New College Phenomenon for Cancer Awareness (ADPR 2200)

The popular sensation for the past several years for young adults and teenagers especially has been "No Shave November." This activity is when girls and guys alike stop shaving any hair or get any haircuts for the entire month of November. Much to parents dismay - it has become especially popular for college students and high school students.

However, everyone has the opportunity to take a part in this "event," and now there is a great reason to get involved. A website called No-Shave November has established a group that promotes taking part in no shave November for the cause of cancer awareness. The idea, is that one stops shaving in order to get attention from the people around them, and inform them that it is for cancer awareness - in order to spread the idea.

In addition, the group has links set up on their website to donate money that goes to cancer research. This is a fantastic way to do something fun, get competitive with friends and be part of a great cause. Though it is too late to start for this year's November awareness month - plan ahead for next year and learn how to best get involved!

ADPR 2200 Assignment Blog

The art of playing the pipe organ has become a lot art in modern society. As electronic alternatives continue to be created and less tradition is found in religious services, society requires less organists, and less instruments. Pipe organs are incredibly expensive to build, restore and maintain, making electronic alternatives much more attractive to religious institutions dependent on dwindling donations. Electronic alternatives also have the ability to record, transpose and mimic other sounds - making them much more functional and incredibly cheaper.
However, the pipe organ is a sacred and truly remarkable instrument, capable of filling even the largest cathedrals and and concert halls and has inspired the most coveted musical composers in history. Having the ability to pump air through sophisticated mechanisms, pipes of all materials and the power to out sound a full orchestra, there is no comparison to the true strength, power and live performance of the pipe organ. No electronic speaker can mimic the effect of of pipes, and radiate harmonics off of cathedral walls like a true pipe organ can. With few students, lack of funding for instruments, and an overall decline in interest compared to electronic alternatives, sadly the pipe organ seems to be losing its place in modern society.

Bachmann's Campaign Failure and Looking Forward

Congresswomen Michele Bachmann has made the transition from being a frontrunner on the GOP primary stage, to being a back bench candidate, with looming poll deficits and fundraising burdens. However, how much of Bachmann's recent misfortunes with her campaign is a result of her and not poor staffing?

Bachmann entered the race with a great deal of momentum, conjuring a great deal of support in her birth state of Iowa, and winning the Ames Straw Poll. The Tea Party seemingly supported her campaign full force, creating the back bone of her fundraising and volunteer supporters. However, when Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the race, Tea Party members had a choice. Perry's entrance to the race came at a bad time. In the midst of Bachmann's mis-quotes and "Palin-like" errors, Perry was able to steal a sizable chunk of Tea Party support from Bachmann's campaign.

Bachmann has struggled the entire primary to set her image apart of Sarah Palin - a scary image to many liberal, independents and conservative alike. But when Bachmann made inaccurate claims about the town she was born in and misquoted common facts, she looked like the air-headed former Alaska governor. Bachmann needed to address and redirect her image away from Palin in the beginning - but instead she let herself take on the roll as just another "crazy Tea Party lady."

Bachmann experiences more misfortune with her staffing, undergoing a series of resignations from top aids and staffers for her campaign. These absences came in the middle of a fundraising crisis for Bachmann. In the early part of the primary, May 2011, Bachmann brought in $2.2 million in the first quarter, more than any other candidate. Bachmann reported this October of bringing in $5.5 million, far behind the other GOP candidates. Also, as of today, more fundraising drama has appeared as Bachmann's contribution to the Polk County GOP in Iowa (more specifically, Des Moines) may be against election regulations.

So is to blame for this mess that Bachmann is still calling a campaign and what should be done? Perry is partially to blame, as he came in at a decisive time, and capitalized greatly on Bachmann's campaign issues. Her campaign aids and staffers that bailed on her are also highly responsible for her current situation. Lagging Tea Party support - as the Tea Party split up when Perry entered the race, rather than choosing one specific candidate didn't help Bachmann either. But at the end of the day, Bachmann can only blame herself. It's not unusual at all for a candidate to come into a primary with a lot of momentum and end up losing it all and becoming rather insignificant in the end. Bachmann fits this bill. With her mispoken facts, PR errors, and lack of unity in her own base - she put herself in the position she is in for the most part.

