Malachai

“TOKYO—Television watching became even more convenient this week with Sony’s introduction of a new remote-controlled remote control.” - The Onion.

This article is amazing. This is poking fun of electronics. It seems that every so often, electronics companies such as sony, comes out with a hot new product that everyone must have. Recently, MP3 players have kicked off and every few months there is a new kind. There are already 6 or 7 different kinds of ipods that are out and other companies redo products just the same. This article pretends that sony created a new remote that would control another remote. This would make it that people would not have to spend so much time handling the real remote which can be “too much of a hassle.” This whole article is targeting people who spend too much time watching television. This qoute shows how the article pokes fun at people who spend too much time watching tv.

“These things are fantastic,” said Seated Viewing Magazine editor Ted Kohrs at a recent Las Vegas trade show demonstrating the new product. “I’ve been here all morning and my heart’s only beaten six times!”

This article shows how our country is unconstructinve in that they watch way too much tv. This is a piece of satire because it identifies the problem just as it hopes to alert people to it. The average american spend an incredible amount of time watching tv and this should be changed. I find this article extremely funny and I believe that it is an excellent piece of satire. The best bit is about the fact that the service offers to implant a 4th remote in people in order to ensure that it will never get lost. There is also a remote that a person can stick to their foreheads. This article is entirely worth reading and is hilarious. If anyone is interested visit it at the Onion.

In the past months there has been a lawsuit filed by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for suspected racial profiling. Before the lawsuit however, the Anti-Discrimination committee simply suspected that there had been a racist policy concerning the admittatnce of Middle Eastern peoples to the united states. As a result,

>>”The Anti-Discrimination Committee first requested records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in December 2004; DHS denied the filing, both initially and on appeal. The DHS said the release of the detainees’ nationalities “could harm” law enforcement activities by “revealing where the US Immigration and Customs Enforcment (ICE) focuses its resources.”    - Catherine Komp

The article went on to explain that the entire ordeal with the DHS was not because of the fear of revealing the focus of our government but instead because of a reluctancy to admit to the truth. Racism it seems is ever-present in many aspects of American life, and it would seem that our own government is not above this mentality. Racism is present in the government as well as in the lives of the people, and for it many people are unjustly treated. In the past years during the war on terror, our government has allowed and even endorsed the requirement that “…men from predominantly Muslim countries (are) to submit to fingerprinting, photographing and questioning when entering the
United States.” (Catherine Komp) As for Huck Finn, this article is extremely relevant because the book is set at a time where there is much strife concerning slavery in the government. The government at the time of the book is eventually forced to come to grips with the fact that slavery is truly a horrific act and as a result the government was forced to do away with it. In today’s society, the government has yet again come across such a case, although smaller. It took time for the government to do away with slavery just as it will take time for the government to stop racial profiling. I believe that this article has an interesting relation to the book simply in that it identifies the present problems in the government and they can be compared with the past problems that are presented in Huck Finn. 

 (For more articles concerning racism visit The New Standard)

I felt that the life of Isaac Mason as a slave was an extremely interesting piece on slavery. The early days of this man were not horrible as were some slaves. Will, alias Isaac, was lucky enough to have been born of a fair owner. Fortunately for him, Isaac had not been born to his an owner like his mistress’ son who was tyrannical to his servants.

“His tyranical passion was so great that on the day of his death he called in the men from their work and with a stick in his dying hand struck each one across their hands. As each one received the parting gift he had to file out and another take his place. This ceremony continued to within two hours of his death, when from exhaustion he had to cease.

It is acts like this throughout the narrative that really helped to truly convey the unfairness of slavery. Unfortunately, Isaac Mason’s mistress was old and with her death came new owners. At his new master, the wife began to whip him for having putting off his chores. Isaac knocked her over and jumped out the window. After that day, he was supposed to return to other owners who had used him to pay off debt. In spite, the man he had left, (READ FROM PAGE 13 IN ARTICLE)-Dr. Hyde, demanded payment from Isaac’s father. His father had been saving up to buy his wife and daughter out of slavery and had been doing the transactions throught this doctor. Simply because he was mad, the Doctor decided to demand payment and efectively kept the daughtor in slavery for years after. A simple tantrum in this case was the cause for years of penance for Isaac’s family. These examples just go do show how there has been hatred aplenty in slavery.

Isaac Mason in this narrative reminded me of Jim from Huck Finn. When Isaac had his quarrle with Dr. Hyde (quite an appropriate name I might add) it showed how Isaac, much like Jim simply wanted to go rabbit hunting. Jim had also shirked his duties and for it, the Widow planned to sell him to New Orleans. In both cases, the men had simply wanted a break, and each time they had been repaid with an extreme amount of grief.

