Swimming.

I've always loved to swim, ever since I became a life guard as a part of my training in scouts; I've always loved to swim. When I moved to the residence halls at Wesleyan I searched for some way to blow off steam and relax from the tense world of college. I then realized that we had a pool, so I started swimming 4 times per week. There's something very calming about swimming, I always swim front crawl style because it offers the most consistent speed and muscle usage. When I started swimming again last semester I could only swim about 25- 50 meters at a time, and rest in between. After that I decided to double until I reached 100, and 200. Finally I decided that counting only distracted me from my relaxation and goals. It was then that I discovered the beauty of long distance swimming. When I stopped doing laps I started swimming against time. I would swim for a set period of time and not stop, I started with 10 minutes and grew to 15. This was a tremendous challenge but I found it much more rewarding and relaxing. As I kept doing It I focused less on pacing myself or swimming at a relaxed pace, and started to see how far I could push myself. Now I push myself for 20 minutes and I am going to make the jump to 25 or 30 before the semester's up.


This footage was taken from the FINA Swimming Championship in Manchester England this year. The world record was broken for the 400 meter relay at 3 minutes 8 seconds. which is a speed for about 2.13 m/s (4.74 mph) this may sound slow but it's a breakneck speed for swimming, my fastest time is 50 meters in 40 seconds (about 1.25 m/s) and that's when I'm hauling, using every ounce of energy I have for that short period of time. I still only measure up to half of the world record average speed for a race 8 times longer.


When I swim I am lost in a world of repetitive motion and pulse. I find that this environment allows me to breach my mental walls and focus on a metaphysical level. Nights after I swim I find myself feeling renewed and sharp, a form of self baptism. any other workout leaves me feeling weak, sick, or dead. Perhaps it's the fact that I immerse myself into the building block of life on this planet in order to exercise.

Rhetorical analysis of 1971's Keep American Beautiful PSA

This PSA for Keep American Beautiful Aired the first time on Earth Day in 1971, and is widely credited for inspiring environmental activists and begetting change. The commercial features the now iconic figure of chief Iron Eyes Cody who is now the primary source of recognition for this commercial. As he makes his way down an American river the original beauty that possessed is transformed into an industrial and mechanical world of black, oil, soot, coal, and garbage. He makes his way ashore with his canoe and has a bag of garbage thrown from a car on an interstate on his feet. We are then told that people start pollution, and people can stop it. Fallowed by the symbol for Keep America Beautiful. The comparison and contrast appeal to pathos, the cause and effect appeal to logos, and the comparison and contrast appeal to ethos are the strongest arguments that are made in this PSA.

The greatest arguments made by this PSA are its appeal to pathos through comparison and contrast, as well as logos through cause and effect. as the commercial starts we can see chief Iron Eyes Cody in what we could consider to be his native land, he sits proud and tall as he paddles downstream, we can see his eyes and his face, he looks as though he has bad news to bare. The shot pans out and we see his silhouette against a gold stained river, pristine as can be. Then the beauty of our reality comes to a crashing halt as a piece of a magazine floats by the canoe, the music takes a turn from a sort of native sounding melody into a mechanical booming sound. The silhouette of the chief and his canoe, the only reminder we have of what nature is intended to look like is then superseded as we reach the apex of filth; garbage ridden water, smoggy air, oil and a barge as scary as the Mobro 4000; a harbinger of refuse that dwarfs his canoe, the music begins to sound desperate as it reaches its peak. The chief is turned transparent, a ghost of what respect human kind had for the earth and is juxtaposed against what is now; smoke stacks and pollution. Defeated the chief pulls his canoe ashore still more waste permeates the surroundings. "Some people have a natural abiding respect for the beauty that was once this country, and some people don't." We now know who is responsible for this tragedy, it is ourselves and our sense of logos is triggered by the cause and effect we have just seen. The magazine articles, the smog, sludge, smoke, muck, oil, grease, fumes and most of all garbage. They are everywhere, and we now know that we are the cause, it is our fault, humanities fault, "people start pollution, and people can stop it." The comparison and contrast appeal to pathos then reaches its pinnacle as the chief sheds a tear for what we have done to this country. It is confirmed by our acquisition of the appeal to logos through cause and effect.

The most prominent feature of this PSA is the image of chief Iron Eyes Cody. He shows us how different the world is becoming due to pollution, and he is the one who demonstrates to us that we need to change our ways. Chief Iron Eyes Cody is an example that appeals to our sense of ethos. When one first thinks of the American natives they think of how they taught us to live off of the land that they had occupied for centuries before our arrival. One thinks about the huge abiding respect that the American natives had for the land and nature. It's mentioned in the PSA that "some people have a deep abiding respect for this country, and some people don't," this comparison and contrast highlights chief Iron Eyes Cody as the example for this respect. He is seen at first traversing a river in his canoe in what appears to be a pristine environment, a place that most likely does not look all that different from the land that the American natives lived on. As he continues his way downstream we begin to see more and more filth in the water and on the landscape. Finally as he goes ashore and approaches the highway we are shown that this is not some sort of accident as a young man tosses his trash out the window at the chiefs feet, he looks at the camera with an expression that asks "when will this end?" This is the chiefs way of demonstrating to us that this is our doing. He takes us on a journey that slowly opens our eyes to what we are responsible for, nature. One might even suggest that the chief may be analogous to the earth itself. As the pollution thickens the image of the chief fades, from a vibrantly dressed native chief, to a silhouette, until he becomes a ghost of the past. Just as the earth begins to fade from its hight of beauty the more we pollute it. The chief does nothing to change the pollution, nor does he attempt to change it, instead he observes it and feels it with remorse and despair. The only thing that the earth can do.

