Future Posts, Future possibilities

Future posts and a continuing presence both sound wonderful to me if somebody cares to keep it up. The site doesn't cost me anything, and it doesn't really cost me any upkeep.

All it requires is people willing to make entries.

If this would interest a few people, but perhaps few enough that you-all would like a larger community, one possibility would be to consolidate a community with the interested students of various classes.

Future Posts??

Can we log on to this blog in future for intellectual interactions such news or amazing stuff happening around the world, etc. ???

Just happened across this. The français says, "This is not a pipe," about as plain as that. What do you think?

It has been a pleasure...

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for an enjoyable and thought provoking class. It has been a pleasure interacting with each and every one of you, to include BC. Classes are designed to give you a better understanding of a topic or subject - this class taught me how to understand the process of gathering that information; to sort through it and determine what is possibly useful and what is "FALLACY". I thought we were in trouble when we spent the first class arguing over the existence or definition of a chair - or for that matter, whether it was a chair at all. I must admit there were days when I left class feeling like my frontal lobe was going to explode. In the end, I think this class has given me better tools to analyze life's information with - and for that I thank BC.
I wish everyone success in their future education and endeavors. Take care, and hopefully I will see some of you in future classes!

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fallacies

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fallacies

In many ads women are told that their bodies are their best assets. The messages told by advertising indicate that bodies can be commodified as products that have a use value. Ads reflect the concepts of the Only the Body trope, namely, that a woman has only her body to offer. the following ads are made more specific as women are told to use their bodies to get what they want.

The Missing Alan Johnston

On June 1, 2007, a Gaza-based Palestinian armed group calling itself "Army of Islam" released a video showing BBC reporter Alan Johnston. He has been missing since his abduction in Gaza City on March 12, 2007. The video has increased fears for Johnston's safety.
At the end of the video, which is not dated, the captors demanded the release of Abu Qatada al-Falastini, a Jordinian Muslim preacher of Palestinian origin who is currently detained in the UK on terrorism charges, and other unnamed prisoners also held in the UK. This shows that Alan Johnston's fate might be relying on the release of these prisoners. The video can be seen on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6711047.stm

The Case of Troy Davis

Restrictions on Federal appeals have prevented Troy Anthony Davis from having a hearing in federal court on the reliability of the witness testimony used against him, despite the fact that most of the witnesses have since recanted, many stating they were pressured or coerced by police. Troy Davis remains on Georgia death row, and may be scheduled for execution in the near future.
Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen McPhail at a Burger King in Savannah, Georgia, a murder he maintains he did not commit. There was no physical evidence against him and the weapon used in the crime was never found. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but three of the state's non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis. One of the three witnesses who has not recanted his testimony is Sylvester "Red" Coles – the principle alternative suspect, according to the defense, against whom there is new evidence implicating him as the gunman. Nine individuals have signed affidavits implicating Sylvester Coles.

The Execution of Cathy Henderson

Cathy Henderson was convicted of killing three-and-a-half-month-old Brandon Baugh, for whom she was the mother. Cathy has maintained that the death was an accident, but at her trial in 1995 the court denied her request for funds to conduct a biomechanical investigation to prove her side of the story. The state offered no crime scene evidence at the trial, only the testimony of medical experts who stated that the nature of the injury proved that the death was intentional. The new science of injury biomechanics now places serious doubt on Cathy Henderson's guilt, and warrants a serious reexamination of the evidence used to convict her. Henderson has been on death row in Gatesville, Texas for 12 years and is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, June 13, 2007.

Pamela Anderson Vs. KFC

Pamela Anderson has sent a letter to the Postmaster General, criticizing KFC's request letter to put an image of the founder of the fast-food chain on a stamp. “Honoring a man whose legacy involves breaking animals’ bones and scalding animals to death in defeathering tanks is contrary to the values of most compassionate citizens, and I hope that you’ll deny KFC’s request,” Anderson wrote in a letter to Postmaster General John E. Potter. “How about another Elvis stamp instead?”

IMAGES FOR ABORTION PRESENTATION

Abortion

Here are some more links I found. Its kind of last minute, but it may help for the debate tomorrow.

http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/frontdoor.cfm?issue_type=abortion

http://www.guttmacher.org/in-the-know/cost.html

http://www.coolnurse.com/abortion_legal.htm

Unfree Press

On Wed June 5th an accredited/licensed reporter from Infowars.com was arrested for merely asking a member of the Guliani about the collapsing of tower 7 on September 11th 2001. What happened to the free press? This is a truly alarming state for American freedom as we have known it.

