http://meloukhia.net/2009/07/hipster_racism.html

questions chapter 6

1) Do threats to the U.S such as 9/11 justify getting into the privacy citizens? (Patriot Act)
2) Which is more influential: the media, parents, or school?
3) What are other factors that can affect your political stance?
4) What political/social impact would it have if our country has a minority majority?
5. What are the different issues specific to different ethnicities?

identify figures of speech

Introduction To Poetry

I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

Abortion is indubitably a very controversial issue. When this topic is brought up, many jump to the conclusion that abortion is synonymous with murder therefore rendering it to be unjust and unethical. I'll tell you what's unethical: disregarding the rights of women to their own reproductive system is unethical. Believing that government institutions or the law should interfere with the personal lives and decisions of women is unethical. Jumping to conclusions and assuming that women who choose to get an abortion is merely irresponsible,, or heartless is a faulty logic that should be taken into further examination. I stand here before you today, to offer you a different perspective, my perspective, in hopes that you will understand or try to understand why women carry out carry out abortions, instead of solely arriving at assumptions.
  Abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the United States. Fewer than 0.5% of women obtaining abortions experience a complication, and the risk of death associated with abortion is about one-tenth that associated with childbirth. Access to a safe, legal abortion procedure is an option that all women should have. Many people tend to believe that abortion is equivalent to killing a life. In this point of view when looking at the value of a life, some may not consider the life of a women. If a woman already suffers from a chronic condition that requires medication, that medication may not be compatible with pregnancy, which means you’re asking a woman to sacrifice her own health. Demanding that women — primarily young, underprivileged women — go through pregnancy and birth is risking her life. When the value of a life comes into play, there is nothing wrong with women valuing their own lives over that of a fetus. A fetus is not living, breathing, sentient being. It is a possibility of a living thing.
And what about the women who didn't even choose to be pregnant? Women who are raped or victims of incest should not be forced to carry out a pregnancy. Odds are that 1 in 3 women will be victims of sexual violence in her lifetime. My aunt falls under the 1, in 3. As a young woman, she was a victim of rape during the atrocities of the Vietnam War had gotten an abortion. Her circumstances at the time were unfit for a child to be in. It is not fair to bring a child into a world when you lack the necessities such as money, and a safe environment for the child to have a good life.
Adoption is a popular alternative that is brought up in regards to abortion. I would like to inform you that adoption is actually not a direct alternative to abortion. It’s an alternative to parenthood. Abortion, at the most simple definition, is a form of birth control. By performing it, you prevent birth. Having an abortion in the first trimester (where 88% of them take place according to the guttmacher institute) [http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html]  is VERY different from continuing the pregnancy and giving the baby up for adoption. People who don't see this” are completely ignoring the physical, financial and mental tolls of pregnancy. It is NOT easy. If you work a minimum wage job, or don’t have sick days, you probably can’t afford to take time off because of morning sickness. If you don’t have healthcare, you can’t afford nine months of prenatal appointments. If your job doesn’t have paid maternity leave, you can’t afford to take time off to recover from the birth. If you have complications and are required to go on bed rest… how would most young people afford that? How would you pay rent and bills and buy groceries if you had to stay off your feet for three months or longer? Furthermore, the mental toll of giving up a child for adoption is immense. Not only do you have to go through the physical distress of labor, you don’t get to take home a baby afterward. And you have to explain your decision to family members and friends for the rest of your life. On the other hand, abortion is a private decision that has a relatively low chance of mental health complications. It shouldn't be an issue, because the personal lives of women and what they choose to do with their own bodies, as long as it's with no intent to inflict harm, should be respected. We all have women in our lives that we respect, so why not respect their right to their own bodies?

http://www.mcelroytutoring.com/blog-post.php?id=281
http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/facts-and-formulas-0.pdf
http://www.freevocabulary.com/SATmath.pdf
http://www.erikthered.com/tutor/
http://www.syvum.com/sat/index.htm#s1
http://www.studybeans.com/sat/math_equations.html
http://www.apluspublishing.com/aplus4.html

Question 11.

