Labyrinth: an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit. “Treated for Illness, Then Lost in Labyrinth of Bills” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/health/13paper.html
Palladium: anything believed to provide protection or safety; safeguard.
Museum: a building or place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed.
Narcissism: inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
Odyssey: an epic poem attributed to Homer, describing Odysseus's adventures in his ten-year attempt to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Meander: to proceed by or take a winding or indirect course
Protean: readily assuming different forms or characters; extremely variable
Stoical: impassive; characterized by a calm, austere fortitude befitting the Stoics
Herculean: requiring the great strength of a Hercules; very hard to perform
Laconic: Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise.
Zephyr: a gentle, mild breeze.
Nemesis: something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.
Flora: the plants of a particular region or period listed by species and considered as a whole.
Ambrosia: Classical Mythology. The food of the gods
Hermetic: not affected by outward influence or power; isolated.
Promethean: of or suggestive of Prometheus; creative; boldly original.
Nectar: 1Classical Mythology. the life-giving drink of the gods. 2 The saccharine secretion of a plant, which attracts the insects or birds that pollinate the flower.
Hydra: Classical Mythology. a water or marsh serpent with nine heads, each of which, if cut off, grew back as two; Hercules killed this serpent by cauterizing the necks as he cut off the heads.
Lycanthrope: werewolf or alien spirit in the physical form of a bloodthirsty wolf.
Martial: inclined or disposed to war; warlike
Sophistry: a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning
Fauna: the animals of a given region or period considered as a whole.
Stentorian: very loud or powerful in sound
Pyrrhic: consisting of two short or unaccented syllables
Victory: success or triumph over an enemy in battle or war.
Gordian knot: An exceedingly complicated problem or deadlock
Pandora’s Box: Something obtained from curiosity.
Cassandra: a person who prophesies doom or disaster.
Achilles talon: referring to the special weakness of a person
Oedipus: A son of Laius and Jocasta, who was abandoned at birth and unwittingly killed his father and then married his mother. Midas: a person of great wealth or great moneymaking ability.
Hades: 1Classical Mythology. The underworld inhabited by departed souls. 2 Hell
Spartan: suggestive of the ancient Spartans; sternly disciplined and rigorously simple, frugal, or austere.
Sibylline: mysterious; cryptic.
Tantalize: to torment with, or as if with, the sight of something desired but out of reach; tease by arousing expectations that are repeatedly disappointed.
Delphic: of or pertaining to Delphi.
Helicon: a coiled tuba carried over the shoulder and used esp. in military bands
Platonic: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Plato or his doctrines
Draconian: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Draco or his code of laws.
Calypso: a sea nymph who detained Odysseus on the island of Ogygia for seven years.
Amazons: Greek Mythology A member of a nation of women warriors reputed to have lived in Scythia.
Siren: a seductively beautiful or charming woman, esp. one who beguiles men
Mercurial: changeable; volatile; fickle; flighty; erratic
Procrustean: tending to produce conformity by violent or arbitrary means.
Aurora: the ancient Roman goddess of the dawn.
Iridescent: displaying a play of lustrous colors like those of the rainbow.
Panacea: remedy for all disease or ills; cure-all
Lethargy: the quality or state of being drowsy and dull, listless and unenergetic, or indifferent and lazy; apathetic or sluggish inactivity.
Gorgons: Greek Mythology Any of the three sisters Stheno, Euryale, and the mortal Medusa who had snakes for hair and eyes that if looked into turned the beholder into stone
Harpies: 1-Classical Mythology. a ravenous, filthy monster having a woman's head and a bird's body. 2-a greedy, predatory person
Titanic: Also, titan. of enormous size, strength, power, etc.; gigantic
Marathon: any long-distance race
The sword of Damocles: referring to that meant to a special person.
Definitions gotten from http://dictionary.reference.com/
jueves, 27 de septiembre de 2007
miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2007
Fallacies
http://www.businessweek.com/investing/greenbiz/archives/2007/09/new_nukes_are_f.html
New Nukes are Finally Coming
Posted by: John Carey on September 24
Since 2001, we and just about every other business publication have written stories on the coming nuclear renaissance. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_17/b3729077.htm?chan=search ) It’s a development that was seen as almost inevitable. The country needs more electricity. And with coal plants being blocked or cancelled because of concerns over global warming, nukes were looking more and more attractive. Sure, there are still lingering worries over waste disposal and nuclear proliferation, but the new generation of plants are safer and, the industry expected, cheaper to build. The question was, who would take the first leap?
Now we have an answer. It’s a Princeton, NJ-based utility named NRG.
Here the author of this piece of writing is definetly using rhetoric, more specifically, pathos since it talks about worries and concerns and what he believes to be safer. But he is also using fallaciess, he uses Argumentum and Populum, since it is since it is trying to refer to popularity and refers to the feelings of people towards the decision they are to make. And it also has Appeal to Emotion since thats the way it is expressing its opinion.
http://www.nrgenergy.com/
On Sept. 24, the company and South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two new nuclear units at the site of two existing nukes in Texas. "We think the nuclear renaissance is finally upon us," says NRG CEO David Crane.
Going first is risky. The application will test the NRC's new application process, which will grant both an construction and operating license. (In the past, companies had to first get a construction license, and then, once the plant was built, an operating license). The new approach is supposed to trim the time needed to get a plant up and running by a number of years. But no one knows yet what snafus will appear. If the process takes longer than expected, the utility that goes first could lose money.
That's why the half-joke in the industry has been that everyone was racing to be second. Let someone else test the process, but stay ahead of all the others.
Crane, however, argues that not being first is also risky. One little known fact is that there's only one supplier of the huge forgings that make up the pressure vessel--a Japanese steel company. If you don't snare their upcoming production soon, you won't even be able to build a plant. NRG has already contracted to buy the forgings it needs. "We had to order now for a plant that won't be online until 2014," says Crane. "It is very Machiavellian, trying to secure your forging." NRC was able to get the ones it needs by ordering through Toshiba.
Here the fallacy used is one of Appeal to Biased Authority since they are talking to a person who has lived thrrough it and is telling his experience to support the point of the author.
Another potential hurdle for those who follow is finding people who know how to build a complex nuclear plant. "We think filing later is risky because of a shortage of skilled labor," explains Crane.
It uses Appeal to Emotion to say what poeple are feeling of what they are supposed to try and live with.
So it's reasonable to expect that one or two other companies will jump in soon, in the wake of NRG. But those who wait too long will end far behind.
What about opposition? Nuclear power is an uncomfortable issue for the environmental community. Some groups, such as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, have grudgingly accepted that, in the battle against global warming, nukes are a necessary evil. Others remain adamantly opposed. “Building nuclear reactors to solve our energy problems is like going fishing with grenades: it’s expensive, stupid, and dangerous, and there’s a ton of better options,” says Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas. With the new plants being built on the site of existing ones, however, the opposition is not expected to be strong enough to derail the plans.
