Big Yellow Taxi

During a trip to Hawaii, written by famous recording artist Joni Mitchell was inspired to write the song, Big Yellow Taxi. Her inspiration was derived from her view of the Pacific mountains. The mountains were marvelous and stretched beautifully across the land. She recalls looking out her hotel window only to see a parking lot. However, the scenery behind the parking lot was nothing she could describe, it was paradise, hence the lyrics to her song, "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot." The tone of the song is very sentimental and enjoyable to listen to. Although, many people have heard this song while listening to the radio, for the most part the meaning behind Joni Mitchell's lyrics is not understood. Having that said, some may still wonder, what does this song refer to? The song, Big Yellow Taxi reflects the artist's concern for our environment.

Throughout the entire song the artist is focused on mother nature. She is saddened that we are taking away from the land's natural beauty. In reality, the song Big Yellow Taxi provides us with an important life lesson of not to take things for granted. We all should be aware that construction sites and the pesticide DDT (also mentioned in her song) destroys our environment; "… you don't know what you've got until it's gone."
Video below is remade by Counting Crows.

End World Hunger: Eat Babies!

Jonathan Swift’s excerpt, A Modest Proposal is believed to be the most admirable selection of irony in the English language. Irony can defined as the opposition between the literal and intended meaning of a statement. In the passage, A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift writes: “As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs.” (A Modest Proposal 357)

The following statement is ironic because the author is comparing an infant to an animal that can be cooked for dinner. Many of those who are Irish in the “kingdom” slave like animals for meager pay in return. The author makes this connection in order to emphasize the poor conditions and poverty of the Irish who live under British rule.



Swift, Jonathan."A Modest Proposal." New York: Morrow, 1985. Rpt. in Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009. 354-361.

Blondes with brains!

Logical fallacies can be defined as a failure of a persons reasoning, that renders on an invalid argument. Pop culture uses many fallacies in entertainment, including but not limited to movies, television shows, advertisements and other commercials. These fallacies attract a persons attention to the subject matter. An example of a logical fallacy would be the portrayal of a blonde female. In the entertainment industry, women with blonde hair for the most part are portrayed as being unintelligent. This type of logical fallacy functions as a type of comic relief for its viewers. In many movies such as House Bunny, the blonde character is known for taking the role of an airhead. The “dumb blonde” stereotype is a result of pop culture, and is a form of hasty generalizations. Stereotypes are a widely held image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Characterizing all blondes as being dumb is an invalid argument in pop culture because it is based upon person who shares the same attributes but not characteristics.

The Flynn Effect and the Sleeper Curve

In Johnson’s book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, an American Philosopher named, James Flynn discovered that a persons IQ test results are culturally biased, causing a racial gap between generations of Caucasian and African American test scores. The Flynn Effect is profoundly shaped by the sleeper curve and a persons environment. I strongly agree that, “The Sleeper Curve shows that popular culture is growing more complex, yet it is not sufficiently complex to challenge the most gifted minds, which is why the geniuses aren’t getting any smarter.” (Johnson 152) Today, many Americans enjoy being indoors and playing video games, such as, Call Of Duty: Black Ops, these games challenge a persons mind and allow further cognitive development. A persons cognition is defined as the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Experiments have also shown that people who play video games are often more social, confident and comfortable when solving problems.


Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005. Print.

Everything Bad Is Good For You

The teen mom 2 series, shown on MTV is a reality television show about a group of young women who are, for the most part, struggling with parenthood and other relationships. In episode four, "Moving In, Moving On" which was aired on February 1st, 2011 on channel 48, four young mothers come across everyday drama from their school, friends, and family. Teen Mom 2 is about real people with real problems such as teen pregnancy. Although, it is not nice to laugh at others who are having a difficult time but this show is made to entertain its viewers by giving them an insight into what it would be like to bear a child at such a young age and how hard it is to balance motherhood with school. Reality shows, like Teen Mom 2 allows its viewers to watch others experience a life changing event and to hopefully learn from their mistakes and take the initiative to practice safe sex.

