Dominic Cesario's Weblog

For this blog of choice, I will be answering the ethical question of whether or not you should walk out of a restaurant with your food if the cashier has forgotten to charge you. This question is very difficult because the conditions of this specific scenario can alter your answer. Let’s say you walked out with your food at a restaurant of the corporate status, I think that it is not right if you do it, but very little consequences would react to this action. However, if you walked out with your food from let’s say a mom and pop restaurant, I still think that it is wrong, but more consequences can react with your action. I think this way because corporate companies are less taxed then small businesses and generally receive more income. Small businesses have higher taxes and have a lot of dependent people to care for. The conditions I view that do not change on the scenario are the prices of the food you do not pay for. If you do not pay for a fifty dollar bill that is the same if you do not pay for a three dollar bill. I see it this way because if something is wrong to begin with that amount that is damaged has no affect. Would you say that murdering the president is worse than murdering a milk man? Ethics have been a question for thousands of years and have been the most diverse subject across the human species.

So far the movie Shattered Glass has been very interesting. In the beginning of the movie I saw Stephen as an intelligent honest man, but I noticed that my perspective changed later in the movie. He interacts well with his co-workers and treats them with respect, just as they do. I think his story telling of the hacker seemed very real, but later my view changed. Stephen faces several ethical dilemmas. One ethical dilemma is that he is suspected of making a story up and if he is lying then he is out of work, but if he denies it, he is releasing false information. I personally believe that Stephen is lying because all the information he provided did not check out. Although, some of the information appeared to be real, Stephen most likely created the source. Chuck also faces many ethical dilemmas. Earlier in the movie he has to choose between remaining at his position in his workplace, or taking the job of his current editor. Chuck also faces the dilemma of believing Stephen or not. Stephen’s information on the hacker story does not seem to be very real and at the same time Chuck has to trust his fellow writers. Stephen’s rhetoric seems to be pretty obscure. He speaks in a soft voice, wins the authority of people by complimenting them, and asks if people are mad at him when he does something wrong. So it seems that he is making himself look like he is submissive to everyone else, so that his coworkers trust everything he says.

My topic for project two is going to be on the film “V for Vendetta”. I chose this topic because I am very much interested in the fictional (but relative) stories of dystopias. The dystopia is specifically a political dystopia. It is the story of a democracy slowly and progressively warping into a totalitarian state. Many viewers claim it is supposed to parallel the recent actions of the United States government. I take a big interest in politics and history, so this topic will be an enjoyable one. The two different perspectives I will be examining for the essay will be the perspective of the character “V” (and eventually the people of the totalitarian state) and the perspective of the government bureaucrats. The character “V” faces some ethical obstacles himself. Throughout the film, he takes many rebellious actions such as killing the corrupt officials of the government. I will answer that question of whether it is ethical or not to kill people who are taking the inalienable human rights from a mass amount of people of a state. I will also answer the question on the side of the government’s perspective on whether it is ethical or not to take the rights from people by spreading propaganda to increase the safety of the state. I will have to bring in the idea of whether the end justifies the means. The idea will play a big part in the discussion f this film and will lead me to my conclusion of the essay.

My topic of choice will be about the current United States involvement in Iraq. Personally, I find that the United States involvement in Iraq is not justifiable and I find it wrong. We never declared war on Iraq, making the action a preemptive strike, which is illegal under international law. So the United States is already violating the international law. Also, President Bush initiated this attack because there were links between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. However, the 911 commission report said that there were NO links between the two. Still to this day people argue that there were links between them, so I guess they choose to ignore the factual statement o f the people that investigated the attacks. I agree that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator who needed to be taken down, but a better idea would be the helping involvement of the U.N. and NATO. Our countries debt is in the trillions right now and we can’t afford to go off and help others when we ourselves have wounds that need mending. We are not only making the people of Iraq angry, but we are making the neighboring countries nervous. I mean how would we feel if Russia was occupying Mexico? Our nation would feel very nervous. All the money spent on this war could have gone to scholarships for students, higher pay for teachers, or used toward the homeless. I hope the next president whoever it might be, will exit Iraq and focus on strengthen our country’s economy and education rather than pleasing the big oil companies.