Here I would say many kinds of fallacies are being used. The fist one being the Snob approach since they believe that the few groups mentioned are correct and what they say is logical. It is also using Appeal to biased Authority since they are giving uniue organizations to support the ideas, and they are using them as areliable source that supports his ideas. And there might be a bit of Appeal to emotion since the person who gave his oppinion is stating what Luke Metzger feels about the nuclear reactors.
New Nukes are Finally Coming
Posted by: John Carey on September 24
Since 2001, we and just about every other business publication have written stories on the coming nuclear renaissance. (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_17/b3729077.htm?chan=search ) It’s a development that was seen as almost inevitable. The country needs more electricity. And with coal plants being blocked or cancelled because of concerns over global warming, nukes were looking more and more attractive. Sure, there are still lingering worries over waste disposal and nuclear proliferation, but the new generation of plants are safer and, the industry expected, cheaper to build. The question was, who would take the first leap?
Now we have an answer. It’s a Princeton, NJ-based utility named NRG.
Here the author of this piece of writing is definetly using rhetoric, more specifically, pathos since it talks about worries and concerns and what he believes to be safer. But he is also using fallaciess, he uses Argumentum and Populum, since it is since it is trying to refer to popularity and refers to the feelings of people towards the decision they are to make. And it also has Appeal to Emotion since thats the way it is expressing its opinion.
http://www.nrgenergy.com/
On Sept. 24, the company and South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build two new nuclear units at the site of two existing nukes in Texas. "We think the nuclear renaissance is finally upon us," says NRG CEO David Crane.
Going first is risky. The application will test the NRC's new application process, which will grant both an construction and operating license. (In the past, companies had to first get a construction license, and then, once the plant was built, an operating license). The new approach is supposed to trim the time needed to get a plant up and running by a number of years. But no one knows yet what snafus will appear. If the process takes longer than expected, the utility that goes first could lose money.
That's why the half-joke in the industry has been that everyone was racing to be second. Let someone else test the process, but stay ahead of all the others.
Crane, however, argues that not being first is also risky. One little known fact is that there's only one supplier of the huge forgings that make up the pressure vessel--a Japanese steel company. If you don't snare their upcoming production soon, you won't even be able to build a plant. NRG has already contracted to buy the forgings it needs. "We had to order now for a plant that won't be online until 2014," says Crane. "It is very Machiavellian, trying to secure your forging." NRC was able to get the ones it needs by ordering through Toshiba.
Here the fallacy used is one of Appeal to Biased Authority since they are talking to a person who has lived thrrough it and is telling his experience to support the point of the author.
Another potential hurdle for those who follow is finding people who know how to build a complex nuclear plant. "We think filing later is risky because of a shortage of skilled labor," explains Crane.
It uses Appeal to Emotion to say what poeple are feeling of what they are supposed to try and live with.
So it's reasonable to expect that one or two other companies will jump in soon, in the wake of NRG. But those who wait too long will end far behind.
What about opposition? Nuclear power is an uncomfortable issue for the environmental community. Some groups, such as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, have grudgingly accepted that, in the battle against global warming, nukes are a necessary evil. Others remain adamantly opposed. “Building nuclear reactors to solve our energy problems is like going fishing with grenades: it’s expensive, stupid, and dangerous, and there’s a ton of better options,” says Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas. With the new plants being built on the site of existing ones, however, the opposition is not expected to be strong enough to derail the plans.
Here I would say many kinds of fallacies are being used. The fist one being the Snob approach since they believe that the few groups mentioned are correct and what they say is logical. It is also using Appeal to biased Authority since they are giving uniue organizations to support the ideas, and they are using them as areliable source that supports his ideas. And there might be a bit of Appeal to emotion since the person who gave his oppinion is stating what Luke Metzger feels about the nuclear reactors.
Endymon, Orion, Aurora and Tithonus, Acis and Galatea
These myths were definitely far from being the ones I’ve liked the most up to now. I really couldn’t understand the message being expressed to the people reading them and I didn’t see what it was that they were meant to explain. Okay, maybe it is obvious; Orion explained the constellation, and Aurora and Tithonus explains why every morning there is Dawn since Aurora is weeping for him. Still, I did not get the message expressed to me in all the other myths in which I feel there was like a hidden message expressed to the reader. It might have happened that this time I was not a as concentrated when reading this myth as I have been while reading the others, I don’t know. All I know was that I really didn’t like much these myths.
lunes, 24 de septiembre de 2007
The Trojan War, The Illiad, The fall of Troy, and The return of the greeks
These writings I wouldn’t consider them myths, I would instead call them something like a narrative since their intentions are to tell what occurred during the Trojan War but they obviously still contain mythology since many gods are involved and they control many of the conclusions of what would happen during the war, who would die, who would win, who would kill… I do believe though that even though very few of the facts stated are actually really facts, this is really unable to be proven true, even though, I would really personally like to believe it true. I really enjoy reading Greek Mythology and The Trojan War was one interest I have had since I was young and I have really enjoyed reading about it.
My opinion about the war is that I sometimes believe that the Trojans should have won but then I think about the consequences this would have left on the rest of the world and then feel glad that it was the Greek that one. What bothers me most of the fact that the Greeks have won is not necessarily the fact that they are Greeks but how they won. Using a horse to enter the city, and attacking it when it isn’t ready to defend itself might have been witty but it lacks all kinds of values and courage. It makes me see the Greeks as cowards because they got tired after fighting for ten years, and I stopped honoring its rival by stooping to fight under equal conditions and both having the possibility to defend themselves.
My opinion about the war is that I sometimes believe that the Trojans should have won but then I think about the consequences this would have left on the rest of the world and then feel glad that it was the Greek that one. What bothers me most of the fact that the Greeks have won is not necessarily the fact that they are Greeks but how they won. Using a horse to enter the city, and attacking it when it isn’t ready to defend itself might have been witty but it lacks all kinds of values and courage. It makes me see the Greeks as cowards because they got tired after fighting for ten years, and I stopped honoring its rival by stooping to fight under equal conditions and both having the possibility to defend themselves.
domingo, 23 de septiembre de 2007
Meleanger and Atalanta, Cupid and Psyche, and Vertumnus and Pomona
These three myths are all love stories, and these have made me realize once more how many of the Greek myths are actually based on relationships and how people interact in one relationship. Through these relationships and love pursuiting myths we are able to see many of the human flaws and see how gods punish or help the humans. These myths though, also remind me to many stories you sometimes gat to hear and they also resemble to the movies made currently, it’s as if humans have always been obsessed with love and they are always seeking it.
