Grade I deserve in this class

My friend Stephen Colbert once said to me, "Eric, it's not what you say, it's the gravitas with which you say it. I'm assuming he said it to me. I was the only one in the room watching television when he said it.

Well, what I'm about to say takes HUGE gravitas. Gravitas, by the way, is Latin for cojones. It's also a huge departure for my personality. I am normally the humblest of the humble, but right now I smell blood. I can test the 12 quality points on the tip of my tongue.

I deserve the grade of A in Opinion Journalism. I deserve the A the same way those eggs deserve their grade of A from the USDA. Because the work is of high quality. I need not rest of my own laurels to back up this claim, however, as the quality of my work has been attested to by my peers as well as well as reflected in the contents of my already received grades in this class.

In numerous Tuesday lectures I received votes for having provided the best presentation of the day. I even won once and as was involved in another three-way tie for victory on top of being in the hunt for second and third place on numerous occasions.

So the audience enjoys my work, and while that is not a direct link to its quality, it is a testament to its efficacy and ability to attract the readers attention.

I also deserve the grade of A because of the distinctively original quality of my work. An originality that was alluded to via several blog comments I received during the semester. For example:

this was extremely entertaining!!!!

-LMR : in response to my texting grammar presentation

This. is. hilarious.
Nice dry humor. Wise cracks are a plus and a must when it comes to some of the topics. Love the presentations.
-Denver4 - texting grammar

COMMENT ON STUDENT EVALUATION:
I concur. You definitely know how to interest an audience.
-Mactavius

Also note my persistence in improving the aesthetics and internet acumen of my posts. I have learned to wrap text properly, which is no small achievement for me. I also learned how to use embed codes, and was ahead of the curve in figuring out that You Tube videos must be decreased in size in order to properly fit on one's blog post.

I also take responsibility for the classes shift from education to entertainment after the first few presentations. Which I apologize for profusely. As such I also chose to cease showing 3 minute videos in my presentations in lieu of actual intellectual content.

letter to editor

Dear Editor:

I am writing because I am concerned about your practice of printing the names of those arrested for crimes and a description of police incidents which are published daily.

While I understand that such things are public record, I must say that I disagree with the practice of airing everyones dirty laundry.

I write this letter because I recently had a friend arrested for DUI and his name and was published in the paper with a description of the incident.

I personally do not condone DUI in any form and I fully support the courts imposing the appropriate punishment. I would not consider it unfair to suspend his driving license for a considerable period of time.

The trouble is that now comes a stigma that my friend may not be able to rid himself of regardless of any corrections in his behavoir. My friend has had a very troubled past few months which culminated in his decision the drive under the influence of alcohol. I do not believe it prudent to further punish him by humiliating him by publishing his name in the paper.

I question why people read such sections of the paper. I believe it is an extension of voyuerism. If that is the case then I firmly believe people should mind their own business. I doubt they would like it if they made a mistake and that mistake was printed and distributed to the community. God forbid they are innocent. I have never seen the newspaper include a section on those who were proven innocent of the minor offenses for which there names were published in the newspaper. I know the paper is not culpable for the information provided to them by law enforcement, but if your going to lend enough credence to the information to publish it then maybe it should be considered to periodicly update readers that a given person had been wrongly charged with a crime.

Thank you,
Eric Smith

Ethics

Considering that there is indeed no objective morality it is concievable that circumstances exist in which one should circumvent to mores of his society and perform an action not sanctioned by his culture in which the end will justify the means.

Stealing medicince that one cannot afford to save a life, for example, is one of those situations. Helping slaves escape to the North during the Era of Slavery comes to mind. Such actions are or were illegal, but are they wrong?

On the other hand, take the use of Nuclear Force against Japan at the end of WWII. Was it absolutley nessesary to win the war. No. Did it save thousands upon thousands of American lives. Yes. Are American soldiers lives worth more than those of Japanese civilians? It probably depends on whether or not you were slated to be a member of the U.S. invasion force as to whether or not the use of the A-Bomb was a cut and dry matter. An easy decision.



Yes, I support the tactics of the Sea Shepherd.

The Sea Shepherds are not saying that the lives of the whales are more important than the fisherman/whalers. What they are saying is that the whalers do not have to right to systematically destroy what is considered a treasure of the Earth. The Whales. Whether intentional or incidental the removal of species that belong to the citizens of the world cannot be jeopardized by the short term needs or mores of the few. Especially if it is inessential to survival.

Additionally, if whaling was part of an ancient culture, that is respectable and said culture may not be the ones' responsible for brining about the need to protect these species at all cost. Nevertheless, that ancient culture, no matter how old the culture and how sacred the act of whaling, must face up to the demands of modern times and accept that a global community does not allow such actions to currenlty take place.

Cultures once practiced human sacrifice. That was the more of the time and place. It was acceptable then, but nowadays under NO circumstances would such a rationalization be accepted by any outside party as a legitimate reason to continue such practices.

