Abortion

Abortion is an incredibly prominent issue in today’s society. Ever since Roe v. Wade, there has been epic debate into whether or not abortion is acceptable or not. I have found two articles which examine both the pro-life side of abortion and the pro-choice side as well. The pro-life article is a fact sheet by buzzle.com analyzing both the moral and medical dilemmas from abortion. One argument presented by this article is who is allowed to make the decision to end another human life. The article questions whether it is our right as parents to end the life of a child before that child is even born. The article also presents some medical complications that can arise from abortion which can include blocked fallopian tubes, weakened cervix, and permanent complications in a woman’s reproductive system that can prevent her from ever conceiving again. The pro-choice article is a piece done by Capitalism Magazine arguing that pro-lifers never take into account the feelings of the parents when considering abortion, only the unborn fetus. They argue that there could be circumstances beyond a parent’s control that prevent them having the child, thus making the abortion necessary. I feel that the argument presented by buzzer.com is more convincing. Not only is it well written, but it also examines all the various ethical concerns of an abortion and does not focus on a particular issue. It addresses an incredible amount of concerns appropriately including the medical downsides of having an abortion, which is something most people forget. The issue itself is incredibly controversial and it is difficult to take a side either way. On one hand, a woman’s right to chose has to be respected, but on the other, is it reasonable to terminate a life before life is even granted? These articles, while convincing, have yet to convince me that one position is better than the other.

Fake!

I love cheese. Let me say that again for emphasis. I LOVE CHEESE! Being a true wisconsinite I have nothing but the utmost passion for the delectable substance known as cheese. Before my college days, there was nothing better then sitting down with a bag of cheese curds from the local grocery store, a handful of pretzels, and the remote. And you knew the cheese curds were fresh and real because they had that squeeky sound every time you took a bite. Sadly though, I have been forced to move away from fresh cheese curds to the processed Kraft singles simply because of my money situation. You can tell that the singles are fake, processed cheese. They disintegrate in your mouth and leave a terrible after taste that lingers in your mouth the rest of the day. Real cheese stays in your mouth long enough to be savored. I have to believe that the fake cheese though, provides me with the essential preservatives that a growing boy needs; enough HGH to keep me strong and developing at a faster then normal rate. I hope some day to return to my favorite food, REAL cheese. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm a broke college student, I may be able to enjoy a fresh brick of aged cheddar right now. But sadly this is not the case. Instead I'm forced to enjoy cheese in its less popular varieties, singles, nips, and of course whiz. The article I have linked to this post is by an author who agrees with me. Not only does he love cheese as much as I do, but he also believes that we are settling for fake processed cheese instead of going the extra mile for good cheese. American processed cheese is either sliced, put into a cracker, or crammed into an aerosol can simply for our convenience and not for health reasons. We choose these items because are lazy or do not know better. We (and myself included) need to get back to health, real foods that don't have whiz as the last word of the title. We need to get back to what we are used to and what is good for us!

Post Comments

I commented on Ivan's post this week.

Speech Review

For my demonstration speech, I chose the topic of stringing a lacrosse goalie stick. I realized right before my speech that it is not something everyone would be interested in. Not everyone plays lacrosse so most of the people listening didn’t really care, but it was something I was good at so it was a good topic for me. Basically the steps involved in stringing a lacrosse stick included: gathering the materials, stringing the top of the stick, stringing the sides of the stick, closing up the bottom of the stick, putting in the shooting strings, and then pounding the pocket to give you a nice channel.
I thought my energy and enthusiasm for this speech was good. Lacrosse is something I am very passionate about so I was really excited to give a speech about stringing a stick. I thought my volume was pretty good as well. Sometimes I have a tendency to get too loud when I give speeches but I felt that I controlled this well. My eye contact was poor but I think this was due mainly to my topic and use of visual aid. Stringing a stick requires you to look down at the holes and string a lot and to have a lot of concentration on what you do with your hands. Because of this, I wasn’t able to make eye contact with my audience very much.
I thought my visual aid was pretty effective. There really isn’t any other visual aid you can bring in besides a lacrosse stick when you are doing this topic. One thing I wish I could change was to have a screen projector to magnify what I was doing with my hands. This would’ve made the steps easier for my audience to see.
Overall, I don’t think I would choose this topic again. I liked it a lot and it is something I’m really good at, but it is very difficult to teach and for people to understand. Plus, it isn’t really relevant to many people so next time I would probably choose something that everyone can enjoy. As for the speech itself, I would make more eye contact, but overall I thought my voice and energy were very good.

