Reading Response

President Obama took questions from a host of Republican Senators on a wide range of important issues. The attitudes of the Senators questions were hostile, usually accusing the President of failures in his policies and actions. The Senators appealed largely to the emotions of their audience, and presented facts to support their concerns. These heated questions consisted of stories and accusations which eventually lead to a question, all were designed to appeal to the viewer’s emotions. For example, the first Senator told a story of a disheartened average man he met in passing. The Senator quoted the man as saying “It’s not like it was when we grew up Senator, there just aren’t enough jobs.” President Obama’s responses were mostly grounded in facts, naming figures and correcting interviewers as he tried to defend himself from the Republican onslaught. In one response, Obama reasoned that the recovery act saved a great deal of jobs during the economic crisis. After listing all of the jobs and industry he saved, Obama exclaims, “Who wouldn’t do that?” in an attempt to appeal to the audience’s emotions. The President himself is an appeal to ethos; after all he is the president. The President offers to work with the interviewers on the issues they are having, displaying his power and sense of justice to the rest of the forum.
While Obama argues against each Senator’s claims, he does not take a firm stance on any of the issues presented. He attempts to find a middle ground, with respect to the Senators and the audience watching the forum. He calls for more bipartisan legislation, showing the audience he is willing to work with the Republican Party. The President was mindful of his audience throughout the speech, trying to win their favor, even using humor at times. While the forum was hostile, the President tried to paint it as a game that all politicians play, a game of rhetoric.

Ben’s Blog
Ben Horowitz is an accomplished technology entrepreneur, software programmer, investor, and author; he has started many companies and is the general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm with a hefty portfolio. Ben started his career working for various software companies in Silicon Valley and eventually started several companies of his own. The most famous was Opsware, which was sold to Hewett-Packard in 2009 for $1.6 billion dollars. Ben offers insights from his experiences as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley during and after the dot com bubble. The blog presents itself as a guide for educated entrepreneurs and investors especially for those in the tech industry, as Ben draws on personal experience to support his claims. Ben speaks frequently about his experience at Opsware, which fell as low as thirty-cents a share on the stock market. The technology market is highly competitive and constantly advancing and Ben has conquered it again and again.
Ben includes a quote from a Rap Song before each of his blog posts; this confuses his readers. Why would this old white billionaire and computer programmer be into Hip-Hop? It just doesn’t make sense. Ben tries to explain his love for hip-hop to his readers with a heartwarming story about his good friend Seth, who lost his sight in a tragic accident. The readers of Ben’s blog probably have trouble understanding his love for hip-hop because they are lame software nerds or businessmen and women in their later years, most of them receiving some form of higher education. He uses language and acronyms that would be difficult to understand without a basic knowledge of business, more specifically corporations. He presents his opinions from the perspective of an executive and investor, appealing to facts and his success to convince readers of the truthfulness of his claims.
There is no area for readers to comment on Ben’s blogs post. Ben Horowitz believes all of his advice to be true and empowering, he avoids comments because there is no need. Ben’s opinions are the only ones that matter on Ben’s Blog because he is a billionaire. Also due to his status as a public figure it is wise for him to avoid comments, he has a reputation to maintain and things can get a little crazy when you unleash the anonymity of the Internet onto your blog. His readers aspire to be him; they value money, power, entrepreneurship, and technology.
Ben connects to his audience through an appeal to logos. They see him as smart, self-motivated, tech genius that is slightly awkward and really wealthy. His readers go to the blog seeking advice about their business, recognizing Ben as a leader in his industry. He has also expanded into the Hip-Hop game and has garnered fans in that market as well. His acquisition of the company Rap Genius has earned him several photo opportunities with well-know hip-hop artists. His Rap escapades garner the most attention on social media and the news as of lately. Other Tweets are reposts of his article by his audience, recommending the blog or article to their followers. His posts are highly structured and present a great deal of factual information to the readers, with a humorous rap twist.

