A question that bugged me the entire time while reading The Handmaids Tale was this; what are men so afraid of women that they would put them in such bondage? Woman are naturally weaker vessels than men. I don't think the men in this book or in life are afraid that women are going to come to some strange realization that they can overpower us and then do so. I think the question begs to differ in the fact that men enjoy being oppressive towards their female counterparts and like to do what they want with them whenever they want to.
Men in the Muslim society fit this description of how they oppress women very nicely. Which is why I would like to do research on Muslim women in their community and find out why it is that they are oppressed so much. What is their role in their society? The answer to this question would shed light on what the men want out of their women. I believe that in doing research in this are I will find out what it is that men want out of women and why.
I chose this topic because I have always found it strange to constrain women this much. What is it that they are afraid of that women are capable of? Women are just as capable as men are. There is no huge difference between us besides how we might think and the actual physical attributes of men and women. That is why this topic interests me so much and I think it will help me better understand The Handmaids Tale.

Contemporary Literature
Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 1-11
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1208335


This is an article that I found using the databases on the YC portal. This article is an interview with O' Brien that answers some questions that the reader might have had while reading the book. I would like to use this article because it came out after the book in 1991 and it sheds some light on the novel. I think it would be a critical asset to understanding why it is that O' Brien wrote the way he did. It gives context to the book, it gives readers an understanding that even almost thirty years after the war, some things still affect O' Brien and I think this is important when looking at his book. A reader must understand that everything a soldier goes through is remembered and the stories that they do share are very important.

2 U.S. Fliers Killed In Vietnam as Reds Down Their Copter
New York Times (1923-Current file); Jun 27, 1964; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007)


I would like to use this newspaper article because it tells you what everyone thought we were fighting the war for. It talks about "Reds" and communism. This is the type of news that O' Brien was reading before he was drafted into the war. It is also very credible because it was written during the time frame and from a very reliable news source, The New York Times. It is also specifically talking about the Vietnam War and the begging of it.

The Gamblers Fallacy



The Sandstorm by Sean Huze

Sean Huze's play brings out a lot of emotions, but I don't know if they are the right ones. The play

has a lot of fallacies in it, the main one that sticks out is "Appeal to Emotion." He is using your

emotions against you to sum up a war that is very complicated. Multiple times the author suggests

that the Marines don't want to be there. This might be true but the author fails to recognize that this

is a very small select group of the Marine Corps. He plays a fallacy here called a, "Hasty

Generalization." This fallacy takes a small sample of a large group and then bases the facts of the

smaller sample on the entire group. Other than that the story appeals to emotions by involving

gory details and facts, somehow trying to undermine the war, and in a small way saying it's not

worth it because this is what's happening to people. The story in the end where it talks about the

Marines leaving the town and the author putting all that mushy gushy stuff in there, he continues

to use fallacies and fails to use common sense. Again, using the appeal to emotion fallacy, the

author forgets to add any amount of common sense. For instance, the fact that they are soldiers,

and that soldiers never see the whole picture. So when higher up calls for them to go and take

care of business somewhere else, like an uprising of insurgents which is a bad thing, they freak

out and feel like they are abandoning those people. In all reality they probably sent some more

Marines in to protect those people. And even if they didn't, they obviously had something more

important to take care of. In essence I was disgusted with this play because rather than use facts

the author relies on pity and emotion to grab the audiences attention.

The two poems that I reacted two the most or felt the most connection to was "Song of Napalm" by Bruce Weigl and "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" by Kevin C. Powers. I guess the reason that I felt such a connection to these two poems is that they both have to deal with war, which happens to be what my trade is. I joined the Army in 2008 and I'm a gunner for the 856 Military Police Company stationed up in Flagstaff. Reading these poems reminds me of some of the stuff I have been through in our training and what not. The discussions I've had with people in and out of the military and the awkward introductions I have made when explaining to my girl friends family what it is that I do in the Army.



