the thrust of the article to engender compassion toward the US worker. What is achieved is the more sensationalistic belief that “we” can’t trust “them” to do what we used to do and that in outsourcing, we’re sacrificing safety (but not jobs…that goes unreported). I’m sure the tale will be ramped up, that of the poor failing industry versus the haughty demands of union members. [Plus hefty retirement packages, health insurance demands from people who want a better life, largely because that’s what they were told their country stood for.]

After the introduction, Daniel Zwerdling begins his “investigation” and the cue music is probably some stock sound file of guitar/gauchesque ridiculousness. Were this TV, we’d probably see a run-down pig ranch and semi-nude children running under clotheslines. Then listeners are battered with salsa and shouting, presumably either from inside the factory or a marketplace, we’re not told. “Those damn Latinos,” they might as well be saying, “always with their loud voices and their music. No wonder they can’t fix stuff good [sic].”

It’s odd that the last statement accuses workers in the El Salvadoran factory, Aeroman, of being those who improperly installed the door latch (upside down). First off: mistakes happen everywhere. To use this example as a conclusion that work done there is subpar is insulting to listeners and obscures the truth this article attempts to address in favor of a more inflammatory message (again, see aforesaid message of attempting to foster an us v. them (read, high v. low quality). The juxtaposition of the statement about the flange or thingamajig being backwards and that it happened in that factory implies that there’s a language or intelligence barrier—that something about an overseas factory is shoddy. Mind you, we’re not told they lack oversight, just that inspectors (FAA) haven’t “been there” in years. The reporting suggests that this is not just a simple laborer’s error.

Did this simple error cause panic and dismay and a near crash scenario? Yes. Was it a serious error and probably avoidable? Certainly. But it’s also certain that this example is not emblematic of greater problems at some of these factories. That this doesn’t occur more or why airline companies have resorted to outsourcing is, sadly due to the faulty reportage here, something we don’t ever find out. (Perhaps in the upcoming segments?)
Second, it seems odd that while the FAA doesn’t require airlines to report where they outservice their repairs to that this particular airline in the above example would be able to place blame on one particular factory. How can we know where this piece was mis-installed if the FAA doesn’t?

Factual problems:

If you look at the map provided on the page, there are thousands of factories all over the world. It’s worth noting that many of these factories exist in Europe, where salaries are equal or higher in most cases; it’s odd that the union argument would even be used in light of this information.
I’d like to know where they get their averages for airline mechanic pay. Doing a bit of quick research online puts the average pay per hour around $20-25 dollars, not the kingly $100 as cited by NPR. [It’s odd that this would even be an hourly position, since I’m sure the hours worked are inconsistent. Not that there’s no demand, just that it’s probably on-again, off-again.] The Bureau of Labor Statistics further states that some Avionics Mechanics (AM) are union members, but that these only represent about 30% of all AMs. Such a percentage wouldn’t mean that Airlines would ship costs overseas to save money, but instead simply opt to utilize some 70% of the remaining non-union workforce.

This is backed up by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To wit:
Median hourly earnings of aircraft mechanics and service technicians were about $22.95 in May 2006. The middle 50 percent earned between $18.96 and $28.12. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $14.94, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $34.51. (www.bls.gov)

Bill O'Reilly - Day 1

[Note: Below notes were taken during my viewing of a 2:30 minute segment of Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo (10/15) commentary on Rush Limbaugh’s ejection from NFL. This is a mere sampling of some of the logical and language-based problems on the show. Ideally, each day I will write up a response to his “Talking points memo.” Alternately, I plan on deconstructing the content of Shepard Smith’s reporting as well, though it seems important to note that Smith’s reporting is more tempered and less controversial.]


I. Opening Quote:

"Some people said Limbaugh made a series of racial comments and therefore does not deserve to be part of the NFL."

Topically, of course, Limbaugh isn’t part of the NFL. This is weird phrasing. But I digress… The primary problem here is that "Some people" is vague. I always stress this point to my students. Who are these people? (If it's just Al Sharpton, why not mention him singly?) How many said this? When did they say it?” What were Limbaugh’s comments? O’Reilly cites only Al Sharpton, which is basically doublespeak for "the crazy black man who protests everything." And this seems to suggest that Sharpton is the voice that represents a large community of outraged individuals, an assertion which is entirely false.

