Rhetoric of Lewis Black

(Courtesy of hometheaterinfo.com)

As many of you may know, Lewis Black is a comedian.  For those of you that have not heard of him, he is your typical Jewish, liberal comedian.  I have been a fan of his work for several years and I just saw him here at Penn State tonight in the Eisenhower Auditorium.  And I thought to myself I have to blog about him for this week.  About 95% of the time he was communicating his messages through comedy, but when he wasn't cracking jokes he was communicating his thoughts like your average speaker.  As a speaker, he establishes his creditably with his audience through his jokes.  When he is not using profanity, hyperbole or satire to try to make the audience laugh, he is speaking to the crowd like an average Joe.  And yes he persuaded me!  While I was watching him tonight I realized that even though he is incredibly funny.  He relies mostly on these methods to make the audience laugh, yet the only person this had consequences for was himself.

At some points his hands were shaking so much from his constant yelling, convulsions, and gestures.  For someone that also suffers from anxiety, I can relate.  Although, I do not have anywhere near a case as he does.  I really wanted to get him a Valium or something.  I mean he is sixty three and he may be a little old for that kind of stuff.  I guess those are the kinds of things you notice out of people speaking, especially if it is for a long amount of time.  He was truly great though.  He spoke about the rhetoric of his generation compared to ours, our world with regards to social media and how Congress does not get shit done.  So it was pretty much the usual topics of discussion.   Nonetheless, it was quite an entertaining performance and in the end he got a standing ovation from the crowd.  For those of you not familiar with him, you should check him out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbt_sqeW4ko

Marijuana in the Public Mind

So what is the first impression you get from this title?  Oh great this kid does weed.  Well rest assured, I have never smoked marijuana before in my life.  However, I like many others, regardless whether or not they do smoke have opposing views on it.  Should we legalize it? Should we not legalize it?  Personally it is indifferent to me, but could others with stronger views say the same.  Recently, in my Media and Democracy class we discussed the commonplaces held by society over the use of Marijuana.  It is clearly not portrayed correctly in movies and popular culture.  Is it right to make fun of it?  Is it wrong to condone it?  To answer that question you really need to know its history.  I recently watched the movie, Grass to get a better sense of the role of the drug throughout the years in society.  I felt I understood the issue more.  The controversy it is has caused and the lasting implications of it.  Through it, I was able to view the different thoughts of people in society.  Some may think, "Hey if I am not harming myself nor hurting others, why should I be told that I cannot do it?"   Others may think, "It leaves permanent effects on the human mind and it is a gateway drug to others." Personally I do not think it will be legalized at least anytime soon.  The reason for that is that there is no way to regulate it.  I do not mean the regulation of it through taxation.  I mean the regulation of it in terms of a legal limit that can be distributed or consumed.  For instance, breathalyzers are used to indicate the level to which someone is intoxicated when they are under the influence of alcohol.  But what is out there to see the level to which someone is high off of weed?.....not a damn thing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1450016703688449604

Rhetoric of Social Media

For the millions of users on Facebook and Twitter, It is a commonplace to share and express their ideas through words, images, tweets, etc.  However, how credible is social media and how much information should we put out there for others to see?  Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter use the Internet and once something is on the Internet it stays out there forever.  I remember in high school when I disabled my Facebook for a while because I just didn't want someone, somewhere keeping tabs on me, but then I realized in a Google search something.  It still was the case.  Even though I closed my Facebook I found all the info I had public on there on a Google search.  My first impressions were great.  That is quite reassuring.  Then I did more searching on Google.  There were county swim records there, honor roll mentions, and even articles on other random things I had forgotten about.  So I came to the conclusion that I might as well be like everyone and have one to use as a form of communication.  I thought it really did not matter whether I had one or not because my stuff was already out there.  That was close to four years ago when social media was just starting to get hot.  Nowadays on Facebook there is that timeline shit.  I refused to get that crap until about 3 weeks ago when Facebook forced me to.  I don't know how that came to be because there are plenty that still do not have it, but one day it said “make changes to your timeline before it goes public in 5 days.”  Anyways now with that it is even harder to delete posts and stuff.  Whatever is there is meant to stay.  The thought of that is scary folks.  Wow I just checked out things on my timeline from prior years and there are things I remember deleting that are coming up.  Social Media is pretty shady and with all that information in the wrong hands that cannot be good.  It is a good thing I keep Facebook clean, but you have to feel sorry for others.  I am referring to those that put things out there that they do not want potential employers to see.