Not to mention the possible effects of the loss of certian Keystone species on the balance of an entire ecosystem. The groups that drive various species to extinction generally do not have a firm grasp of such a subject. As such, organizations like the Sea Shepards then obtain jurisdiction to move in and defend the interests of more educated human society in the interest of preserving the planet and any delicate life systems in place.

Free Topic: Someone is going to get speared: Deep speared

What I am referring to is the proliferation of Maple baseball bats in professional baseball over the last 10 years.

Previously ash had been the defualt wood for baseball bats. The wood was light, but not too light, and durable at the same time.

Barry Bonds is often credited with faciliting the transfer from ash to maple. It was with a maple bat that he hit his 73 home runs in 2001. After that the rates skyrocketed to the point that from my naked eye observation it seems that the vast majority of players are now using maple.

They cite its combination of light weight and hard wood as the reason. Players swear by maple.

The trouble is that when a maple bat breaks it snaps in two sending a tumbling spear arching through the infield. I'm talking sharp here, scary sharp. Ash bats chipped, and you could perform tests on the bat at home plate to determine whether or not a break had occurred. Maple, on the other hand, gives a hitter no indication that his bat may be broken, except for the shrapnel flying in all directions after his bat EXPLODES.

I get quesy just thinking about one of those bats sticking into someone. There is no question that serious injury or death could be the result.

In the past two years bat breakage rates and injuries from schards of wood have caused the mlb to look into banning these bats. I happen to think it's the next logical move.





Baseball at breaking point.

Maple Bat Backlash.

Why should I be hired?

I hate talking about myself. What I love talking about is the story or the issue.

In a nutshell that's why I should be hired.

I love talking to people and finding out what they think, what they have seen, and where they have been. I also love diving into the history of a situation and uncovering the backstory of how the a given issue got to be where it is.

Opinion writing is not always about my feelings on an issue. Nor is it always important what I think is right. What is important is what the facts bear out to be true, or what the statistics reveal to us as the reality of any given situation, especially on the "weighty" subjects. Music and movies are one thing, environment and international conflict are subjects that must be undertaken carefully.

I don't view my opinion journalism posts as an opportunitgy to tell everyone what I think. I view them as an oppurtunity to learn about the assigned subject and then pass that knowledge on to other people by including it in my writing. That is the exiting aspect of any form of journalism , the knowledge that I am providing a service to others. The service of providing accurate information about a relevent issue or situation.

If the facts point toward a particular conclusion then that's the point of view I will endorse.

In terms of my writing style, I will quote another persons assesment of me "Because of the unusual nature of most of his posts I found myself reading a post about something I wasn’t even interested in because it was out of the ordinary".

If my writing is good, then it is only because of the level of enthusiam I have about learning, and the sense of humor I try to bring along with it.

Political Cartoons

The thing I love the most about political cartoons is tracing their evolution over the past 250 years.

I'll show some examples from 1800-1865.





Note how incredibly "busy" these cartoons are. And they are drawn with a higher degree of artisticness then many modern cartoons, which present caricatures, or loose sketches. The satire is contained in both the image and the dialogue. The cartoons from this period are almost a stand alone editorial when one takes into account the sheer wordcount.

Merely looking at the image in most of the cartoons of this period will leave you with almost no idea of what point is being made or what is topic is being skewerd.

1902


Above is the cartoon which imortalized the infamous Theodore Roosevelt incident in which he refused to shoot a bear cub. This is event from which the term "Teddy Bear" was derived. Notice the more "cartoonish" feel and the lack of text. The picture tells the story.

Political cartoons are also a neat way to discern what the major fears or concerns were of the general populace of any given time. Many of the cartoons I have seen from the 1950s feature prominent imagery of the metaphor for the end of all things "the bomb"



Below the social unrest of the 60s is alluded to. Notice how each character is labeled and a one sentence statement is at the top. In a similar cartoon from a century before each character would have been labeled and would have had a bubble of dialogue above each of their heads. Further evidence of the elevation of imagery and diminishment of text in the evolution of political cartoons.

State and Local Government

Hunter S. Thompson For Sheriff

That's right. Freak Power Party in full swing.



In 1970 Hunter came back to Aspen Colorado for round 2. Previously, as recounted in his article Freak Power in the Rockies, he had done his best to help Joe Edwards, a 29 year old "head, lawyer..." win the office of mayor in aspen Colorado.

The next year Thompson himself took up the cause of politics when he ran for Sheriff of Pitkin County Colorado.

Believe it or not Thompson won the city of Aspen, and only lost 56% to 44%. That's right, a man on the Freak Power ticket won 44% of the vote with propositions like:

1. "Sod the streets (of Aspen) at once. Rip up all city streets with jackhammers..."
2. All public movement would be by foot and bicycle.
3. Change the name of the city of Aspen to "Fat City" by public referendum
4. Anyone selling drugs for a PROFIT would be arrested. Note the word Profit

(lifted from The Great Shark Hunt)