Kairos is defined as the opportune moment for an action to be carried out. In rhetoric kairos refers to the time in your writing that is appropriate to address matters, seizing the moment to strengthen your writing.

The Internet has millions of users, all capable of accessing an individual’s blog at a moments notice. A post online is one of the most public forums in our modern society; a blog could potentially have millions of viewers a day with enough notoriety. In some cases, the personal information some choose to post on the Internet reaches an unintended audience, causing issues to arise in their personal lives. While blogs are a great way to share information, too much information or scandalous subject matter could be problematic for the blog and its users. The blog definitely causes the lines between public and private to become blurred, but this could be said about many forums on the Internet.

Voyeurism is important to our writing because watching the actions and thoughts of others fascinates humans. This captivation of human attention is demonstrated throughout popular culture via social media, blogs, and television. The writer is attempting to grab the attention of the reader and provide a form of entertainment. Being a voyeur allows us to live somewhat vicariously through text or media, letting the reader experience the emotions of the writer, even if it is on a smaller scale.

I am still confused as to what “Kairos” is, in rhetorical terms.

Does the writer take a stance on blogs? He seems to believe they distort our reality, but is against them?

How have blogs adapted today? It seems as though everyone has their own forum somewhere on the Internet

Previously posted under the username: g-money573

Every piece of writing has a purpose; we can examine this more closely by looking at the rhetorical situation. Recognizing your audience, medium, and purpose of your writing is very important when attempting to communicate an idea effectively. All of these factors are included in your rhetorical situation. Rhetorical analysis requires you to analyze the writer’s knowledge and use of their rhetorical situation and whether or not he did an effective job of writing given the situation. Rhetorical situations form the basis of our writings and must be acknowledged before you are able to address an audience effectively. Rhetorical analysis is a judgment or analysis of the writers effectiveness when assessing their rhetorical situation and how the writer responded to it in his writings.

Writer’s online mostly appeal to their readers using pathos or ethos, and depending on their objectives, may also appeal to logos. The Internet generally cannot be trusted, so a writer online may wish to appeal to ethos to gain their readers trust. I have also observed many Internet writing appealing to pathos, sparking our emotions and thoughts. There are many heart-wrenching stories on the Internet that are designed to delve deep into our emotions, these writings entertain us but may lack hard facts or information. Logos is mostly used in journalistic articles on the Internet; these are for the purpose of information rather than entertainment.

Gee defines literacy as “control of language in secondary discourses.” Secondary discourse is the attempt to communicate effectively with an audience outside of your primary discourse. It is more of an informal level of persuasion, one that could be applicable across many demographics, not just our family and friends. He argues that knowledge of secondary discourse is learned through institutions such as school, work, and church, where we may interact with individuals we do not share the same interest and posses a different level of knowledge. The secondary discourse seems to be more ubiquitous, communicating effectively with a much wider audience.
This changes my understanding of literacy because I had never thought of my audience in categories that could be approached in many different ways. I will try to focus on communicating my thoughts effectively to a wider audience. I will attempt to construct a paper that could be understood well by many instead of a few.

The author is trying to argue that literacy is not essential for communication but allows our thoughts to stand the tests of time. "The oldest script,Mesopotamian cuneiform, is less than 6,000 years old (the alphabet less than 4,000)". Humans have been communicating orally since the beginning of our existence, but the written form of communication allows us to pass knowledge more easily. Oral transmission is fleeting and must be remembered, caught in a moment of time. "Of the over 4,000 languages spoken today, 78 have literature." Literature is not essential for cultures to thrive but does allow writers to spread their thoughts and knowledge in an effective way, that can be revisited at any time.

"Then what will we do afterwards?"
"We will be fine afterwards. Just like we were before."
"What makes you think so?"
"That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy."

