For everyone who was interested in the topic of meat-eating and vegetarianism, you should read the book Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat by Steve F. Sapontzis.
It's a book of 29 essays by different people and it deals with a ton of different topics all centered around meat eating. The topics were: A Controversy with a Long Past, What Anthropology and Medicine Have to Tell Us about Eating Meat, The Recent Philosophical Debate over the Moral Status of Animals and its Implications for Our Diet, Traditional and Contemporary Religious Teachings about Our Relation to Animals, The Feminist Debate over the Relation between the Treatment of Animals and of Women, The Environmental Debate over Respecting Predatory Nature and Protecting Animals, and Which is More Important, Respecting Cultural Diversity or Protecting Animals?
It was pretty cool because each section had 3-4 essays that dealt with all of the different views of each topic.
It was pretty interesting so check it out.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Everyone loves music
"Many definitions of music implicitly hold that music is a communicative activity which conveys to the listener moods, emotions, thoughts, impressions, or philosophical, sexual, or political concepts or positions."
I really liked this quote from the wikipedia article about music. I believe that that is how many of us see music today.
When we are feeling a certain mood, we go and find music that relates to our mood, or music that can change our mood. Say someone is feeling sad, they can either listen to sad, mopey music that relates to their mood, or they can put on some upbeat music to try and change their mood.
Music is a language because everyone listens to it and everyone relates to it. Take for example the fact that everyone uses song lyrics in their away messages. There's always a song that is able to say just what you're feeling and that's why music has become a language to us.
I really liked this quote from the wikipedia article about music. I believe that that is how many of us see music today.
When we are feeling a certain mood, we go and find music that relates to our mood, or music that can change our mood. Say someone is feeling sad, they can either listen to sad, mopey music that relates to their mood, or they can put on some upbeat music to try and change their mood.
Music is a language because everyone listens to it and everyone relates to it. Take for example the fact that everyone uses song lyrics in their away messages. There's always a song that is able to say just what you're feeling and that's why music has become a language to us.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
What is music?
The wikipedia page we had to read about music kinda made me mad in a way. It seems like the idea of music has been bent so much that there cannot even be a clear definition of what it is anymore.
You have a person who releases butterflies on a stage and them flying away is supposed to be considered music? That is just completely ridiculous. Butterflies dont even make noise. This is almost as ridiculous as the way that the idea of art has been stretched. I remember in the beginning of the year when we took a trip to Mass Moca and one of the exhibits was a bubblegum machine filled with used tampons. How is that art? I believe that example and the one of butterflies being music are NOT examples of these ideas being expanded, they are more examples of these ideas being corrupted.
And dance? Yes, dance can be a form of art, but not of music. Music is what you play in the background while the person is dancing.
It's not that I'm being close-minded or anything, it is just extremely obvious that butterflies flying and people dancing are not examples of music.
Just like when people listen to the sounds of thunderstorms on CD. The fact that this is put on CD does not make it music. It makes it plainly a thunderstorm, on CD.
Music can be any mix of instruments and vocals. But that's where it ends. Dancing=art. Thunderstorms=nature sounds. Releasing butterflies on a stage and watching them fly away=weird.
You have a person who releases butterflies on a stage and them flying away is supposed to be considered music? That is just completely ridiculous. Butterflies dont even make noise. This is almost as ridiculous as the way that the idea of art has been stretched. I remember in the beginning of the year when we took a trip to Mass Moca and one of the exhibits was a bubblegum machine filled with used tampons. How is that art? I believe that example and the one of butterflies being music are NOT examples of these ideas being expanded, they are more examples of these ideas being corrupted.
And dance? Yes, dance can be a form of art, but not of music. Music is what you play in the background while the person is dancing.
It's not that I'm being close-minded or anything, it is just extremely obvious that butterflies flying and people dancing are not examples of music.
Just like when people listen to the sounds of thunderstorms on CD. The fact that this is put on CD does not make it music. It makes it plainly a thunderstorm, on CD.
Music can be any mix of instruments and vocals. But that's where it ends. Dancing=art. Thunderstorms=nature sounds. Releasing butterflies on a stage and watching them fly away=weird.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Why We Invaded Iraq
Wanna know the real reason we invaded Iraq? This is why,
http://media-empire.net/spam/e-Spam.php?intSpamID=251
http://media-empire.net/spam/e-Spam.php?intSpamID=251
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Public Transportation
I have no idea how we got onto the topic of public transportation yesterday, but it really got me thinking.
I've lived in Berkshire County all my life and I have never taken the B Bus. And now that I think about it, I only know one friend who has, and it only happened this year.
Everyone I know is so worried about getting their cars on the road for the summer, including me, even though it's gonna cost a lot of money to do so.
