Response to Christmas Cartoon

Mike Thompson's main point in this cartoon is that people have forgotten all about why Christmas began (to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ) and what it is, they have also attempted to turn the holiday into a pagan holiday about giving and receiving gifts. To some degree, the author is correct. The holiday has shifted away from its original purpose and now has taken on a new meaning, but many people still know the real meaning of the holiday.

The cartoonist drew the shopper with many bags, because he wanted to show that the man was just shopping and had no care about what the quote meant, he just liked it and wanted to fill another gift. Also the shopper holding out his credit card is used to show that people just throw their money to stores during the Christmas season, just trying to spend, spend, spend. The sales man in the picture has a very interesting expression. He seems to be thinking about how goofy this shopper is, he also seems to be looking at the TV to pretend like he has interest in the customer, although personally it seems he is very bored, anxiously waiting to take the man's credit card, check him out, and walk away. Neither one of these two men seem too interested in the real meaning of Christmas.

6. Parallelism is recurrent syntactical similarity. Several parts of a sentence or several sentences are expressed similarly to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. Parallelism also adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence.

The article speaks about the Sean Taylor death and how his death is the result of the "Black KKK." The article says black people should be outraged and to stop this by teaching there kids the proper way to act. The author concludes by saying that the “Black KKK” is holding black people back and the "Black KKK" is trying to keep black men in their place — uneducated and outside the mainstream.

The author's main point in the article is that black culture needs to change from having the main aspects of their culture focused on murder, ignorance, and incarceration, and have better values as the main points of their culture. They should be outraged at these murders and stop living with, tolerating, and rationalizing them. The author bring up a valid point because they have poor values in their culture, but then, when the values start to occur in reality and not just in video games, music, movies, TV, etc., they “shift the attention away from the uniquely African-American crisis” and criticize the white media for what they said about Sean Taylor.

The author uses parallelism in this quote "Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever" to strengthen his point that black people need to change black culture and that no matter whom is to blame parents are the ones who need to teach their kids the correct way to act. By listing common sources people use to pass the blame to all in a row, the author uses parallelism to show that these are not really good excuses for the characteristics of black culture. He also shows the need to change it because it has resulted in so many tragic deaths. By using parallelism the author helps add clarity to the sentence because if the author would have said blame anything you want, readers would not have know that you shouldn't really blame anything you want but you should instead teach your child proper morals and help them learn the proper way to act.

Face to Face and Leaves Some Space for Rhetorical Questions
School dance steps look like foreplay
FROM THE HART | Texas town bumps, grinds over the issue for their teens
By Betsy Hart

The author of the article shares that recently in Texas controversy occurred about whether or not teens should be allowed to dance provocatively at high school dances. The author went on to say that she will chaperon all her children's dances and not allow them to dance provocatively. She also believes that common sense would indicate to parents that allowing your child to grind at dances may be a cause when they get sexually assaulted in the parking lot after the dance. The author's main point is parents should know whats going on at their child's dances and everywhere else they go and should be ready to protect their child from them self and others. The author's main point is mostly correct. Parents should know a lot of what there kid does and have an idea of what they are doing, but they do not need to know everything, especially if there child is with people the parents trust. Parents should also always be ready to protect their child from any thing that could harm there child.
The rhetorical question "If the "$400 dress girl" had been sexually assaulted in the parking lot after the festivities because the dance wasn't a "dud," would her mom be happy, or suing the school?" strengthens the authors point because it shows the mom doesn't really care that here daughter didn't have fun but more that she wants to cause trouble for the school system.The rhetorical question supports the author's main point because it shows that the parents don't keep track of their kids and they don't know the dangers of letting their kids dance provocatively. The rhetorical question shows that the parents are irresponsible do not know the danger the kid could be in after the school dance. The question shows that the girls parents do not want to take responsibility for their daughter, but rather blame it on others when something, like their daughter getting sexually assaulted, goes wrong.

Laureen Stiller Rikleen: How do we spell relief: I-m-u-s

Don Imus should be put back on the air because he has served a long punishment and if listeners tune in to him again, then he is forgiven and there is not any legitimate reason to keep him off the air. I also agree with the author because she says he apologized for the incident in this phrase: "He immediately took ownership of his horrible comments, expressing repeated embarrassment for what he said. In fact, it may be one of the few public apologies in recent time not steeped in the “mistakes were made” sobriquets relied upon by so many public figures to deny responsibility for their own actions." Imus made a mistake, took full responsibility and now will be back on the air, because he should be. By examining the article, many more reasons to put Imus back on the air exist, and few reasons to keep him off the air remain. In my opinion his remarks were poor , but he should not have been taken off the air for making them.

To most effectively prove her point that Don Imus needs to be placed back on the air, media watchers should react "with great relief the author uses the example of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. By using Clarence Thomas as an example she is able to show the necessity of Don Imus on the air . Without Don Imus, "the tough questions" don't get asked and people are able to dodge the questions they don't want to answered. Clarence Thomas never had to answer for attacking Anita Hill, so he did not have to take responsibility for his words. The author effectively proves her point by showing the need for Imus so that cases like Clarence Thomas cannot slip away unnoticed.

This is me owning at Cross Country, just as I attempt to own at A.P. Language 11.