You Shall Fear Nothing You Don't Wish To Fear

As a Jew, I have experienced religious discrimination not only from non-Jews towards Jews, but from Jews towards Arabs, as well. It shocked me to see that a frequent discussion topic at family dinners was the way in which the Arabs were destroying the world and how we should all hate them. What astonished me even more, was to listen to what an anti-Semitic had to say one day when we parked our car in front of his shop. Both arguments were derogatory. The demeaning remarks made me realize that by making them, we are no worse than they are. In this way, I believe that people should learn right from wrong only when the choice is obvious, like to steal or not to steal. A lesson like this, we should learn. On the other hand, we shouldn’t have to be sent to a school which provides textbooks that deny the Holocaust. People should be able to have freedom on their beliefs, unless they are extremely obvious.

In this way, the Tao can be interpreted to the extent where the author believes that right from wrong can and must never be taught because of the subjectivity of people. In chapter 20, the Tao orders to “Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles. Is there a difference between yes and no? Is there a difference between good and evil? Must I fear what others fear? What nonsense!” You shouldn’t be subconsciously forced to fear what others fear, but your basic morals should be the same as the society’s; however, morals that are the foundations of a civilization should and must always be taught and learned. If this is not done so, then laws would never be followed because people would do as they believe, as they please.

 

Discretion, My Friend, Discretion Is The Key

Belonging to a country which implicitly promotes theft has given me a sense of suspicion, or paranoia, concerning the people I come in contact with on a daily basis. I don’t refer to the people close to me, like family and friends, but the strangers that cross my path during my stroll around the mall. I used to have to constantly inventory my belongings during these trips until I got bored of doing so, and began slacking off. One day during school, a place where I let scarcely expected to be robbed, I left my wallet on top of the Bookstore counter. After receiving my order, I remembered it, only to realize that it was missing. As soon as I finished my futile argument with the cashier, I realized that it was my fault that it had been stolen, since I left my wallet where it would be a temptation for those willing to rob me. Book three of Tao Te Ching has a useful lesson to teach when it advises us that “Not collecting treasures prevents stealing”. My opinion is that we can collect treasures, but it is advisable to not let the public know that you are doing so. We can apply this to any other characteristic one has that might lead to haughtiness and thus to jealousy. You can be smart, but don’t gloat or you will be hated and envied. You can be good, but don’t push it or people will not like you. You can be anything you want to be, just as long as you’re discreet about it. In this way, I partially agree and partially disagree with the Tao.  

Writing Studies

Quantity Terms with Count and Noncount Nouns: Exercises

Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

In the following sentences, substitute one of these expressions for the underlined words:

little

quite a little or quite a bit of

few

quite a few

To clarify, little means "not much," but quite a little (or quite a bit of) means "a rather large amount." Few means "not many," but quite a few means "a rather large number."

1. Quite a few students have trouble with economics

2. It requires quite a bit of reading.

3. Few advisors spend as much time with their students.

4. He has little hope of passing his exams.

5. George's advisor spends quite a bit of time with him.

6. He does know few people in the class.

7. Bill does spend little money on clothes.

8. She spends quite a bit of money on CDs.

9. He does have few suits.

10. He does understand little of the reading.

 

 

Count and Noncount Nouns Exercises

Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

 

 

Count and Noncount Nouns

Exercise 1

Are the following nouns count or noncount? Put an N next to the noncount nouns and a C next to the count nouns. If the noun can be either noncount or count depending on the context, put a D next to it.

World c

textbook
c

acid d

smoking n

poetry n

applause n

thought d

banana c

conduct n

progress n

biology n

essay c

crystal d

shopping n

 

Exercise 2

Put an X next to the words in the following list that can be used as either count or noncount nouns, depending on the context.

defense x


beauty
x

garbage

experience x

baggage

rain x

rug

nature

bag

emotion x

 

 

Exercise 3

Fill in the blank with the form of the noun in parentheses that is appropriate to the grammatical context of the sentence and the meaning of the passage as a whole.