Early on, Bachmann needed to rock Perry's campaign and use all the force she had. However it is too late, as both Bachmann and Perry are losing fire - and losing momentum to Mitt Romney who is taking over the GOP - along with Cain's recent boost. Fellow Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty left the race after poor results in the Iowa Straw Poll. Bachmann is in the same position Pawlenty faced in August, she has a worn out campaign, lower funding than the other candidates - as is doing nothing but ruining her own image. At this point it is clear that she won't stand up in the final leg of the race, and her campaign is doing nothing but creating a negative national identity for her. Bachmann needs to go back to serving the Minnesotan people and representing them in Congress, where leaders are needed - perhaps run for Senate against Sen. Franken in 2014?

The Relevance of Socrates Involving Censorship in Education

In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates brings about the notion of teaching only historical stories that bring a positive light to children in order to develop a sense of patriotism (Book II, 377-378). The premise, is to train guardians of a “perfect city.” Though theoretical, and ancient when thought of, Socrates makes a point that can arguably be seen today. In many classrooms through the United States, young children are taught stories of many historical figures, events and groups in only a positive image in order to provide foundation for a sense of patriotic pride in the history of the United States. When Socrates brings up the idea of education censorship, and the government monitoring of historical teaching - current day readers become alarmed. How is this different from some of the ridiculous historical teaching happening in elementary, junior high, high school and even college classrooms across the United States today?

Young children here the wonderful story of Pocahontas saving Captain John Smith. However, when looking at this event historically, there is great skepticism as to whether this actually happened - in fact, John Smith doesn’t even mention the event in the first several writings about his experiences in the New World. Likewise, when watching the classic Disney movie, doesn’t Pocahontas marry John Smith? Not true, she married John Rolfe instead. The marriage mishap is more a fun fact - but the idea that this act of generosity from a Native American maiden never happened is disturbing. Pocahontas is not the only example of early Native American relations with white settlers appearing fonder than it seems. Thanksgiving - the national holiday that everyone celebrates, teaching children how this great nation came together with the cooperation of Native American and Puritan settlers is also under disagreement. The event clearly happened - but it doesn’t appear that it was anywhere near as significant as the legend implies, nor does it appear that the feast was much more than gamey poultry and random fall vegetables and grains.

Cutting to the chase, Thomas Jefferson is an American icon. He is the image of prosperity through hard work, ingenuity and maintaining freedom and justice through all. After all, he wrote the Declaration of Independence - a document with profound impact on justice and liberty for generations of Americans. However, why don’t we teach in our schools that Thomas Jefferson was a major slave holder, along with most of the founding fathers, including George Washington? Why do we hide that Thomas Jefferson had an illegitimate children with one of the slaves working at his plantation? We, as Americans hold our founding fathers in such a positive light, when in fact they were just as human and mistaken in some ways as politicians today. Not to be frivolous with accusations, but Alexander Hamilton was arguably a homosexual. George Washington appeared to have panic attacks and an anxiety disorder. But why don’t we teach our kids this?

Socrates pushes for censorship within teaching in order to create strong future rulers for his ideal city. He argues that by learning about the history of the nation in a positive light, the rulers are going to be that much more motivated to do good for the city, and strive to replicate the positive and iconic lifestyles of the “great” leaders before them. The United States seems to follow this philosophy in some regard. Interestingly enough however, many children are also taught to learn from history’s mistakes in conjunction with false historical teachings. How are young Americans, and the future politicians and leaders of this country suppose to learn from the mistakes of those before them if they never get to study and analyze such mistakes? America is a country that pushes for transparency, but when it means the possibility of looking bad - the jump to cover it up. God forbid the United States identifies the mistakes of its past.

It would be unjust to cover this topic and not mention slavery, racism, the slaughtering and raping of Native Americans among other vicious hate crimes that have occurred in the United State’s past. This is not advocating affirmative action - but instead questioning why the United States needs to cover this up from children and young adults alike. Children are taught that slavery happened, and then some guy named Lincoln wrote some paper and then slavery was over and everything was like they are today. Apparently the one hundred years of racism, lynching and Jim Crow laws never happened.

Is this entire blog just a worthless rant about children in the United States being taught incorrect history. Not entirely, the point here is that often people are alarmed when reading The Republic when Socrates mentions the censorship of learning, and never stop to realize that this is a living concept in the United States. Not only is Socrates relevant to today’s discussion - but a concept that many Americans fear and find disturbing in Socrates’ writing is something that they went through and their children are going through. Quite frankly, the provided list of examples is no where near exhaustive and only designed to reference a few notable issues in American history courses today. Blogs relating Socrates’ philosophical views and relevant situations today will appear over time - as it is important to discover hidden relevance in ancient literature.

Herman Cain + Rick Perry = Mitt Romney?