Bill O'Liar

Has anyone ever wondered how much money Bill O' Reily gets from the Republican Party. After all his nightly relinquishing of intellect in the name of pandering to the far political right must be worth at least some extra pocket change.

Pollution

The human rights situation of Indigenous peoples and environmentalists in Ecuador continues to be a serious concern for Amnesty International. For over four decades, Indigenous communities have witnessed multinational oil companies cut through the Ecuadorian Amazon and their ancestral lands in search of the country's vast petroleum resources. Testimonies by members of these communities, verified by independent health studies and reports (including "Amazon Crude" by Judith Kimerling) have described how oil companies have left dead rivers, road-scarred forests, polluted air, and daily discharges of millions of gallons of toxic waste in their wake that are affecting the daily lives of the communities in the area. One anonymous resident stated, "Our health has been damaged seriously by the contamination by Texaco. Many people in our community now have red stains on their skin and others have been vomiting and fainting. Some little children have died because their parents did not know they should not drink the river water."

Rights of Children

On November 20, 1989, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a landmark for human rights. Here for the first time was a treaty that sought to address the particular human rights of children and to set minimum standards for the protection of their rights. It is the only international treaty to guarantee civil and political rights as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely accepted human rights treaty - of all the United Nations member states, only the United States and the collapsed state of Somalia have not ratified it. The United States continues to lead a defensive action against Children's human Rights lobbying against further measures designed to protect children - most recently against efforts to stop the use of child soldiers.
These last 10 years have seen an enormous growth in awareness of children's rights. Activists have learned important lessons in successfully implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. One of the Convention's key strengths is that it recognizes that rights must be actively promoted if they are going to be enforced - awareness isn't enough. Although children's human rights are still a long way from realization - we have a powerful tool for campaigning for the protection of children's human rights in the almost worldwide acceptance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ricky Williams

Ricky Williams, running back of the Miami Dolphins, has tested again for marijuana use after serving his one-year suspension for his continuous offenses of marijuana. Since commissioner Roger Goodell has implemented a hard-nose, he has been tough on players that have legal troubles.

Vatican Influence

When the Pope asked President Bush about the current situation with Russian-Americam Relations, he responded, "ill tell you in a minute" implying he would answer when the media left. Given such a statement, and such a meeting in Rome to begin with, one has to wonder what degree of influence the Vatican has on American foreign policy.

Paris Hilton

After spending 3 days in jail, socialite Paris Hilton has been released for her drunk driving sentence. But in a decision by the judge, he ordered that Paris Hilton finish out her 45 day sentence. The judge citing that nobody is above the law. In essence, I agree with the comments of the judge and that nobody is above the law and that she should finish out her 45 day that can be lowered to 23 days, if she is in good behavior. According to TMZ.com, Hilton has issued a statement saying that the media should focus on better things than herself like the war in Irag and Afghanistan.

Gary Tyler

Gary Tyler, an African-American man, is serving a life sentence without chance of parole in Louisiana. With coerced witness testimony and without any physical evidence, he was convicted by an all-white jury for the 1974 murder of 13-year-old Timothy Weber, a white student who was shot during intense racial clashes in Destrehan, Louisiana. Tyler, who was 16 at the time of the incident, has consistently denied involvement in the crime. He was denied a fair trial and racial prejudice palyed a major part in his prosecution and conviction.
Governor Kathleen Blanco of the state of Louisiana should be contacted to get involved in this case.

Rape by Soldiers

On May 11, 2005, Bitondo Nyumba was raped by three government army soldiers in her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After a series of medical interventions, and despite the efforts of local human rights NGOs and Amnesty International to ensure she received proper care, she died of her injuries in late June. To date, no action has been taken by the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Background Information
Bitondo Nyumba was a 56-year-od woman. She was attacked and raped in her home in the village of Katungulu, Tanganyika collectivité, Fizi territory, South-Kivu province, on 11 May 2005. The rape was committed by soldiers of the Bikeombo (Nundu) Batallion of the 117th FARDC Brigade. Bitondo Nyumba subsequently died of her injuries, apparently because of a lack of adequate medical care in the state hospitals at Nundu and Uvira.

