Abortion

CONSERVATIVES - believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. Believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals.


Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

LIBERALS - believe in governmental action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all, and that it is the duty of the State to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Believe that people are basically good.

Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve people's problems.

I thought the presentation went quite well today, I have liberal beliefs on this topic. I believe that people should be able to make the choice, although I do also belief that certain things need to be stricter and more mandated.

Conservative vs. Liberal

Conservative vs. Liberal

Conservative and Liberal values are different and almost split the USA demographics in half. Conservative beliefs are less modern than Liberal, focusing on old long-held beliefs and usually tying in some way to religion. Conservatives do not believe in gay marriage or abortion. They also do not believe in illegal immigration.

Liberal views are more modern, focusing on laws that are pertinent to the new age. Liberals believe in gay-rights and gay marriage, and also believe in abortion (in most circumstances.) They also are more open to illegal immigrants.

peers and trends

"It's a shame that the people who are listening to you the most are only interested in you because they want you and your peers to buy their product."

I think this statement is true because companies are only interested in one thing: making money. They really have no interest in teenage individuals, but make themselves seem like they do in order to earn the consumers trust. Once the trust is earned, they get an inside view of upcoming trends and they can prepare themselves so that they are able to appeal to the largest possible audience once the trend becomes mainstream.

bright eyes lyrics

Gold Mine Gutted by Bright Eyes
"It was Don Delillo, whiskey neat,
And a blinking midnight clock
Speakers on a TV stand
Just a turntable to watch
Only smoke came out our mouths
On all those hooded sweatshirt walks
We were a stroke of luck
We were a gold mine, they gutted us

And from the sidelines you'd see me run
Until I'm out of breath
Living the good life, I left for dead
The sorrowful Midwest
Well I did my best...
To keep my head

It was grass stain jeans and incompletes
And a girl from class to touch
But you think about yourself too much
And you ruin who you love
Well all these claims at consciousness
My stray dog freedom
Let's have a nice clean cut
Like a bag we buy and divy up

And from the sidelines I see you run
Until you're out of breath
And all those white lines that sped us up
We hurried to our death
Well I lagged behind...
So you got ahead"



I believe that this song is about Connor Oberst's drug addiction. Although I have never dealt with drug addiction (unless you count caffeine) the song resonates with me because I think that the lyrics are really deep and I find it very interesting when artists talk so bluntly about things such as addiction. Lyrics like "all those white lines that sped us up...we hurried to our death...well i lagged behind...so you got ahead" leads me to believe that these lyrics mean that Connor stop doing Cocaine and managed to stop himself from dying, but his friend kept doing Cocaine and got closer and closer to dying. I am particularly fond of the line: "We were a gold mine, they gutted us." It is a very poetic line and probably means that "they" had a lot of potential when growing up, but somehow they lost all of that potential. Very good song Hjelmgren, download it now.

Pavement and Values

Do Pavement represent the values of our society? Well, yes and no.
Yes in the regard that Pavement were the first band to garner a good amount of success without the support of a major label. Even more, they denied multiple offers from major labels so they could stay true to their production roots. This shows that Pavement were happy with being who they are, and did not need support from a label that would surely change their sound and overproduce them. Pavement are a good example of a band that worked very hard to be heard, and their hard work was instrumental in their success and cult band status.
On the other hand, to some Pavement came across as very lazy. Even though they worked very hard, Stephen Malkmus lyrics and vocals oozed laziness and a type of "burned out" feeling. This gave listeners the idea that Malkmus smoked a lot of marijuana, which he did. This was not a good influence on a lot of the teenage listeners because Malkmus was seen as a rock idol. However, Malkmus was very smart, having majored in History at University of Virgina.
Long Live Le Pavement!

bring on the major leagues..

Rock & Roll

I found it very fascinating that Rock and Roll is truly a fusion of ideals used in both "black" music and "white" music. I also underestimated Elvis Presley's role in the evolution of Rock and Roll. He wasn't really revolutionary in the type of music he was creating/playing, but he was revolutionary with the images that one would generally associate with the music being sung. With the music Elvis was singing, one would generalize that it was being sung by a black male...but it wasn't. Elvis was truly a person who brought together the races by combining the music. However, I believe that he is given way too much credit. He is often credited with being the "first" to play this type of music when he really wasn't.