Capital Punishment and Deaton

Studying in my garage with my friend Deaton, I was struck by the inequities of our legal system. Knowing that I had to write an essay about argument I decided to ask Deaton about her views on capital punishment. Deaton was quick to respond with a resounding “NO” and I knew I had found the perfect topic to explore the different kinds of arguments defined in our text. The four arguments presented in the text were; the argument to inquire, the argument to assert, the argument to dominate, and the argument to negotiate differences.

Initially Deaton was very sure of her argument that people who had committed murders should be imprisoned as appose to being punished with lethal force. She presented her arguments in comments such as, “death is the easy way out” which is an argument to assert. Two other arguments she made are, “prison is punishment” and an argument to compassion, “the peoples lives will be sufficiently ruined by being in prison and having their identities marked with a criminal record.” I asked why the criminal record is a sufficient punishment and she answered by saying that, “because of the record they would have a hard time getting a job, which can be seen as a punishment.”

After she had her say I proceeded to utterly and completely tear apart her argument using statistical evidence and many arguments to dominate. One such counter arguments I used was, “The American prison system gives even death row inmates state of the art medical care, 3 meals a day, in some cases a TV and air conditioning. These are luxuries that thousands of Americans do not have a hope of getting, and yet our tax dollars are providing them for people who have committed heinous crimes against fellow human beings.” I am very passionate about this topic for a variety of reasons and I found myself using predominantly argument to dominate with no arguments to negotiate differences. After about twenty minutes I decided that my arguments to dominate were not appropriate to use with a close friend because it hurt too many feelings.

With out a thorough grasp of where we come from how can we possibly hope to appreciate what we have or to plan for tomorrow.

Growing up in a society that seems to be solely focused in education upon the teaching of science and mathematics this quote strikes a sensitive chord.  Ever since I wrote a paper on the importance of history in the 10th grade I have been an adamant voice for teaching history in public education at the grade school, middle school and high school levels.  The reason that I think that history is so important is encompassed in the prompt which by the way is a quote from Jacques Barzun’s book called, The Culture We Deserve.
My favorite part of the quote is this, “Not that studying history imparts formulas and recipes; it develops connoisseurship in human affairs, the intuition of what is likely and what is important.”  Barzun is simply but sophisticatedly saying that although one cannot tell the future by studying history they can more easily decode what is currently happening, what’s going to happen next and also are able to watch for certain historically repeated warning signs or indications of opportunities.  For instance if Hitler had been more of a student of history he might of won WWII by not trying to invade Russia with only 3 months to winter… DUH!  Another great example is the economy, for instance if someone in power had studied Americas historical spending trends and were able to find some indications of the exorbitant spending and lending in the 1920’s and what that led too they would of possible been able to see the current recession before it hit.  Also the fact that we are trying to “win” in the conventional sense in Afghanistan is a joke.  If Bush or Obama just got on the phone with the British or Russians and asked them about how their attempts went to tame Afghanistan we might learn from their mistakes and not make the EXACT same ones.
Although there was only room for these three examples I could of continued on for another couple pages solely on political and military mistakes that keep happening through out history.  History tends to repeat itself if the same mistakes are made and I do not believe our society or education system put nearly enough importance on the study and understanding of both national and international history.  With out a thorough grasp of where we come from how can we possibly hope to appreciate what we have or to plan for tomorrow.

My New Title….

I have been going through an incredibly difficult time the last 2 years… full of illness, family conflict, loved ones passing, loved ones hurt, moving, losing a job and gaining 3 more, but enough about the negative!  My point is that no matter what may be messing up your day today remember that no matter what you can not control anything or anyone other than yourself.  Ultimatly your mind shapes your realitity so if you stay positive than those negative experiances will pass more quickly and you might be able to see the reason that they happened, because EVERYTHING happens for a reason!    O…… FYI ill be putting an article on my extreamly GNARLY Greek tortoise Leonidus up shortly!

5 Rules For Living With Women

Ok guys here is the secret to living with a women in a kind of harmony!

1. “Alright, whatever you say.” – Absolutely vital you learn this phrase because u will use it more than u can imagine if you plan on enjoying your life.
2. Chocolate Back Up – Always have an easy to reach stash of “bribe” chocolate for when PMS hits!
3. Don’t ever say she looks like her mother… sorry Emma
4. Just get frozen food
5. Tell her she looks beautiful no matter what!

Dont get me wrong living with women is not easy but totally worth it in the end

The last 100 Years…….

100 Years of Change

I did a project for my creativity class and thought that I should write a quick entry on our last 100 years because it is mind boggling.  I cant hope to include 1% of the important happenings in the last 100 years but here are some then and nows that are mind boggling for me!

• THEN: Trench Warfare In Europe
• NOW: Tactile Urban Warfare supported by cruise missiles, satellites, flying gun ships and UAV
• THEN: Bi Planes
• NOW: Millions of people flying in 300+ people airliners. Flying anywhere in the world in 24 hrs.
• THEN: Racism, Discrimination, MLK, Malcome X
• NOW: Black and Female Presidential Candidates + “homies”, “urban” culture that is causing MLK to turn over in his undeserved grave.  Go McCain!
• THEN: In the 60’s Sex, Love, Peace, Rock and Roll, Drugs
• NOW: Still Sex, less love, no peace, Rap and drugs for RLS but outlawed of all the good stuff
• Ok a little side note…. they need to outlaw alcohol and tobacco as they are proven killers of people and ruiner’s of lives and legalize marijuana as California could make almost a billion dollars if they could tax the sale of it and it causes no one harm.  To quote Robin Williams we need more Atomic “Bongs” as appose to Atomic Bomb

  Any way a little short post of then and now…. I will try to put my ppt up if I can find out how~!  COMMENT PLEASE!