Women's Rights

Many states fail to adequately protect incarcerated women from sexual misconduct at the hands of corrections staff and allow the dangerous practice of shackling inmates during the third trimester of pregnancy -- including during labor and delivery. The following report examines the current laws, policies and practices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons regarding custodial sexual misconduct (CSM) and the shackling of inmates who are pregnant or giving birth.
The link to the report of all such cases in California is http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/custody/states/california.pdf

The CEDAW

The Treaty for the Rights of Women is the most complete international agreement on basic rights for women. The Treaty is officially known as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The United States played an important role in drafting the Treaty, which185 nations have ratified as of March 1, 2007. Ironically, the United States is now one of only eight countries that have yet to ratify CEDAW, alongside Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, Iran, Nauru, Palau and Tonga.

The Treaty for the Rights of Women addresses basic human rights of women and can be useful to reduce violenece against women, ensure access to education and health care, and provide legal recourse against violations of women's human rights.

"Night Commuters"

In an attempt to escape the risk of abduction from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and a general climate of insecurity, an estimated 30,000 children in northern Uganda commute to sleep in urban areas or into the middle of larger camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Most of the “night-commuter” children, as they are known, commute without the protection of adult family members and face the risk of harassment, physical abuse, sexual exploitation and gender-based violence, including rape. However, the “night commuter” phenomenon is symptomatic of the broader issues relating to the protection of civilians in northern Uganda and illustrates how these can impact on family and community life. A UNICEF assessment in Gulu indicates that “as many as 25 percent of child “night commuters” were leaving their homes nightly due to family issues, rather than the specific fear of LRA abduction. Working on this issue is a way of generating awareness of the broader human rights concerns in northern Uganda.
After almost two decades of conflict in northern Uganda, the human rights of children are violated on a daily basis. Children have suffered disproportionately in the conflict. As many as 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since the conflict began, for use as soldiers, sex slaves and porters. 7,500 are girls with 1,000 having conceived children during captivity. An unknown number have been killed, while over 15,000 have escaped or been rescued by government soldiers – the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Force (UPDF) – since the armed conflict began in 1986.

Media and advertising

Here I go with Adbusters again but it's a great magazine. A college professor writes about her Critical Media Studies classroom and how she tries to get the point across of advertising and it's effects on our society. She finds a lot of resistance from what she calls her generation y-ers. Those born between 1977-1997. The way we grew up is impacting our view of advertising and media. She brings about an interesting perspective. Generation y is not phased by advertising and approaches it as unimportant because they feel it has no effect on society. They are what she calls the "me generation". I quote her "It's three years into their own Vietnman, and they aren't exactly flooding the streets with protestors. Often students tell me that they find politics to be boring and irrelevant to their own experiences." Why aren't their demonstrations in mass like they used to be? Are we really THAT generation, because to me it feels like it's getting worse. I look at kids today and wonder what is really important to them. What are we teaching them as a society? Naomi Rockers-Gladen's class said they felt the media has no effect on society and each person should be taught values by their parents. But it seems that society is only being shaped more and more by the media. It is shaping our youth, not in a good way. This article left me mad and almost feeling helpless about where we are headed and what the future looks like. Can we change? Is it too late? Will CNN for generation y'ers look like "Lindsay Lohan finally takes rehab seriously. We mean it this time" or "Britney Spears launches her 8th comeback tour" I can only say, I hope not!

Celebrity

Ad Busters

This magazine is out of Canada and is apparently not censored. It's pretty interesting and comes out every couple of months. It ran a story about elementary schools that send home weight report cards along with the childs regular report cards. It graded the childs body mass index and recorded whether it was good or bad. Some parents felt thankful for the help, others were afraid it would traumatize their child or that is was way too invasive. I am torn. I have the thougth that the school system sees these kids 8 hours a day 5 days a week and should be upfront with their parents. On the other hand, shouldn't the parents be upfront with their kids? They raise them and see them everyday. I don't have kids so I am not familiar with the fight of how to get a kid to eat healthy or how to deal with a kid that is considered "obese"...I guess I'm not the right person to lend any advice. I just know how I feel on this end.

fallacy

I read an article in time magazine on the pregidous that comes when people marry out of their looks. It discussed how when a man marries a woman considerably more attractive than him it is because he has money or is a rock star but when a woman does it he must be gay. More than a little disturbing for me.

The Paris Distraction

As coverage of the Paris Hilton case continues to invade our newscreens, one has to question who benefits from such distractions from real news that effects us all (i.e, the economy, health care, unemployment rates, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the genocide in Darfur).

