blog #6

I read the Real Problem with Obama's Tax Plan. Lasch's description of modern journalism really hit this article right on the nose. I don't really think that it would apply to all journalism though. I think that it only really hits on the political side of journalism. He talks like jounalism is only about polotics, like everything revolves around it. I can clearly see that a lot of jounalism does deal with polotics especially in this time with the election and all, but what is the real problem with just the regular old news. I don't think that the normal news is really dumbing down america.
However after reading this article I do agree that politcal news is dumbing down america in its politcal sense. Not many people really know the true stances and issues that our presidential candidates believe in. Especially after reading this article on Obama's tax plan I can understand why. The only information that you ever hear is changed by the media which seem to always be run by a political party. That article made Obama's tax plan sound horrible and it had no mention of John McCain's plan for our taxes. With the internet and television all of the information that we get seem to be changed by the media.
Lasch explained the medias affect to be so strong that the candidates are not trying to even show what they believe it doesnt matter its more about looking good for the media. Your politcal views could be perfect but if you look nervous and sweaty the media will bring it out and over portray it to the public.
After reading Lasch's thoughts and reading a political article I feel that the media blows the bad things about candidates so far out of proportion that it is to hard to ever see the good. You can even see this in political commercials even if they are going to say something good about a candidate it is not until after they say something bad aboiut the other one.
I agree with Lasch that true head to head debate is one of the only true tests for truly good intentions. I think personally that the best debate is when you have nothing to lose. No public eye to judge you and of course in this day and age that is virtually imposible for a presidential debate.

blog #5

I am going to have to use my last classes lecture for my presentation, because I am in the library without headphones. I just listened to a presentation in my Buisiness Statistics class. The presentation was about a type of statistic testing that is very complex. She was trying to explain the way that it is done without a calculator. She only had 50 minutes to present this information and for the particular audience or at least for me it was definately not enough time to get in depth about it. As you can imagine the presentation was your standard just like most classes involving math. She attempted to explain everything as she wrote it down. I really don't like that the presentation was only an hour long because you have to take notes through out the whole thing and it makes it much harder to pay close attention. In most classes I can get away with just going over my notes and I will understand everything but on this particular lecture I am still kind of lost.
She tried to make sure that no one had any questions as all teachers do, but sometimes you know you have a question but you don't really know what it is. When your class is only 50 minutes long you are going to definately have questions on something this complex. Through out the majority of the lecture she used a projector to illistrate the math that needed to be done. I liek that she does the work along with us but I do feel that if we had time to do some on our own and ask questions I would have a much better understanding of the subject matter.
She did run her presentation through very smoothly, she had no technical dificulties or anything that stopped the flow of the presentation at all. She handled questions very well and you can tell that she is really good at what she does. She can understand exactly what people are asking and what they are wandering through out her presentation. She does a good job at addressing every part of the presentation.

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I am going to talk about the problems that I have with this college and other colleges around the country.  When I was in high school I always had teachers telling me that I had to go to college to succeed.  I had it drilled into my mind that if I didn't go to college I would not be able to get a good paying job.  I also got the idea that community college was for people who were not as smart as me or could not afford to go to a more credible or renowned school.  I blame the unconscious thought that I needed college on the way that these colleges market themselves and the way that my teachers have been trained to explain the need for further education.  

Only when I had been in college for two years did I really realize how little sense it makes for me to go here.  I don't know if its just because I have had a bad experience at this particular school or if it just because what I want to do doesn't really require a four year degree.  I have recently realized that this school cannot accommodate me to create a major that will suit my career goals.  I would talk more about how the school has not looked out for my interests and has not tried to offer me any suitable alternatives.  

I feel that many public colleges are like this and it is a sad state of affairs.  The good thing is that most students can find their major but this is not the true problem its just my problem.  There are many things that I feel are wrong with public colleges.  I can understand that not all people can get into all programs because they are just not qualified, but I do feel that it is a little extreme, I feel like they are making it tougher for people to get into programs so that they can raise prices.  How can a public college tell you that you have to live anywhere, for any amount of time?  You are going to college not prison.  Schools tell you that you have to buy their housing and eat their food, and then they overprice them to an appalling rate. 

Now that I have come to college I can see that it is ironically one of the most illogical moves of my life.  You would think that going to get a good education would be a logical step but after my first two years, I just know that college for me is not a logical step.  Once you have been in for two years you can't vary well just quit though, they have you too invested in your education to change your mind.  There are many more problems with how ironically illogical a lot of colleges are.  I feel like I could write about it for days but I am out of time.  I would really appreciate responses and peoples arguments for the pros and cons of college.