Reezistinss n Duhmahkruhsee

Of all the pieces of this country that keep the federal government in check, the resistance of the people is the most important, because without the resistance of individuals and groups against the government, then the government has no limits to what it can do. The main part of resistance in democracy is the voting process itself. Every citizen over 18 can resist a tyrannical maniacal leader by voting them out of office in an election and their is nothing said leader can do about this. This forces the congressmen and individuals with executive power to "act appropriately" and conduct themselves in a manner representative of the people, or at least most of the time. Without this voting privilege, the only other form of resistance is protest, and this is something the government could control with violent repression if there is no chance to vote out anyone. That is obviously an extreme case, but my point is that without the vote, America would be a dictatorial monarchy whose well-being totally depends on the competency of one permanent ruler.

Mohr Jenndurr

I don't know how incredibly recent this is, but one issue regarding sexuality this topic reminded me of was the American Idol season in which Adam Lambert was defeated by Kris Allen in the season finale. I am in no way shape or form a dedicated "Idol" fan, but I do remember there being a particular uproar over the fact that Lambert was supposedly not chosen as American Idol because he was gay. I know very little beyond this about the situation, but I think it can be taken two ways. The first would be that it's pretty sad how our society has sunk quite low in judging a person not by the quality of their singing and performing abilities, but by their sexuality. The second would be that it's pretty sad how our society has sunk quite low in creating the "sexuality card" to go along with the race card. The boy who cried racism can now also be the boy who cried sexualityism (help on that word anybody?) and this becomes incredibly problematic, as it becomes harder and harder to fire certain segments of the population because of accusations of bigotry. Do I have any idea which is true? Absolutely not. I'm no judge of singing ability, so whether or not Lambert was more talented than Allen is a question I can't answer. But the real question coming out of this is what direction has our society gone from this and what can we do about it.

Mehrridge #5

Wolfson uses the Turner v. Safley case to tie to the idea that banning same sex marriage is ridiculous because they cannot get married while the hardest of murderers in our federal justice system are allowed to be married. This is a great strategy because it calls out the same sex marriage proponents as demonizing homosexuals as a lower class of citizen than mass murderers. With homosexuals being the last segment of the population to be denied the right to marry, Wolfson's point makes perfect sense in the context with the rest of his piece. Without Wolfson's connections being made in this piece, there would be no crystal clear connection from Turner v. Safley, but after reading the piece the connection is very clear.

Iht taykz Uh Phammlee

In his piece entitled "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good", Rick Santorum references an analogy made by a Dr. Horn to explain his views on single-parent families. Dr. Horn compares child-raising to two planes. The first plane (family with a mother and father) almost always gets you where you need to go successfully. The second plane (single-parent family) gets you where you need to go, but less often than the first plane. When reading the passage, I did not find this metaphor to be incredibly earth-shattering. Dr. Horn is only stating what Santorum already had through his use of the results of studies in a much less effective manner. In fact, I found it to be a very silly example to put in the middle of a piece so heavily relying on concrete facts and human reasoning. However, in a very shallow and useless way, I guess the point is still made that mothers and fathers as a parenting team are more effective than single parents.

Jenndurr

My grandpa makes brownies. Absolutely fantastic brownies. I would vouch for the fact that these brownies are the best brownies in all of Delaware County (I don't know how much that means). However, much of society would find it quite odd that a man would be a brownie maker, let alone a good one. However, my grandpa is very proud of his brownies and would gladly share them with anyone. What I find interesting about gender stereotypes is that in this particular case, my grandpa is totally unashamed of his actions. But I could never imagine my grandpa wearing a dress, and I am sure he would never wear one in public. I think it's funny not only to picture my grandpa in a dress, but to also view the differences between the subcategories of gender stereotypes.

Vasskezz

The purpose of Vasquez's style of writing in this piece is to enlighten the reader on the stereotypes they are making. Brian and Mickey's stories were both told in the style they were to try to lead the reader into believing that they were gay in both situations. Vasquez then told you their actual sexual orientation, creating a sense of guilt in the reader for the judgement they have just made. This then also magnifies to the readers the injustices done against the two men, which were done because of false assumptions made about the two. And finally, the most important purpose behind Vasquez's writing was showing how both homosexuals AND heterosexuals are negatively affected by the stereotypes, making a connection to ALL of the possible readers.