ASL Questions

These questions are only tangentially related to class, and won't be interesting to everyone. But those who are fluent in a second language, have some experience with the American Sign Language used primarily by the deaf, or have a particular interest in the forms that language takes might find something here to respond to.

I recently read William C. Stokoe's Sign Language Structure. Revised. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok, 1978. I was left with questions, in part because I have very little exposure to ASL itself.

I would like to better understand what Stokoe refers to as "sign modulation," (66). I find this related to inflection in speech, and the moreso to what Emily Dickinson somewhere referred to as "inflections of the pen." I suspect that this will help me understand why the same written piece that works well in print does not work well online and vice versa. The following questions seem related.

1. Stokoe notes Epee's judgment that articles as they exist in French or English "lack a natural sign" for the deaf (6). [Article adjectives include the, a and a in English.] English speakers also say that East-Asian languages "lack" articles, but of course this constitutes no genuine lack because the functionality of articles is handled otherwise.

a) How do East Asian languages handle the functions of articles?
b) How do ASL signers handle these functions?

Since language use is too automatic for native speakers to answer grammatical questions intuitively, the following paragraph, which I use to teach English articles, might make for simple examples.

Mrs. Jones bought Johnny a milkshake. Johnny took the shake into the car, but he spilled it, so there was milkshake all over the back seat.

It's a milkshake at first because the speaker refers to a single discrete, contained beverage. It's the shake afterwards because it has been previously referred to. Readers conclude that this is indeed the same milkshake that Mrs. J just purchased. No article is used in the last because the milkshake, having escaped from its container, is referred to as a material; that is, milkshake is no longer a "count noun." Note that the differences here have little to do with any change in the nature of what is purchased, consumed, or spilled, but has lots to do with speakers' and listeners' relationships to milkshake as it exists in the narrative.

That said, how would the same contextualizations be rendered?

2) In ASL, what other forms "lacked a natural sign" in Épeé's sense? (I would suggest that prepositions, like of, or about might be candidates.)

3) Is there some tendency to handle adverbs modally. For instance, might a sign for "walk quickly" be a sign for "walk," made quickly or with some affectation of rushing? Or might saunter or lollygag constitute differences more naturally performed than distinguished by discrete changes of vocabulary?

4) The notation Stokoe uses for signs resembles Egyptian hieratics of the Middle and Later Kingdoms. How effective is the notation itself for native signers? Do they read it extensively? Do they find it rich, as do readers of English or French or German or Russian?

5) Stokoe mentions what he calls a "0 tab." "Tab" comes from the Latin tabula; he refers to a location of the entire sign relative to the signer's body or to an understood or otherwise signalled locus of conversation. 0 Tab is apparently a comfortable position central to the signer or to the dialog.

a) Does a return to 0 Tab function in any way like punctuation? That is, does a return to comfortable center or such a gesture signal the end of a phrase, sentence, or something like a paragraph?

b) How are such differences distinguished?

c) What relation does this seem to have to other significant patterns, like the return to a base chord at the end of a musical phrase, passage, pr sonota; or the repetition in an essay's conclusion of keywords from a thesis statement.

6) How do the deaf sign poetry? How much and in what ways does that resemble dance?

7) What about what Stokoe calls "sign modulation" -- that is, the sign means something different, even becomes syntactically different because it's signed somewhat differently? Can this (and how can it) be distinguished from non-syntactic gestures and attitudes that may add meaning to a sign (such as someone's being visibly emphatic, angry, loving, entreating, or whatever; this is page 66 in Stokoe, BTW).

Kobe Bryant

After the Los Angeles Lakers' mediocre season, Kobe Bryant, the captain of the team, was shot down by a Laker front office insider for the sole reason for Shaquille O'Neal for trading him after the end of the 2004 season. In an article written by LA Times journalist Bill Plascke, he points out that Bryant ran Shaq out of town. In fact, it was owner Dr. Jerry Buss who spoke to Bryant about keeping an old Shaquille and promising to build a championship caliber team. The last three years the Lakers have not won a playoff series, while Shaquille's HEAT won a championship. At this point, it seems that the Lakers want to rebuild around 19 year-old center Andrew Bynum instead of the NBA's best player, Kobe Bryant. Which poses the question what direction are the Lakers going?