In this narrative, I expect to more about of the horrors of slavery. Most pieces concerning slavery that I have read have been viciously against the practice. I believe that this narrative will be no different. I have chosen the narative of Isaac Mason, and while I do not yet know his story, I do not think that it will in any way support slavery. Based on previous knowledge of slavery, I am almost certain that this narrative will concern some sort of personal dealings with slavery. Past examples have shown that slaves were beaten and tortured if they tried to run away, and sometimes simply because their masters felt like it. During the time that we have been reading Huckleberry Finn, we have dicussed some of the attrocities commited against slaves. I expect that this narrative will only help to more accurately portray slavery. I believe that in addition to telling of some of these atrocities, this narrative may help to show how just how it feels to be owned by someone else. In Huck Finn, Jim does not run away because he is phisically abused but instead because he wants to live his own life. His goal is to reunite his family and live as a free man. I believe that much like these past examples, this slave narrative will help introduce just what it would feel like to be owned.

I am not sure whether or not I watched the correct Colbert Report, because I did not get linked strait to it, but the one I watched was called Guitarmagideon. I thought it was hilarious, although I am not too sure as to why it was satiralcle. I think for the most part that the entire show was concentrated on exposing just what present day music consists of. By this I mean that it was showing that present day music has become rather wild. Despite, the true satire of the show was mainly in the judges. It poked fun at the government as well as music journalists. The music journalists pretended to favor only one type of music. One only chose bands with a certain guy in it and the other simply chose any type of music that teens listen to in order to help his own approval ratings. The governor  meanwhile, decided to take himself out of the preceedings ant the end in order to avoid being linked with possible corruption at the very end of the show, and I believe that this makes fun of the government by trying to show that the government will stay involved as long as it is not questioned. I thought Colbert was hilarious in this show and I especially appriciated the guitar solos in it. This was one of the best shows I have seen him do if simply because he ripped off his sleeves and pretended to play a 5 neck guitar. I thought the piece was simply great and an excellent though unclear piece of satire.

Also. The fact that they added Henry Kissinger was just brilliant.

Despite the argument that racial issues in today’s society have been effectively removing themselves, there is still a strong undertone of racial importance in our nation. While it is true that present day clashes concerning race are less frequent, that has not effectively eliminated the problem. Even though many people keep their racial views quieted, there have still been events that have revealed a much more aggravated situation. For example, crises in our nation have unleashed strong displays of racism in many people. In the aftermath of the World Trade Center Bombing, there was a strong movement that categorized people from the
Middle East as terrorists. Our nation became prejudice and that air developed into racism. Our government has even embraced this mentality. Another example was Hurricane Katrina. 

“Some 71% of blacks say the disaster shows that racial inequality remains a major problem in
America, according to a survey by the

Pew
Research
Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 6-7 among 1,000 Americans; 56% of whites feel this was not a particularly important lesson.And while 66% of blacks think the government’s response would have been faster if most of the victims had been white, 77% of whites disagreed.”-USA Today, (tomorrow the world) 

This passage from usatoday.com just helps to show how many people lie in ignorance of racism. This survey helps to show how people of all ethnicities can find something to fault in another race, just as they can act out against a race all the while ignorant or in denial of these same actions. All of these things simply help to prove that despite the belief of some, racism remains a strong factor among today’s social problems. If we are to amend this rift caused by race, then we must first come to terms with the racism that exists in ourselves. Only then can this problem of race be mended. It is quite possible that this rift will never fully mend, but hopefully time will fix that which others have destroyed: racial unity.

This article actually did relate to Huck Finn. Racism was a strong theme in the book just as it is in this article. For example, almost everyone that Huck meets along the way believes themselves to be superior to a slave. At that time, blacks were accepted as an inferior race. Thus the people of that time were extremely racist. Even Mark Twain himself while he did write of the liberty and integrity, he also factored in the superiority of the white man in his books. All blacks were considered inferior in some way. There is even a section where Jim discusses how he is going to get an abolitionist to steal his children for him. This article fits in with this because it is discussing how the social rift created by the slave system is still with us today- in the form of racism.  

There are many people that believe that Racism has been extremely diminished and is almost nonexistant in todays society. However there seem to be cases concerning racism that have been frequently coming up in the news as well as in pop culture. The movie Crash, which came out last year brought many racial issues to the surface. Another movie would be Borat, which showed white Americans doing racist acts under the premise that the movie would only be shown in the far off nation of Khazakstan. In truth, racism seems to be an extremely important issue in today’s society and here is one recent instance:On November 24, a group of men leaving a club in
New York City was shot at 50 times by NYPD.