Diabetes: Beyond the Basics

Because diabetes can cause devastating damage to virtually all body systems, people with diabetes should not underrate the seriousness of their disease. Learning to live with a chronic illness such as diabetes must be an ongoing process.

The Hospital's Center for Family Life Education is sponsoring a five-part educational series on diabetes. The series will begin on April 30 and continue through May 29. The program will be held in the second floor classroom of the Education Center from 7-9 p.m.

The diabetes series is free and open to the public and will be of specific interest to people who have diabetes and their families and friends.

Exercise 4

On the basis of the rules for using articles discussed in the OWL file "Count and Noncount Nouns," which combinations of words below are permitted and which ones aren't? Put an X next to the incorrect combinations.

a table these x person this furniture that assignment a x a boy

the poetry a difficulty a research x this eggs x those argument x

 

Exercise 5

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate article if one is needed.

The Computer Jungle

Though you can make a decision on purely economic grounds, buying a computer is often more like joining a religious cult. Buy an Apple, for example, and almost by default you join Apple chairman Steve Jobs in his crusade against IBM. Every machine has its "users' groups" and band of loyal enthusiasts who tout its merits. That makes it all the more difficult for those uninitiated to decide what machine to buy. Students have a huge advantage, however. The computer companies are so eager for students' business (it builds "brand loyalty") that many offer huge discounts.

In the past six months, IBM, Apple, and others have brought out new computers, and the fierce competition has forced prices down. Also, time is on your side: next year at one time you'll have even more choice and more computing power and features for the same price. On the other hand, this will probably be true for many years. So for those who need or want a computer now, it's a great time to buy one.

 

Confucius's Media, The Moral Dictator Who Will Cause War

After reading Confucius’s The Analects, I have come to realize that the media is a perfect example of rhetorical influence on people. Like The Analects, the newspaper and news broadcast channels have a secondary purpose which stands beside the one that is to inform. This objective is that it wants the people to have their same point of view regarding a certain situation, person, or organization. This text has taught me to be firm on my beliefs when choosing to accept media into my attention and time. Even Confucius has opinions which I disagree with, like when he says that “As for music, listen only to the Shao and Wu. Prohibit the tunes of Zeng, and keep glib people at a distance--- for the tunes of Zeng are licentious, and glib people are dangerous.” (15.11) Here, I believe that Confucius tries to mess with our perspectives regarding the tunes of Zeng and glib people. He contradicts himself later by stating that “When the multitude hates a person, you must examine them and judge for yourself. The same holds true for someone whom the multitude loves.” (15. 28) I believe this applies to the multitude as well as the media. In this way, there are some points of view which I agree with, as well as there are some which I disagree with. If The Analects have taught me something, it is to not believe everything I read. Surely, there are some points which are logically correct, but I think he uses the momentum that such opinions give him to throw other opinions which aren’t so logical at us. While he may be very open minded and is preoccupied on the good of the group as opposed to the good of the individual, I believe he misuses the term individual and transforms group into army of clones which he will lead to a Utopia. In my opinion, he lacks some perspective regarding people’s individuality.

I agree with David’s blog, Conservative Rightness, which speaks about the way in which a society’s rituals is what holds it together, because we are not advanced enough to tolerate people with different rituals within our society. This has made the world divide into very marked cultural groups. The acceptance of variety is limited, and thus, we are left ignorant on our world’s cultural richness. We are blinded by our media to believe generalizations with futher divide us, and which ends up creating war. This is why I believe that the media is primarily responsible for war. It causes repression, hatred, generalization fallacies, and intolerance. It leaves us in the dark.