Xin Phong

Period 8

Besides the fact that Nora and Helmer's marriage is traditional, with the wife being the domestic figure, and the husband going to work, it is also filled with secrets and conflict like a typical marriage. Nora keeps secrets such as borrowing money, and even trivial secrets like eating macaroons, in order to avoid conflict in her marriage with her husband. This in itself is an inner-conflict with Nora herself. Helmer's attitude toward Nora is typical of men who believe they are superior to women. Helmer describes Nora as a "helpless creature" (1225), underestimating her abilities as an individual. Another aspect that makes their marriage typical is the accommodation of one spouse to another. It is typical in marriages that one spouse often accommodates to the other and in this case, Nora is the one who accommodates to Helmer. She does this by dancing the tarantella at the party like he asks her to, and accepting the burden of borrowing money for his sickness. In their dysfunctional marriage, Nora gives up her own happiness for her husband by putting up a facade. Their marriage is also typical in the sense that it looks fine on the outside. They are well-off with parents who appear to be good parents, and a maid. It is a facade that is put up, like many marriages. 

Name:  xin

Date:  10/19/11

Class:  

Comments:  

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Current Working Draft: 

  D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking Horse Winner" explores a mother's material greed that results in her son's madness. The son, Paul experiences a lack of love and attention - necessities for a healthy childhood development. He notices his mother's strong appetite for money, when she condemns his father's bad luck. According to his mother, luck is what brings in money. However, Paul seeks luck, not to gain money, but as an attempt to compel his mother's attention.
His search causes him to take no heed of other people, riding his rocking horse, "charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily." (304). He grows an obsession toward riding his rocking horse because he believes it helps him win money from horse racing bets. Because this is his only source of luck, his habits deludes him, as he rides to the "end of his mad little journey" (305). His toy rocking horse is an object of of his delusion. It represents Paul's abnormal psychological growth and obsession. Before his obsession with gaining his mother's attention, he uses the rocking-horse solely as a toy. In his search for luck, the horse becomes a drug for Paul that he develops an addiction towards. The horse is the source of his luck, allowing him a quick fix of hope: hope that his mother will show more care and affection. The mother's obsession with material objects creates Paul's obsession with money as a quest to gain her love.
       Paul's delusional behavior highlights the gravity of his mother's problem. Along with his lack of strong maternal care, are whispers in his home demanding that "there must be more money!" (303). That statement signifies the materialistic mindset of the mother. Paul interprets these demands in a literal sense and decides to fix the problem by bringing in more money. As he begins to get a taste of luck, he becomes acquainted with a large amount of money. He gathers up five thousand pounds and asks Uncle Oscar to secretly give the money to his mother. This first attempt to solve his dilemma fails when his mother gives a stoic reaction, "with her voice cold, and absent" (311). The whispering suddenly becomes stentorian, going "mad, like a chorus of frogs on a spring evening" (311). This urges Paul to further try to win even more money. His behavior is a reasonable consequence of his mother's absent love, even after he attempts to solve her problem with being unlucky. Paul focuses primarily on winning more money, to satisfy his mother. He does not realize that she will never be content with the money she has. Her need for material objects increases, no matter how much wealth she gains. The incessant whispering represent her mindset and problem of an increasing addictio. As her hunger for money increases, the volume of the voices also increase. This is a deep-rooted problem which Paul himself cannot alleviate. This causes him to carry out his last act of madness, taking his last ride on his rocking horse, resulting in illness. Even in sickness, Paul is preoccupied with money, sacrificing his well-being for his mother. Before he dies, he says "Mother, did I ever tell you? I'm lucky." His mother replies, "No, you never did." This brings light to the mother's negligence toward her son, because Paul has previously told his mother that he was "a lucky person" (304). Her response conveys that she does not care about Paul, since she does not make the effort to hear what he has to say.
        Paul's  madness induced illness ends in death, demonstrating how dire the problem of materialism in his family has become. He loses his life from trying to combat the negligent results of being over-excessively money-oriented. Paul's unhealthily eccentric behavior is a symbol of the impact materialism can have on one's environment.

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