Vegetables

Recently I was exposed to the BYU Channel while waiting for an appointment. The show that was playing was about an older woman going around instructing households on the importance of dinnertime and showing them recipes to use for the occasion. The families she would visit would usually be characterized by younger children who had no interest in eating as a family or by couples who had simply gotten out of the habit of eating together at a regular time. In the episode I watched, the two families she visited had the same problem: no one liked to eat vegetables, and because the mother/wife usually included some sort of vegetable in the dinner plan, the children/spouse stopped eating it, opting instead for cold cereal or ramen.

Since then I've often wondered what sort of depravity could lead an individual, young or old, to prefer sugary, soggy corn meal or plastic strands of bleached wheat over the crisp snap of fresh green beans, the velvety light sweetness of sliced cucumber, or the hearty clout of a baked potato. Texture and taste aside, vegetables are absolutely jam-packed with vital nutrients that are particularly important for growing children.

And that's what led me to think of how I would prevent that situation when I have my own children. One my friends' son, who is nearly one and a half years old, has been showing a great dislike for vegetables. Of course you can't just simply tell him about the role of Vitamin A in preventing macular degeneration, so how else can you start him off on the right foot? I say the band-aid approach is probably the best method here. Sure, they may dislike the increased vegetable load in their diet, but tough love, baby. Like childhood piano lessons, they'll thank you later - I should know.

The Ol' Apple Cracking Case

Do you remember the iPhone hacking/privacy that was being talked about earlier this year? As a refresher, in December 2015, an attack in San Bernardino County in California left 14 dead and 22 injured. An Apple iPhone was recovered from one of the attackers, which was considered a potential source of important information to the case. As the owner was deceased and the phone protected by a 4-digit password, the FBI petitioned Apple for a way to break the security measure to access the information contained in the phone. However, citing the company’s policy to protect the privacy of their customers, Apple refused the request. Their argument was that such an action would “take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.” Though the FBI eventually won the legal battle to retrieve the information, the actual process was handled through a third party - or in other words, some illegitimate hackers.

 

The FBI had hoped to find information on the attacker’s contacts, which would have potentially led to more information about the attacks or if there were more attacks planned or more people involved. They cited the All Writs Act and connected obtaining the information to a matter of security. Apple saw the forced disclosure of information as a breach of privacy and a violation of the first amendment, calling the forced delivery of code-breaking software “compelled speech”.

In my opinion, even though the case made by Apple legitimately appeals to constitutional rights, I would consider that the person who owned the phone broke his social contract by murdering innocent people and thus deserved some suspension of rights, at least temporarily. By "social contract", I mean the assumed agreement that we (you, me, everyone) won't try to intentionally harm one another if the other will do the same... you know, the thing that allows society to exist in the first place.

A Word on Gun Control

With the recent gun-related violence in places like Dallas and Orlando, the debate over the appropriate level of government-mandated gun control has once again flared across media outlets and political rhetoric. With the inherent difficulty in determining the exact causes that lead to such serious events, consensus on which methods and policies actually affect their occurrences is split across the nation.

There are two main viewpoints on the issue. One is to reduce the power of gun control laws which would permit more people to purchase weapons, which would increase the chance of the perpetrator getting stopped by someone else on the scene. The other is to strengthen such laws which would delay or deny attempted purchases based on things such as mental health and criminal background checks, hopefully reducing the chances of potential criminals to obtain weapons in the first place.

Personally I lean towards increased gun control. I think the stinger here is a misunderstanding of what that means, because the usual response is something along the lines of "Obama is trying to take away our guns". The changes that are proposed on the "gun control" side don't involve taking away weapons from people who already legally own them. They usually aim to prevent people who have demonstrated significant anti-social tendencies or the inability to think clearly on a fundamental level from obtaining the ability to kill people with such convenience as a gun provides. No qualms from me on that one.

A Word on Trump

With our recent discussions on Donald trump in class, I was reading up a bit on some of his better-known speeches and the political reactions to the less favorable portions. It seems that, in response to the more slanderous and insensitive arguments made by Donald Trump, many leading figures in the Democratic party have commented that Trump’s attitude “is not who we are. That is not what this country stands for.” In one of the news articles I read, the author says that “To argue … that Trump is entirely outside of the American character may be effective messaging for Democrats, but also wishful thinking” citing several significant incidents of civil violence against minority groups as well as examples of discrimination in American popular culture and international policy (I give the link to the article at the end of this post). He argues that these negative incidents define the American character just as much as the more admirable ones, suggesting that this is how Trump’s exceptionalist rhetoric has been able to appeal to such a large number of people.

