Category Archives: rhetoric

Married to Hatred

glbt, politics, rhetoric Leave a comment

Democrats look to back gay marriage at convention (Reuters) In the wake of the whole controversy over Chick-Fil-A President Dan Cathy coming out forcefully against same-sex marriage, I got treated to one of my Facebook friends trying to argue the issue with a Chick-Fil-A supporter who repeatedly asserted that homosexuality is morally equivalent to murder. It reminded me of my recent observations on the difficulties in trying to have real conversations with people on issues like reforming drug laws and legalizing prostitution, as did the…

Read More »

The Left Needs Better Stories

politics, rhetoric, writing Leave a comment

I write here a lot about rhetoric when it comes to politics, which partly stems from my training as a teacher of rhetoric and composition. As a fiction writer, though, I’m also intrigued by how the power of narrative plays a role in our politics. The ability of the human brain to communicate through story, both real and fictional, is one of the most marvellous abilities we possess. Particularly in an election year, we get inundated with stories from “average Americans” in campaign commercials and…

Read More »

The Lady Gaga Principle

glbt, music, politics, rhetoric 1 Comment

Traveling in the circles I do, I’ve certainly heard more than my fair share about Lady Gaga. From what little I’d heard of her first album I was sure that I wouldn’t care for her music much; that’s not to say I thought it was bad, just that it didn’t really sound like my sort of thing. Last year, when she released Born This Way and Amazon was selling the MP3 version for 99 cents, I decided to go ahead and buy it, if nothing else…

Read More »

Even Trolling Should Have Its Limits

books, cyberbullying, entertainment, internet, rhetoric Leave a comment

‘Twilight’ Stars Rally Around Fans After Death At Comic-Con (mtv.com) I haven’t read any of the Twilight books or seen any of the movies, and I don’t have any plans to. My tastes don’t tend to go towards young adult literature to start with — I only read Harry Potter this past spring — and I’ve never been much for vampire stories (except for Poppy Z. Brite’s early work). However, I’ve been directed to several entries on Reasoning With Vampires since its launch, and from the passages…

Read More »

The Republican War on Intelligence

politics, rhetoric, teaching Leave a comment

Romney Donor Says ‘Lower Income’ People ‘Don’t Understand What’s Going On‘ (thinkprogress.org) Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really. (Washington Post) Sometimes it feels like you could set your watch by the frequent “let them eat cake” moments of the Romney campaign and its supporters. Romney’s “I’m not concerned with the very poor” gaffe faded out of public discussion long before it ever should have, and this latest one isn’t getting nearly as much attention as it deserves either. Perhaps we can pin this on…

Read More »