Even before “the American Dream” was first coined in 1913 by James Adams, this powerful phrase had already lured many nations to our American shores. The pursuit began in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence stated, “all men . . . are endowed by their Creator with . . . Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Source B).” The Declaration of Independence, along with the American Dream, supported that everyone had the opportunity to achieve greater prosperity without the restrictions of class, religion, race, or ethnic group. The Founding Fathers apparently agreed that happiness and satisfaction is a right that everyone is entitled to. Source C suggests that as time went by “a being of higher faculties [began to require] more to make him happy.” Even though America was a land in which one’s prospects in life were endless, many allowed themselves to be defined by materialistic objects. Citizens nationwide began to feel the incessant need to obtain worldly goods. Without even realizing it, Americans were tuning away from freedom and throwing themselves into bondage where materialism was the master.

After being fully enslaved by materialism the American Dream was rearranged so that it revolved around excessive fortune. Statistics from Source E proved, “the average working woman plays with her children forty minutes a week – and shops six hours.” Unfortunately, this is a common scenario in our society today which is hard-core proof that people now place possessions on a higher pedestal than family values. People, such as the stereotypical working woman, are trying to buy happiness from store shelves. The time of compulsive consumerism we are living in is based on the foundation “that ‘just a little bit more’ will finally buy happiness (Source E).” People today are surrounded by tons of things, yet they still feel incomplete. This dissatisfaction could be represented by the principle of searching for something more in all the wrong places. As result of this reformation, the American Dream has been distorted by the same people it gave freedom and hope to in the 1700’s.

Opposing views question the validity of the original American Dream and all of the hopes associated with it. Source G argues, “Without wealth there can be no Maecenas.” If this is true then how did Picasso and Van Gogh flourish to become internationally known artists? These two men along with more modern day stars, such as Oprah and Tom Cruise, have inspired several generations with their rags to riches storylines. Source G also says, “The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years.” While we have experienced positive developments in technology and education, we have also suffered negative transformations in our economy and political system. For the past year American debt has been increasing at a terrifying rate, currently reaching $57 trillion, and has been heightened even more by our political leader Barrack Obama who spent more money campaigning than his opponent John McCain did. Source G furthermore claims, “This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial.” How can this modification be beneficial when our current generation is becoming increasingly inconsequential? As asserted by Source E, “Ninety-three percent of teenage girls list shopping as their favorite pastime.” Even though many Americans continue their indiscretion towards the American society and the American Dream, hope remains for the few but apt realists.

Even though expectations for the future have been buried by mounds of infectious ideas, the American Dream continues on, stronger than ever, to remain as a constant throughout the lives of unsatisfied citizens.

Some argue that spanking can damage a child’s mental state, but for the most part they would be wrong. According to a TIME magazine article Robert Larzelere, who is a psychologist, concluded that “nonabusive spanking reduced misbehavior without harmful effects” and that spanking not only works but it makes children “more apt to respond without spanking the next time.”(TIME) That statement collaborated with a study that Larzelere performed which dealt with numerous mothers with children around 3 to 3 years old. Many other people will argue that all the statistics they find support not spanking because of the supposed facts, but researchers from the National Institute of Healthcare Research said “83 percent of the 132 identified articles published in clinical and psychosocial journals were merely opinion-driven editorials, reviews or commentaries, devoid of new empirical findings.”(Pro-Spanking) So how can you trust all the information that can be found if they are just opinionated blogs? Both of these hard-core pieces of evidence show that nonabusive spanking will not produce bad effects, even if some statistics say so.

Many parents challenge the notion that they can spank in a calm, planned manner. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimated that “85% of parents expressed moderate to high anger, remorse, and agitation while punishing their children.”(stopspanking) Assuming this information is true, especially since its a specialized committee on psychological aspects of child and family health, the idea that a parent can control themselves while discipling a child can be questioned. Most people find it difficult to put a lid on their emotions when they are anrgy. In many cases, this anger can lead to harsh punishment.In fact, the US department of Health and Human services reported that “142,000 children are seriously injured from Corporal punishment every year in this country.” (NTAC) This group is known for their reports on the damaging consequences of violence and trama. They even went on the say that many times these injuries lead to permanent disabilies. How can a child so young and in the eve of life have such horrible experiences.

