Post #12 Free Write

Today on the phone my mom told me that one of our family friends was looking at buying a new car. When I asked her, "What kind of car?" She replied with, "A blue Toyota Prius," and gave a short laugh. As soon as she mentioned that little bitty car it immediately brought my mind to Jeff Dunham and his dolls.

Jeff Dunham is a ventrilaquist and he is so good that he has been featured on Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live, and even been able to create his own DVD's of his shows. Jeff has visited the great state of Nebraska at least twice that I know of. Both times he made a stop at the Funny Bone Comedy Club in Omaha.

In this video you don't get to see any of his dolls or puppets or whatever you want to call them because it is the prelude to his show which sparked my memory of his video. His skits are full of one liners that would make anyone laugh. His jokes are funny yet very tasteful. He doesn't cross the line on topics that he brings up. He doesn't poke fun at just one group of people he targets all groups of people with his jokes. His jokes are often related to current issues that are in our world at the time. This includes gas prices and terrorism.

Jeff Dunham has seven dolls in his collection. These include Peanut, the weird purple guy from space that is personally my favorite , Walter, the senile old man, Achmed, the dead terrorist, Bubba J, the trailor park guy, Sweet Daddy D, Jeff's manager, Melvin the Superhero, the fat superhero with no powers, and finally Jose the Jalapeno on a Stick, no explaination necessary. Each of his characters has its own personality. They are easily relateable and everyone can pick out someone like them in their own life. Walter reminds me so much of what my grandfather was.

Back to the story about my family friend, he also owns a chihuahua. Immediately I begin to question the credibility of our friend. It makes me wonder if his new Prius is blue, if it has christmas stickers on the back, and if he lets his wife drive the big SUV home while he drives his new Prius.

T.I.

Post #11 Free Write

**I wouldn't recommend watching this video in its entirety because it is a 45 minute video. It's just a little insight to who I am and where I came from.**

Let's start with the basics, this video is of my high school football team. I went to Plattsmouth High School in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. For those of you who don't know where that's at it is 20 minutes south of Omaha. It is a highlight video from our 2006 season or my junior year. Our team is blue and white, our jerseys are all blue, all white, white with blue pants, or blue with white pants. I wear number 31, the same number that I wear here at Wesleyan.

I chose this video not only because I'm in it but because it has some of my fondest memories within it as well as a group of people that I will never forget. The friendships and bonds that you create during a football career are unforgettable. Although moving forward from those relationships is tough you will make new ones. Here at Wesleyan I've already started to create new bonds with the kids on the football team here. Those bonds that I make will last me a life time and so will the memories that will be forged from the practices and games.

The football team is who I am and what has characterized me since I got to high school. People used to always come up to me and say, "Hey your number 31 right? Well you had a really awesome game last night." No one will remember who scored and who didn't but they will remember watching as the game slowly progressed and fun was had by all those who stood, watched, and cheered. I'm sure many of you have experienced many of these things at your respective high schools as well. Don't ever forget those memories but don't forget to make new ones here.

Life isn't all about what accomplishments you achieve right away. The ones that stick are the ones that you have to work to earn. In this video you don't see much of me in the first two or three games. Part of that is due to injury, I rolled my ankle the week of the first game and part of that is because I wasn't a starter to begin with. At a school like mine not everyone gets to play, only the best at each position get the opportunity to play in varsity competition. To start the season I wasn't good enough. Through hard work and sheer determination I got to that starter status. That is evident as you see more and more of me in the clip as games go by. There is something to the saying, "Hard work gets the job done." If you work hard and believe in your talents you can earn any spot or job you want. This can be applied in any aspect of life not just sports.

T.I.

Post #10 Vice Presidential Debate

The first way that Sarah Palin appeals to logos in her rebuttal to Joe Biden's answer to the question is when she says, "The good thing about working with Senator McCain is that he doesn't tell one group one thing and a different group another thing." This appeals to logos because why would you do something like that. It would be unethical and it would eventually bring his whole campaign to a screeching halt. Another way in which she appeals to logos is when she talks about the energy bill that Barak Obama voted for. She says, "That bill that your running mate voted for is what gave the oil companies that big tax break." This is absolutely crazy because the oil companies don't need a tax break. They don't need any tax breaks they are having record profits yearly with the inflated price of gas. This may also appeal to pathos in some degree because is also sides with the grievances that the American public is having with rising gas prices. She says that she told the oil companies in her state that they weren't going to get the relief of those tax breaks because she deemed it unnecessary. She wanted some of that money that they were gaining so rapidly to be given back to the people of Alaska. She also applies to this style of rhetoric when she says, "There is nothing that I have promised that I would take back because of the financial crisis we're in....and I don't think that John McCain has made any promises that he would take back either." This is because they shouldn't have to take anything off of their campaign because of the financial crisis. They should be able to complete things that are necessary for our country at a low cost. They can get things done quickly and efficiently.

