“Why ‘Florida Man’ is a thing” Article 3 Assignment 7

Article

Title: “Why ‘Florida Man’ is a thing: Weirdness in other states goes unnoticed”

Gil Smart, author of a news article on the reason ‘Florida man’ is a thing, wrote with USA Today on the topic of the ‘Florida man.’ His argument? The ‘Florida man’ is a thing because of Florida’s hardcore public records laws. He argues that ‘Florida man’ has become a thing because everything in Florida is released to the press much faster and much less stingily than any other state, which is why we hear so much more about crazy Floridians than we do about crazy Montanans. His evidence simply supports the claim that people in Florida aren’t more crazy, they are simply more publicized than the crimesmen in any other state.

The author, Gil Smart, uses rhetorical questions to accomplish his goal. He asks “So why is “Florida Man” a thing, but “Pennsylvania Man” isn’t?” to get the reader thinking about the reason we hear about so many people from Florida doing insane things, but not from any old ‘regular’ state like Pennsylvania. This is a rhetorical question because obviously Smart doesn’t want a million comments containing people’s opinions, and also because he answers it right away with “Three words: public records laws.”

Gil Smart’s argument surely makes the most sense, I mean, if I were to argue that people in Florida were more crazy than the average Texan because I’ve seen more news articles about crazy Floridians than crazy Texans, the natural response would be that this is simply because police reports about crazy Texans are simply not as publicized as police reports about crazy Floridians. Another point I could make is that I know more crazy Californians than crazy Floridians, however, that is also because I have not been exposed as much to one as I have been to the other. So, in conclusion, I must agree with Smart’s statement that Floridians are not actually any more crazy than the rest of us because I have no evidence against it.

“Fleeing threats to her children, a Honduran woman now faces a tough fight for asylum” Article #2 Assignment 6

Link: Article

In a recent article with LA Times, “Fleeing threats to her children, a Honduran woman now faces a tough fight for asylum,” Martin Garbus argues for the side of the defendant, a 25 year-old Honduran mother of four children, who applied for asylum in America. He appeals to his audience using her struggles back home in Honduras and her fear for her two daughters’ well being. Describing her past, Garbus reaches out to the audience tenderly to show the reader how little of a chance she has at obtaining asylum, how desperately she needs it and to prove, overall, that his client deserves asylum.

Arguing his point, Garbus uses sorrowful diction to convey just how against his client the odds are. He describes her situation with words like “dangerous” and “abandon” to show just how perilous her position is. Using these words, Garbus places the thought into the mind of his audience that, if they were in that situation, they would feel “terrified” and “helpless” to help themselves if forced to seek asylum through such a “grueling” and arduous process. The ultimate purpose Garbus has in using this rhetorical strategy is to help the reader relate to “G,” as he calls his client, so that they, too, understand how terrible and long such a process is in America.

I agree with the author’s argument, that “G” deserves asylum. This is because he has recorded her history and the ultimate reason she has fled Honduras: a group of men were threatening to rape her daughters. I believe that no one should have to go through that and I, for one, feel honored that “G” would flee to our great country to seek protection from her persecutors. I know a few people who have been sexually abused and also people who have siblings or friends who were sexually abused. I know  that is not something anyone wants to have done to them. I know that this is not how God made women, as little toys for men to play with whenever they want, and I believe that if women are being treated that way or if they are being threatened with such a degrading act, we, as Americans who believe in “liberty and justice for ALL,” should be more than willing to protect someone in such a circumstance.

“Marine Veteran: There is no military need to draft women” Article #1 Assignment 5

Female Draft Opinion Article

Author Jude Eden in her news article, “Marine veteran: there is no military need to draft women,” with USA Today,  argues against the view that women should be drafted into the military as well as men. She uses specific evidence concerning women’s injury rates. Published on March 18, 2019, Eden’s article provides her take on the issue with drafting women into the army, one that doesn’t take equality into account, but instead evaluates the efficiency.

To convey her point that it would be useless to draft women, Eden uses logos, a powerful rhetorical appeal. Her appeal to logos first comes into play when she states, “having equal rights doesn’t mean we are required to do the same things in the nation’s defense. If it did, only those who could fight would have rights.” Of course this logic doesn’t necessarily argue against the female draft, but it makes a point about the necessity of said draft: it has none. Her logical argument also comes into play a tad later when she begins to include the facts to supplement the reasoning. “Women have far higher injury rates and risks than men,” she cites, “In warfare it means higher turnover, more casualties and lost battles.” She then goes on to connect this evidence to how many more losses there would be for the United States military if around half of the drafted military were female.

I do not agree with Jude Eden’s point in the least. While I have tried to give it much thought, I don’t believe that women’s injury rates would affect the mortality rates as much as she argues they will. The data that Eden made her conjectures from seems to be skewed. All of the scientific data from experiments concerning injury rates include a much higher number of men than women. While this may be accurate to the numbers of people who were injured, two injured out of five women is going to yield a much higher percentage than two injured out of fifty men, yet the amount of people injured in each group was the same. In addition to this point of faulty results comes a small technicality. There are many single dads in America now that feminism is taking its hold, so if a single dad were drafted to go to war in the next world war, so to speak, who would take care of his child(ren)? My suggestion is to completely reconsider the entire draft. If there is only one adult in a household with one or more children, registration should be optional and if there are more adults than one in a household with one or more children, registration is optional for one of the adults. Obviously the injury rate, however skewed, is still present (but probably not as great as Eden makes it out to be) so men and women might be put into two separate hats and, depending on the lethality of the enemy, different amounts of men and women may be drawn. Of course my suggestion may also have some flaws, but the land of the free is only free if there are many diversities of people in it who are free. In conclusion, I strongly oppose Jude Eden’s assertion, but respect her opinion nonetheless.