When reading Powers poem and realizing that the first line is a of him writing home to his girl, I can connect with him on a personal level because of the letters that I have written home to family and friends. I understand what it's like to be writing a letter and wondering if anything that is happening around me will some how be passed in through the letter, like smells or dust or even a drop of blood. I can even now still remember where I wrote some of my letters and the weird feeling it is to be a killer yet a lover at the same time. To be writing home about your feelings when you know the next day you wouldn't want any of your loved ones to know what it is your training for, or what it is that you will be doing the next day.



In Weigl's poem I see how a young man is trying to forget where he is by day dreaming, by wishing away everything he has seen. This experience is common amongst us soldiers. I don't know how many times I have sat around day dreaming wishing I was some where other than where I was. But you are always brought back by the chirp of automatic gunfire or the heat or someone yelling. Trying to go back to the day dream is like trying to catch the bird you just released. It's senseless to try once the day dream is over but you try again anyway, because it was just nice to get away for a while. But like he explains in the end of his poem by saying,
"And not your good love and not the rain-swept air
And no the jungle green
Pasture unfolding before us can deny it." (Weigl 41-45)
He's saying that no matter how you paint the picture reality is what it is. There is no way to get away from it, no escape.












Works Cited
1. "Song of Napalm" Bruce Weigl, Archaeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 1999 https://3bb.yc.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_22410_1%26url%3D
2. "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" Kevin C. Powers, Poetry 2009. https://3bb.yc.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_22410_1%26url%3D

Image 1-http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/11/16/1611webstory_iraq.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theage.com.au/news/iraq/us-troops-free-scores-from-secret-prison/2005/11/16/1132016823151.html&usg=__QfqPDvmMZMmfNcsxgJ2u8HK0ykU=&h=310&w=470&sz=29&hl=en&start=63&zoom=1&tbnid=9BUy_p0SH9VFLM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=191&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Biraq%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D996%26bih%3D960%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C2228&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=433&ei=Y9qKTIKrJIfQsAPp-sSxBA&oei=MtqKTPTiN5K-sAObtamfBA&esq=11&page=4&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:63&tx=61&ty=62&biw=996&bih=960

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Sam Hammil’s view of how to change the violence in today’s society and past is ridiculous. He is presuming that all humanity can come to a point of certainty about love. He is saying that everyone, if they try, can have enough “compassion” in their heart to overcome the “batterers” of the world. But then he goes on to defend the people in jail saying that they need to be saved too. He’s saying that people can be saved, when in reality we cannot save them. They made a choice; he says that people lash out because they don’t know how to express their love. This is such a stupid statement because people know when they are hurting each other, people don’t sit around and go, “Oh, gee, I wonder why I just hit her?” NO! It’s because the fool was drunk and he was pissed off and he is taking on his anger. Not because he doesn’t know how to express himself.
He absurdly assures us that we can through “compassion” somehow change the world. He refers to Japan and how he served there. Does he not remember how the war started? Does he not know what happened on December 7, 1941? WE WERE BOMBED! My Grandpa was there he was almost blown in half and his best friend WAS blown into pieces. We were not even involved in the war; we were trying to stay out of it. But no, Japan attacked first, they wanted us to enter the war and they were totally prepared to take us over. That is why we attacked back, that is why we dropped a nuke on them. It was to save lives on both sides. If we had invaded their country they were totally prepared to fight until no one was left.
Does Mr. Hammil understand or even know what their government was made up of? It was the Emperor and whatever he said went. He thought that he was so “holy” that he had never touched the ground with his actual feet. He was always elevated and people lived to serve him and his legacy. Now can you tell me how that is compassion? Can you tell me that if Mr. Hammil had gone up to him and told him he was wrong and that he should be more compassionate on others, that the Emperor would have listened? I don’t think so. This view of the world and how to solve it’s problems are stupid. It would never work. However, look at Japan today. They have a democracy they can do what they want without asking an Emperor if it’s ok. That is what we brought them; in essence we died so THEY could have it.