Thinking Outside My Head, Tolerance

Now that I think about it, not being aware of a mistake is not our fault. This happens to most people around us. Something that might seem rude or disrespectful might not seem so to another person. It has all to do with perspective and moral background. We can’t blame other people for not feeling ashamed for what we believe deserves to be fixed. The only way that we can help other people realize their mistakes is to explain them to the person, so that he or she can come into account of their error. It is not our job to help people who don’t want to be helped, and we must remember that not all people share our way of thinking. Earlier this evening, I had an encounter with someone who was too stubborn to realize that they made a mistake. He took something that was mine without my permission. While some people wouldn’t be bothered by this, I would. This person couldn’t understand that if I wanted to be asked for permission when he wanted to take something that mine, that he should do so. He believed that since I was his brother, and he didn’t damage it, that he should be able to use my things without permission. After a while of futile attempts to change his way of thinking, I decided to simply let it go. With this experience, I have learned that when people are set on their opinions, it’s very hard to change their minds, and I wasn’t prepared to spend so much energy on such a meaningless task. I had to accept that not all people believe what I do. In conclusion, I would like to add that when blogging these entries, I have to take into consideration the fact that not all people will agree with me, and that I have to be prepared to accept their way of thinking.

Our Perfect Lives

In my opinion, the teaching that states that we should learn from our mistakes has become a bit of a cliché; however, it has correctly proven in almost every situation in which it has been present in my life. For instance, the manner in which I manage my time for homework has always been to procrastinate. Although I recognize my fault, I have yet to fix it. I have come to understand that my true mistake is to not keep the promise I made myself to stop procrastinating. This is not a mistake (because a mistake is supposedly something you do by accident) but more of an error. This error is the only thing that is obstructing an increase of time for myself and a decrease in the time I spend doing homework or watching TV with a guilty conscience. While I’m procrastinating, I’m aware of what I’m doing, but I don’t have the willpower to stop myself. This is something that is at the top of my to-do list which I will, one day, hopefully, complete. What Confucius states that concerns this topic is the following: “The Master said, 'To make a mistake and yet to not change your ways--- this is what is called truly making a mistake.'” (15.30) He is very right at that, and I think that peoples’ problem is that they don’t realize that they have made a mistake, so they don’t believe they have anything to fix. Many people believe they are perfect. I believe that we should always strive for perfection, taking into account the fact that we will never acquire it.

Writing Excercises

1. Where is my jacket? I wanted to wear it today, and if I can't find it, we're going to be late.
2. Jane wanted to go on the school trip, but her mother said that two hundred dollars was too much for the family budget.
3. As she waited for Rodney to become conscious, Selma was seized with an attack of conscience -- was there anything she could have done to prevent the accident?
4. The map led the intrepid treasure hunters to a lead box of precious stones.
5. Have you seen their coats? They're going to need them; it's cold outside. I last saw the coats over there .
6. After conducting careful research, Shufang had a brilliant idea ; she'd write a paper on Thomas More's concept of the ideal society in Utopia.
7. Even though Bob would rather play video games than study, he decided to hit the books and then play some Halo.
8. It's easy to admire a business that puts so much effort into creating its signs and window displays.
9. You're fortunate to have survived the car crash without a scratch; it must have been because you were wearing your seat belt.
10. I would advise you to seek qualified legal advice about how to handle this situation.

The Good Of The People

 

The good of the group as a whole is more important than the good of the individuals because the group involves more people, whereas the individual involves only individuals. The rest of the people are left to suffer. During the Holocaust, a group of Jews were selected to work as money forgers for the bankrupt Nazi party. In exchange, not only were their lives spared, but they were allowed luxuries which their brothers in the concentration camps could only dream of. They had to choose between their comfort and their kind’s wellbeing. It was more important to sabotage the Nazis in order to save many Jewish lives, as opposed to giving in to their demands which gave them an easier time. 

It's Already There If You Want It To Be

After reading The Secret, I have come to understand that if you want something, you won’t have it unless you believe it’s already yours. I have applied this when choosing to better myself in the area of my personality and conscience. If I wish that I could be more aware of other people’s feelings rather than simply my own, and I believe that I have a better sense of awareness and conscious, “I will find that it is already there”, as Confucius said in Book 7 Verse 30 (“Is Goodness really so far away? If I simply desire Goodness, I will find that it is already there.”)