Hemmingway begins his story with an introduction, providing the reader with the story's setting. Most of the story is told through dialogue with small descriptions so readers have more of an understanding. While the issue being discussed by the man and woman is never explicitly mentioned, readers are provided with enough information to infer. The tone of the dialogue changes as the conversation moves from banter to the discussion of a much more serious issue. Hemmingway uses the mysteriousness of their conversation to entertain readers, they are drawn in to find out more. While the dialogue seems to be repetitious, it shows the true emotions of the woman, counter to the emotions she claims to be feeling.

Prewriting For Lit Story
(brought to class on the day of assignment)
The first four objectives had been armed and destroyed by the opposing team, which meant there were only two left. They sat inside a large, oriental style building with four floors, one on the bottom floor and the other on the top. I had established myself as the team’s top player and this was not any average game. I had an audience; Tanner had come home from work a few minutes earlier and settled into the couch seat next to me. The attackers began to appear three to four hundred yards out of a building adjacent to our defensive positions. I began to take shots at selective targets with my weapon of choice, a designated marksmen rifle with an angled grip and a 3.4x M146 sight. The opposing team was beginning their advance but not without a cost.
Already at over thirty kills, I began to increase my score, dropping four to five attackers as they made their advance to the objective. The objective on the bottom floor is always the one to go first, as it is the easiest to access. I continued to defend from my vantage point, earning the attention of several snipers as Objective A was armed. Sirens blaring, I took off down the stairs to attempt to disarm. The bottom floor was heated; the enemy had penetrated our building and had begun to win the upper hand. Moving into room containing the objective, I spotted two enemies approaching from the opposite end of the hallway. I took cover behind a doorway and opened up, they reacted immediately, attempting to run rather than returning fire. The double kill popped up on my screen with a fitting amount of points as a reward. I threw out a health pack and crouched, waiting silently for an enemy to walk by.
The first objective had gone but the enemy’s tickets had been reduced to slightly less than thirty and were steadily decreasing. We still had a chance to win. I rushed back up to the fourth floor to defend objective B, only to find the top floors overrun by enemy personnel. I fought rigorously through the thick resistance that seemed to have overwhelmed my entire team. It seemed as if I was the only person still alive to defend the objective. I entered the room with the objective and immediately noticed two men to my right, one arming the objective. I turned my ridicule towards them, still unnoticed but time was running short. The alarm began to go off, I had to act now. With some distance between the two intruders, and myself I began to open up, letting off shot after shot, trying to keep my virtual rifle steady as they returned fire. But they were too slow, I had the upper hand, with both known enemy contacts neutralized, I cleared the room and immediately disarmed the objective. I had saved the team once, but could I do it twice? They had set up several spawn beacons on the roof, and were beginning to overwhelm our final defenses. However their tickets were running low, a little over ten left and falling.
I moved back into the room containing the final objective. The opposing team had taken the roof and would no doubt arm the objective one last time before the game was over. With that in mind, I jumped behind a wood bar and laid down prone, with the objective on the other side. Enemies poured in past me, as I went unnoticed, not moving an inch. Then, just as expected, the objective was armed. Almost simultaneously, their tickets fell to zero, which meant defusing Objective B would win us the game. I waited a few seconds before I made my move; it had to be absolutely perfect if we were going to win the game. I stood up facing to the right. Immediately gunning down three completely unaware attackers in a hail of gunfire. I jumped over the bar back in front of the objective and went back into the prone position. A blue bar began to move across my screen as I disarmed the final objective under the cover of virtual dead corpses, the enemies I had slain moments before. Then those wonderful words came up on my screen, “YOUR TEAM WON”. I was overcome by a sense of accomplishment, feeling as though I was solely responsible for our teams win, and in a way I was. I had earned the MVP metal and decisively disarmed the final objective to win the game. Tanner was not even able to contain his excitement throughout the game. The ending was the cherry on top, to an almost perfect Battlefield game. I am accustomed to seeing my gamer tag, “Deathrow573” at the top of the leaderboards, but this time it was different. It was as if I had won the entire game single handily, and all of my fellow players recognized me as the best, a force to be reckoned with.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/12/babbage_hits_slopes
This article compares the major differences between skiing and snowboarding, explaining how these key dissimilarities affect the experience of the rider. The author claims that snowboarding presents many more difficulties than skiing at modern resorts. His claims are opinionated but are backed with some scientific evidence and facts; including a brief account of the rise in popularity of skiing, their respective top speeds, and the difficulties of maintaining balance on either riding device. He does acknowledge the snowboard has certain advantages in categories such as injury prevention and mobility while off of the board (molded ski boots suck).
The article uses descriptive language effectively and describes key differences between snowboarding and skiing that I failed to address in my paper. It also points out that the acquisition of snowboarding is much more difficult than learning to ski because of biomechanical differences inherent in either riding device. He was able to explain some of the difficulties I was having while snowboarding with factual information. The author displays his literacy in the topic by using terms I had not yet heard, while still leaving obvious clues as to their meaning in his writing. The way the author described trudging around in molded ski boots compared to snowboarding shoes brought back more memories of the faithful day I am attempting to describe in my story.