There is another aspect that I think is worth mentioning here and that is the appearance of Sarah Palin. Notice that she is wearing a United States flag pinned to her suit jacket. I think this implies a little bit of pathos and ethos. This suggests pathos because she is an American citizen like all the people she is trying to represent in the White House. I think that it suggest ethos because she is trying to convey to the people that she is a true American and only votes for things that are helpful and necessary for the people of the United States of America.

I think that these things are essential to the speeches that these candidates give because they inform the people on the issues and what side that each candidate represents. Without appealing to logos, pathos, and ethos they would never be able to successfully get their opinion and point across. The use of these three types of rhetoric are evidence that often times propaganda is used to sway our votes. People's minds can be swayed easily by certain expressions of rhetoric. Often times what these candidates are telling us is totally and fully propaganda to get us to vote for them and not the other candidate. They may not even believe in what they are saying. This is why it is important for you, as a good voter, to research about each candidate so that you can see what they truly believe in so that you can make an informed vote.

T.I.

Post #9 Presidential Debate

Senator McCain appeals to logos over this issue when he says, "We can offshore drill now, we've got to do it now, we'll reduce the cost of a barrel of oil because we show the rest of the world we have a supply of our own." This appeals to logos because it's logical that we use our own oil that we can harvest from our own land to reduce the price of our rapidly rising gas prices. Gas prices hamper many people who drive gas-guzzling vehicles to and from work. He also appeals to logos when he talks about free trade. He says, "It costs our companies a billion dollars to get their goods into Colombia but it's free for their companies to get their goods into our country." Does that make any sense at all? Why should our companies pay that much if theirs aren't? Senator Obama appeals to logos when he responds by saying, "We've got to have a president who recognizes the benefits of free trade but is also going to enforce unfair trade agreements and is going to stand up to other countries." Logos is used here because it makes sense that a president should support the ones that are fair and stop the ones that are unfair. If it is unfair then someone isn't benefiting and it should be where both partners are benefiting. He also uses logos when he says, "We must also hold them (the auto industry) accountable to start producing the highly fuel efficient cars of the future." Who better to hold accountable than the people building our cars? They are the ones that can save us from high gas prices by creating cars that don't use as much gas. He also uses logos when he mentions the building of wind turbines and solar panels to create more energy.

Senator McCain appeals to pathos when he talks about the rising gas prices because Americans are feeling like they won't be able to afford their gas bills eventually. He sympathizes with the American people saying, "If we start drilling offshore we can lower gas prices." Senator Obama uses pathos when he says, "Transportation accounts for 30% of our total enegy consumption." This is because he also sympathizes with the American people and their energy bills. He also uses it when he says, "It will creat 5,000 jobs in the midwest where we can re-tool these plants and create wind farms and solar farms," because he feels for the people that can't get a job because companies are having to make cutbacks because they are losing money.

Both candidates appeal to ethoes when they talk about each other. They criticize each others view points and actions calling each other liers and hypocrites. They talk down to each other as if they have nothing in common what-so-ever and like they aren't worthy of being president. They say that because of the way that they voted on certain bills is the way they think on certain issues. Often times they only disagree with only certain parts of the bill but agree with the overall concept of the bill. They use ethos in a degrading way towards one another.

The context of this event is to tell the audience what each candidate believes on certain issues. Often times these views are masked by the continuous criticizing of one another. They spend too much time tell the audience why the other person is unworthy of being president rather than telling why they should be president. If they took more time telling us why they are the better candidate then more would come out of these debates. The real facts have to be looked up on the internet if someone wants to know the true facts. If someone can find out all the facts from one of these debates then they are a politcal genious. In any case in these debates regularly appeal to logos, pathos, and ethos because they are very effective means of getting points across to different groups of people.

T.I.

Post #8 Rhetoric Questions

Chapter 1

1. If the discipline of rhetoric is just emerging then how can we account for Aristotle giving it a characteristic and Hitler used it so very well?

2. When rhetoric is used in speeches from politicians how can we know what they're saying is the truth?

3. How does an author get his/her true point across when you have all these different interpretations of their writing floating about?

Chapter 2

1. If there are disclaimers like, "These results not typical." present in adds then how is it that they can be effective?

2. Can we look at issues of authority over evidence in other ways? Such as politicians or ads that have these results not typical in them.

3. Does rhetoric only deal with advertisements and comics? What else can it be used for? What other value does it have?

T.I.