This is crucial, because wishing to have more awareness implies being attentive to the amount of awareness you already have. This self-assessment is the only thing needed to better oneself. This is why people who don’t think they do anything wrong don’t better themselves. When you’re perfect, what’s to amend? 

Being Picky When Befriending

During my life, I have had to move to a different places a number of times, and one thing I learned from the experience, was the art of sizing people up so that I could choose friends quickly and smartly. I discovered that if I chose a friend who’s human values were worse than mine, that I would surely lose my morals in a short period of time. I had to be intimate with someone who had equal or greater morals than mine. Identifying someone’s personal way of living is not as easy as alalyzing their appearance. I had to, as Confucius says in Book 4, verse 7, “Observe closely the sort of mistakes a person makes—then you will know his character.” I knew that everybody makes mistakes, but I would observe how people would react to the mistakes they made. If they simply shrugged at the equivocation, or really endeavored to make amends. This is a great way to identify a person’s heart, the strength of the conscious of the person. I believe I actually got the hang of it after failing a couple of times, and I think this is a skill that everybody should develop. To be in company with equal or greater persons than oneself is the ultimate method of self-improvement.

A Good Public Speaker

Obama uses a considerable amount of Pathos during his acceptance speech, like when he mentions the task at hand, “…for there are new jobs to be created, new schools to build and new threats to meet, and alliances to repair.” (min. 6 Pt. 2) He employs ethos when he states how honest he will be to the people of America in minute 7 of part two. His pathos and ethos statements can be identified as deliberative.  I identified a fallacy when, in minute 8 of part two, he says, “lets remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the republican party of the white house; a party founded on the values of self-reliance, and individual liberty, and national unity.” This is a Non causa pro causa fallacy because he implies that he is as the man who first carried the banner… and in turn, will cause the enforcement of the stated values.

I believe that his gestures are acceptable only if one pays no attention to them. It is nice to feel that the speaker refers to the whole audience, but I believe that he switches his viewing side too often, and may cause a distraction for those who pay attention to it. Otherwise, it’s a great method for making everyone feel patriotic.  

Do We Deserve To Die?

Bad things happen to good people so that bad people realize how much worse off they can be if they continue to be bad. People are testes, not punished for  being good so that if they pass, they are really good, but if they fail, then they’re just average. People’s goodness is tested, kind of like quality control, so that God can sort the ones who are really good from the ones who are lemons. Good people who are good just so that they can be rewarded, question their loyalty when bad things happen to them. It is only to the good people who bad things happen and leave their faith intact. In other words, if you’re going to start the trip, you have to finish it. As one can’t be half Jew, half Christian, one can’t be half believer, half doubter when presented with benefits and losses.  

 

Our Faith In Its Teenage Years

We were asked to read Night along with the book of Job so that we could observe the power of our faith, and what it takes to be broken. In Job, he was falsely punished, the thing that destroyed his faith, questioning his prayers and his loyalty to an all-powerful God who was all-demanding. He thought that, if God was unsatisfied with the perfect loyalty of Job, what was he satisfied with? He concluded that God could never be satisfied. Job’s perception of God can also be observed in many parents of present day. For instance, one father may never be satisfied with his son’s athletic or academic performance, while a mother may never be pleased by her daughter’s appearances. This is something that causes the child to lose faith in their parent’s judgment, but after a while of struggles and disappointments. In Night, Elie’s god died within him when he experienced God’s indifference towards the events of the Holocaust. He was shocked at how cruel God can be when standing there, watching the horrors from the outside. In this way, I believe these texts try to show us that God can often display adolescent traits, like mood swings. He can defend someone he favors, or punish whoever he dislikes, simply because of a whim. God’s inconsistency is demonstrated when he doesn’t act during the mass murder of his people, but does help his people to expand. In other words, God chooses to enable expansion as well as suppression of his people. His helping-hand is picky on where it chooses to aid.

