The masks we wear.

“Silence has many advantages. When you do not speak, other people presume you to be deaf or feeble-minded and promptly make a show of their own limitations.”

        People are more at ease and loose of tongue when they believe that their secrets are safe from the people around them. Many will through their secrets around if they believe they will fall upon deaf ears or those of a trusted friend. Many times these people are in fact good friends or unable to transmit said secrets but some use humanities need to find someone to confide in to gain power over the other person.
        Humans have a conscious for a reason, it is what defines us and separates us from wild creatures. It is what tells us that one can't murder our neighbor and steal his house. But it can also be a weakness. If one does something that humanity believes is evil, his conscious will instill a feeling of guilt and pressure him to tell the truth to his fellow man so they know that he is a bad man. Though everyone has this instinct, most ignore it unless they know that they are safe from the repercussions of their individual crimes, "Give a man a mask, and he will tell the truth." That is why man confess to those who cannot betray them to those who could harm them, such as priests, or good friends, or even the mute or deaf. Each of these has its advantages, but they all have their risks. Not everything is as it seems, and as much as it is human nature to tell others of past crimes, it is human nature to use another past crimes to gain power over them. Any of these positions can be faked but none so easy as those who are mute or deaf because people assume that those who do no respond are either deaf or mute. Adah uses this veil of silence to convince those around her that she is the one to tell her secrets to. This gives her immense power over those around her that she can use when she needs and however she needs. Silence also gives the "mute" power over others because they do not know anything about that person that could be used against her.
        A man will never be as truthful as when he believes that he will not be judged for his past or his opinions by those around him. But not every mask is true and man uses others preconceptions to gain knowledge, and knowledge is the ultimate form of power.

Confusing Quote

"We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there-there you could look at a thing monstrous and free." Pg. 108
The rest of the paragraph also make references to a "monster," but what exactly is this monster? Is it human? or something darker? It is unearthly but does that necessarily mean its not of this earth?

Juicy Quote

"The fascination of the abomination you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate."
Very obviously juicy as it takes a deeper look at human emotions and the obsessiveness of a fascination.

In class question #1

Colonization and imperialism revolve around the currency of the realm, money. Both were results of a mercantile society that needs new sources of revenue so survive. The theory was that if you go out and conquer than colonize and area, the mother land, or country that invaded, could trade with that area directly and collect taxes of the new market. It was also driven by the need to make sure that other countries do not gain a new source of revenue. When a nation gets wealthy it usually looks for ways to get wealthier and gain more power over their neighbors. As transportation became easier and weapons more complex, it became easier and more cost affective to invade "uncivilized" territories and sap them of resources. As it became more and more cost affective, it became more and more appealing to the business men and wealth people who ran the imperialistic empire. As the coffers and resources of the motherland ran dry, and other places became easier and easier to conquer, these business men did what they had to do to remain rich, expand their territories and collect new taxes.

Taken from my AP World/US History text book

Senior Project

        Mostly things went well, but I messed up by adding an extra tab in my bibliography. Overall I think I argued my point well and generally did well staying with in the rules and following MLA format. I think I could have gotten more hard facts and worked them into my research paper but I believe that I got my point across regardless. I also think that I could have gotten into the persuasive arguments a little quicker but I decided to give a few hard examples of why fast food is unhealthy instead. I did not get my paper back because I had a friend read it and than catch the errors n my paper before I turned it in. Here is a link to a copy of my senior project I put on Google docs so my friend could read it, the spacing all got messed up on it though, just a warning.

Research thing

1. I am discussing the welfare state in general and proposing ideas as to where it should go.

2. The strait up statistics and history of welfare are my two most important sets of data because I can utilize both to support my ideas in the most effective ways.

3. Personally from what I have seen, although the welfare system has improved since the 60's it still has a long way to go if we as a people want to make it its most effective. In my mind money is being wasted when it does not need to be.

4. The TANF is the current system the government uses to give money to the states to support their individual welfare systems. The government does this through a series of block grants to give the states as much freedom with it as possible. The amount of money that the government grants is decided by the overall population and the amount of people on welfare (or the percent of the population on welfare).

5. One such wow! moment was when I learned that in Hawaii you can make up to $17.56 an hour solely from welfare. I think that it is kind of ridiculous that someone can make double minimum wage on nothing but welfare. Another such moment that surprised me was when I learned that 38% of welfare recipients are Caucasian. This surprised me because I live in an area where the majority of white people live above the poverty line so I kind of expected that this would apply to the general population. I was obviously wrong.

Response (Panic Button)

         I personally agree with this paragraph, tall fit men are much more likely to succeed than their shorter obese counterparts. Their height and general health helps to produce the confidence that is needed to succeed in this world. I also agree that men who are taller earlier develop this confidence when they are most open to its influence. Of all the people I know, the tall healthy ones are the ones who I believe are the most likely to succeed later on in life. This is not to say that there are not successful short people or unsuccessful tall people, just that it seems that being tall helps to contribute to a mans overall self esteem and confidence. Now I personally disagree with the "fact" that knowing your beautiful in high school leads to success. Many of the people who are popular/beautiful often become so full of themselves that they live in a state of denial, believing that their life can't possible go down from here because I'm the cool kid on the block. Also having people constantly fawn after you can be quite interesting and alluring and can detract from the point of high school, learning how to learn. Confidence is good but it can't make a high school graduate into a brain surgeon on its own.

Security vs. Liberty

        Personally, from everything I've learned/experienced, safety for the majority is better than liberty for the minority.One can live a peaceful life without liberty but without security many people would have to be paranoid just to survive. Living in a state of perpetual fear is and absolute living hell and I would gladly sacrifice some of my liberties to ensure that everyone if free of this curse. Everyone has experienced having their liberties limited for the sack of security and efficiency, everyone was once a child. Parental Tyranny rained over most citizens of the United States, is it really that different to have big brother watching? I think the average person could set aside a few minutes of their day to ensure that everyone else is safe in their own homes. In "The FBI is Reading Over My Shoulder" the author is complaining that the FBI investigates people who take an interest in bombs. Even if only .01% of people who check out those books ever attempts a terrorist bombing, these few people could kill hundreds of people. When Big Brother is watching this very rarely happens, and yes a few people may be falsely accused but they will be released after processing but that is worth saving the lives of hundreds of people. The well being of the majority is always greater than the comfort of the minority, no exceptions.