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Barbie Reflection

Growing up as a kid, I adored my Barbies. I bought them clothes and houses and little mini-pools. I lived in Barbie’s world. But as I progressed through my youth, I became envious of her long blonde hair and blue eyes. I began to understand the implications Barbie has on the real world – how she misrepresents women and serves as the unrealistic beauty ideal.   As Emily Prager puts it, “there are millions of women who are subliminally sure that a thirty-nine-inch bust and a twenty-three-inch waist are the epitome of lovability.” So much emphasis placed on this little piece of plastic. But people don’t see her as simply a piece of plastic – she is viewed as so much more. Mattel constantly updates and refurbishes Barbie’s appearance, releasing new dolls that each represent something. Pictured below is the evolution of Barbie’s looks as she is changed to fit the “in,” popular style of the time period.   After the great debate and heavy criticism regarding Barbie’s bleach
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The Quest for Aliens

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  As Chet Raymo asserts, mankind as a whole must engage in a sort of “integrity and balance within nature that demands of earth’s dominant species a judicious self-restraint.” This type of equilibrium is crucial, Raymo continues, as the “unexamined quest for knowledge is hemmed with peril.” Now, the first thing I thought of with all this heavy emphasis on restraint in regards to knowledge was aliens. Yes, aliens. With everything we see in the media nowadays, or the lack thereof, I’m reluctant to believe that aliens actually exist. However, with all the covert operations and research occurring in areas such as the notorious Area 51, or even in the conference rooms of the FBI, there’s definitely more pieces to the puzzle than we know. In our quest to discover the truth about aliens, I feel as though mankind is sort of screwing with the world’s mojo. I mean just as Raymo made a whole point of saying, some things are truly better left untouched. There can be real, gr
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Artifice in Politics

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According to Chris Hedges, artifice is “the most essential skill” for political leaders. I strongly agree with hedges assertion, as artifice is a crucial asset one must employ in order to craft a trustworthy persona and thus guarantee political victories. In the most recent presidential election, Donald Trump effectively utilized artifice to win over the hearts of the A merican people. Claiming that he is an ordinary American, completely disregarding his billionaire status, Trump developed a believable “story, a personal narrative.” People viewed him as someone they could relate to – a candidate with almost no political ties or experience. This form of pathos heavily appealed to peoples’ emotions, igniting powerful feelings of patriotism. Using this to his advantage, Trump was able to meticulously craft stories and statistics that were “completely at odds with the facts,” which he still does to this very day. He upholds his “typical American man” persona, addressing the crow
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English as the Official Language?

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  America is known worldwide for being a nation rich with diversity, in which peoples’ natural rights like free speech and religion are concretely confirmed in the law of the land. Unlike many other countries across the globe, America does not have an official language. In Charles Krauthammer’s words, “The Senate could not bring itself to declare English the country’s ‘official language.’ The best it could do was pass an amendment to the immigration bill tepidly declaring English the ‘national language.’” Krauthammer’s position on this topic is clearly demonstrated by his tone – he wants more, he wants ~ official~ . I’d have to say I disagree with him. The United States encompasses not only our 50 states, but also the territories we have, including Puerto Rico and Guam. To make English the official language is a careless and mindless act against these people, whose main language and patrimony center around the Latin origin. We would be eradicating their culture. Further
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The Arabic Language

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  My family is from the northern region of Africa – a small country at the tip of the continent named Tunisia. The primary languages spoken there are Arabic and French, so naturally that’s what I grew up speaking, and thus language plays a huge role in my life. Pinker describes the importance of language as ”a social currency with real value,” and I couldn’t agree more with him, as language allows us to barter our thoughts and express our emotions in unique ways. Arabic is an important part of my life, as it allows me to communicate with my family members overseas and other people across the world. It encompasses its own alphabet, much like the Persian alphabet, and unlike most other languages, we write from right to left.   Not only is it a language, but it’s a way of living, with its own customs and sayings and habits. What I love most about Arabic is the idioms and expressions that are often used and extremely hard to translate. These old and often used sayings are not
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My Realization

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Just as Virginia Wolf’s recollection of the moth’s death “roused [her]” and a great realization “flashed upon [her],” I too experienced a change in mindset when a peer, Danny Ashtiani, passed away. Although I wasn’t that close to Danny, his passing revealed something to me that I only ever realized then – people are so evil and tend to care when it’s too late. At his funeral, I noticed people there who used to bully him, call him weird and strange, his friends and family, complete strangers from around town, etc… even this one girl who screamed at him in front of everyone at a football game for something he didn’t do, and then noticeably made his life a living hell for about a week or two. All these people, just suddenly now caring about this boy and mental health, most of them fully aware about his struggle to cope… I hated it, and I didn’t know how prevalent this carelessness actually was. Perfect hypocrisy scenario. Then came the post-passing events: the school’s effort (o
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Dumspter Diving & Self Reliance

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After reading “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner and glancing over the analysis questions that followed, one in particular really stood out to me. Eighner states, “I think of scavenging as a modern form of self-reliance.” Is there truly irony behind this statement? Like many others who read the piece, initially I thought, “Psshh yeah right, how is it self-reliance if you’re relying on other people’s garbage? Preposterous.” How could someone who clearly does not rely on himself make the claim that this art he engages in is essentially all about relying on himself? It didn’t make sense; of course it HAD to be ironic, so that was the stance I took. However, after further thinking about this, I believe it really all comes down to what lens you view his statement in. For Eighner and many other serious dumpster divers, who have close to nothing, this craft truly is self-reliance to them. They can only count on themselves to go and scavenge for their means of living – in fact
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