In Meleanger and Atalanta, for example, Meleanger falls in love with Atalanta and his love is so pure and strong that he even kills his relatives just to honor his beloved, still, his actions being disapproved by his mom, lead to his death, since she takes revenge. The same story but with less drastic actions occur every day. Many couples are not approved by their family or someone does something to dishonor them and then a revenge chain is begun between the people involved, and even though death is not commonly included, other drastic measures are taken between people that originally loved each other. Cupid and Psyche is another example of how family gets involved in every relationship. Cupid and Psyche had to overcome Cupids mom, Venus, and Psyches sisters, as obstacles to reach their long wanted love. It also occurred that both loving each other, were able to go over and defeat many obstacles just to be with one another once more. And in Vertumnus and Pomona, they both have to deal with different feelings to permit their relationship to prosper. Still at the end one always ends convincing the other to follow their feelings; in this case Vertumnus is able to convince Pomona to love him by taking the form of an old lady and telling him a story of a girl who was turned to stone due to her stony heart. And every day many people confess their love to someone and get them to fall in love with them.
In Meleanger and Atalanta, for example, Meleanger falls in love with Atalanta and his love is so pure and strong that he even kills his relatives just to honor his beloved, still, his actions being disapproved by his mom, lead to his death, since she takes revenge. The same story but with less drastic actions occur every day. Many couples are not approved by their family or someone does something to dishonor them and then a revenge chain is begun between the people involved, and even though death is not commonly included, other drastic measures are taken between people that originally loved each other. Cupid and Psyche is another example of how family gets involved in every relationship. Cupid and Psyche had to overcome Cupids mom, Venus, and Psyches sisters, as obstacles to reach their long wanted love. It also occurred that both loving each other, were able to go over and defeat many obstacles just to be with one another once more. And in Vertumnus and Pomona, they both have to deal with different feelings to permit their relationship to prosper. Still at the end one always ends convincing the other to follow their feelings; in this case Vertumnus is able to convince Pomona to love him by taking the form of an old lady and telling him a story of a girl who was turned to stone due to her stony heart. And every day many people confess their love to someone and get them to fall in love with them.
jueves, 20 de septiembre de 2007
Proserpine, Glaucus and Scylla, and Ceyx and Halcycyone
These three myths, as many others, have the love feeling inside them. Even though in the three of them there is a partner’s love, such as in a relationship, in Proserpine, there is also the kind of love a mother feels towards her daughter, one of care and affection. In Proserpine the two kinds of love, confront each other too see who keeps Proserpine, and both being very strong and demanding, end up in a tie. That is why Proserpine is able to be with her mom during half of the year, and she spends the other half with her husband. Glaucus and Scylla is another love story but one of romance. When Glaucus is turned into a merman, he falls in love with one of the water nymphs, Scylla. Still the love felt in this relationship was one-sided, since Scylla didn’t want to be with Glaucus and ran from him. Glaucus, being desperately in love went and asked Circe, an enchantress, to make Scylla fall for him. Instead Circe was the one who fell for him but Glaucus rejected her and specified that his heart belonged to Scylla, and only Scylla. Circe was unhappy with the response she had gotten and therefore cursed him: shy turned Scylla very ugly and drowned her; Glaucus would have to spend a thousand years collecting the bodies of drowned ones. When the time had passed, Glaucus received help from Endymion and became young again and Scylla was restored to life. Then Ceyx and Halcyone is also a love story in which Ceyx dies at sea and Halcyone prays for his wellbeing. When she discovers he is dead she weeps and moans but then as she sees his body returning to her after being many days at sea, she goes to receive him and turns into a bird. The gods, deciding they should belong as a couple, turn Halcyone into a bird as well and they are able to rejoin once more and spend their time together.
miércoles, 19 de septiembre de 2007
Taxing the Hand that Feeds Us
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/opinion/20ponnuru.html
Op-Ed Contributor
By RAMESH PONNURU
Published: September 20, 2007
Washington
Grady White
REPUBLICAN presidential candidates can’t get elected without owning the tax issue. So far, the current crop is giving it away.
A huge reason for Ronald Reagan’s popularity was his cutting of all income-tax rates and ending of “bracket creep,” in which inflation pushed earners into higher tax groups. Congressional Republicans promised a tax credit for children while sweeping the 1994 elections. In 2000, George W. Bush promised to expand that tax credit and to reduce income taxes.
Yes, the top Republican contenders for 2008 are promising to keep all of Mr. Bush’s tax cuts. But the Democrats are not threatening the child tax credit or Mr. Bush’s reductions in the lower-level income-tax rates. Those issues are off the table.
What Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani — who have made the most detailed remarks on taxes of the top-tier candidates — are really saying is that they will make sure that taxes on capital gains, dividends, estates and high earners will stay low. Not many middle-class taxpayers will benefit directly from any of those policies.
Mr. Romney adds that he will try to cut the corporate tax rate, which his adviser Glenn Hubbard calls “a drain on competitiveness.” Many of our trading partners have cut their corporate taxes, and more and more conservatives want the United States to follow suit. Apparently they haven’t been listening to their own speeches on free trade. Companies compete. Countries, however, are not engaged in a zero-sum contest where one nation’s gain is another’s loss. Cutting corporate tax rates may or may not be a good idea, but we don’t need to make it a priority to preserve our competitiveness.
Both Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani speak vaguely about making sure the alternative minimum tax doesn’t affect any more middle-class families. That is a step in the right direction. But it isn’t a tax cut.
Mr. Romney has also proposed an initiative to make the return on middle-class savings tax-free. It may also be a step in the right direction, but it’s small change. The primary focus of the Romney and Giuliani tax plans remains high earners.
What would be a serious middle-class tax cut? One answer is to expand the tax credit for children. But none of the candidates is proposing to do so, or any other big tax relief for regular folks. You might think that Mr. Giuliani would want to do everything he can to appeal to social conservatives short of actually becoming one himself. But why should he offer a pro-family tax cut when even the hard-core social conservatives in the race aren’t interested? Mike Huckabee wants a national sales tax and Sam Brownback wants a flat tax. Either proposal would increase taxes on a lot of middle-class families.
The Republicans in Congress are no better. For much of the right, the great passion of the moment is to make sure that the carried interest at hedge funds is taxed at what look an awful lot like preferential rates. For years, liberals have said that Republicans talk about “family values” but won’t do anything to meet the economic needs of families. Right now, on taxes, that charge hits home.
Two ideological misconceptions underlie the party’s lack of imagination. First, Republicans worry that taking people off the income-tax rolls, as an expanded child credit would do, would make voters think big government is free and turn to the Democrats. But there’s no real evidence for this. Besides, parents are likely to be future-oriented voters, and they will realize that they will be paying higher taxes again once their children have grown up.
Second, Republicans believe, in general, that the tax code should generate its revenue in a way that does the least damage possible to the economy. So they seek tax reforms that cut taxes on investment returns and thereby increase economic growth. What they ignore is that we overtax investments in children, too. Parents make financial sacrifices to produce the next generation of taxpayers, who will pay for everyone’s retirements. Yet the tax code does too little to recognize parents’ investments.