Nabokov thinks that a good reader is one who has a combination of artistic and scientific outlook when reading a book. He believes that a good reader should remain somewhat "aloof" from what he or she is reading. The idea behind this is that the reader can fully enjoy the novel that he or she is reading. The reason for this, or so Nabokov believes, is that if you are thinking about how you relate to the story or how you have seen what the writer is trying to "paint" before, you are missing out on how the writer wants you to view it and are instead creating what you have already seen in your mind and applying it to what you are reading. Nabokov believes that this is an insult to the writer, because if you create your own picture then you are missing out on the whole point of reading the novel, and that is to see something new.

I agree partially with Nabokov because it is good to be lost in a new world of a book. At the same time though it is comforting to some people to recognize something and be able to see themselves in that situation. This is good because this does give the reader a feeling of friendship with the author, as in he or she knows what they are going through or what they have been through. I don't think you should do this all the time because I do believe that it's good for a reader to be able to be lost in a book that is totally fresh and new.

I consider myself an average reader because I will admit (to Nabokov's despise) that I don't pay attention to details sometimes and I get rather bored with them if the book is just explaining how something looks or if the author takes the time to really tell you the tone of the scene. But, at the same time I do enjoy some details in books, I guess it just depends on how much detail or what the detail is trying to describe that gets me. I do enjoy all dialogue between characters because I do find that hard to get bored with. It's always intriguing to me to see and understand a character in a book. It's like meeting a new person and then being able to understand them more deeply and look deeper and deeper into them without it being awkward. It might be awkward in real life if you were to just pause and ask the person to repeat what they just said so you could understand them better, like you would re-read a line in a book to get the full meaning. So I guess I would rate myself a seven out of ten, I consider myself an above average reader.







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People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. What does this mean? How can one photo or painting of something be worth a thousand words? Well let me share how it is that a picture can be worth a thousand words. Well it's because a photo or picture can be left up to interpretation. That is anyone can look at a picture and give it whatever meaning it is that they want it to represent. When looking at a picture haven't you ever wondered what it was the author was trying to get across? There usually is a reason for the painting whether it be to represent a picture of a beautiful landscape, a beautiful woman or something cool like an airplane. But when looking at a picture you should be trying to analyze why it is that the painter decided to use what colors they used and why they painted what they painted. You should be wondering what it is that the painter wants you to feel when painting a picture.

When a painter paints something they are trying to portray what they are feeling about that particular item. For example a painter might be painting a picture of a war scene like you commonly see in history text books. So the painter is going to go into great detail with the people's faces and the expressions that they are portraying. Also he might use colors that are somewhat bleak in comparison to other colors that they might use. This would be used to portray that the scene and what was happening at the time was very sad and hopeless. Obviously if they used bright colors or went into great detail with the grass and clouds it would leave the viewer wondering what it was they wanted them to focus on. This is how a picture can portray a thousand words. It's because anyone can look at it and say what it means to them or what they think the painter was trying to get across.

I think that writing blog assignments are a much better way to understand this class and understand the power of using a blog. When writing a blog it is much easier to just start jotting down your ideas and it allows for students to easily cite things. When writing a blog you can immediately hyperlink a word which can lead to citations, pictures or even videos. It is much quicker than writing a traditional essay and allows students to learn how to use things like hyperlinks and naturally forces students to learn two things at once, writing and blogging. The format of a blog is much easier and more personal than a traditional essay. It lets you have fun with the writing assignment.

The blog assignments did relate to the class topics and course objectives. It did so by causing students to create something that could be viewed world wide. It allows the student to realize the affect that a single blog or the ideas that person has affect others. This can be seen in how students see people from around the world commenting on their blog. It also allows the students to realize how many people they can reach through their blog and the power of blogging. Because when you are making an argument you can hyperlink what ever you want and people can see with the click of a button an entire website that is backing you up.

The non-text elements of blogging actually forced me to learn up on blogging. I checked out other people's blogs to see how they blog and what they use. I also looked at the popular blogs to see what it was that was attracting so many people to read that persons blog. It also helped me in learning in class, when we were talking about the usage of Internet and how it was that people reach other people I could understand through the making of my own blog. When talking about analyzing commercials blogs helped me to realize what other people thought of commercials through reading their blogs. Also I could understand what certain groups of people thought. You can "follow" people on a blog and this is interesting because that means you can see what a group or sect of people might think about a certain subject. So if you were making an advertisement and wanted to see what that certain demographic of people were looking for you could just look up that blog and see what people though about it. So blogging caused me to learn the importance of technology in the world and how people use it to vent ideas, memories, and political views to just name a few.