Tigerade (aka Post 4)

Tiger Woods is ultimately the greatest athlete of all time. Putting aside his recent misconduct off the golf course for now, the man has been dominant. For this dominance he has been rewarded with a number of endorsements including one from Gatorade for Gatorade Tiger. Basically it is your standard sports beverage that is supposed to help you "work harder" at being dominant. I think this was a great move for Gatorade. Not only do they have a great athlete posted on all of their drink bottles, but they can basically put his face on the same product they've been selling for years and pull in extra revenue because of it. I mean lets face it, who doesn't want to be like Tiger? And if being like Tiger means I have to drink Gatorade Tiger, then so be it. It's been a good choice for Tiger too who gets to endorse and represent a sound company with a great product. Pepsi, the makers of gatorade have been a staple in the beverage industry for a long time.

Now, we must discuss the recent decision by Pepsi to end their endorsement of Tiger. As of the end of February, Pepsi/Gatorade decided that they disagreed with my opinion that Gatorade Tiger was a good thing. They ended their sponsorship of Tiger Woods as noted in this article by CNN Money. I feel like this is an incredible mistake. Tiger Woods may have had a few mishaps in judgement off the golf course recently, but he is a man who is known to bounce back. And I think Tiger is going to bounce back big from this one. I think Gatorade should have stuck this one out until after Tiger makes his return at the Masters. If Tiger comes to the Masters and is dominant yet again, everyone is going to want to a piece of him and everything will be back to normal. Had Gatorade continued their sponsorship, they could've cashed in on Tiger's revival and made a fortune. I guess though, time will tell whether the great Tiger Woods can recover and return to his dominant form yet again.

My first comments!

I commented on Mark's Blog

and also on Zac's Blog

Post 2

For this weeks blog post I decided to prepare a delicious meal of chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables. I know its simple but hey, I'm a broke college kid with no culinary experience and a tight budget. There were a lot of steps really to preparing the meal. The first part was finding a way to the grocery store. This is key because unless I get there, I'm not eating. I decided to try out the new grocery store under the Lucky Apartments. After picking up my box of white rice and bag of frozen assorted vegetables, I headed to the poultry section. They had all kinds of chicken: cajun, jerk, barbecue, and even lemon marinated chicken. I decided I was in the mood for something spicy so I went with the cajun. I took it back to my place and began to boil water for the rice. I put the chicken on my George Foreman (a lifesaver for people who can't use an oven) and let it cook. I threw the frozen vegetables in a skillet with some oil and let them heat up. Once everything was hot and cooked all the way threw, I put it on a plate, grabbed a spotted cow and dove in. It was all really good and I actually felt a sense of accomplishment for creating this simple, yet satisfying masterpiece of a meal. When you look at In Defense of Food, Pollen argues that Americans don't savor food anymore. He claims that we have more of a tendency to "eat and run rather then eat and savor." This is very true. In our fast paced society we are constantly running around and I think merely from lack of time we do not take the time to enjoy food. When I prepared my meal, I had all the time in the world. I made it a special point to not plan anything for that night so that I could cook and enjoy my meal in peace. It was a very different feeling then what I was used to. I was actually able to taste my food instead of having to horde it down in order to be on time for lacrosse practice or a midterm. This blog titled: The Vegan Good Life shares my opinion that American's eat more out of convenience then taste. It also focuses on how our choice of eating quickly is causing damage to the environment. When we order take-out for example, we are using up plastic utensils and containers that are going to end up in landfills, long after the food is gone. The blog makes a valid point. We as Americans need to take the time to actually sit down and savor our food.

I CAN'T SEE MY OWN TOES!!!!!! aka Post 1

The obesity rate in this country is out of control and unless we make a change, it will never go down. I feel as though it's due in part to our processed diet and getting away from whole foods. Look at Wisconsin for example; number one in the country as far as obesity goes and our diet consists mainly of processed meat and cheese. We may raise our own cattle but we certainly don't consumer the same cows we send to the slaughter house. Michael Pollen's phrase of "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants," really hits home with me because I feel when it comes to our eating habits this is the motto we should follow. When he says eat food, we have to understand what he means by food. He means whole, healthy food, not the processed fake stuff we get at the supermarket. And overeating is a serious flaw in the American diet. We stuff our faces until we can’t see our toes anymore. Part of this can be blamed on the portion sizes of restaurants, but for the most part we have no self control over how much we actually consume. Take my sixteen year old brother for example. Everytime we hit up the “golden arches,” he gorges with three double cheeseburgers, a twenty piece of McNuggets, and a tall strawberry shake. Here is a prime example of American overindulgence in food. My brother also completely disregards Pollen’s third suggestion of eating mostly vegetables. Today’s generation has been engrained with the idea that vegetables are healthy, but not the most delicious thing in the world. And when surrounded with things like Oreos, the Whopper, and deep fried bacon they obviously are going to leave all things green behind. If we are to make a change we need to examine our “Western Diet” and determine if want to be healthy or satisfied