Many Republicans have complained, wishing there was some synthesized creation of Herman Cain and Rick Perry running for president. Many conservatives are attracted to the businessman experience and fiscally conservative agenda of Herman Cain, but are afraid of his electability, name recognition and lack of political experience. Social conservatives originally stood with Rick Perry in large amounts, though due to issues on the campaign - Perry's support is falling.

Herman Cain is a former successful CEO of Godfather's Pizza and is intelligent and highly educated. Cain sounds like a politician, however he has never held political office in his life. His lack of experience would be viciously attacked if nominated to run for president, however it extinguishes the possibility of former political decisions coming to haunt him in the campaign. With his 9-9-9 tax plan, Cain is a confident fiscal conservative, promising to lower taxes across the board and build up the corporate sector in the United States. Will he be able to achieve this goal with little experience in the political realm? These kinds of questions leave some Republicans skeptical of Cain - thinking perhaps his policies are good in theory, but not applicable in the reality of our current political situation.

Rick Perry, the governor of Texas boasts strong job growth and economic development within the state of Texas during his time as governor. However liberals and conservatives alike are attacking his statistics, discovering many of the jobs created in Texas during his governorship were incredibly low paying, often given to illegal immigrants and were temporary positions, not permanent job creation. Perry has also failed to present himself well on the debate front, and is even considering not being present at future debates, according to one of his staffers. Perry's real stronghold to date is his social agenda, though often not discussed. Perry gives the evangelical voters a taste of the social conservatism they have been missing in the U.S. government for some time. This social conservative feature is the only thing Perry has to stick out from the rest of the pack - a pack that is more eloquent, mild mannered and better presented than he.

Theoretically, voters like to create an ideal candidate, and Perry and Cain put together seems to be a common idea. Take the fiscal conservative policy of Cain and pair it up with experience and name recognition as well as a social conservative aspect. However, one could say that such a candidate already exists. Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, has experience in political office. Massachusetts did extremely well under Romney's leadership - a point he still brings to the table in the 2012 election. Romney was also the CEO for Staples, the office supply retailer. Under his leadership the company grew and flourished in profits. In Romney, experience can be matched with Perry, and the businessman experience can trump Cain. Romney is theoretically, a meshed version of Cain and Perry, minus a clear socially conservative agenda. However what voters need to weigh in this primary, is how important social issues really are in this election.

Social issues can not be the main event in the 2012 primary. Why? Because social issues are not the main concern of the general public and won't be the primary concern of the 2012 general election. Voters need to realize that the real issue in this primary, is to find the most fiscally conservative candidate that has enough leadership and experience to be able to fill the office of president. Romney trumps all other candidates when one considers the race in these terms. Romney was a successful CEO, a successful governor, has experience in the national spotlight and most importantly is capable and not afraid to take on Obama. Romney is the key to winning not only the White House, but leading a Republican initiative throughout U.S. politics starting in 2012. Romney can be the leader of a huge conservative backlash movement against the incoherent liberal policies of Obama's administration and under the leadership of Senator Harry Reid and the previous House of Representatives under Congresswoman Pelosi. Romney is the tested and most promising economic leader in this race, and conservatives need to understand the real issue here, the economy.

Perry's Dying Campaign Desperate for Attention

According to a CNN report, a member of Rick Perry's campaign suggested the governor may pass on future primary debates, claiming that there are too many. This would be political suicide and take him out of the race. He has a hard enough time defending himself when attending the debates, it would be an onslaught on Perry if he wasn't present to defend himself.

The reasoning behind this is intriguing. Perry needs to get as much attention as he can - whether good or bad, as he is falling out of the race in terms of being electable. Romney and Cain are taking over the polls, and the support. Between Perry's hunting lodge issue and his disenchanting views on illegal immigration, Perry has already dug himself five feet into the ground, and withdrawing from future debates would only dig the addition foot necessary to call him campaign officially dead.

It's becoming too late for Perry. He does poorly at debates, but they are necessary to convince the GOP voters to come out and support a candidate in the primary election. If Perry withdraws from future debates, his campaign and electability will essentially be over. However he could be blowing smoke in order to bring his name into the circle and make headlines - another sign of a dying campaign. His campaign is heading out the door, and this could be the last desperate plea for attention.

Poll Results Show Cain's Force

A Fox News poll just released shows Herman Cain taking the lead among Republican presidential primary candidates, having the support of 24% of Republican voters over Romney's lowest poll report of 20%. Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, has had the strongest surge in support and overall campaign recognition the primary campaign has seen within the last month. Transforming from a seemingly unknown candidate to the now-frontrunner, one has to wonder "Is this guy for real?"