Interestingly enough, there is no mention of race in the article. It does not mention the race of anyone involved. I find this pointed avoidance just as interesting as the case itself. The writer of this article cleanly left out all race. Sean Bell is known to be black from his picture, but the police are not mentioned. One source says that there were both white and black police officers involved. This only makes the situation more interesting. These two quotes from the New York times help to show how there was no good explanation for the act:

“But one after another, in conversations with Sergeant Kipp or Sergeant Wheeler, the men said they could not say how many shots they had fired. Two said they were unsure whether they had even fired at all, including a detective who investigators later learned had fired 31 shots, emptying his 9-millimeter Sig Sauer pistol, reloading and emptying it again during the frenzied barrage.”- The New York Times 

“Mr. Bell, mortally wounded and not speaking, and Joseph Guzman, despite wounds from his head to his feet, were put in handcuffs after the gunfire ceased.”- The New York Times

These acts show how horrible things can happen to innocent people when race gets in the way. Witnesses say that Sean Bell had crashed and upon doing so, the driver of the Minivan got out of the car and started firing without even approaching the car. There is no accident when 50 bullets are fired.

This just goes to show that hundreds of years after the abolition of slavery, there is still lingering conflict over the matter. I do not think that this instance has a strong relation to Huck Finn because the book does not deal with the lingering effects of slavery but rather the conditions of it. And I found the entire ordeal of this case to be rather sick.

I believe that the wild success of satire is a result of its manner concerning problems.  Satire makes fun of serious issues in a constructive manner so that it will help to make people aware of the seriousness of situations. For example, when one of the most prestigious philosophers in
Ireland suggests that eating babies will help to solve a hunger problem, people are shocked. Satire can often utilize a sickening sense of humor, but it still draws attention to major problems. A movie like Borat or the essay “A modest proposal” are satire because they poke fun at serious world problems. In Borat, it is racism that is confronted and in “A modest proposal” it is the living conditions of the Irish nation. These examples look to change society and they aim to better it as well. A movie such as Scary Movie however is not one that does this. While it does make fun of some larger problems, it does not take a stand on them and the purpose is humor rather than change. To me, satire is something I enjoy because it brings out the darker look on many problems and helps to reveal many things. Thus satire is amusing as well as constructive. Some of my favorite examples include Farside comics and Saturday Night Live.

“There always was a need for a boy to be with a girl. You knew that, as soon as a white man who might have his eyes on a young black girl came along in an automobile, you were to detain him in some kind of questioning way, while the girls hurried along.”- Clifford Boxley

Such living conditions sound absolutely horrible. These are children walking home from school. It is not right that they should need to fear being alone. This is just not right that girls should have to fear such a thing. Also the other conditions under Jim Crowe were equally daunting. For example, the most fearful people around were the police. If they were not shown courtesy from the Jim Crowe guidelines, then blacks would be subject to beatings, time in jail, or even killed for their “outburst”. I find that such things are atrocious and shameful, that people would actually put themselves over another people as superiors. What makes one type of human any better than another? The truth of the matter is that the Jim Crowe laws were a horrible establishment and the things done in that time can sadly never be taken back.

I watched the Shakespeare production of the Merchant of Venice.

Summary:

 In this story, a man named Antonio seeks financial aid from a Jewish moneylender. He needs the money for a friend named Bassanio, who wishes to woo a beautiful and rich woman named Portia. However, Antonio has previously been hostile to this same moneylender. In anger, the moneylender, Shylock, strikes a bargain that allows Antonio the money, but if Antonio does not pay the debt on time, then Shylock is to be payed one pound of flesh from Antonio. Antonio didn’t pay on time. What an idiot.

This plot drew in all of the characters into a single courtroom in the climax act of the play. Antonio ends up not paying the debt on time, and in hope of recompence, his young friend Bassanio and his new wife offer Shylock twice what had been owed. Shylock refused. This movie was incredibly interesting in that it showed much of the hostilities between Christians and Jews. In fact, during Antonio’s trial, Shylock, rather than being refered to by his name is simply called Jew. Additionally, it shows how uneaqual things really were in Venice. Shylock, although having been made out to be the bad guy was simply trying to treat Christians the same way he had been treated as a Jew. There is an excellent scene in this play where Shylock finds out that his daughter has run away with all of his gold, and that she was on the ship that Antonio had borrowed. Essentially, Shylock was stripped of everything. In that same scene he rants about how Jews breathe the same air as Christians just as they are nourished by the same food. They have the same wants, the same feelings. And according to Shylock, they are both wronged. The Christian way to cope with this is to seek revenge, but Jews are expected to let it go. But Shylock does not. Almost the entire story is taken from the point of veiw from Antonio and his friends, but when one puts themselves in Shylock’s shoes, it shows an entirely different perspective. The Jews get spit on, beaten and thrown off bridges. And then the people who do these things to them come and ask them to lend them money. Shylock tries to use the Cristians’ own laws against them and demands to be payed his due. Personally, I would have asked for two pounds of flesh. I won’t ruin the ending to this movie, but it has an extremely good twist. (And Shakespeare still manages to make his characters cross-dress. Nifty fellow…)