Reasoning? Learn it or lose it......

Should reasoning be taught in schools? If so, what grades and how much of it? Well I'm pretty sure that you know people who could use a good reasoning class or two, mainly because it seems that they can't seem to make the right decisions. This might be true but haven't we all made a few mistakes in our life? You see I think we can all apply a little critical thinking to our daily lives, and I believe that they should start teaching these classes in middle school.

You see at a young age children can develop habits that will stick with them until they die. A good example is kids eating habits, parents should watch how and what they eat because their kids will reflect that their entire lives. As Revolution Health puts it, "Be a good role model. Practice the eating and exercise habits you'd like your children to have. Your example is your child's most powerful learning tool." This is just one example of how children are affected by what parents do. But what about the kids who don't have very good role models at home? This is where the critical thinking comes in.

Kids need to learn what critical thinking is and how to use it in applicable ways early on in childhood. Critical thinking is needed in life and very useful in juggling what life will throw at you. For most of us juggling a job and a marriage and kids is how we live and learn the critical thinking aspect of things but if your like me and every other person on this planet there are some decisions that you've made that you have realized probably weren't the best ones. But you realized this and you course corrected yourself, but some people don't seem to do this very well. Some kids seem to just keep putting their hand up on the stove and they continue to burn themselves even after they have experience the pain of their mistake.

Some people think these kids are just plain dumb and it's,"Their fault," that they continue to make the same wrong decisions. Well, maybe so, but if you can teach these kids to stop making the same mistakes at young age then why not? Why wouldn't we offer these classes to help these kids? Well the answer is simple, we SHOULD offer these classes and we should make some of them mandatory. We need to get children to realized that they need to think things through and they need to think about the consequences in both the long term and the short term.

Since kids are so impressionable it is very plausible, (and also very realistic seeing as we all know someone who thinks very poorly of themselves for the mistakes that they have made) that they think that they are the problem, not realizing that the CHOICES they make is the problem not them. This can lead into a downward spiral of depression and cause a human being to repeat the same mistakes thinking that's just who they are rather than realizing that you are who you choose to be.

This is a very real need in our society and it needs to be addressed. Students should be exposed to critical thinking at younger ages and realize how important these skill sets are. No one is born with knowledge, we all acquire it. So lets start getting some good education and real world skill sets into our schools. Show up at school meetings, talk to your school superintendent, let the school board know what you would like to be taught, call your state governor and let them know that schools need to start incorporating this into the curriculum. Alas, more importantly teach your kids at home and be an example, let them experience some pain, let them realize that they define who they are through their actions. Again, this is a very real need and we need to get critical thinking into our schools and children's minds.

Technology has made a huge impact in our daily lives and for the better. Technology has changed how we go about our daily lives, it has changed the face of war, business, entertainment and security to name a few of the big ones. The biggest one that I think affects everyone is the entertainment industry. Technology has provided us with cool gadgets like the Itouch, laptops, Bluetooth, OnStar, cellphones, Facebook, 4G networking, mobile uploading, GPS, wireless internet and Xbox Live. In our day and time you don't even have to leave your home to watch movies (NetFlix), pay bills (Internet), talk to people around the world (cell phones), buy food (Domino's.com), listen to music (Itunes) or interact with people around the world (Xbox Live). You can even work from home now. But at the same time it's not without it's short comings.

Referring to the current war on terror everyone has seen or heard of the horrible be headings that radical Muslims like to post on the world wide web. Kids in school are secluding themselves with the famous Ipod and not coming out of their shells. Everyone remembers the Columbine shootings, what a lot of people don't know is that some teenagers actually made an online video game out of it, using the real names of the people who were murdered, all this in the name of "entertainment." It's just sickening if you ask me.
You see this is the biggest problem in our society today, anything can be used for regrettable purposes now days. People will find ways to use technology for their own benefit now. Sadly there is nothing that anyone can do about it. But that doesn't mean that we should stop using technology or we should destroy it or get rid of it.