The blog topic of my choice will be about my favorite book; “A Scanner Darkly” by Phillip K. Dick. I read the book this past summer and I would have to say it’s the best book I have read, right before “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut. The book was written in 1977 and was semi-autobiographical. The book is in the setting of a dystopia and focuses mainly on the drug problems a man and a few others face. A cop named Fred takes the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor, who heavily takes a drug called Substance D. His love for this other drug dealer named Donna Hawthorne starts to go as his brain starts to spilt into two combative entities. He eventually is taken to a rehab facility named “New Path” by Donna. Finally, Fred/Arctor realizes what Substance D is exactly and the book ends. This book is very interesting and is written to show the damages of drugs. Dick creates a dystopian setting where the government is constantly using surveillance on its citizens. Drugs are made out to ruin the youth and the government tries to halt that spread by being very invasive. Phillip K. Dick created a very surreal version of American society and made a lot of social problems known in this novel. A movie was recently made about this book. It starred Keanu reeves, Robert Downy Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder. The film won one award and was nominated for six other awards.

Blog on news

I read an article titled “ISPs create tangled Web of sneaky fees” by Bob Sullivan. The article is about how a DSL broadband company Verizon snuck hidden fees into its customer’s bills because the government tax to the internet users was dropped so Verizon applied a “Supplier Surcharge”. Instead of forwarding that charge, the company would just pocket the fee. In my opinion, this is very unethical action. The majority of customers do not know a lot about computers and the internet, and that is not justification for internet providers to take advantage of the customers’ ignorance. They tried to send a cozy letter explaining the situation about the dropped tax, and said their fees would be slightly decreased, but did not explain the new surcharge. Many careful bill readers caught this, but competition is supposed to keep companies honest, and I don’t see how that can fit into this situation. The article makes a point that consumers really don’t know what they are paying for, and that creates a sort of apples-to-apples mentality. Each company has a pro and con, which makes them equal. Companies make up for this mentality by lying about how fast and efficient their product is. I like how the writer uses the example of how car companies say that their newly produced car gets 45 mpg, but with the normal driver it really only gets 30-35mpg. Internet providers have many problems with their product, but usually avoid losing a customer by blaming the problem on their computer.

Blog of Choice

For this blog of choice, I have chosen to talk about a very big interest of mine; running. I got into in my sophomore year of high school, and haven’t stopped yet. I decided to run cross country in my senior year of high school. We ran about forty miles per week. At times it was hard. Running six miles a day in 90 degree heat was the hardest, but going to meets every weekend and having my family, friends, and coaches cheer me one was the best part of it. I made varsity in the middle of the season and got to become a much better runner. I made a lot of friends on the team, some that I am still friends with. I got to run in the regional race, and I did pretty well, but our team didn’t go onto states. I had two goals that year. One goal was to make varsity and the other was to graduate with a 4.0 gpa, and I completed both. I was very proud of myself that year. Running is really the only time I can think things through the best way, and the way I can totally clear my mind. One lifetime goal I have is to complete a marathon before I die. I am currently training for a half-marathon, and after that I will start training for a marathon. Not to mention running is the best form exercise, and you can avoid certain injuries if you run smart.

Should I give a homeless person a dollar?

If I was walking down the street and a homeless person approached me and asked for a dollar. my initial impulse would be to give him a dollar. It feels almost as an obligation to help out a fellow man with less fortune as you. It feels like an obligation to humanity. Then again, many other things would enter in my head that advocate not giving the homeless man a dollar. The homeless man might receive the dollar and ask for more money and that is just immature and annoying. He might use the dollar and spend in unwisely, like on drugs or alcohol. He may harm me and steal my wallet. One last skeptical idea would be that he isn’t homeless at all and he is just on the street lying about his financial situation to obtain a dollar without working. These ideas would stop me from giving a homeless man a dollar. If the homeless man ensured me that he was going to buy food with it and not alcohol and drugs, I myself would go with him and buy that item of food. However, after all that analysis I do also consider that it’s just a dollar. Nevertheless, I could purchase a double cheeseburger or a soft serve cone from McDonalds. After giving it all this thought I would not give the homeless person a dollar, but if I didn’t have all this time to analyze my next move I would probably cave and give him the dollar.