In the book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, Steven Johnson states that many people who watch reality television are mostly intrigued by the raw emotion that those who are being filmed possess. (97) The thrill is knowing that these events just occurred in real life and that we are viewing people who are not actors, live their everyday lives in a “split second.” “Humans express the full complexity of their emotions through the unspoken language of facial expressions...”(Johnson 98) An example of this would be when Jenelle, a young mother who recently started dating again, comes home to her mother and child with visible hickeys all over her neck, one can assume that her mother is less than pleased. It doesn’t take a genius to know this is not in anyway appropriate for a mother to be acting, but it is entertaining to watch her mother react to Jenelle’s ridiculous endeavors. Reality television does indeed challenge our emotional IQ by measuring our ability to assess and respond to others emotional signals, in order to build our own social skills and cognitive development. (Johnson 99) Multithreaded dramas such as Teen Mom 2 are so complex because it involves many characters and allows its viewers to create many perspectives of what they just watched.

It is the emotional intensity of Teen Mom 2 that attracts its viewers on a weekly basis. For example, when Jenelle and her mother argue over the custody of young Jace because Jenelle’s mother believes that her daughter in unfit to be a parent and insists she gets her life on track is heart breaking. Its devastating to know that there are mothers out there who can neglect their child by staying out all night and not realize that it is wrong. Maybe, its easier for a viewer to comprehend these problems because they are looking from outside of the box rather than inside. Teen Mom 2 shows many examples of claim of value, such as the one mentioned above, the ability for a person to make a judgement and to conclude whether its right or wrong.

Reality television is not so bad for us at all, it stimulates our mind and improves our social and decision making skills. Although, many of us only tune into shows like Teen Mom 2 simply for entertainment rather than to further develop our cognition, the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding it through thought, experience and our senses.

There is no way to stop a determined predator. There is no way to stop a determined victim.

Myspace a popular social networking site with more than eighty million users, virtually allows anyone to create an account, even predators. In the article, "Myspace Not Responsible for Predators" by Kevin Alexander, a naive fourteen year old girl is allegedly reported raped by a nineteen year old man, whom she met online. Since Myspace does not verify its users age, the man was able to lie to the young girl by manipulating her to believe he was younger. Soon after befriending each other, the young girl decided to met up with the nineteen year old outside of cyberspace. The young girl failed to see the danger of meeting a person who they met online and innocently planned to see him and go to dinner and a movie. After the incident occurred the young girls family attempted to sue the social networking site for thirty million dollars, due to the lack of Myspace's security features. However, upon joining the social networking site, a member must sign a waiver stating that Myspace is not responsible for the actions of another user online or offline.

While Kevin Alexander claims that Myspace is not responsible for predators and that users should use the social networking site at their own risk. He fails to consider the important point that there are minors online who are not aware of the dangers of cyberspace. Therefore, a more accurate conclusion is that minors must have consent from their parents before joining because they are responsible for their actions when online and they should be skeptical when adding people they do not know. "Myspace is a business, and one that has never advertised itself as an online babysitting service."(Alexander para 2) I personally agree that Myspace is not responsible for predators online. Parents should be more active when monitoring their child's internet use and informing them of the many dangers that may occur.

Alexander, Kevin."Myspace Not Responsible for Predators." New York: Morrow, 1985. Rpt. in Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009. 119-121.

Advertisement Falsity

In the Anti-Aging Skin Care advertisement it is very obvious to anyone that their claim is asking consumers in todays market to buy their product, because it will make them look younger. This product is mostly targeted at middle aged women, the company uses aging, a common insecurity known to all women to sell their product. In the advertisement it shows four pictures of what appears to be a husband and wife during different stages of their marriage. The photographs range from black and white, sepia, antique to lastly a colored print which represents the passing of time and the couple aging together. The support behind their claim is the fact that in each photograph the husband ages, his hair turns gray and his face begins to look older, yet the women looks exactly the same in each photo because she supposedly uses the company’s anti aging product to look young. The women in the four pictures consequently appears to have the same facial features, smile, hairstyle and pose in all of the advertised photos being shown. Having that said, this advertisement appears to be an attempt to just make more money by advertising their product through false allegations because there is no cure for aging it is inevitable process in life that cannot be avoided. Customers should be skeptical of advertisements like the one shown because the advertisements claim is not realistic. The underlying warrant in this advertisement is that middle aged women would be smart to buy this product because with it they can effortlessly turn back the clock and appear younger.