Paris Hilton - Released from jail 42 days early

Paris Hilton was realesed from jail after serving 3 days of her 45 day sentence. She was arrested for driving under the influence in September of 2006, at that time she was given three years probation and her license was suspended. In January she was pulled over and cited for driving on a suspended license. In February she was pulled over again because she was speeding at night without her headlights on and was again driving on a suspended license. This time her probation was revoked and she was sentenced to 45 days in jail as was outlined in her probation. She reported to jail Sunday June 3 after coming from the MTV Awards. She was released on June 6 and the reason is not entirely clear. I was watching larry King live where it was being discussed and debated and there were a couple of reasons given: overcrowded jails, health concerns, mental concerns. The reasons being mentioned most were medical and mental. It was being said that she was becoming depressed and that she refused to eat. Have you seen her lately? She looks like she hardly eats even when not in jail. As for the depression, I think most people in jail are depressed. Jail is not meant to be a social party, it is meant to be a deterrent and serve as punishmnet in hopes of deterring future criminal activity. Then someone mentioned that she had committed a non-violent crime and had not hurt anyone - further stating that she should not have been in jail in the first place. Drunk driving is one of the leading killers in our nation. According to the website http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/drving.htm 16,885 people died in traffic accidents involving drunk drivers and this number represents 39% of all traffic accident related deaths. Driving your car into another car or into an innocent pedestrian is a violent and traumatic act. The purpose for laws is to prevent people from committing crimes against themselves or other people. Additionally, laws are designed to prevent accidents and fatalities. Although Paris did not kill anyone at the time she was pulled over and arrested, it was an accident waiting to happen. The only way some people learn is to have something traumatic happen to them. Serving time in jail is less traumatic than killing someone as a result of drinking and driving. I hope the judge orders her back to jail - I think 45 days is more than reasonable if it impacts future decisions and perhaps saves someone's life.

Debatees

I realize the implications of what I am about to state are conspiratorial to say the least. But, CNN, the sponsor of the Democratic Party's debate claims that the stage positioning of the potential nominees were placed absolutely at random. Still, two of the most compelling debaters, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were front and center, side by side no less. Coincidental?

Sean John Fallacy

This ad is taken from the Sean John's perfume advertising website. The fine print in the ad says, "Life without passion is Unforgivable."
The ad shows Sean John with two other females half naked. This is an example of a sexist advertisement.
There is an appeal to popularity as the ad portrays Sean John, the famous rapper.
There is also a Fallacy of Distraction as the advertiser presumes that partial nakedness of Sean John and the two other women can be used to sell their perfume successfully.
The statement in the ad says, "Life without Passion is Unforgivable." The statement is vague and absurd as it is difficult to understand what it means.
Does it mean that a Life without Passion is his perfume? If this statement is true then there is a Fallacy of Deduction as they are advertising for the sale of a perfume, but who would really want to buy a perfume which will lead to a life without passion.
OR Does it mean that a Life without Passion is truly unforgivable? If this statement is true then there is a Fallacy of False Dilemma as the advertiser presumes that a life without passion is nothing else but unforgivable. "Unforgivable" is a verb which is used in context of a sin or a crime committed. "Unforgivable" has nothing to do with a life without passion.

Eternity Ad

This ad is a fallacy because it creates an Appeal to Motives.
It wants the reader to believe that if you use Eternity then you too can
find eternal love. It pictures this loving typical American couple embraced and in a
dreamlike angelic state. This is true love- it is eternal. Do you want true love? If so
wear Eternity- and certainly you will find it!

Bacardi Ad

This ad is a False Deduction fallacy because it attempts to deduce that this boring inspector
by day becomes a fun, attractive “chic magnet” at night just because he drinks Bacardi. It wants the reader to believe that no matter how dull and boring your life or day job may be you can have a fun, sexy, exciting, joy filled night if you drink Bacardi.

uZap Ad

This ad is a Fallacy of Deduction. It wants the reader to believe that
if you use “uZap” then you will be thin like Fiona Xie- yet it ignores the
fact that Fiona Xie has never had a weight problem. So using
uZap did not make her thin. However, some may not know this so it would seem
logical to make the assumption the ad wants the viewer to make. “Uzap makes you thin”

Kool Ad

This “Kool” ad is a fallacy because it appeals to motives.
The brand itself uses prejudicial language. It leads the viewer
To believe that if you smoke “Kool” then you will be cool. Taking a step further this ad places a young man on a “kool” surfboard riding what must be a “kool” wave on a beautiful beach on a perfect day. It wants the viewer to believe that this is “kool” and why? It’s obvious- he smokes Kool.