It would be smarter for people like me to use public transportation, even though it has kinda gotten a bad reputation. Most people believe that the B Buses are filled with hobos and sketchy people, which is probably only true because most regular refuse to use it.
But there is also the fact that it only runs at certain times and brings you to certain places. I guarantee if you wanna go to Wal-Mart at 3:25 in the afternoon you cannot just walk outside and have a bus waiting to take you there. That's the reason why most people stick to having their own car, even though it's more expensive.
Although I still probably wont use public transportation, I do agree that it is a good thing that really isnt used enough and that by using it people could save a lot of money in gas and insurance. The problem is people like to get to where they want to go as soon as they want to go there, which is why people who can afford cars (even if just barely) still wont take the bus.
I've lived in Berkshire County all my life and I have never taken the B Bus. And now that I think about it, I only know one friend who has, and it only happened this year.
Everyone I know is so worried about getting their cars on the road for the summer, including me, even though it's gonna cost a lot of money to do so.
It would be smarter for people like me to use public transportation, even though it has kinda gotten a bad reputation. Most people believe that the B Buses are filled with hobos and sketchy people, which is probably only true because most regular refuse to use it.
But there is also the fact that it only runs at certain times and brings you to certain places. I guarantee if you wanna go to Wal-Mart at 3:25 in the afternoon you cannot just walk outside and have a bus waiting to take you there. That's the reason why most people stick to having their own car, even though it's more expensive.
Although I still probably wont use public transportation, I do agree that it is a good thing that really isnt used enough and that by using it people could save a lot of money in gas and insurance. The problem is people like to get to where they want to go as soon as they want to go there, which is why people who can afford cars (even if just barely) still wont take the bus.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Am I Anti-American?
According to Jensen's article, people who argue for peace are considered "anti-american" or "un-american".
This is weird to me because I think, as an American, you are supposed to want to protect your fellow citizens, not ship them out to foreign countries to be killed.
What's the point of war? It's been going on for how long now? And we're still fighting? It seems to me that this war isn't really working, maybe it's time to try peace.
And I don't see how this idea of peace is "anti-american" because I think people who want peace are looking for the same end result as the people who are pro-war, they just wanna achieve this in a less violent way and in a way that makes things easier for the whole world, not just America.
So I guess people who are anti-war are un-patriotic only in the sense that they are looking out for the world as a whole, not just one country.
This is weird to me because I think, as an American, you are supposed to want to protect your fellow citizens, not ship them out to foreign countries to be killed.
What's the point of war? It's been going on for how long now? And we're still fighting? It seems to me that this war isn't really working, maybe it's time to try peace.
And I don't see how this idea of peace is "anti-american" because I think people who want peace are looking for the same end result as the people who are pro-war, they just wanna achieve this in a less violent way and in a way that makes things easier for the whole world, not just America.
So I guess people who are anti-war are un-patriotic only in the sense that they are looking out for the world as a whole, not just one country.
Q & A #8
While reading the article for Q&A#8 there was one sentence that really stuck out to me: "If in the end we are just Americans, if we cannot move beyond patriotism, then we cannot claim to be internationalists."
I feel that this line only applies to Americans after the terrorist attacks occurred. Which, in a way, goes along with Jensen's first point.
This first point talks about the people who became extremely 'patriotic' after 9/11...the ones who really couldn't have cared less about patriotism before but now they feel that everyone should support the war. This reminds me of all those stupid Toby Keith songs that came out around this time for some reason. He never made a political statement before 9/11, but after it happened he came out with about 50 songs that basically said "Support our troops. Defend our country". This makes patriotism seem fake in a way because it was never really shown until September 11th.
It seems like this overwhelming parade of patriotism is ridiculous in the sense that it was never really there before. Yes, I understand that it happened because people wanted to show that they wanted to defend our country, but I don't feel like it has really helped anything. 5,000 country songs and American flags hanging off the home of every redneck in the country does NOTHING to defend our country.
It all seems fake. It's like a show.
I feel that this line only applies to Americans after the terrorist attacks occurred. Which, in a way, goes along with Jensen's first point.
This first point talks about the people who became extremely 'patriotic' after 9/11...the ones who really couldn't have cared less about patriotism before but now they feel that everyone should support the war. This reminds me of all those stupid Toby Keith songs that came out around this time for some reason. He never made a political statement before 9/11, but after it happened he came out with about 50 songs that basically said "Support our troops. Defend our country". This makes patriotism seem fake in a way because it was never really shown until September 11th.
It seems like this overwhelming parade of patriotism is ridiculous in the sense that it was never really there before. Yes, I understand that it happened because people wanted to show that they wanted to defend our country, but I don't feel like it has really helped anything. 5,000 country songs and American flags hanging off the home of every redneck in the country does NOTHING to defend our country.
It all seems fake. It's like a show.
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