(Brought to class today)
1. Glendening, P. N. (2002). Governing after september 11th: A new normalcy. Public Administration Review, 62, 21-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197168875?accountid=14576

2. Gould, J. B. (2002). Playing with fire: The civil liberties implications of september 11th. Public Administration Review, 62, 74-79. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197172278?accountid=14576

3. "Ten Years Later." World Affairs 174.3 (2011): 6-34. Academic Search Elite. Web. 14 Nov. 2014. http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Ten+years+later%3A+a+September+11th+Symposium&rft.jtitle=World+Affairs&rft.date=2011-09-01&rft.pub=World+Affairs+Institute&rft.issn=0043-8200&rft.eissn=1940-1582&rft.volume=174&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=4&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=266217427&paramdict=en-US

4. U.S. District Court Decision-Making in USA PATRIOT Act Cases after September 11; Banks, Christopher P.; Tauber, Steven http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=U.S.+District+Court+Decision-Making+in+USA+PATRIOT+Act+Cases+after+September+11&rft.jtitle=Justice+System+Journal&rft.au=Banks%2C+Christopher+P&rft.au=Tauber%2C+Steven&rft.date=2014-04-03&rft.issn=0098-261X&rft.eissn=2327-7556&rft.volume=35&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=139&rft.epage=161&rft_id=info:doi/10.1080%2F0098261X.2013.868279&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1080_0098261X_2013_868279&paramdict=en-US


5. Other People's Patriot Acts: Europe's Response to September 11; Scheppele, Kim Lane
http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Other+people%27s+Patriot+Acts%3A+Europe%27s+response+to+September+11&rft.jtitle=Loyola+Law+Review&rft.au=Scheppele%2C+Kim+Lane&rft.date=2004&rft.pub=Loyola+University+New+Orleans%2C+School+of+Law&rft.issn=0192-9720&rft.volume=50&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=89&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=122680563&paramdict=en-US

6. Electronic Surveillance and Privacy in the United States after September 11, 2001: The USA Patriot Act; Wong, Mary W.S. http://heinonline.org.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/sjls2002&id=224&collection=journals&index=journals/sjls

7. Civil Liberties Post-September 11: A Time of Danger, a Time of Opportunity; Johnson, Kevin R.
http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=CIVIL+LIBERTIES+POST-SEPTEMBER+11%3A+Civil+Liberties+Post-September+11%3A+A+Time+of+Danger%2C+a+Time+of+Opportunity&rft.jtitle=Seattle+Journal+for+Social+Justice&rft.au=Kevin+R.+Johnson&rft.date=2004-10-01&rft.pub=Seattle+Journal+for+Social+Justice&rft.volume=2&rft.spage=3&rft.epage=609&rft.externalDocID=2_Seattle_J_Soc_Just_3_srctype_smi_srcid_3B15_key_cc32db983c771cfb8eb148e02a5cd383&paramdict=en-US

While this is not exactly an outline, I decided to approach my paper from a different angle in order to narrow my topic.