Topic of my Choice

The topic I choose will be about my favorite activity. My favorite hobby is surfing. I started surfing about four years ago and I knew I was addicted. I have a 6’4” short board and a 7’2” long board. I grew up on the gulf coast of Florida in Sarasota. Although, Sarasota does not have waves all the time I can still get some surfing in during storms, cold fronts, or take a trip to the east coast. I have been surfing in Costa Rica twice, but I have been there four times. This past summer I went to Playa Hermosa and surfed week as a graduation present from my parents. The other time I surfed there was back in the summer before my freshman year of high school. When I surf in Sarasota I surf at Lido Key at a private beach of a hotel. I have met a lot of people out in the lineup. It’s a good place to talk to old very experienced surfers. For instance, I met this guy who had been surfing that spot since 1972. Old surfers can teach a lot. You can meet a lot of interesting and crazy people who can change your life after one conversation. One the most amazing things I have seen while surfing is a dolphin surfing the wave about one hundred feet to the right of me. One day I hope to establish a career in Costa Rica and be able to surf every day.

Analysis of Presidential Commercial

I chose a Ron Paul campaign commercial for an analysis of the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. The commercial begins with a picture of the candidate, then moves into a black screen and has a number of popular political actions taken by Ron Paul. Some of the political actions taken by Ron Paul mentioned are that he has never voted to raise taxes, never voted to increase congressional pay, and voted against the Patriot Act. These popular actions, I think acts as an establishment of authority, appealing to the element of ethos. A number of other popular political actions are shown in the commercial, which both act as the support and the evidence for the argument for his candidacy. The only emotion that immediately jumps out at me is the background music of the commercial. This proud and inspiring music appeals to the element of pathos. The emotion is not overplayed, so the emotion does not distract the audience from the argument. However, the emotion might be underplayed a little bit. I think that the commercial could be strengthened in emotion by adding a photo or a video of many of his supporters holding Ron Paul campaign signs. The addition of this emotion could add a sense of popularity and pride. The commercial doesn’t appeal that much to logos because the commercial really doesn’t present any of his presidency ideas, only his past voting. So a relationship between ideas cannot be made. Overall, the commercial does an good job appealing to the elements of ethos, pathos, and logos.

Blog of Choice

The topic I have chosen is the subject of my experience of living in college dorm. The entire summer before my first semester of college I was constantly told that I would meet so many people by living in a dorm. This of course turned out to be true. I have met many people that I will want to stay in touch with the rest of my life. One particular thing I like is that I live in a very diverse dorm suite. I have one suitemate who is Palestinian, a suitemate who is Jewish, and my roommate is Indian. I could say that I was very lucky because all of my suitemates and I are pretty much the same people. We have many of the same interests and the same humor. I say that I am lucky because since we are pretty much the same people, it enables us to get along great. My relations with my R.A. are pretty good, so I don’t have to worry about her being unfair. The only negative sides I have found are that I cannot do whatever I want in my room, such as play loud music or have privacy since I have a roommate. Another negative side to living in a dorm is that since I am a light sleeper soft noises awake me. So two things that I look forward to in having my own apartment is that I can sleep better and be able to do I want in my room.

1)Authority or ethos is the amount of confidence or hope the listener has toward the arguer. Emotion or pathos is the exercise in which the arguer presents a sentimental side to the argument in an attempt to touch the soft side of the audience. Logic or logos is the skill of connecting the ideas presented in your argument.
2)A good strategy is to offer opposite mentalities and discredit them with argumentative points to strengthen your argument. Also, after you have done research you more easily sound confident. A way to sound of confident would be not to use phrases like “I think” or “In my opinion”. It is advantageous for you to be a seen as an authority to reader because the reader is more likely to accept and accept your claims.
3)A good strategy for appealing to emotion would be to use ample amount of imagery in your writing to allow the audience to connect within themselves. Another good strategy is to tell an audience a story of an emotional personal experience and use that as support for a claim. A hypothetical situation could be showing images of animal cruelty to support an argument in favor of animal rights.
4)Yes there are potential disadvantages with using heavy appeal of emotion because something the emotion can be so strong that people miss that point of the argument. Also, emotion can be so graphic that people can be shocked enough to miss the point. An example could be showing graphic images of dead animals and shocking the audience enough to distract them from your point.
5)A way you can build a strong argument using logos would be to connect your claim to support and supporting your support with evidence such as examples in history or personal experience. It is very important to use logos for a reasonable argument because your audience wouldn’t view your opinion as a valued opinion, and without that you don’t have an audience.
6)I think that ethos, logos, and pathos are interconnected and interdependent on each other in an argument. Lobbyists and politicians conduct a great deal of research for their argument to create and authority, attempt to create emotional imagery to help their cause or actions, and use multiple kinds of detailed support.