True, an expanded tax credit for children wouldn’t increase economic growth. Growth is good, and more growth is better. But present tax rates are perfectly compatible with healthy long-term growth. There is no pressing need to bring them down to improve growth.
A few conservative strategists have designed tax reform plans that modestly cut corporate tax rates and simplify the tax code while also helping families. (One idea is to make up the lost revenue by bumping affluent childless people into higher tax brackets.) So far, the candidates have not been interested.
As the Republican Party has gotten more socially conservative, its voter base has become lower in income. Many of the working-class social conservatives on whom the party relies are parents trying to make ends meet, or young people who want to start families but have financial worries. They have no particular attachment, or hostility, to free-market principles. A Republican Party that found a conservative way to meet their economic needs would both hold and expand its base.
Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review.
In this article the three kinds of rhetoric writing are found. For example the first paragraph is completely values, it is written in the present and it discuss how now days republicans have to own the tax issue to be able to be elected. This is all values because it is a reason for which people don’t consider voting for such a representative or for people to actually vote in their favor because is what they consider morally correct.
Still the author then changes to a different rhetoric characteristic. He uses the past to blame all the fake promises congressional republicans have made in the past. It also uses this for people to consider the future and make the correct choice of whom to vote for having in mind all that has happened in the past. And this once more connects to the present in which the ideas of the different candidates are presented and their morals and values will be compared with the beliefs of the voters, and by comparing and contrasting, the voters, in the future will once more make a choice of whom to vote for. The author then gives his own opinion of what should be done and suggested and states his values for them to get in the thoughts of the people in the present but for these values to influence the decision made in the future so that the wring things that have occurred in the past do not repeat themselves.
Referring to the other divisions of rhetoric, Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, we could say this article, even though it contains from all three of these points of views, is mostly Pathos. This is mostly Pathos because the author is making the readers feel bad about how the republicans have before lied to the public and how they have used their power wrongly. It also makes the reader feel bad about the people in middle classes about the taxes because the author focuses in stating the problems these taxes would cause these families. And he blames the republicans for having turned their job into an economical business and benefiting themselves instead of paying attention to the ideas he suggested, which, according to him, wont make the middle class families suffer as much as the current republican ideas.
Op-Ed Contributor
By RAMESH PONNURU
Published: September 20, 2007
Washington
Grady White
REPUBLICAN presidential candidates can’t get elected without owning the tax issue. So far, the current crop is giving it away.
A huge reason for Ronald Reagan’s popularity was his cutting of all income-tax rates and ending of “bracket creep,” in which inflation pushed earners into higher tax groups. Congressional Republicans promised a tax credit for children while sweeping the 1994 elections. In 2000, George W. Bush promised to expand that tax credit and to reduce income taxes.
Yes, the top Republican contenders for 2008 are promising to keep all of Mr. Bush’s tax cuts. But the Democrats are not threatening the child tax credit or Mr. Bush’s reductions in the lower-level income-tax rates. Those issues are off the table.
What Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani — who have made the most detailed remarks on taxes of the top-tier candidates — are really saying is that they will make sure that taxes on capital gains, dividends, estates and high earners will stay low. Not many middle-class taxpayers will benefit directly from any of those policies.
Mr. Romney adds that he will try to cut the corporate tax rate, which his adviser Glenn Hubbard calls “a drain on competitiveness.” Many of our trading partners have cut their corporate taxes, and more and more conservatives want the United States to follow suit. Apparently they haven’t been listening to their own speeches on free trade. Companies compete. Countries, however, are not engaged in a zero-sum contest where one nation’s gain is another’s loss. Cutting corporate tax rates may or may not be a good idea, but we don’t need to make it a priority to preserve our competitiveness.
Both Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani speak vaguely about making sure the alternative minimum tax doesn’t affect any more middle-class families. That is a step in the right direction. But it isn’t a tax cut.
Mr. Romney has also proposed an initiative to make the return on middle-class savings tax-free. It may also be a step in the right direction, but it’s small change. The primary focus of the Romney and Giuliani tax plans remains high earners.
What would be a serious middle-class tax cut? One answer is to expand the tax credit for children. But none of the candidates is proposing to do so, or any other big tax relief for regular folks. You might think that Mr. Giuliani would want to do everything he can to appeal to social conservatives short of actually becoming one himself. But why should he offer a pro-family tax cut when even the hard-core social conservatives in the race aren’t interested? Mike Huckabee wants a national sales tax and Sam Brownback wants a flat tax. Either proposal would increase taxes on a lot of middle-class families.
The Republicans in Congress are no better. For much of the right, the great passion of the moment is to make sure that the carried interest at hedge funds is taxed at what look an awful lot like preferential rates. For years, liberals have said that Republicans talk about “family values” but won’t do anything to meet the economic needs of families. Right now, on taxes, that charge hits home.
Two ideological misconceptions underlie the party’s lack of imagination. First, Republicans worry that taking people off the income-tax rolls, as an expanded child credit would do, would make voters think big government is free and turn to the Democrats. But there’s no real evidence for this. Besides, parents are likely to be future-oriented voters, and they will realize that they will be paying higher taxes again once their children have grown up.
Second, Republicans believe, in general, that the tax code should generate its revenue in a way that does the least damage possible to the economy. So they seek tax reforms that cut taxes on investment returns and thereby increase economic growth. What they ignore is that we overtax investments in children, too. Parents make financial sacrifices to produce the next generation of taxpayers, who will pay for everyone’s retirements. Yet the tax code does too little to recognize parents’ investments.
True, an expanded tax credit for children wouldn’t increase economic growth. Growth is good, and more growth is better. But present tax rates are perfectly compatible with healthy long-term growth. There is no pressing need to bring them down to improve growth.
A few conservative strategists have designed tax reform plans that modestly cut corporate tax rates and simplify the tax code while also helping families. (One idea is to make up the lost revenue by bumping affluent childless people into higher tax brackets.) So far, the candidates have not been interested.
As the Republican Party has gotten more socially conservative, its voter base has become lower in income. Many of the working-class social conservatives on whom the party relies are parents trying to make ends meet, or young people who want to start families but have financial worries. They have no particular attachment, or hostility, to free-market principles. A Republican Party that found a conservative way to meet their economic needs would both hold and expand its base.
Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review.
In this article the three kinds of rhetoric writing are found. For example the first paragraph is completely values, it is written in the present and it discuss how now days republicans have to own the tax issue to be able to be elected. This is all values because it is a reason for which people don’t consider voting for such a representative or for people to actually vote in their favor because is what they consider morally correct.
