Christianity and the Survival of Creation

Even though this story practically put me to sleep, there were some parts where he was pretty sarcastic and it made me laugh. He says that the anti-Christians try to criticise the Bible, but they skipped over the first rule, that they actually have to read it first! He also says that he and no other sane person could expect any government figure sitting and listening to what Jesus has to say when he talks about "loving your enemies, and doing good to them that hate you." I couldn't see that happening either.

I don't agree with Berry when he says that "such sacrifice is a refusal to allow the body to serve what is unworthy of it." People who murder, and rape are still out there doing more unworthy acts. I also don't think that he listens to the new christian music that he talks about. He says it "attests to the general assumption the religion is no more than a vaguely pious emotion." I listen to christian music every day and I love it. It sends out a great message to a person of any age.

The Argument Culture

"The best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate". Not necessarily. If everyone keeps arguing with each other, its not going to get anywhere. People are actually going to have to agree at some point to find a resolution to the topic. Arguing does make us distort facts and encourages us to lie just so we can end up winning the argument. I know, I do it all the time! Then once you do lie, you'll end up just arguing about that instead. Its an ongoing cycle where no one gets their way in the end. Everyone just compromises.

Road rage is a great example of how "dangerous the argumentative culture can be". Shouting at each other for some silly reason creates risk for them, and for the other drivers around them. It also makes us waste valuable time that we could be using to actually make a difference. We should take in the idea of taking a point of view from three things instead of two. By doing this we wont get the constant one against the other. In the end, arguing is pointless, but everyone still engages in it.

Its Time to Ban Handguns

They should be banned. I don't like the idea that anyone can have a gun and use it at any time. It is so unsafe that I'm surprised more people aren't dead yet. Having a gun to go hunting with is okay or to just have to practice shooting is not that bad. Having a handgun that can be hidden and used at any moment is very dangerous. People that have them, the normal ones anyway, can "sometimes get drunk and shoot other good guys in a rage, or blow their own heads off". This happens way too much. Parents that have guns are the worst because their children can get their hands on a gun at any moment and kill themselves. It can happen to anyone.

They need to start making more laws against handguns. The National Rifle Association really needs to buckle down and stop expecting things to turn out a certain way, "like they always do". The murder rate would surely go down if less people owned guns. Less presidents would be assassinated, less banks robbed, and less innocent bystanders killed during a random shooting.

Leave No Child Inside

"Yes, there are risks outside our homes. But there are also risks in raising our children under virtual house arrest" (16). Kids these days are only interested in the newest video games like the Wii, Guitar Hero, and War video games. When I'm outside, I only see about ten kids outside; when I was a kid everyone in the neighborhood would be outside playing with each other in the wilderness. We need to get together like the retired biophysicist and start more outdoor-education programs to get kids back involved with nature. "No one among us wants to be a member of the last generation to pass on to its children the joy of playing outside in nature" (20). We also need to show kids that we ourselves, even when were older, like to go outside and be one with nature.

I think its great that parents found out that their hyperactive child found calmness when being outdoors. More people should try this method, and will most likely like the outcomes. "Young children learn through the sounds, scents, and seasons of the outdoors" (18). By going outside, they can learn this firsthand instead of reading how it smells and feels from a book, while sitting inside, on a couch!

In Defense of Talk Shows

From reading In Defense of Talk Shows, I could tell Ehrenreich is very passionate about how she feels about talk shows. Shes sick and tired, like everyone else, by how every talk show is the same and how they just want to exploit people. Then they all get scolded by the audience and have to talk to a therapist who knocks some sense into them. By the end of the episode, they break down into tears and swear to change. The only thing Ehrenreich likes about talk shows are their morals, which are the same: "Respect yourself, listen to others."

She also points out that, "they take lives bent out of shape by poverty and hold them up as entertainment exhibits." It's just like a commercial during the Montel show when they say the show is looking for "pregnant women who sell their bodies to make ends meet." They will do anything just to get a crazier story than before on their show. Whats even sadder is people do tell their secrets on national television, and for what?

I do like the idea of her new kind of talk show. It would feature new stories we've never heard of and it would be more interesting than hearing the same story over and over again. I would definitely watch it.

The Whole Horse

I was very confused by this whole story from all the vocab and how long he wrote about industrialism and agrarianism. I was bored and lost from the second paragraph. My mind completely shut out everything. After I read it again, I picked up on some sentences that have meaning. I like how agrarianiam "is interested-and forever fascinated-by questions leading toward the accomplishment of good work." I am always looking for a way to accomplish good work too. "Because the knowledge and know-how of good caretaking must be handed down to children, agrarians recognize the necessity of preserving the coherence of families and communities" (240). This is great and industrialism just takes away from this way of living.

Industrialism is a way of living where you always want something new and better than what you have now. Agrarians get satisfaction from the way they live so they dont need to keep going out and buying new things. "They do not wish to live by piracy, beggary, charity, or luck" (240).

Attack of the Killer Cats

Wow.....this is weird that someone would even think to go do a study on how many things a cat kills in a year. I myself have three cats and I've only seen about ten birds, four rats, and twenty lizards in the six years I've had them. From what the book says, it seems like my cats need to start killing more things (not that I want them too). Just a little funny story... My cat mickey caught a bird and it flew into our house, and eventually pooped on the wall because it was so scared!

Why were there kids remarks on the side of the story? It really ticked me off because I didn't want to read them, but because they were there, I had to. I just wanted to read straight through the story, but got distracted every time one popped up. Overall the story was very descriptive on how they did the research. It was gross how people stored the dead animals in the freezer. Imagine accidentally eating that for dinner!