Technology is a wonderful thing, people are doing great things with it for the benefit of others. For instance in the health field they are using automated services to answer questions that are commonly asked. This allows for almost no wait time at all, rather than waiting twenty to thirty minutes to talk to an associate. It makes our lives easier and it allows for a more productive day. People just need to learn how to use it sparingly and for the right things. Posting be headings and crawling inside of your Ipod are not productive or entertaining. Technology is a great thing and is very entertaining, just use it with the right mind set.

Life in the Army...

I joined the Army on January 14, 2008. I was shipped off to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri for five months. When I was doing my paper work they asked me if I wanted to do an OSUT. It stands for, "One station unit training." They said that I would complete Basic Combat Training (BCT) and then I would also complete my Advanced Individual Training (AIT) also known as MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school. In other words, every soldier has to go through BCT, but then you go to another school to get your actual job training. Little did I know that I would be stuck in the same place with the same people with the same Drill Sergeants for my AIT. So even though I got it all done in five months, I was stuck with Drill Sergeants for five months! Most soldiers only have to deal with them for about two months. But I had my ways at getting back at them!
One day we were out at the MOUT site (Military Operations Urban Terrain), and we happened to be using paintball guns. My squad was the first squad to go, there were nine of us and my squad was issued nine flash grenades. They were supposed to last us all day seeing as we were going through multiple shoot houses and we would be using them in different environments. But, since I was the squad leader I was allowed to use them at my discretion. So we stack up on this door (it was a big two story building and we started at the top floor) and we can hear our Drill Sergeants inside talking to us. "Come on in Privates! We got a little surprise for you!" Our Drill Sergeants were playing the Op4 (opposing force) so my best guess at that time was that they were hiding at the end of the hall with paintball guns with our names written all over them. So we kick in the door and move in, "PLAT PLAT PLAT PLATLPLAT PLAT PLAT!" I was the fourth guy in Alpha team, and when I looked down the hallway all I could see were four guns poking out of concealed positions. We quickly moved into the first room on our right and cleared it. That's when I looked at my point man, he was covered in paint! He must have been shot twenty times in the three seconds it took us to get into the first room. He was rubbing his arms and cussing under his breath, he had HUGE blisters on them. We could hear our Drill Sergeants laughing at us down the hallway. "Hey Private! How's your arm? HAHAHAHAHAH." "This isn't a training exercise at all," I said. My team nodded in agreement, "Drill Sergeant is out to just mess us up, well two can play at that game." I reached for one of the flash bangs hanging off my IBA (Interceptive Body Armor) and prepped it to throw. I looked across the hallway into the room that was parallel to ours and whispered to kill team Bravo what I was about to do. Norieaga (whom I put in charge of Bravo) got a big smile on his face. I turned the corner and tossed the grenade yelling, "FRAG OUT!!!" Now, we are not supposed to throw these grenades at people because they are really loud and if the grenade lands right next to you it's possible to get third degree burns. But, seeing as our Drill Sergeants were not playing nice and I've just been waiting for months to get these guys back I decided all was fair in the shoot house. There is a three to five second fuse on the grenades, and during that time there was an awkward silence, then I heard one of the DS's whisper, "Did they really just throw a..." "BOOOOOOM!!!!" "Move! Move! Move!" I yelled and we charged down the hallway shooting for covering fire. We made it into the next room and cleared it. I looked down at my chest and realized that I hadn't even been shot once and I was the point guy that last time. Then I stopped for a second and realized that we hadn't even been shot at. I started to smile when down the hallway I heard, "WHO THE F*&% THREW THAT?!?!?!" My squad INSTANTLY ratted me out,"It was Holmes Drill Sergeant!" There was a slight pause then I heard Drill Sergeant continue to cuss at me at the top of his lungs. By this time I knew that I was already going to be in trouble by the time the training exercise was over so I grabbed another grenade of my chest and prepped it. My squad