Category Archives: rhetoric

Be the Change You Seek

Gibbs clashes with the “political left” over criticism of Obama (Yahoo! News) Robert Gibbs was perhaps the first harbringer of the realization so many on the left feel now.  With Barack Obama freshly installed as President, Gibbs delivered his first press conference from the White House Press, and after all the rhetoric of change in Washington, of hope that things would get better, Gibbs deflected question after question, giving half-answers if he bothered to answer at all.  It was the exact same behaviour we had…

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Equality Will Not Be Denied

Judge overturns Calif. gay marriage ban (AP via Yahoo! News) It is one of the most (in)famous videos of its era.  Freshly installed as the governor of Alabama, George Wallace stands before a cheering crowd during his inaugural address to the state and declares, in a booming voice, that in Alabama there will be “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”  It’s hard to call it the most galling video of the time, in the face of white police officers turning fire hoses on young African-Americans,…

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Context

I face something of a double bind in my teaching career, because generally English instructors at the college level are expected to focus on one particular area of English, such as composition, or business writing, or creative writing, or some field of literature.  There’s no question that I get the most enjoyment out of teaching creative writing, because it’s basically an excuse to hang out with all of the coolest students on campus in an atmosphere where we meet as fellow artists.  At the same…

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Provocation

Palin sparks Twitter fight on mosque (Politico via Yahoo! News) Astute readers will have noted that over the past couple of years I really haven’t had much to say about Sarah Palin.  Sure, I make references to her now and then as various subjects she’s connected to are brought up, but I haven’t gone out of my way to skewer her in particular.  In part this is because she’s such an easy target, and there are already enough people out there doing such a good…

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Vuvuzelas Everywhere

By this point most Americans have once again stopped pretending to be interested in soccer, and those who are still pretending will likely stop doing so in the next couple of weeks when the World Cup is over once and for all.  For those who think that this, this could be the time that America finally embraces soccer, I have one word for you: Curling.  Most of you forgot about that a couple of weeks after the Winter Olympics, didn’t you?  There are certain things…

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