Still the author then changes to a different rhetoric characteristic. He uses the past to blame all the fake promises congressional republicans have made in the past. It also uses this for people to consider the future and make the correct choice of whom to vote for having in mind all that has happened in the past. And this once more connects to the present in which the ideas of the different candidates are presented and their morals and values will be compared with the beliefs of the voters, and by comparing and contrasting, the voters, in the future will once more make a choice of whom to vote for. The author then gives his own opinion of what should be done and suggested and states his values for them to get in the thoughts of the people in the present but for these values to influence the decision made in the future so that the wring things that have occurred in the past do not repeat themselves.
Referring to the other divisions of rhetoric, Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, we could say this article, even though it contains from all three of these points of views, is mostly Pathos. This is mostly Pathos because the author is making the readers feel bad about how the republicans have before lied to the public and how they have used their power wrongly. It also makes the reader feel bad about the people in middle classes about the taxes because the author focuses in stating the problems these taxes would cause these families. And he blames the republicans for having turned their job into an economical business and benefiting themselves instead of paying attention to the ideas he suggested, which, according to him, wont make the middle class families suffer as much as the current republican ideas.
martes, 18 de septiembre de 2007
Phaeton, Midas, Baucis and Philemon
In all of the three stories we are able to witness mistakes made by the power of choosing and being stubborn. In the first story, Phaeton gets his father to grant him any one wish he asks for to prove him that he is his father. His wish, even though it was definitely not recommended by his father, was final. He would ride the suns chariot and would die in the way. But he didn’t just die, he as well got the earth in flames and destroyed many beautiful characteristics of the earth. In the second story a very mistaken decision is also made, Midas, after being hospitable for ten days and nights with Bacchus is then rewarded by anything he chooses. Being a power-hungry man who wanted wealth, Midas asks for the wish of anything he touches, turning into gold. This though was not as great as he wanted and this makes him incapable of many things.He isnt able to enjoy food and drinks, he can no longer feel any other texture that the golds, and he cant enjoy his life anymore. He then receives a pair of donkey ears since the gods decide on it and the gods do this because of the fact that he supported Pan, during Pans combat against Apollo.
Baucious and Philemon and they two are a swell rewarded for having been a family very well organized and they get a price for their hospitality. Since the rest of the village didn’t will to help the hidden goddesses, the gods punish them all except Baucis and Philemon. But this time they get a positive reward since they are able to die together and at the same time, just like they wanted.
Baucious and Philemon and they two are a swell rewarded for having been a family very well organized and they get a price for their hospitality. Since the rest of the village didn’t will to help the hidden goddesses, the gods punish them all except Baucis and Philemon. But this time they get a positive reward since they are able to die together and at the same time, just like they wanted.
lunes, 17 de septiembre de 2007
Apollo and Daphne- Pyramus and Thisbe- Cephalus and Procris
Under my point of view I consider all of these three myths to be tragedies. It annoys me that to people that love each other are not allowed being together for one reason or another. In Apollo and Daphne, Cupid made sure love was only felt from Apollo while Daphne did not wished to be loved. Pyramus and Thisbe, though living in the same village and loving each other, are not permitted by their parents to unite. And even though Cephalus declines Aurora to keep his wife, at the end, they too are separated from one another. The fact that they were separated by death and by their own fault causes even more frustration upon me. Daphne is taken away from Apollo by becoming a tree and this is because, she, herself, asked for it while trying to escape Apollo. Then Pyramus kills himself because he believes Thisbe is dead and then Thisbe realizes what happened and kills herself as well. And then Procris spies her husband because she believes he is cheating on her after he actually renounced a goddess for her, and not being able to see her, but hearing her, Cephalus kills her with his javelin, thinking she is an animal. The fact that two people that love each other are not able to be with one another makes me feel pity as well since I do not hope for that kind of feeling of wanting but not having.
domingo, 16 de septiembre de 2007
Cadmus, the Myrmidons and Apollo and Hyacinthus
These three myths are very different. They each have what I consider a different message to transmit. Apollo and Hyacinthus is about the preferences the god Apollo had towards Hyacinthus and how he accidentally killed him one day. In his honor Apollo created a flower silver and purple, more beautiful than any other, and this one revives every spring making sure Hyacinthhs’s memory is not forgotten. So this Myth explains how this flower was created and what it purpose was but it also shows that Apollo’s favoritism towards Hyacinthus lead him to his death since he, being a god, should not show favoritism toward anybody.
Cadmus however is a very different style of myth. This one shows how a grate serpent of great importance to the gods was killed by Cadmus after the serpent had killed most, or all, of Cadmus’s soldiers. After Cadmus sleights the serpent, he forms a family and founds a city, but the gods never stop haunting him for having killed the serpent so he offers to become a serpent himself. The gods accept his offer, and his wife not wanting to stay alone, chooses the same fate. My interpretation of the message of this myth is that it reminds you that your past can’t be forgiven and that it will affect your future.
And the myth of the myrmidons is of their creation. It explains how after a terrible disease kills the whole city of Aegina, this was a course sent by Juno but no offering or preach is capable of make her stop. Everyone dies except the king and his family and so Aeacus, the king, asks Juno to either take him as well, as she did with his entire city, or give him people to begin a new city once more. Juno decides to give him some soldiers that kill each other until five are left and these help Aeacus build a new city and calls them myrmidons, inspired by the ant colony from which Aeacus had gotten his idea to ask for people. The inner message of this story I would say is hope because Aeacus always waited for his city to recover and when it didn’t, he still looked for a new solution. He always hoped for Juno’s forgiveness and he eventually did receive what he waited so long for.
Cadmus however is a very different style of myth. This one shows how a grate serpent of great importance to the gods was killed by Cadmus after the serpent had killed most, or all, of Cadmus’s soldiers. After Cadmus sleights the serpent, he forms a family and founds a city, but the gods never stop haunting him for having killed the serpent so he offers to become a serpent himself. The gods accept his offer, and his wife not wanting to stay alone, chooses the same fate. My interpretation of the message of this myth is that it reminds you that your past can’t be forgiven and that it will affect your future.
And the myth of the myrmidons is of their creation. It explains how after a terrible disease kills the whole city of Aegina, this was a course sent by Juno but no offering or preach is capable of make her stop. Everyone dies except the king and his family and so Aeacus, the king, asks Juno to either take him as well, as she did with his entire city, or give him people to begin a new city once more. Juno decides to give him some soldiers that kill each other until five are left and these help Aeacus build a new city and calls them myrmidons, inspired by the ant colony from which Aeacus had gotten his idea to ask for people. The inner message of this story I would say is hope because Aeacus always waited for his city to recover and when it didn’t, he still looked for a new solution. He always hoped for Juno’s forgiveness and he eventually did receive what he waited so long for.
jueves, 13 de septiembre de 2007
Pygmalion, Dryope, and Venus
These three stories are actually not very similar. This time, I would like to right a summary of each and give a short opinion about it.