Analysis of Environmentalism as Religion Run Amok by Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton uses all three persuasive appeals in his argumentative essay on the subject of environmentalism. I noticed that he established a sense of authority because he engaged in plenty of research. He presents research on the bible and regional history from the Maori of New Zealand to the Sioux of the Americas. His research gives the reader a sense of confidence; a major part of ethos. Michael Crichton presents emotions in the disagreement of nature being similar to the Garden of Eden, but he seems not to use emotion enough in some areas. He sets up the imagery of nature being a hard and tough place to survive with the mentioning of plague, war, and high mortality rates. He also uses emotion when he mentions that DDT never caused birds to die and that the ban caused millions of people to die to a callous. He creates an image of people dying in response to an unjustly ban. Michael Crichton uses logos to connect his ideas through a relationship of support. He establishes his idea of environmentalism being politicized and connects this idea with the support of the evidence he presents. He presents evidence of past occurrences in history, the ban of DDT, and the bible. Finally, my evaluation of the essay is that Michael Crichton uses a good amount of research to support his claim, and is able to connect his ideas to make his claim seem sound and logic. However, he has many more opportunities to reveal emotion from his writing. He could go more in depth into the situations that could possibly bring emotion. Although he could add more emotion, his persuasive essay convinced me that environmentalism is a religion run amok.

Claim: A necessary element of an argument that serves as the thesis of the argument and as an assertion. A claim functions as the idea that the argument is created off of.
Support: The reasons why a claim or assertion is made in an attempt to convince people to agree with your claim. Support functions as the motives behind a claim or assertion.
Evidence: The information that makes the argument stronger by using examples or opinions. Evidence functions as strong points that make the claim and support stronger.
Explanation: The process of clarifying or interpreting your evidence. Explanation functions as the overall strongest part of an argument and puts understanding to the evidence provided.
1)My immediate response to this argument is that this is a very interesting claim. I never really noticed that environmentalism has been acting as a religion for quite some time now. It makes me think about how long environmentalism has been politicized and how much it as halted progression of the environment. I feel that this is a sensitive subject and should be dealt with by the individuals because I think that would be the best nonpolitical answer. The vividness of nature stuck out to me. He explained how nature isn’t a paradise at all and described why it was so negative. That explanation was the most vivid description I have read.
2)Crichton’s tone is certainly a negative one. He loathes on the fact that environmentalism has been following a religious path and not a hard scientific mentality. He is trying to make the reader feel the way he does by offering many negative products in the situation of environmentalism as a religion. He wants the reader to render the realms of ignorance and realize that politicized environmentalism misconstrued.
3) Crichton’s main claim is that environmentalism has become politicized into a religion and needs to be directed as scientific environmentalism. He claims that governments use false evidence in the environment as a way to allow their ideas acceptable pass. He also claims that we can never understand nature as a religion because it has constant changing systems.
4)Crichton supports his claims by explaining the truths behind the history of nature on how it was clearly not originated as a paradise. He used a United Nations estimate on the world population. He uses doctrines and principles of the bible, history of different regions, and puts a little opinion in here and there. Overall, I think his evidence support his claim very well because he touched down on every part of his claim.
5) Crichtons reason for not citing his sources might be that he uses a lot of history that was never written down and that the process of religion cannot be proven as factual or not. I accept his reasoning because it touches a deeper part argument. I don’t think citing or not citing can hurt his reasoning.
6) I think Crichtons argument is strong because it presents a claim, supports his claim with reason, strengthens his reasoning with past occurrences, and explains how this past occurrences relate with his claim.