But back to vagueness…

The reason why ideas are intended to be vague usually is either 1) lack of real evidence/sources or 2) an attempt to manipulate conversation to one’s own ends. Both of the above "some people" and "comments" are kept vague to blur the reasons and what Limbaugh actually said to either warrant/not warrant his being kicked off the show. In addition, viewers aren’t told exactly who kicked Limbaugh off the show. If viewers don’t know what Limbaugh said, the assumption is that it probably isn’t much worth mentioning. (Although, to use the famous line that "actors should mix with politics," a line usually used in the context of Tim Robbins or Sean Penn.) Limbaugh’s sports announcing shouldn’t be peppered with controversial statements. In his role as a sportscaster, his job is to sportscast, not to offend viewers.

Furthermore, to use the term "witch hunt" is a historically charged and hypocritical exaggeration. The implication that Limbaugh is being hunted by a group of people whose moral compass is guided by fear (as in Salem), and who have no evidence of his wrongdoing, is patently false. There is no “group” hunting him and certainly the decision to fire him was motivated more by capital than by any ideological fright. [In fact, the one person responsible for Limbaugh’s firing is Dave Checkett’s, a Mormon business man, NOT a member of what most would associate with "the liberal elite."] The labeling of an executive's attempt to silence Limbaugh as a witch hunt while actively engaging in an attempt to root out "anti-Americanism" (O'Reilly's attempts to silence dissent go back to just after 9/11) is simple hypocrisy. Apparently, it's acceptable to ruin the lives of everyday Americans who happen to criticize the actions of their government but not to fire a celebrity who makes millions a year. This attempt to silence dissent from the ground-up while defending the right of privilege to make divisive comments about trivial sporting events should be frightening to those who claim O'Reilly represents the "little guy."

Example of Limbaugh’s comments?

"Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it." [What seems interesting here is the supposed burden Limbaugh seems to suggest is being lifted from his conscience after he says this with his foot-stomping "There, I said it".]

Checketts can obviously be faulted for being obtuse— anyone who doesn’t understand what Limbaugh does is either lacking proper decision-making skills or living somewhere very remote.

Even O’Reilly’s word choice here is ridiculously hyperbolic: "That race theme quickly became used as a hammer against Limbaugh." A hammer? Really? To "break" him? So the fact that public outrage surrounds these statements is more of an inconvenience to Limbaugh's "right" to utterance than it is representative of a history of divisive commentary? There seems to be little objectivity here, but again, one could argue that most journalism is based on objectivity as a goal, not always as a result. However, my goal here is to show that O’Reilly’s lack of objectivity starts at the level of language and spreads into every aspect of his show.

O’Reilly insists that allegations against Limbaugh suggest that he (Limbaugh) is a supposed "race baiter." O’Reilly does not define what he means by this. Does he mean that Limbaugh baits other races by saying things that he knows to be offensive and then hides behind some vague notion of Freedom of Speech when he’s penalized for his statements? Or does this mean that Limbaugh uses the topic of race to stir controversy. If the former is true, said Amendment doesn’t cover speech meant to incite panic or fear and hatred against a group of people; if the latter is true, then controversy is what he got, and there’s no case here.

At this point in the Memo, O’Reilly recycles old statements that Limbaugh supposedly made about James Earl Ray. (This is of course used as information that can be clearly disproved and thus, by O'Reilly's logic, disproving all further allegations of bigoted comments.) Adding to the suspicion that Limbaugh can't be innocent of all comments due to the origin of some comments, this information is specious and outdated. It had already been reported Limbaugh didn’t make that statement (see, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=49546). But this is not important to O’Reilly, who rightly assumes that his main audience doesn't Google much. His main concern is to lump the James Earl Ray incident (which started with one person, an anonymous blogger named Cobra) in with any other instance of Limbaugh's proclivity to make racially-divisive comments. There’s a logical problem here, and this is that just because Limbaugh didn’t make one comment doesn’t mean he didn’t make any comments about race. In fact, Limbaugh is known for making comments that are racially controversial, which you can see in the above-linked quote, and all it takes is a quick Google search to see well-documented examples of comments he’s made regarding the topic of race. But O’Reilly doesn’t mention these comments. Instead, he uses comments made from "the far left" (I’m sure the "far left," whoever they may be, has more important things to worry about than taking down Rush.) With these digressions from his own lead story, O’Reilly clouds the waters by offering—without citation—an example of his own persecution which, according to his telling of it, seems like a fairly innocuous story that took place in Sylvia’s Restaurant here in Harlem. By virtue of its very innocuousness, this anecdote is meant to refute all arguments against Rush Limbaugh and to introduce a logical parallel between O'Reilly and Limbaugh: if I am not guilty, he is not guilty. We are one no slant, no spin, fair and balanced blob.