How could a strong fiscal conservative with a business background but never having served in public office be the frontrunner of the Republican political ticket? Are Republicans still discontent with the current government enough to elect a candidate with no political history whatsoever? Romney, the previous frontrunner has experienced a rough week of conservative criticism due to lack of stance on the issue of Ohio's labor union limitations. Often labeled a "flipflopper," Romney needs to develop a sure conservative stance in order to offset Cain's triumph with fiscal conservatives looking for a leader.

Cain brings no obvious flaw to the circle, making him an especially hard candidate to attack with no political history to criticize and only strong, positive career background details. However, being so little known and with his current 9-9-9 struggle, Cain has his own hurdles to jump. The 9-9-9 tax plan that Cain has established for his campaign is going to strangle his campaign against Romney. Though he enjoys higher poll ratings, Romney will appear closer to the Iowa and New Hampshire caucus and primary as the stronger candidate. Romney his saving his big plans and attacks for when it really counts, and not put too much effort into the race too early as he did for the 2008 presidential election. The 9-9-9 both excites some, and discourages other fiscal conservatives in the GOP, who are the very reason Cain has such high poll ratings at this point.

Romney needs to go after the 9-9-9 tax plan and the added federal sales tax aspect it empowers the federal government with and attract the fiscal conservatives. He had the fiscal conservative vote in the 2008 primary, and he has the ability to get them back this time around if he points out the fundamental flaws with Cain's proposed tax plan. If Romney attacks Cain's tax plan, and appears as the true businessman fiscal conservative in the race, he can expect to recover the current poll deficit and push forward into his expected victory surge heading into Iowa and New Hampshire in early January.

Romney's Hiccup

Presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Mitt Romney had a rough encounter with critical media writers and fiscal conservatives this week. Romney, arguably the front-runner of the Republican party distanced himself from discussion of the Ohio labor union drama while on the campaign trail. The former governor's silence on the matter is important to note because his wavering views have already drawn strong criticism from skeptical, yet important, far-right conservative voters.

Romney has all of the necessary tools to be president, an attractive character, a strong political and business history, name recognition and the intellect to give Obama trouble in upcoming debates. The one aspect that Romney lacks, and needs to nurture in his campaign is being strong on issues and not being afraid to take a stand early. Romney needs to show the American public, and more importantly the conservative voters, that he isn't afraid to take a direct stand on issues. Conservatives are waiting for Romney to take the reigns of the Republican Party, and with others like Cain lingering close behind - the conservative stronghold won't be shy to look to someone else if Romney doesn't satisfy their political agenda soon.

The GOP realizes their opportunity in this presidential race, to not only pull a win against Obama, but be able to elect a far-right backlash against the liberal policies of the current administration and Senate. Romney has always been able to play the moderate position to perfection and be able to conjure support from across the board, but what is truly going to be important in 2012 is not disenchanting the right wing support. It isn't too late for Romney, and if he presents more conservative policies and consistently responds to upcoming events with a strong conservative tone he should be able to gain the support of most Republicans. However, not even mentioning a tweet on the Ohio labor union drama - especially regarding a huge swing state, is how Herman Cain and others can manage to still take the lead in this race.

Who Will Lead?

Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are the clear top contenders of the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential election primary. By spring of next year, a clear frontrunner will be produced from individual state’s primaries and caucuses. Mitt Romney, having run in 2008 as well as serving as Massachusetts' governor, brings a stronger public service background with his campaign in comparison to Cain. However, Romney’s history has proven to be more problematic than helpful as he is continuously labeled as a “flip-flopper” and “spineless” candidate. Many purist conservatives have a hard time supporting Romney with the fear he may be too accommodating to Democrat’s and overall politically moderate.

Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza has a solid corporate background to make up for a non-existent political history. However, in a time of little trust in government officials, Cain can use his lack of political experience to his benefit. As an outsider, and proven budget-fixing businessman, Cain has the qualities to attract fiscal conservatives. Mr. Cain also brings an interesting demographic situation to the 2012 presidential election, being a Southern African American. With little name recognition at the beginning of the election, Cain has surged through polls and straw polls to become a household name among Republicans. Riding so much momentum, it is important that his team capitalizes on the support and secures his place for the months to come.

Romney however has held back in this race, and still brings in the most money and overall support through the nation. In 2008, Romney lost the primary election to John McCain, after running a strong campaign from the beginning. Learning his lesson, Romney is preserving his resources and prepared to campaign in full force when it counts. Romney will prove to be the strong frontrunner in upcoming months when binding primaries begin.