On September 11th, 2001, the world watched in horror as the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground, releasing tons of debris into lower Manhattan. Later that evening, the nation listened as President Bush promised to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. The USA PATRIOT act was signed into law by President Bush on October 26th, 2001 in an effort to give law enforcement the necessary tools required to combat the threat of terrorism. The act extended the powers of law enforcement and permitted the sharing of sensitive information between federal agencies. However opponents of the hastily enacted law argue that the USA PATRIOT act violates the civil liberties of American citizens and undermined the system of checks and balances.
The attacks on 9/11 shifted public sentiment as national security came to the forefront of political and legislative discussion. Congress and the Bush administration acted quickly to ensure the public’s security. “The complex and daring 342-page Act had been hastily passed by overwhelming majorities in the U.S. Senate (98-1) and House (357-66), without public hearings or debate.(2)” Some legislators claimed they did not have enough time to read the entire proposed law, much less effectively analyze it.
The Patriot act authorizes the FBI to submit National Security letters to Internet service providers without judicial reviews. These are administrative requests for information on a particular subscriber such as, previous Internet searches, email correspondence, and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. “In each year since the Act’s passage, the FBI has requested that telephone companies and electronic service providers (ESPs) proffer information concerning anywhere from 16,000 to 50,000 people.(1)”

The Sharing of intelligence and sensitive information across several government agencies.
Paragraph 4Lowers standards of probable cause. Diminished due process for immigrants.
The broad language used in the law, limits judicial review

Has the United States used the Patriot Act to investigate other crimes?

Proponents of the law have argued that federal agents, using tools provided by the
Patriot Act, have halted numerous terrorist plots.

Snowden exposed metadata collection enacted under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT act.

Civil liberties and National security seem to be a trade-off


-The Patriot Act. What is it?
NSL
Roving Wire taps
Aggregate data collectio
“Sneak and Peak” search warrents

-How has the act changed the way federal agents gather intelligence?

-How does it violate civil liberties?
-Court Cases involving the patriot act
-Criticism of the Act

“While combating terrorisn is a priority, much of this legislation ships away at the constitutionally protected rights of citizens and residents of the United States, including the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

(1)(http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Privacy%2C+free+speech%2C+and+the+Patriot+Act%3A+First+and+Fourth+Amendment+limits+on+national+security+letters&rft.jtitle=New+York+University+Law+Review&rft.au=Garlinger%2C+Patrick+P&rft.date=2009-10-01&rft.pub=New+York+University+Law+Review&rft.issn=0028-7881&rft.volume=84&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=1105&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=216310089&paramdict=en-US

(2) http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+USA+PATRIOT+Act%3A+civil+liberties%2C+the+media%2C+and+public+opinion&rft.jtitle=Fordham+Urban+Law+Journal&rft.au=Abdolian%2C+Lisa+Finnegan&rft.au=Takooshian%2C+Harold&rft.date=2003-05-01&rft.pub=Fordham+Urban+Law+Journal&rft.issn=0199-4646&rft.eissn=2163-5978&rft.volume=30&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=1429&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=104730603&paramdict=en-US

http://ew3dm6nd8c.search.serialssolutions.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=The+relevance+of+relevance%3A+Section+125+of+the+USA+PATRIOT+Act+and+the+NSA+metadata+collection+program&rft.jtitle=Fordham+Law+Review&rft.au=McGowan%2C+Casey+J&rft.date=2014-04-01&rft.pub=Fordham+University%2C+School+of+Law&rft.issn=0015-704X&rft.volume=82&rft.issue=5&rft.spage=2399&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=370246255&paramdict=en-US