After we've been exposed to the appeals to ethos in the form of chief Iron Eyes Cody, as well as the appeals to pathos through comparison and contrast as well as cause and effect we are given the message that "people start pollution, people can stop it." We are then given a 5 second display of the Keep America Beautiful symbol as well as (in this version only) the website where we can access information on how we can keep America beautiful. These two arguments compliment each other as an appeal to logos. When it is illustrated to us that since we are the cause of pollution and we can stop it, we want to. Our next question is "how can we do it?" We are then shown the website for the Keep America Beautiful the masterminds behind this PSA.



And it's not over, pollution is just as prominent today as it used to be. As this PSA shows.

Rhetorical Analysis of Ron Paul

As an OB/GYN doctor, I’ve delivered over 4,000 babies. That experience has made me an unshakable foe of abortion. Many of you may have read my book, Challenge To Liberty, which champions the idea that there cannot be liberty in a society unless the rights of all innocents are protected. Much can be understood about the civility of a society in observing its regard for the dignity of human life.

I wanted to start with this quotation from the Ron Paul 2008 website because it is one of Ron Paul's most convincing arguments that he has made at several debateswithin this last year, whenever he states the key point that he was an OB/GYN in a debate alongside his stance on abortion opposition always decreases. And it is successful in most part due to the fact that it is an appeal to ethos. When we read the above quotation we are immediately convinced regardless of our stance on the matter that this guy knows what hes talking about on this issue. Why? Because he's been delivering babies for years. The appeal to ethos is done through illustration, as we learn that he is experienced on the matter our view changes to one of a more sympathetic nature. I was impressed when I first saw this because I believe that politicians are full of shit. But this argument actually managed to get me to stop and listen due to the credibility that it demands.



This advertisement for Ron Paul is a diet version of what is called negative advertising which ties quite a bit into rhetoric. The advertisement appeals to our sense of Pathos through comparison and contrast. On the one hand we have a national debt, and on the other we have a strong desire to get rid of it. We are shown the "cause" of this debt embodied in the oblivious character of our current president. it is illustrated that he is oblivious when he doesn't seem to understand that he cannot go to the camp. This puts him in our frame of mind as the "cause" of the debt. And embodied on the other side is Ron Paul who is giving our President a ride to camp in his bi-plane, we know that he embodies the side that wants to relieve the debt when our President asks "How much do I owe ya?" Ron Paul responds with "Oh, about nine-trillion dollars. " The comparison and contrast isn't set until we have someone embodying each side of the issue.

"Today, the federal government burdens us with one of the most dangerous taxes it can impose — the inflation tax. When the federal government finds that it cannot afford its out-of-control spending, and is unwilling to directly tax the public, it resorts simply to creating the money out of thin air."

"Inflating the money supply is the easiest form of financing the government. The Federal Reserve, an unelected and unaccountable private organization, pumps more dollars into the economy whenever it chooses. Because the public is forced to accept these bills, the Fed essentially gets away with legally counterfeiting. We cannot possibly expect the government to control spending when it has a blank checkbook."

These two paragraphs which are about "inflation tax," which really isn't a tax at all but more of a cause and effect form of making the public pay the difference. Ron Paul uses narration to demonstrate how the "inflation tax," is done. This appeals to us through logos, pathos, and ethos simply through narration, when we understand the concept of the "inflation tax," it immediately strikes us as though it is not right and definitely not advantageous to anyone except the government. Then we start to realize that unless something is done about this problem it wont go away, which isn't fair at all. Finally we feel as though Ron Paul is our friend or ally for sharing this vital piece of information with us. Then we find him even more credible.

Rhetorical Analysis of Apple commercial

In the commercial that I made an observation about in the previous post there is evidence of each of the rhetorical strategies that we learned about in class. Logos is an appeal to logic or thought, pathos is an emotional appeal, and ethos is an appeal of character. Each of these can be seen separately in this commercial.

The first that can be seen right away is pathos, as the sheep drone into the propaganda room we get a feeling that life in this world isn't so great and that we wouldn't want to be a part of it all too much. The next thing that we see is a woman completely different from the rest of the people in this society, she has hair, colorful clothes and she is liberated from this society, we know this because she can run. This is an ethos sort of appeal, we see this person and we know that whatever it is that she is going to do it will be good and we want to be the same. Finally after she has hurled her hammer into the screen we are told that the reason why life wont be like this is because of the Macintosh that will be released by Apple in the year 1984 then we logically fill in the gaps. "I don't want to be like those people, I want something that will keep me liberated like her, this is logos at work.

I chose this commercial because right away I saw the different rhetorical strategies at work through different symbols, I also wanted to choose a commercial that isn't current so I could see if they were as prevalent then as they are now. It appears to me that they are.