Hitman Blood Money Fallacy

This ad is an extract from the Hitman Blood Money website, www.hitmanbloodmoney.com
The ad portrays a woman laying on a silk bed dressed lasciviously. She is shot dead in the head. The words on top of the ad says, "Beautifully executed." Does it mean that every beautiful woman needs to be executed or shooting a woman in the head is beautiful? or it means that in the Hitman Blood Money video game series, one can not just execute, one has to execute in style, beautifully?
This is an advertisement made for the sale of Playstation 2(XBOX). The consumers of playstations are mainly children from the age of 8 to 16. The designer seems to have taken the game's concept a little bit too far. There were fantasy based executions taking place in such video games, but now real-life human aspect of execution is extreme.
There is a fallacy of Argument from Ignorance as the designer of this advertisement suspects that such a voluptuous portrayal of a dead woman lying on the bed is appropriate for young children to watch.
There is also a fallacy of Style over Substance as the designer of this ad thinks that the partial nakedness displayed in the ad will encourage people to buy their video games whereas parents do not want to buy such hedonic video games for their children.
There is also An Appeal to Prejudicial Language as the advertisement states , "Beautifully Executed" as "beautiful" is an adjective subjected to women only and here the ad is talking about the execution of women in particular.

Diamond Ad

This ad is a fallacy because it attempts to create a False dilemma.
It aims to force the reader to feel that in order to show her that he cares he must buy her diamonds. This is an attempt to make this man feel like he has no choice but to the buy the jewels, otherwise she will never know he cares. It makes the assumption that a woman loves a man because of material things they receive, without them they may forget that he loves her. Certainly the man doesn’t want to feel that his woman has forgotten that he loves her- so what does this ad pose as the one and only solution? You think it would be “ tell her you love her by writing a love letter, take her to a romantic dinner, have an open heart to heart, or a slow dance- no way- the ad says get diamonds- that’s true love!

Diet Pepsi Ad

This ad is an Inductive fallacy because it wants the viewer to believe that
if he or she drinks Diet Pepsi they too can be a “soulful, smooth cat” with sexy arm candy. It disregard’s the fact that there can only be one Ray Charles, and Ray would look cool and have beautiful ladies hanging around no matter what he was drinking. Yet the ad wants you to believe the full "coolness" of Diet Pepsi. Ray Charles is cool cause he drinks diet pepsi- Diet Pepsi is cool because Ray Charles drinks it, and what's most important you too can be "cool" if you drink it too!

Tide Ad

This ad is a fallacy because it makes a Hasty Generalization.
It concludes that Tide will leave your laundry clean and that doing laundry will be easier for you because of it. However, this may not be true. It is possible that Tide may not clean everyone’s clothes. It makes the generalization that no matter how dirty your clothes are Tide will leave them clean and looking new.

Living Ad

This ad is an Appeal to Authority fallacy because Martha Stewart is seen an expert in “living”. People look to her for advice on how to decorate and entertain.
This ad wants the reader to believe that in order to truly “live” you must live like Martha.

Newport Ad

This ad creates a fallacy of Cause and Effect.
This ad wants the viewer to think that when you smoke Newport then you will look fit and trim and have great pleasures. It gives the viewer a directive “Fire It Up”. So the viewer is supposed to believe that by lighting a Newport they will have fun laughing and surfing with a “babe” at your side.

Skyy Vodka Ad

This ad is a cause and effect fallacy because it attempts to make the viewer believe that if you drink Skyy then you too will look beautiful, have men waiting on you hand and foot and that the camera will want and love you.

It's Mario Again....

This is an advertisement taken from the internet that advertises Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese. As one can see, characters of the popular game, Super Mario Brothers, hop out of the box energetically. The background is clean white in contrast with the bright orange of the product and the colorfulness of the characters.

There is a fallacy of false analogy in the advertisement. In black print, it says, “An adventure in every bowl,” yet the word adventure does not technically relate to a bowl of macaroni and cheese. Here, the advertisers compare a game character’s image of having an adventure in his game with a bowl of macaroni and cheese. The two has nothing to do with each other, since foods don’t have adventurous journeys like Mario. Having the game characters running around in a game consol and having character-shaped macaronis in a bowl is two completely different issues. The consumer will not have the same “adventure” by eating the product as playing the game.

