casasr
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The Christian Case for Planned Parenthood
While the Christian right has been making a case against Planned Parenthood, a healthcare provider, on the basis of its “affront to ‘Christian values,” some see room to defend the organization on religious grounds. Mara Willard, “Can There Be a Religious Response to Planned Parenthood’s Critics,” looks at the way this defense is being made. [...]
category: Things Rhetorical
Rhetoric at Work: the long history of Minnesota’s Marriage Amendment Defeat
A well-made, in-depth story on everything that went into defeating Minnesota’s Marriage Amendment. Although the word “rhetoric” never comes up, anyone doing rhetoric will quickly recognize the forces behind the successful campaign. “Eighteen Months to History: How the Minnesota Marriage Amendment Was Defeated–money, passion, allies” (via Minnesota Public Radio)
category: Things Rhetorical
A Meme
category: Things General
Who Created the Voter-Fraud Myth?
Imagine this: “You are hereby notified that your right to vote has been challenged by a qualified elector…” Writing for the New Yorker (10/29/12), Jane Meyer tells about the man behind the myth that American elections are threatened by fraudulent voters. Many election experts say that Hans von Spakovsky, a conservative Republican lawyer who served [...]
category: Things Critical, Things Rhetorical
When words matter (always)
I have my students in ES101 do an assignment in which they follow coverage of national debate/popular issue for instance in which race, class, and/or ethnicity come up in overt or covert ways. The purpose of the assignment is to get them to think about how the words we use shade the ideas we have [...]
category: Things Rhetorical
“Nonthreatning novelty,” or, you know, people
Tom Jacobs over at Salon.com takes note of the rise in roles for South East Asians on film and T.V. Why now? For the answer, Jacobs goes to Shilpa Davé, an assistant prof. of American Studies. She explains it this way: …demography, technology, global politics, and, of course, commerce. She notes that producers and directors are [...]
category: Things Critical, Things Rhetorical
Assignmenting
I am working on a syllabus and lesson plans for the first-year writing course I’m teaching in the fall. I’m excited about asking students to create an audio photo essay as part of their last portfolio. Here is a cool one I’ve been looking at as model: “After the Fall” by Matt Black (via Orion [...]
category: Things General
tags: media, technology
We might still be in Kansas
This from Guernica, which makes one think that, at the very least, someone is paying attention to audience: via ProPublica
category: Things Rhetorical
tags: media, technology
This is what Arizona’s non-racial profiling law looks like
Arizona’s former governor Castro stopped for a third time by law enforcement to question him about his legal status.
category: Things Critical
Towards a better answer to the “what do you do” question
Thanks to professors Peter Dreier and Christopher Martin, I now have a good go-to example for the “what do you do” question. Should it come up in an elevator or on a flight, at least I could say, “well, policy, language, effects…for example”: “Job killer.” You don’t have to listen very long to what passes [...]
category: Things Rhetorical