Pygmalion is the story of a man that blamed too much suffering on women and thus decided he would never marry. Still, being a sculptor, he created a beautiful ivory statue of a woman. He soon fell in love with the statue and treated it as a real woman. Then, on the festival of Venus, Pygmalion asked her to make her statue become alive, and she conceived him his wish. She let herself take form as the statues and from the unification of Venus and Pygmalion, Paphos, their son was born.
I believe that this story shows how many times we end up loving what we originally hated or vise versa. There is a saying in Spanish that goes as following, “Del odio al amor hay solo un paso” this shows that many times we end up loving things that were never expected to be loved. Just like Pygmalion hated women and eventually fell in love with his own creation.
Dryope is the story of a woman that went with her child and sister to the river banks. When she went she ripped of some flowers to give to her baby but she soon realized that the flowers she had ripped belonged to the nymph Lotis. This one outraged punished Dryope by making her become a plant as well. When Dryopes husband and father found out what had occurred, they begun to kiss that had once been Dryope and she gave her last words before becoming completely stiff. She asked for her kid to receive good care, she claimed herself innocent and asked her father, husband and sister to never forget her.
Even though this is not very realistic, I believe this myth was created to explain where it was that trees came from and why they were formed.
Venus and Adonis is a myth that explains the creation of the wind flower. It is about Venus and her lover Adonis. Even though Venus warns Adonis about the dangerous creature in the wild, Adonis decides to ignore her advice and gats himself attacked by a beast and killed. Since Venus was just leaving Adonis when this occurred, she was able to rapidly go back to him and discover what had occurred. From the body of Adonis, Venus created the wind flowers that would “consol but not envy Venus”.
This story shows that many times humans ignore advice for one reason or the other but at the end, the same conclusion can be expressed, there are reasons for which why the people actually give the advice. Many time humans are too proud to accept comments and follow advice that people with knowledge or experience have given. It is also many times ignored by rebels that don’t mind about other people’s attention that the consequences really are taken to discuss.
Pygmalion is the story of a man that blamed too much suffering on women and thus decided he would never marry. Still, being a sculptor, he created a beautiful ivory statue of a woman. He soon fell in love with the statue and treated it as a real woman. Then, on the festival of Venus, Pygmalion asked her to make her statue become alive, and she conceived him his wish. She let herself take form as the statues and from the unification of Venus and Pygmalion, Paphos, their son was born.
I believe that this story shows how many times we end up loving what we originally hated or vise versa. There is a saying in Spanish that goes as following, “Del odio al amor hay solo un paso” this shows that many times we end up loving things that were never expected to be loved. Just like Pygmalion hated women and eventually fell in love with his own creation.
Dryope is the story of a woman that went with her child and sister to the river banks. When she went she ripped of some flowers to give to her baby but she soon realized that the flowers she had ripped belonged to the nymph Lotis. This one outraged punished Dryope by making her become a plant as well. When Dryopes husband and father found out what had occurred, they begun to kiss that had once been Dryope and she gave her last words before becoming completely stiff. She asked for her kid to receive good care, she claimed herself innocent and asked her father, husband and sister to never forget her.
Even though this is not very realistic, I believe this myth was created to explain where it was that trees came from and why they were formed.
Venus and Adonis is a myth that explains the creation of the wind flower. It is about Venus and her lover Adonis. Even though Venus warns Adonis about the dangerous creature in the wild, Adonis decides to ignore her advice and gats himself attacked by a beast and killed. Since Venus was just leaving Adonis when this occurred, she was able to rapidly go back to him and discover what had occurred. From the body of Adonis, Venus created the wind flowers that would “consol but not envy Venus”.
This story shows that many times humans ignore advice for one reason or the other but at the end, the same conclusion can be expressed, there are reasons for which why the people actually give the advice. Many time humans are too proud to accept comments and follow advice that people with knowledge or experience have given. It is also many times ignored by rebels that don’t mind about other people’s attention that the consequences really are taken to discuss.
miércoles, 12 de septiembre de 2007
"Logos", "Ethos", and "Pathos"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
“Not only do America’s businesses need better-educated workers, the country needs better-educated citizens as well.”
This article talks about how many people in the United States do not have proper education and this affects their jobs and the companies or people they work for. This is a “Logos” argument because it talks about how people use the mind to go on with their lives. Whatever you work for is mostly influenced by the knowledge on that subject. For your job to be successful you have to have a big part of your intelligence focused on that kind of actions and works.
My opinion towards this article is that this is not a problem that occurs just in the United States, it is actually a problem that imposes obstacles through out the whole world. Illiteracy is a problem that is not very easy to fix and the need for more education is also a strong demand in every country. Just as said in the article, successful men usually come from good students (once more “Logos”) since they have begun to adapt that way of thinking and processing information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html
"But to say whether Alex loved the human who taught him, we’d have to know if he had a separate conceptual grasp of what love is, which is different from understanding the context in which the word occurs."
This story talks about a parrot that could have learned how to “think”. This passage shows two kinds of rhetoric argument because it has both “Logos” and “Pathos”. It shows “Logos” when it discusses the fact that animals might have the possibility to actually understand what humans speak and actually get the message being expressed. It also questions if humans could actually learn a lot from animals and their behavior and if we could actually learn as Alex, the parrot did with humans. The article shows “Pathos” when the man shows the affection the parrot had toward him and how he probably had the same loving feeling towards the parrot. This could affect the argument of the writer because he has affection towards the bird and a part of him wants to believe that the bird IS able to understand what he says, or at least a small part. It could also be that the parrot does understand the context of the word but not the actual feeling, but as said before, the owner of the parrot has had him for 31 years and he wishes, even if it is unconsciously, for the parrot to understand and share what he is saying.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sept_11_2001/index.html?8qa
"A numbed country with red-rimmed eyes came to understand the ugly menace of terrorism."
This article is about the event of 2001´s 9/11 when the world trade center was burnt down by a plane crash an how there was a later attack on the pentagon. It reminds people of how it was that the United States finally became aware of what problem terrorism is.
This is a “pathos” way of rhetoric writing since it is showing sympathy towards what occurred on 9/11 through a personification by saying that the US realized the horror of terrorism with red eyes from crying and showing sympathy for those who died and their relatives. It is making a stronger argument by saying that the whole country of the US suffered for the actions of a few terrorist groups. It shows how people are affected by each others actions and how our emotions may be mixed and messed up by facing problems, as the one that occurred six years ago, constantly. It show how the heart of the United States is now beating with pain as its feelings have been hurt as way too many of its innocent citizens have died and nothing can be done to change the events. This is why the US then invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, because the “Pathos” rhetoric of the United States won over their “Logos” and “Ethos” point of views and the feelings and emotions lead to revenge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/13toys.html?ref=business
"But senators at the hearing said the safety measures promised by Mr. Eckert and others in the toy industry were inadequate."