II.

"Fair Americans know that playing the race card is easy and hateful."

Who are these "fair" Americans? Does he mean "fair" as in "just"? If there is truly a "witch hunt" currently happening in America, where are these legions of "fair Americans"? Does O'Reilly mean to refer to those Americans who know the sense of right and wrong? How many are there? Did he survey all of the Americans he considers "fair" to see what they think? Have these Keepers of Fairdom been allowed to weigh in on the matter? The insistence on using terms like this is, once again, vague and extremely groupthink-esque. Instead of even using an actual survey or *gasp* research, it posits that there is a group of "common sense" holders out there who are constantly stormed and attacked by "wackos" of all stripes, who, in contrast with the "Fair Americans," don't use common sense. That some people have more common sense seems a fair assessment. But however true this may be, if we were to research what criteria make for common sense and "fair," there is certainly no evidence 1) that this group knows what O'Reilly claims they know or that they agree with him 2) of their numbers, and 3) whether this really has anything to do with race-baiting or the previously-mentioned Limbaugh case.

This statement's real purpose is to flatter viewers—I’m fair, they’re not—while united them as one group. Any angst-ridden and alienated viewer looking for a sense of belonging just found it. O’Reilly seems more interested in simultaneously flattering viewers while insulting their intelligence. Mix the "You viewers are lovely" with "I will always be more informed than you but use my cat-like agility and salty intellect to inform you of what others hide" together and voila! You’ve got the recipe for a successful show.

I'm not saying that O'Reilly's show isn't entertaining, which it certainly is, especially viewed ironically as one work in the larger oeuvre of his terribly written books imbued with his trademark pedantic and cringe-worthy tone. His charm of late seems to stem from the toning down of his more divisive rhetoric and ire, probably due to some late administrative decision to make room for Beck's more vitriolic delivery style. But the problems of this show are numerous: the catering to sensationalistic and vague reporting, the logic jumps and mis-connections O'Reilly practically elicits between "facts," the general non sequitor/short attention span reporting style which doesn't inform as much as it confuses viewers, and the veiled subjectivity and opinions of one man which masquerade as objective and to-the-minute breaking journalism.

My Brother's Sequential Anatomy and Microsoft WORD

This, from my brother, Patrick Daley:

I was writing a paper on Plato's view of women for a Humanities class when I noticed a cool feature on Word. If you type in a word in the Thesaurus, a bunch of words with the same first couple letters show up. I started messing around and came up with this weird poem. I also made up a rule for which it was meant to be organized. The word count of each sentence must be in consecutive order (I noted the word count next to each sentence). The poem turned out to be pretty funny and thought I would send it to you. I made it into an anatomy lesson. Enjoy!

Sequential Anatomy

14. The penis penetrates peninsulas whose penitence is a pen name for penniless pen pals.

15. The septum separates the septic tank from the separatists whose sepulchers are sequenced in September.

16. The vagina gives vaccinations through a vacuum to vagrants whose vague vanity is a vacillating valediction.

17. The shin shifts from a shimmering shingle to a shiny shelter where shenanigans are shielded from shepherding.

Good poetry does not include politics

1. Tone:

If you say a statement with genuine meaning in your tone, you possibly get aggressive behavior in children. This is because children are tuning in more than ever to what adults say. They thirst for adult messages in music, art and lesser known influences like television. The secret to convey these messages is by seclusion. No one would want to destroy the vegetables if they had been chopped so fine they were mixed in and invisible.


2. Recipes

Children sense what recipes we’re dreaming up, having read large letters about them. Children are small prophets. I don’t know why we haven’t shown them menus for each meal. Easy-to-read menus threaten most youngsters tiny eardrums and light receptors, and politically-minded children are offended by insults delivered by these menus to their sophistication.


3. What to wear and do with your mouth while getting political

So an outfit backfires. This has been foreseen. If you don’t want people to hate what you’re wearing, don’t say, “This outfit sucks, huh” as a statement.

Who wouldn’t negatively react to an author who is nothing but kind words.

Political disagreement flavored with cherry tip. Slowly place the political instrument on your lips before deciding whether its taste isn’t for you.