I think the call to consider the “American character” as being more eclectic and complex is warranted. Americans throughout history have shown the propensity of both vehement intolerance and impartial acceptance, in much the same way that the reaction of Native Americans to European settlers differed between the Massachusetts colonies and the ones further south, and both have been demonstrated in the American character up to the present day. Ascribing a single set of characteristics to hundreds of millions of individuals inherits the many flaws of inductive reasoning, but there are certainly patterns of behavior in the United States which are difficult to write off as coincidental, and I think this article makes a compelling point in that regard.

The article quoted is found here:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-donald-trump-america-worst-instincts-20160708-story.html

The Trend of Internet Use

The advent of the internet has brought with it certain trends, some for better and some for worse. With easy access to multiple news sources, journals, blogs, and social media outlets, individuals across America and beyond have the capability to interact with each other, share information, provide services, and generally become acquainted with people and lifestyles they may otherwise never encounter.

The increased use of social outlets on the internet has been leading towards an increase in the level of public virtue in the United States. In my view, the dehumanization of others beyond the scope of one’s own experience is one of the strongest forces arrayed against large-scale peaceful and prosperous cohabitation. The potential of the internet to broadcast real-time human experiences to an ever more involved and attentive audience can be a powerful tool in serving the good of the country and the interest of our faith. In literally an instant, almost the entire nation can be made aware of some social disruption and share ideas and commentary about it; messages of faith and hope can be distributed to those most in need. With the availability and speed of this public communication, public consensuses concerning the issues that lie at the heart of major disruptions may potentially be reached and acted upon sooner, and the progress of missionary work for both the living and the dead can be greatly enhanced.

Obviously, the fruits of this trend of increased internet and social media usage have certainly not all served the public good or increased public virtue. The flood of pornography and the proliferation of extremist propaganda are obstacles in the cause of individual and societal growth. Ultimately though, I believe the facilitated coordination and communication across multiple societal boundaries will promote it.

Composition

Well as some of you may know I am a music composition major here at BYU. I'd like to articulate a simple thought I've developed over the years concerning good composition technique; I think this can readily be translated into other fields of composition and writing.

For westerners, any one piece of music has an innumerable amount of aspects to analyze - tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, voicing, texture, etc. As I've sought to figure out what writing methods lead to good compositions, I've come to realize that the most important thing, and perhaps the only important thing, is form. There's a saying - "there are no such things as poisons, only poisonous doses" - and that's somewhat relevant here. Cyanide, ricin, and even VFDF (short for Very Fast Death Factor) are all inhibitors that, in the proper amounts, can actually help fight certain diseases and ailments. Timbres, textures, frequencies, orchestrations - these may all lie at various points on the spectra of personal experience, but in the right place, for the right duration, and perhaps combined with the right admixtures, any musical element may contribute positively to a piece of music. This is what I've noticed with the masters: the content of their work is usually derived from their reactions to the previous genre. In every age there are many who try to be artists and writers, but only a relative few surface to lasting fame. They often use the same artistic materials, but those whose names we are familiar with placed these with a keen understanding of what the listener was expecting. After all, compelling communication by definition does not meet the expectations of the audience, otherwise they would pass over it as readily as they chew their daily meals.

My Grade for the Class

Based on the strong success I have demonstrated in meeting the learning outcomes of this course, I argue that my overall grade should be an A. I feel that I have adequately demonstrated an understanding of the process of good writing and how to structure a coherent and concise argument. I understand how to acquire and use appropriate sources of information to construct compelling and authoritative viewpoints from which to base points of argument, and I understand how to recognize the same items as I read the work of others.

I recognize that the fact that this is an argument made on my class blog, which is still in the process of completion, is probably the most eyebrow-raising point of my whole speech; I can guarantee, however, that this is merely an extraneous association and not indicative of actual rhetorical capability. My grades in the class thus far have consisted of only the highest marks known to mankind, and the contents that have merited such are of the highest persuasive quality. Having been tutored for years under my stepmother Wendy Austin, who excelled in her career as a professor of technical writing at Edinboro University for several decades, I have been able to refine a unique sense of style and cohesion which I am ready to further hone as I continue with my academic and professional endeavors. This has also been aided by the intensive study of prose and rhetoric in other languages such as Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic, and Persian.