In this case “Ethos” is actually what acts against the credibility of Mr. Eckert. The others senators know Mr. Eckert and know that he is not to trust because in the past when he had seemed trustworthy, he hadn’t kept his word and then this opposite of “Ethos” is actually what is making Mr. Eckert loose his argument and making the other team win since he hasn’t proven his “Ethos” side a strong and convincing one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/fashion/shows/09INTRO.html?ref=style
“Designers are, of necessity, the public face of the business, the big wizardly auras blowing puffs of important fashion. Stylists are the handsomely paid but largely unheralded behind-the-curtain personnel.”
This article talks about how the stylist do much of the designers work but only the designer gets the credit for it. This could be considered the “Ethos” rhetoric form of writing since the designers are getting a trustworthy image of being able to design everything and control all that revolves around them when what actually occurs is that they have a very important person, a stylist, which helps and gives assistance. The image given to the designers is unfair since they don’t completely deserve it and should accept the fact that they get help from the Stylists. This way the Stylists could also be known worldwide for their works as the designers, and receive the recognition they deserve.
“Not only do America’s businesses need better-educated workers, the country needs better-educated citizens as well.”
This article talks about how many people in the United States do not have proper education and this affects their jobs and the companies or people they work for. This is a “Logos” argument because it talks about how people use the mind to go on with their lives. Whatever you work for is mostly influenced by the knowledge on that subject. For your job to be successful you have to have a big part of your intelligence focused on that kind of actions and works.
My opinion towards this article is that this is not a problem that occurs just in the United States, it is actually a problem that imposes obstacles through out the whole world. Illiteracy is a problem that is not very easy to fix and the need for more education is also a strong demand in every country. Just as said in the article, successful men usually come from good students (once more “Logos”) since they have begun to adapt that way of thinking and processing information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html
"But to say whether Alex loved the human who taught him, we’d have to know if he had a separate conceptual grasp of what love is, which is different from understanding the context in which the word occurs."
This story talks about a parrot that could have learned how to “think”. This passage shows two kinds of rhetoric argument because it has both “Logos” and “Pathos”. It shows “Logos” when it discusses the fact that animals might have the possibility to actually understand what humans speak and actually get the message being expressed. It also questions if humans could actually learn a lot from animals and their behavior and if we could actually learn as Alex, the parrot did with humans. The article shows “Pathos” when the man shows the affection the parrot had toward him and how he probably had the same loving feeling towards the parrot. This could affect the argument of the writer because he has affection towards the bird and a part of him wants to believe that the bird IS able to understand what he says, or at least a small part. It could also be that the parrot does understand the context of the word but not the actual feeling, but as said before, the owner of the parrot has had him for 31 years and he wishes, even if it is unconsciously, for the parrot to understand and share what he is saying.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sept_11_2001/index.html?8qa
"A numbed country with red-rimmed eyes came to understand the ugly menace of terrorism."
This article is about the event of 2001´s 9/11 when the world trade center was burnt down by a plane crash an how there was a later attack on the pentagon. It reminds people of how it was that the United States finally became aware of what problem terrorism is.
This is a “pathos” way of rhetoric writing since it is showing sympathy towards what occurred on 9/11 through a personification by saying that the US realized the horror of terrorism with red eyes from crying and showing sympathy for those who died and their relatives. It is making a stronger argument by saying that the whole country of the US suffered for the actions of a few terrorist groups. It shows how people are affected by each others actions and how our emotions may be mixed and messed up by facing problems, as the one that occurred six years ago, constantly. It show how the heart of the United States is now beating with pain as its feelings have been hurt as way too many of its innocent citizens have died and nothing can be done to change the events. This is why the US then invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, because the “Pathos” rhetoric of the United States won over their “Logos” and “Ethos” point of views and the feelings and emotions lead to revenge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/13toys.html?ref=business
"But senators at the hearing said the safety measures promised by Mr. Eckert and others in the toy industry were inadequate."
In this case “Ethos” is actually what acts against the credibility of Mr. Eckert. The others senators know Mr. Eckert and know that he is not to trust because in the past when he had seemed trustworthy, he hadn’t kept his word and then this opposite of “Ethos” is actually what is making Mr. Eckert loose his argument and making the other team win since he hasn’t proven his “Ethos” side a strong and convincing one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/fashion/shows/09INTRO.html?ref=style
“Designers are, of necessity, the public face of the business, the big wizardly auras blowing puffs of important fashion. Stylists are the handsomely paid but largely unheralded behind-the-curtain personnel.”
This article talks about how the stylist do much of the designers work but only the designer gets the credit for it. This could be considered the “Ethos” rhetoric form of writing since the designers are getting a trustworthy image of being able to design everything and control all that revolves around them when what actually occurs is that they have a very important person, a stylist, which helps and gives assistance. The image given to the designers is unfair since they don’t completely deserve it and should accept the fact that they get help from the Stylists. This way the Stylists could also be known worldwide for their works as the designers, and receive the recognition they deserve.
martes, 11 de septiembre de 2007
Love in Vain
The myths of Nisus and Scylla, Echo and Narcissus, Clyte, and Hero and Leander all talk about love. In three of the four myths love is felt by just one party of the relationship and the other doesn’t feel love in return. Looking forward to achieve love, Scylla betrays her father trying to make king Minos fall for her but even after her sacrifice, Minos doesn’t accept her. She is turned into an animosity and her father into a sea-eagle and that’s why the sea-eagle is always attacking the animosity, it is looking for revenge after the betrayal of her own daughter that cost him his kingdom. In Echo and Narcissus, Echo is punished by giving her the last words of a conversation and no more. This is why even though she is in love with Narcissus, she is never able to tell him, and after he rejects her she ends up killing her. Clyte is the last myth that has no corresponded love involved. As Clyte falls in love with Apollo and he ignores her, she becomes a sun flower that follows the sun, Apollo everywhere. The only pair that had love from both of the persons in the relationship where Hero and Leander but the myth still has a tragic ending, since Hero dies.
Humans now days are exactly the same way they were many years ago. They still look for love, corresponded love in which they will be able to live happily ever after. But we are also easily offended if we discover we live in vain since the other person doesn’t loves us back. That when the human mind sometimes looses control and there are humans that end up committing crimes. We all have desperate thoughts and actions every once in a while and this leads to many misfortunes in the human race.
Humans now days are exactly the same way they were many years ago. They still look for love, corresponded love in which they will be able to live happily ever after. But we are also easily offended if we discover we live in vain since the other person doesn’t loves us back. That when the human mind sometimes looses control and there are humans that end up committing crimes. We all have desperate thoughts and actions every once in a while and this leads to many misfortunes in the human race.