Expecting this medical issue to present itself in polite civic discourse is intellectualizing a simplistic fallacy of being required to grow yourself a pair in order to win at board games.

But what about revolution? A poem about revolution shouldn’t say “revolution poem” or “revolution trade center.” If you want your favorite TV star assassinated you shouldn’t shout, “Assassinate whomever I like!”

A poem cannot take politics upstairs and bicker behind walls. We do not see what happens upstairs in amicable revolution. In a sense, a revolution is history gone badly.

Parents modeling for children’s clothes, fighting in front of kids.

We see the lack of physical interference–both hands solitary and on hips—this means that either companion could get political at uncomfortable objects.

These justices are hoping to overturn their courtroom anger. Laws are made by figureheads who see disillusion in fighting.

Opponents of the poem see practiced daily usage as a threat to linear conversation derivative of political logic.

Heated and worked out in front of children, poems should be about really anything but politics.

Politics has words that interfere with beautiful concepts.

Childish secret concepts are like bellybuttons: we all want to deny they come from god.

Surprisingly I haven’t felt myself since I ate that chipotle

Believe it, food travels
A long way

Later when it rests
In a throat full
Of soda

You can think
It’s going to be going down
But actually, this food
Had other plans

I’m giving this toy’s educational value five star rating. This review is pounding the pavement for five star rating, clearer than would be any object in the world. I learned more in Georgia, this toxic coating adds to entice. This puppy run zero to seventy, minor irritating cause the five star values. I let the photogenic quality get away. Redaction to preen. Flubbed, no bun. No run knob that manually sets the length to Destiny of Carpet.

We were captives in a forward-thinking cell, yet too glitzy in skull. Gliding to service entrances loose dogs called safe are picked up and destroyed with remaindered shelving. A uselessly rendered dog may accrue excess fines and government involvement.

The dog’s looseness — lack of smell – arranges a meeting of cold war powers long since out of large font. Nutrition loitered, the service entrance a small gamey type. This was second place? No one boxed so Drago as you. You put your arms making like an Octopus. I’d imagine the effort strung out.

The dog went backchannel through our cousin, changing names. A truck then materialized and someone to drive it. You have capsized, but there’s no telling what parents will actually call on gods for. She prefers little yelpers. I was given a few moving seconds with the pile, quivering mass of oat. Our interaction lacked fluid. I pupped and found pain included the molten crust of my first exhibit. Faulted at the end and leashed – air being left in a flat to sour – lay down to perform the angel I cannot be hungry enough to eat.

Ernesto Sábato's el túnel

To the degree that Juan Pablo Castel recreates the events leading up to María Iribarne’s murder, no fully objective rendition of these events actually occurs— Castel’s account largely riddled with digressions and rants of one kind or another. The construction of a sprawling logical framework to corroborate and justify his actions fails to gain our sympathy or understanding, and it is Sábato’s intent – the responsibility for which he conveniently absents himself – this failure transpires. For so long as reason is used by Castel to justify misdeeds, readers view these methods of justification as specious. This rational justification is the author’s illustration that any action, no matter how heinous, can be justified by our sense of reason. Hence, Castel is a cautionary tale, a soul deluded by a reliance on artificial objectivity to excuse nature’s actions.

If I have to produce more, my work hours build up
And if I work more, I require more money to keep
Me going
And if I’m paid a fair wage, then the cost of goods increases
To offset my hefty raise and profit is guaranteed.
Therefore: having more to choose from, more goods, more toothpaste
Raises the cost of living, the cost of goods
And limits our ability to purchase other, more needed services.

"The Ironic Cloud"

What would happen if we documented all irony in every world language and culture? According to researchers D. Graham Burnett and Jeff Dolven, the war on terror, and all wars against any (un)known enemy could easily be waged, and won. Words can kill, I know it. You know it. Our government knows it. But soon, everyone will know it, and see it, and quake under the power of our irony.

Raiding a Public Program Already

Bankrupt is bad policy.
When no one has money
No one is really lonely.
I’m going to have to file for bankruptcy
Because my loneliness needs recruits.

Bankruptcy filers grasp neoprene monotone dummy socks
Are you prurient? Likening
A strange neoprene outfit to go hunting.

Made up what I like
A base enjoyment
Surrounding money and food
Both brood, both booed
Encased in a loneliness
That is mine, all mine.

