ALEC Watch Review

ALEC Watch is an online book written by the NRDC. It has a very liberal bias to the book and it basically talks about the horrors of the conservative group ALEC. There are 7 chapters and they talk about everything from the history of ALEC to benefits the legislatives get to corporate dividends. The liberal bias of this book may not be for everyone but I really did enjoy it since it agreed with most of what they were saying. One thing I didn’t like was that it really didn’t tell a story it was just a book of facts. It was very informative but it did not catch my interest like other books do. Since there wasn’t a story there wasn’t any characters in ALEC Watch to connect with which also made it harder to read. I did find it interesting how they talked about all of the trips the legislators get for bringing ALECs laws into their states. This obviously connects to my topic because the entire book is on my topic. The book is on ALEC and my topic is ALEC. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is interested in this topic but I would not recommend this to the average reader.

"ALEC Report." ALEC Report -- Table of Conents. NRDC. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://alecwatch.org/report.html>.

Capitalism: a Love Story

            Capitalism: a Love Story is a 2009 documentary directed by Michael Moore. It shows the effects corporate greed on American families. It shows the terror of what Capitalism does and how it helps only a few rich people but it doesn’t help anyone else. Right at the beginning they started comparing ancient Rome and the United States today. They talked about the similarities like Rome had chariot races and America has NASCAR, they compare their emperor to president, and both civilizations have a wide gap between the rich and the poor. These things eventually led to the demise of ancient Rome. I thought it started off the documentary very well because it shows history can repeat itself. It really set the tone for the rest of the movie.

            Another point that really stuck with me was pilots have to take up to $100,000 in student loans to become one but their starting year they only make $17,000 in a year. A running joke among pilots is don’t pick up your food stamps when you’re in your uniform. Also Pilots get paid less than a Taco Bell manager. But their excuse is “that’s capitalism.”

They touch aspects of the control that corporations have over their workers. For example, they talk about companies that take out insurance loans on their workers so if their workers die they get money for their death. These people are called “dead peasants” in the corporations. Moore did a very good job at shocking you with the facts about capitalism. I also really like the comical side that Moore put into the movie. For example, there is a scene where Moore tries to do a citizen’s arrest of the board of directors from AIG. It gives sort of a comic relief from the serious topic at hand. It also links to my topic because this talks about corporate greed and ALEC is basically just feeding corporate greed with what they are doing.

There is however a lot of controversy surrounding the movie. There are a lot of conservatives who claim he oversimplifies capitalism and he doesn’t really bash President Obama. I think it was a great movie and it makes you laugh and leaves you thinking about it later. It definitely reassured my view on capitalism and it is a definite must see.

Capitalism: A Love Story. Dir. Micheal Moore. Perf. Michael Moore. Overture Films, 2009. DVD.

Mockingjay book Review

The book Mockingjay is the third and last book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The heroic Katiniss Everdeen has now has become the face of the rebellion that has taken a hold of the dystopian country of Panem. She has to rally people and ready herself for a war against the Capital. I really like the political aspect to the book. I liked how it dived into the political aspects of district 13 and the life there. But I feel Suzanne Collins rushed the plot way too much and didn’t develop the amazing story lines that she had in the first two books.

As for characters, the first two books I really loved Katniss. She is the badass 16 year old that basically sticks it to the man. In the third book she got on my nerves. This was a bad thing and a good thing. I think Collins was trying to portray that she isn’t ready for a revolution and in ways she is just a 17 year old girl. But she makes decisions in the book that that really portray her true personality. I really did like the twists and turns the love story took over the course of the book. Overall I think people should read it who has read the first two books so they can get closure to the characters. But the first two books were way better than the third so in a way the book was a disappointment.

Inside the 2011 ALEC conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_OFdjC87ko

This YouTube video shoes a group of people called ThinkProgress try and get into an American Legislative Exchange Council conference. They are, of course, denied access into the conference, so they interviewed people outside of the conference. They asked a man that was apart of ALEC certain questions about his thoughts on ALEC. Then after that they waited outside a conference for people to come out for a smoke. They got very angry when asked what their names were and were unresponsive to questions.

Passage Journal #6

"A short time after Minnijean's return, a boy doused her with what appeared to be a bucket of soup. She froze in her tracks and did not respond, even as the greasy liquid trickled down her chest and horror painted on her face. Afterward, a group of perhaps fifty students gathered outside the Principal's office to shout cheers for the douser, saying he had paid her back. He was suspended. but we were frightened that he had set in motion an all-out soup war that could lead to the drenching of each one of us and guarantee a real brawl if we tried to fight back."
I picked this one because it shows that at least administration isn't too bias when it comes to suspending. It is fair that if Minnijean was suspended then the boy should be suspended. Although it shows that these segregationists will not be deterred from their goal. It is also upsetting that half way through the year a couple of kids finally got suspended. People should have been expelled the first day.

Passage Journal #5

""Nigger," I would whisper to myself. That's all I am to them. They don't see me as a real person. There even came a moment when i pinched myself to see if I was really there. So many times I wanted to shout, "I'm Melba, don't you see me? I play the piano, I can make blouses, I can write poems... and I sing." When I felt I couldn't hold it in anymore, I talked to grandma India."
I picked this one because I find it upsetting that she had spent so much time in central that she started thinking of herself badly. She faced so much ridicule from all of her peers and teachers that her self esteem was low enough to have her knock herself down. This passage also shows that her grandmother is a rock in her life. She couldn't have gone through the school year if she didn't have her grandmother. She even thought about killing herself which her grandma talked her out of.

Passage Journal #4

"One girl with short red hair, freckles, and a pixie smile was being especially attentive. She invited me accompany her to window that overlooked the school yard. I was suspicious of her kindness, but I wanted to believe someone was having a change of heart. As I stood beside her chatting about the bright day and the activity of the soldiers on the ground beneath us, I felt a twinge of joy.
"Stand right here. We're gonna salute the flag now," she said. I raised my hand to my chest and smile as the flag was hoisted up in front of the classroom.
"Aren't you gonna take a picture of me saluting the American flag with this famous nigger," she suddenly shouted to the boy who was focusing the camera. "Snap it, you idiot... now! I wanna get into life magazine like the niggers are.""
I picked this passage because as I was reading this I was kind of relieved that someone was actually being nice to her. Then you find out she is just using her to get on time magazine. It is actually kind of sad that Melba was so quick to trust this girl. The only reason didn't is because she craved some kind of positive reinforcement from the school and that was the only time someone approached her. Then after this the ginger actually stabbed her with a pointed stick and the teacher didn't do anything about it. I think it is sad that this is where the education system was at at this point in time.