Punishments to Humans by the Gods
The three myths I have now read are Prometheus and Pandora, Minerva, and Niobe. These three myths compare in the fact that in the story of Prometheus and Pandora, the gods actually help the human race while in the other two stories the humans are being punished for having challenged the power of the gods. Still Pandora is also “punished”, but not directly, by the gods in the way that when she opens Jupiter’s jar she lets out all the bad things in earth with hope being the only good thing that will be exposed to human race. Still in the other two myths, the main characters are being directly punished by gods because they challenged them. Minerva turns Arachne into a spider because she challenged Minerva on a weaving contest, believing she was better than the very god. They both weave a different scene, Minerva choosing the one of her victory over Athens in which she shows her greatness and she tries to warn Arachne of the mistake she had committed by challenging her. Still Arachne, being a very stubborn woman, continued her web in which she weaved times in which the gods had committed errors trying to prove the fact that they aren’t perfect and that she could beat Minerva. At last Arachne was turned into a spider in which she weaves all day long. And in Niobe, Latona punishes her for considering herself better than the gods and saying that she deserved to be a god due to her surroundings. Still these statements weren’t the reason why Latona punished Niobe, she punished her because she claimed her sons better than Latonas kids and she claimed to be a prouder mother and having more than what Latona would ever get. Angered, the punishment from the goddess was to kill all eight of Niobes kids and her husband also died from sadness and alteration. So in this case the punishment given to Niobe was to live on her own in loneliness. Every action done has its consequences and in these three myths the gods affect the humans and punish them in different ways. They either experience loneliness, they are turned into a spider or a box that contains all the bad and evil things on earth is open by you.
Partnership gives Support and Strength
The myths of Theseus, Daedalus and Castor and Pollux have some similarities and differences between them. They all share the fact that they share their adventures with a partner and receive their support to accomplish things. For example Theseus was able to kill king Mino’s Minotaur thanks to her daughter, Ariadne who helped him find a way to get back out of the maze after he had killed the Minotaur. But after he abandoned Ariadne, he finds a new partner that he doesn’t leave behind by his will at any moment. He is Pirithous and they stand together even when they go looking for Erebus, the wife Pirithous aspired, and they end up trapped in the underworld. Later on Theseus is once more liberated after Hercules rescues him and leaves Pirithous behind. He later on has some more partners but doesn’t remain as loyal to any of them as he did to Pirithous. We could say that Daedalus as well had a partner, his son, Icarus. They go out together flying and trying to escape Crete and during the way, Icarus dies. Icarus’s death comes from the fact that he disobeyed his fathers councils and goes to high up in the sky and the wax of the wings created by his father melt, and he falls to the ocean and dies. And in the story of Castor and Pollux, they are not just brothers but companions as well. They have a bond that maintains them always together and when Castor is killed in war, Pollux asks Jupiter to take his life also. In all of the three stories one or both of the companions die and when they do the other suffers for the loss of his friendship and support.
jueves, 6 de septiembre de 2007
Anger Controls Human Will
The first four myths that I have read are Juno and her rivals, Io and Callisto, Diana and Actaeon, and Latona and the Rustics. These myths show the different ways anger can be managed. In Juno and her rivals, Juno turns both of the nymphs that his husband admires into ugly creatures that are not longed to love. In both stories, though, Jupiter is able to save his lovers from becoming a complete chaos, even though Juno does complicate their lives. In Diana and Actaeon, Diana is seen naked by Actaeon and turns him into a hairy, horned, creature that is later defeated and eaten by his own dogs under the orders of his own friends. Diana does this because she is a goddess with much pride and is outraged by the fact that she has been seen naked by a man she did not choose. She seeks revenge and finds it when Actaeon is killed by his own troops. And on the story of Latona and the Rustics, anger also changes the way things were currently arranged. Unhappy with the Rustics because they didn’t allow her or her child to drink, Latona wishes for them to never come out of the water again, and this occurred. Then after some time the Rustics become frogs from spending so much time in the water.
These stories remind me of many of the daily occurrences in life. For example the fact that Juno acted against Io and Callisto is because of jealousy. There are currently many couples that distrust one another because betrayal occurs and then the wife or husband that has been cheated to is hurt and longs revenge. Such as Juno made the mistresses suffer the consequences of having gotten involved with her husband, humans also make people suffer and regret their actions. Pride is also a common trait in humans as they work hard on keeping it high and suffer when it is taken to limits. All humans have a certain amount some more than others but I, for example am a very proud person and this is sometimes good and sometimes bad. As in the story of Diana and Actaeon, many people take their pride way too far and make people suffer and suffer themselves when they have been insulted or something has happened to them that they did not like or wanted to accept. Anger is always a strong weapon against the own human mind and it will make humans do things at desperate acts.
These stories remind me of many of the daily occurrences in life. For example the fact that Juno acted against Io and Callisto is because of jealousy. There are currently many couples that distrust one another because betrayal occurs and then the wife or husband that has been cheated to is hurt and longs revenge. Such as Juno made the mistresses suffer the consequences of having gotten involved with her husband, humans also make people suffer and regret their actions. Pride is also a common trait in humans as they work hard on keeping it high and suffer when it is taken to limits. All humans have a certain amount some more than others but I, for example am a very proud person and this is sometimes good and sometimes bad. As in the story of Diana and Actaeon, many people take their pride way too far and make people suffer and suffer themselves when they have been insulted or something has happened to them that they did not like or wanted to accept. Anger is always a strong weapon against the own human mind and it will make humans do things at desperate acts.
miércoles, 5 de septiembre de 2007
The Creation of the World
Every single person in life has a different idea of how life was created. Some are known worldwide and have influenced the thoughts of others but each person had an original idea of the begginning of the world. In the piece of writing published by "cosmicomics" the world was crated by a series of events that occurred by different bets made by one man or the other and the events would be the events created long before the world was even there. It describes how the world begun from small particles and then each time it was predicted, things occurred. Te beginning of this creation story reminds me to the theory of the big bang since it uses scientific support to how the atoms compacted and how then many atoms begun to create larger and larger forms of matter. Then the molecules in the earth begun to evolve and so did the creatures they eventually formed, until humans were inhabitants in earth and begun to take control.
both of these theories answer a very important question that we have been discussing in class, "how we got here", in the "cosmicomic" piece we are brought to present day and described the position in which Dean is found, while the big bang theory also tell us why we are right now in the places we are but through the explanation of how earth evolutes.
I believe that every single person has a personal creation myth different from anybody else's, even though it might have similarities to other myths, it will always have a detail that will make it unique.
both of these theories answer a very important question that we have been discussing in class, "how we got here", in the "cosmicomic" piece we are brought to present day and described the position in which Dean is found, while the big bang theory also tell us why we are right now in the places we are but through the explanation of how earth evolutes.
I believe that every single person has a personal creation myth different from anybody else's, even though it might have similarities to other myths, it will always have a detail that will make it unique.
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