Our Wall- Essay Analysis (Assignment 4)

Bowden’s purpose in the essay is to inform people that the solution of the border wall in regards to the issue of illegal immigration is not going to work forever, if at all.

To accomplish this purpose, Bowden uses a rhetorical strategy called logos. He uses examples of how other walls have had short-lived purposes in the past and uses language which requires the reader to deduce logically that this wall will also eventually fail. One of the examples he uses is an instance with a wall called “Hadrian’s wall” which “kept the crazed tribes of what is now Scotland from running amok in Roman Britain,” (page 1014). This wall eventually failed the Roman British within 245 years, this was, of course, a long time, but it happened; that is why Bowden used this example to argue for his point, plus, (with the way he tells the story) it seems that from his point of view, the wall is already failing. He uses this example and his observations to encourage the reader to logically deduce that this wall won’t help for long, even if it is helping now.

I do agree with the point Bowden is trying to make in his essay, that the wall will not help for long, if at all. However, as of right now, the wall does seem to be the only way of keeping illegal immigrants out of our country, like many politicians want. On the other hand, I don’t really believe that illegal immigrants have a choice in coming to America in the first place (which is another point Bowden makes in his essay to argue his point that the wall is not being very useful). Bowden states “He understands a reality forgotten by most U.S. lawmakers – That simply to go through the wire instantly raises a person’s income tenfold,” (page 1016). So, in conclusion, Bowden’s point that the wall will not help for long is something I agree with, and I also agree with the underlying conceit that illegal immigrants really don’t have a choice whether to come here or not.

Women’s Brains- Essay Analysis (Assignment 3)

Stephen Gould’s purpose in the essay, Women’s Brains is to refute the scientific findings of researcher Paul Broca and his colleagues and apprentices. His main idea is that, while Broca’s numbers are not faulty, the research is not complete and therefore the conclusions made on the foundation of this research are unsound. He then goes on to explain why and modify the statistics to fit best to the goal of the experiment.

As a rhetorical strategy, Gould uses pathos to argue against Broca’s conclusions. For example, after citing a quote written in a work by a colleague and co-leader in the experiment called LeBon, Stephen Gould sarcastically writes, “Sound familiar?” this implies perhaps a copying of someone else’s work most likely written by some other prejudiced male of the Caucasian color. This is meant to degrade the reader’s view of Broca, as well as the group he worked with, to someone who makes assumptions, copies other’s work, and takes credit when it is not due to him, or anyone.

I agree with Gould’s point in the essay. While this may be impartial of me, I do lean toward his point of view myself being a woman and all, and therefore an advocate for equal rights for both sexes. I know I am smart and intellectually equal to both the boys and girls in my grade and I know that both groups would equal the other in the same area.

About Men- Essay Analysis (Assignment 2)

Ehrlich’s purpose in the essay, About Men, is to reveal a different side of cowboys from the one we as a society are used to. She wishes to show a soft side of the hardened nomad portrayed by the movies. Her main goal is for the reader to pocket a different perspective from the one that is spoon fed to anyone who watched those Wild West movies.

A strategy that Ehrlich uses to develop this new view on the pioneers of the western United States is ethos. She shows the reader her experience when she mentions “feeling lonely for Wyoming,” suggesting knowledge in that area. Ehrlich also suggest that she hung out with the men herself when she says “(t)he cowboys I was sitting with laughed in agreement.” She uses her credit as a native Wyomingite and former cowgirl to provide a stable ground for the reader to build on as they glean her evidence from the essay.

I agree with Ehrlich’s point in the essay because I know that stereotypes are never applicable to everyone in a specific group anyway. I know plenty of people who have defied stereotypes. I’m a smart blonde, I have a black friend who can’t dance, and I have an Asian friend who doesn’t get A’s in every class. I know so many people who defy stereotypes so this cowboy thing is quite believable.

Vacation Cruises (Assignment 1)

The luxuriousness of ocean cruises draws in practically all vacationers. The all-you-can-eat buffets, the ocean breeze in your hair, and losing weight from how seasick you get, are all components in what makes the cruise experience what it is. But is the bang really worth your buck? Cruises are pretty expensive, about the price of a used car (about 5.5 thousand dollars per person, round trip), so are they really worth it? According to Irene S. Levine, author of “Luxury Cruise Line Announces New Immersive Voyage to Cuba” for Forbes, it is.

Especially with a new improvement to the schedule by Seven Seas Mariner, which modifies the trip so that, rather than simply visiting the area for a day and leaving that afternoon, visitors can stay the night in the area to really get a feel for the culture and climate. While many might say that this modification would decrease the amount of places visited, this opposing argument is invalid, the cruise simply lasts longer than a cruise that comes and goes all in one day. This provides both more opportunity and more vacation time away from the house, providing more time to unwind and relax. In this way, vacation cruises are an amazing way to spend the holiday.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenelevine/2018/10/03/luxury-cruise-line-announces-new-immersive-voyage-to-cuba/