Hearing the vitriol and politically wrangling of this weekend’s South Carolina primary, you’ll forgive me if I wanted to find a lighthearted political image. Everyone needs a fist bump now and then, even the leader of the free world.
The social media sphere is full of shared videos, photos, links, and blog posts. I do it– I share my favorite stories with my genuine and facebook-qualifying ‘friends.’ So when someone first posted Rick Perry’s “Strong” ad I didn’t pay attention to it. If the current governor couldn’t remember what three agencies he would eliminate as President, let alone not knowing how many Justices serve on the Supreme Court, I was pretty confident that I didn’t care what he had to say in an ad airing in Iowa. I finally decided to watch it after I started seeing it as the subject of news reporting, not just social reporting.
I watched. I watched Rick Perry in his Ennis Del Mar jacket. I listened to background music that was highly evocative of gay, blacklisted, Jewish-American composer Aaron Copland. I tried to figure out when President Obama supposedly declared ‘war on religion.’ Was it before or after opponents tried to say that Presidential candidate Obama was a resolute follower of his Christian pastor Jeremiah Wright? And this war on religion and God… is this the same God that supposedly called Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain to run for President? Maybe Obama’s just trying to declare war on the bad cell reception that gave all three candidates the same message.
Mr. Perry, you do realize you’re not going to be President right?
For the record, I like this one better.
Where is this ‘greatest country on earth’? Rest in peace, Troy Davis. We failed you. God, help us all.
It’s like President Obama said this week, “It’s simple math.”
This article from The New York Times highlights the ways in which our college campuses are reinforcing dangerous gender roles and expectations.
For the Yale boys who shouted “No means yes.” It doesn’t. And “Yes” sure as hell doesn’t mean what you said it does. I would’ve thought your Ivy League education would’ve taught you better.
I’m glad that Hurricane Irene didn’t bring the devastation many predicted. Richard Misrach’s photo from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reminds us of the horrible alternative.
I’ve often used clips from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report in my communication classes. Last fall, the two of them were a major focus of my Theories of Humor course. This semester I’m going to ‘give my permission’ to my students to watch each of the shows as ‘supporting research’ for my classes. One of my favorite, recent clips is on the topic of our record income gap between rich and poor. Many say that the topic of increasing taxes is tantamount to class warfare. But who exactly is this war against?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| World of Class Warfare – The Poor’s Free Ride Is Over | ||||
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I’ve always found word clouds to be a fascinating way to orient and think about key ideas and concepts. For example, the recent debt ceiling ‘negotiations’ resulted in this word cloud of the way Americans perceived the behavior of Congress.
I think “ridiculous” is about right.
If you’d like to make your own word cloud, you can use Wordle‘s software and tweak it along the way– with different fonts, colors, layouts– you name it. The only downside– you can’t exactly ‘save’ the image to your computer. You can post it to a public gallery and link to it that way. I thought I’d try it out with a short introduction I’ve written for a script that will be published in October. It was nice to see that Wordle and I see my work the ‘same way.’
For even more options, check out this blog post for teachers. Have fun making your own word clouds, now!