looked at me with their eyes wide open. I just looked at them, smiled and said, "Well I'm already in trouble, might as well go all the way." So I tossed it, waited for the explosion and moved to the next room. Didn't get shot once. We could hear our Drill Sergeants stumbling around down the hallway trying to get down the stairs. We cleared the rest of the hallway and moved to the stairs. Stairs were clear so we moved down them. As I peaked my head around the corner of the next hallway I could see that our Drill Sergeants had the exact same set up as before, so I decided to keep doing the same thing. I turned around, grabbed a grenade from my battle buddies chest rig, prepped it and threw it. When it exploded we moved down the hallway into the next room and cleared it. We repeated this process two more times, all the while my Drill Sergeants were cussing me out and telling me how they were going to smoke me once we get outside. Well down to the last room with four grenade left. By this time we were no more than fifteen feet away from them. But we hadn't gotten a chance to SHOOT our Drill Sergeants back yet. I turned around and looked at Haslag, the first point man who got shot like twenty times. I asked him if he was ready to get some pay back, he smiled and moved up next to me. I looked across the hallway to Bravo and whispered,"Right after this thing goes off, light em' up." So, I turned the corner and threw it, and yelled "FIRE TEAMS GO!" All nine of us privates popped out from the doors and rooms we were hiding behind and watched in awe and laughter as our Drill Sergeants TURNED their back on us and tried running out the back door. We must have let loose close to two hundred rounds in six seconds flat. I'll never forget how it looked to see those paintballs whiz towards our Drill Sergeants and see them wincing and twitching in pain as each one of those rounds hit them in the back. You see the great thing about that was this, our Drill Sergeants didn't have to wear body armor for this training exercise, in fact they hardly ever wore it, but right about then I'm guessing they were wishing that they had them on.
But sure enough as soon as they got outside they yelled, "INDEX!" Meaning that the training exercise was over. As I walked outside trying to hide my gigantic smile, four Drill Sergeants surrounded me. We like to lovingly call it the "Shark Attack" when you have four different Drill Sergeants surrounding you and they are all less then half an inch from your face screaming at the top of their lungs. So that is exactly what happened. After they yelled at me for a little while they told me to drop and start doing push-ups. For those of you have done push-ups in full battle rattle (meaning you have ALL your body armor and equipment on) you know that it's not very fun. About five minutes of this routine goes on when our LT (lieutenant) walks up. She asks what's going on, because your not really supposed to be smoking a private (meaning your not supposed to be yelling at them and making them do physical exercise) out in a training environment like this. They tell her what I did and she looks at me and asks if it's true. I reply "Yes Ma'am, I needed some sort of distraction for our movement because my guys and I were getting lit up." "Did it work?" she asked. "Yes Ma'am it did. Not one of my guys got hit after we started employing our hand grenades." "Very good private, you can recover." Drill Sergeants just looked at her in awe, then they looked at me and I could tell that our little push-up game wasn't over yet. Drill Sergeants left me alone for the rest of the day, until we got back to the barracks. At which point I found out that I had fire guard duty ALL night.
You know looking back on it, IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! I also found out later that my squad was the only squad that passed the shoot house that day, everyone else got trashed. So it was totally worth it, but not for the victory. It was worth it for the sheer enjoyment of being able to shoot our Drill Sergeants in the back :). And that is the moral of the story.

Hi my name is Carl Holmes. I'm a full time college student and I'm also in the Arizona Army National Guard. I'm a Military Police gunner stationed with the 856 MP unit in Flagstaff, Arizona. I'm currently trying to get as much college done as possible before our first deployment. I'm also an avid believer in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I play the drums, piano, guitar and bass for the Heights church in Prescott. I currently live with my parents in Chino Valley. I'm also lucky to be dating a beautiful girl, Ashley Nicole Carter. Well, that's about it for my life and where I'm going. Oh, I'm also pursuing a degree in English, I wouldn't mind teaching it someday.

Carl Holmes