A policy designed to improve narcotics processing
When in fact no police horse regulation at all
Can be called from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Stamped out mistreatment of the polar wild

The quote made me put more emphasis on the present
And how extremely retarded valuable can be
You stay behind at the same address
And your beard gets retarded looking when you forget to cut it
Growing into the driveway cracks
Then you cut it
With a lot of help
Values in the neighborhood are down, largely
Because of that stupendous beard right there
For believe the present is of intense value
Only if there’s an insane amount of reading
Will I usually get typically flaming head rash
And this is what is happening in Soviet Russian basements
Where Florida doesn’t have basements because of water tables

Where I live, In Florida
Low tides and lucid places
Small areas uncharted by human hands
Are all Florida’s to exploit.

I have largely cut ties
With my birth handlers
Just don’t compare
The flary airy dimple
Created in the hush left behind
By this orange land
Center of Freedom
Dell has purchased para

I like how you listed your political view as fascist.

Including this fascist information and about what you do with various genres of fascist literature answers a few questions.

Oh that’s really very fascist.

The most evil man of all time is now changing his facebook plans.

He turns his face toward the grieving women but ignore them fascist cry babies.

Just marking fascist playthings for liquidation.

Thanks for group hugging your friends. Even the pimply nose picker.

Who can group together in a club going commando and have a fascist picnic time.

Even maybe now get some visits from Denmark, where castles have networks and plugins for facebook updates.

I’m afraid storing gasoline might make me look crazy.

Did you make a castle to lie down in?

How about how cold those rocks you build castles with are.

All the gasoline in Hitler’s eyebrow doesn’t retain an odor like castle rock entertainment.

Finally, someone compared Hitler.

Nice joy ride you fascist prince, are you going to throw your friends frozen mothers out of the moving carriage?

Kind and empathetic and a strong musculature to visit there getting food to urgent areas mocks a plan created by national socialism to starve medially underserved regions.

Russian Ark

Russian Ark reconstructed, in book form. BLDGBLOG has the details.

District 9 reviewed...

at N+1

Verses for Kids

What hitmen do is impersonal, and are pretty strictly corralled by duty. If your sister did something that angered hitmen bosses, then a fatality should be blamed on the lack of choice hitmen truly have when it comes to killing and satisfying bosses' revenge fantasies.

If hitmen don’t kill, they will either lose their job, or a new job opens that consists of their picture in a file with a big crosshairs. And someone else is found to do that job. Hitmen don’t care about you or your sister (except the bad things she did) and neither do hitman replacements.

Presidents, however, are completely different from hitmen because they aren't targeting individual voters. They must instead decide to do what's best for the nation (besides, they don't actively kill people). Sometimes presidents' jobs are unpopular because one group doesn't want them to kill their interests.

But no killing goes on. Presidents don't sign a contract that says they must go to your hometown and wipe out your family because they've been paid by Shell Oil or Nabisco to waste your siblings.

Since they can’t do what your one vote wants them to do, if you hate presidents because they don't do what your vote wants but decide on what's good for the majority of votes, then it’s your stupidity and selfishness that causes you to bother hating these elected presidents, and not any factual information you possess (that no one else seemingly possesses) that indicates their level of badness.

Jenna has this baby.
What Jenna has is a very large baby.
An incredibly intelligent baby can be left alone.
Jenna’s baby cannot be left alone
It cannot be left alone because
Sometimes sitting on her chest
Jenna’s little turd will spend too much time texting.
Babies shouldn’t text, they should cry.
If your baby texts, make sure it cries.
Create a darling environment
I can hear a cry from here.
Can you squint your ear
And open your mind to a small cry
Like a siren’s baby off in the distance?

They should cry into the listening device
But should not
Absolute imperative.
Use their nubby fingers on the keypad
Babies don’t text messages so under no circumstances
Should you let them remove their nubs they’re so easy.
When little fingers move so quickly upon a keypad,
I feel a slight chest tremor and wish I wanted children.
Knocked from my seat by this chest tremor
My wife says absolutely no texting crying.

Hate Mail

Hate mail is often hilarious and dramatic. When hateful things are often said, a message is conveyed that maybe before you weren't aware. Sometimes when I think of all the hateful things I've ever said, I wonder when I'm going to get mail from anyone aside from machines. How does hate mail make YOU feel? Have you learned much from hate mail? Has it told you often what you didn't previously know? Or maybe mail from hateful senders has clued you in to some psychological breach in the damn of human tendencies to write letters? Maybe hate mail makes us more human.