The ad is trying to claim that Mario and his friends have a fun adventure in their game, so that means that they are going to have to same adventure as foods. However, that is not a valid statement because characters moving around inside a screen and character-shaped macaronis are two different, unrelated things.

Cereal Ad

This is an advertisement that is taken from the internet. It is an ad for a new type of cereal called the “Nintendo Cereal System” that contains two different flavor in one box. In this particular ad, the marketers decided to use game characters to represent their new brand of cereals. In bold, white letters, it says, “Introducing a winning combination for breakfast.” They compared the box of cereal with two flavors with the combination of having two popular game characters. This is an example of false analogy. The cereal and game has nothing to do with each other, and the ad is comparing two very unlike things by using the key word “combination,” yet the meaning of the word is different when used to define the characters and the cereal.

The character on to the right side, Link, says, “We rescued breakfast,” which is a fallacy, because breakfast is not something that can be “rescued” by unreal, two-dimensional characters. Link says it in a way as if breakfast was something that needed to be rescued, like a princess in a game.

The words on the bottom in white says, “If you can’t beat’em, eat’em,” which is interesting because food, cereal in this case, is not a game-like object that one must beat. The statement is also an example of a false dilemma because it only gives the consumer two extreme choices to decide on, which is to beat or eat the product. The statement ignores the option of not eating the product at all.

This ad also contains appeal to popularity because of the usage of two popular game characters. Just because Mario and Link represent the brand of cereal, it does not mean that eating the cereal will make the consumer a hero like the two characters.

fallacy

This is an advertisement for milk that was found on the internet. In white print, it says, “Power up! Want to grow? The calcium in milk helps your bones grow. Momma Mia!” The ad shows Mario, a very famous game character of Nintendo who is well-known amongst young kids. He is supposedly enlarged, breaking out of the television as he his holding onto a bottle of milk. The room is dark and messy, depicting that it may belong to a boy who loves to play games rather than clean his room. This advertisement contains few fallacies.

First of all, Milk and Nintendo games do no have any connection with each other. Growth of Mario is not related in any way with the product, yet the ad seems to claim that Mario grows bigger, and milk can help one grow, thus kids should drink milk to grow like Mario. This is a false analogy. The ad is comparing and making two different types of growth to be similar. Mario is a game character, and his growth is most likely caused by some sort of magic that only exists within the game. However, the ad claims that their product, or milk, will help kids grow and make their bones stronger like Mario

Another fallacy that can be found in the ad is appeal to popularity. The advertisement uses a popular game character that is familiarized amongst young kids in order to make drinking milk part of their habit. Just because a famous icon like Mario is representing a product, that doesn’t mean that the milk will help a child grow like him.

Informal Logic-A Fallacy

This ad is taken from a Vodka advertising campaign. Under the title "Just Add Vodka", it features a bottle of Vodka pouring its contents on a sleepy hamlet. The atmosphere is gloaming as it is dark, lack of activity, and the isolated lights at the border of the image suggest a dreary city where there is nothing to do. This inactivity is further highlighted by a sharp contrast between a dreary hamlet and an agitated city that has sprung up where the Vodka splashes to the ground.

There is a fallacy of False Analogy as bottles of Vodka are not so absurdly large, and do not pour their contents on sleepy villages.

The message from the advertisement can be paraphrased as a claim, "If you add Vodka to your life, your sleepy life can be transformed into a life of cosmopolitan excitement."

There is also a Fallacy of Deduction where a premise," If you add Vodka to your life, your sleepy life can be transformed into a life of cosmopolitan excitement." is incorrectly applied to the conclusion of purchasing Vodka.

A life of cosmopolitan excitement is desirable, but can not attainted by drinking Vodka.

Homogenized Democracy

Given the recent Democratic position in Congress illustrated by its virtual support of continuing the war in Iraq, one must begin to question the two-party system as a whole. Seemingly, both parities have become increasingly homogenized in their expression of policy. Such myopia in government hardly seems like Democracy to me.

RCTV

Is RCTV being shut down because Hugo Chavez is an absolute dictator who wants to impose his tyrannical upon the people by silencing one of its integral voices or is RCTV an instrument of the West, with links to the U.S.? If the former is true, perhaps the shutting down of RCTV a precursor of things to come as the lines of division continue to be drawn throughout the globe.