The texts we read are chosen to show us during which conditions are people’s faith for God maintained. It is wrong to believe in God only when he helps you. Like a friend, you must not only be someone’s companion when it works to your favor, but vice-versa as well. In other words, you shouldn’t be someone’s friend only when they let you copy off their notebook, but when you let him copy of yours too. In the same way, we shouldn’t have faith in God only when God aids us financially, socially, etc… In the same way that we trust God when he helps us, we should also trust him when he doesn’t.

Faith, in turn, can be limp when being evoked in different circumstances. We should be consistent with it as we are with our daily lives (unless one is a teenager). The inconsistency of one’s faith can be compared to the inconsistency of the emotions one feels as a teenager:

The reality is that, people who don’t often pray choose to do so in a moment where their life is at risk. For instance, people choose to pray while the bank they’re in is being robbed, but never rely on God when his presence is not desperately needed. It shouldn’t take a desperate situation for one to believe and to ask for God’s help. Our faith for God should be like our parent’s love towards us, unconditional. If it is unconditional, then the God in our souls shall become immortal, shall become immune to the events of our lives. If we love God unconditionally, then he will never let us lose faith, as Elie Wiesel says in his book, “You must never lose faith, even when the sword hangs over your head.” Pg. 29.

It's Dr. God, Not Mr. God

Assumptions, as Murphy's Law states, are the "Mother of all mess-ups". It has happened to me that, during an important speech, like for example an NJHS induction ceremony, I confuse an important person's title for one that is lesser than the one the person rightfully owns. I believe I messed up Mr. Bookwalter for Dr. Bookwalter, a mistake I came into account of right after committing it. I now realize how demeaning it must be to be treated as something lesser than what one really is. I imagine God to feel wrathful when he was treated as a human who could be judged for his choices. God gets angry at Job for cursing him and in that way, implying that he's worthy of being cursed. He is not a human to whom one can simply insult without expecting repercussions. The beginning of his anger started with disbelief, as it usually does, when he questioned, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?". God is obviously pissed off by his incarnation made by Job. Faith in the LORD must be unconditional, in the good as well as the bad times.  

Presidential Fallacies

1. "Instead of having a discussion, let me ask you as a coda to that. Would you give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you take office? Because in a bipartisan way, everyone agrees, that's a big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more than the mortgage crisis." 

Here there are two fallacies. First, there is the hasty generalization fallacy when Brokaw states that EVERYONE agrees with his reasoning. Another fallacy that can be found here is the "either or" fallacy which he uses to say that either the Social Security and Medicare is reformed, or a "big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more that the mortgage crisis", will go off. 

3. Obama uses an "either or" fallacy when he states that, "We're going to have to explore new ways to get more oil, and that includes offshore drilling. It includes telling the oil companies, that currently have 68 million acres that they're not using, that either you use them or you lose them."

4. Obama uses a slippery slope fallacy (also called a Camel's Nose fallacy) when he says that "If they can't get a loabm that means that they can't make a payroll. If they can't make a payroll, then they may end up having to shut theur doors and lay people off."

Be Grateful Or Be Poor

My black Labrador’s trainer told us that we should give her a bone and while she is feasting on it, that we should take it away from her so as to demonstrate our superiority to her. He said that this was important because if we didn’t do it, then one day, she would rebel against us and growl when we deprived her of something. We were supposed to maintain our command status very clear. In this way, I believe that God’s actions have an intention of proving his superiority (not to mention, make us stop taking everything for granted) so that we don’t compare ourselves with him. When “[JOB 12.19] He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man [JOB. 12.25].”

 

Thus my explanations proceeds: God gives and takes to prove that he can do so, and to teach us to appreciate what we have, which is what he has given us. If we don’t appreciate our possessions and senses as a product of his kindness, we are rid of them, we are rid of his generosity.