          In Feed the author is criticizing the way we devote our time to corporations and the media. The characters realize that “they’re watching us” and that they know “where you’re looking” and that “they want to know what [we] want.” The “they” that the author is referring to is the people in control of the feeds, which is corporate America and the media. He is expressing that if we would pay closer attention we would notice how much our lives are affected by corporate America and media pursuits. Rebellion later takes hold as they “to create a customer profile that is so screwed up, no one can market to [them].” Violet is trying to beat the system, trying to think for herself, trying to live a free life. We think that Facebook and MySpace is a landfill where we can dump our thoughts, but in reality its just another way for companies to increase production. Some characters express that when [they] have feed all [their] life, [they’re] brought up to not think about things.” In other terms, we have the disadvantage because we begin to rely on materialistic objects instead of using our own intuition. After the media develops the knowledge of what we like, what we don’t like, and what our preferences are they can use that information for their own benefit. Throughout Feed, the author opens our eyes to see the way we are living our lives and to see the direction we are headed.

          In a way, Anderson shows us a monstrous and distorted reflection. After looking in the mirror, we realize that it’s ourselves. According to my interpretation of feed, America is headed into a future with the despots being our own corporations and our own media.

     Chasing My Voice is a blog that is more on the professional side because of the features used by the author. The way Clare organized her information is completely different from the other two blog’s organization.  Her tabs include home, about, welcome, aborting abortion, and my ePortfolio. The way she has organized her information makes navigating around her blog easy since you are not overwhelmed by tons of posts on the first page. The way this blog is designed also makes the blog look professional. The use of the blue, gold, and maroon colors make the blog appear more mature. Using the same font size also positively influences the blog’s appearance. The posts on this blog even appear mature because of the topics. For instance, one of the posts How Much Jail Time says that if someone would be punished for abortion then the rates of abortion would decrease. Another topic includes Spousal Notification which also deals with abortion. Because of the features used, Chasing My Voice presents a great example of a mature and professional blog.

  http://chasingmyvoice.lernerblogs.org“>

    The Ogre’s Onion blog is an example of a more fun and youthful blog because of Tory’s use of organizational, creative, and writing skills. The organization for this blog consists of widgets and sidebars. Among the sidebar area, there is a pages tab, a categories tab, an archives tab, a search tab, and a links tab. From the way this blog is designed, all of the posts appear on the first page that comes up, which causes trouble when trying to focus. The features used positively and negatively affect the appearance of this blog. The purple, green, pink, yellow, and blue color scheme livens up the blog. However, the different font sizes and styles make the blog a little difficult to read. After being drawn into the blog by the appearance, reading the content is the next step. This blog’s topics are interesting to me since they discuss events that I’m familiar with. For example, one topic discusses the Hannah Montana Epidemic and whether she will be another teen fad or a new pop legend. Another post talks about Obese Swallowing America – Eating Away Their Lives and that the effects of obesity are greatly increasing for the worse as more and more Americans suffer from the threatening disease of obesity. The result of the author’s use of organizational, creative, and writing skills is a blog that has a fun personality.

 http://torencet.lernerblogs.org

     The Triangle blog has a very different personality from the other two blogs because of Courtney’s use of organizing, designing, and writing skills. Her organizational skills, for instance, makes up a minor but important part of her blog. Among her navigation tabs she uses a blog tab, an about the triangle tan, an organized tab, and a to stop or not to stop tab. On the lighter side, she has all of her posts on the first page that comes up, so navigating isn’t very necessary. In my opinion, a blog’s appearance is important because that is what draws a reader’s eye. The Triangle blog doesn’t consist of too much color when talking about the background and the font because the background is a plain white and the font is ordinary black, which makes the blog easy to read but not very appealing. However, her use of pictures and comic strips adds character and color to her blog. When talking about content, the title has to be something that people can relate to and make the audience wonder what is written in the post, even though the writing is actually the most important part of a post. I have to say that her titles really invigorated my senses because her titles sounded relative towards me, such as Fashion Fever and Buy It! Teenage Obsession/Deception of Culture. On the other hand, some of the posts are more mature like I’m Still Here (the ones we forget after the news stops talking about them). Therefore, all of the features used makes The Triangle blog a decent example of a well put together blog.

 http://thetriangle.learnerblogs.org

     As can be clearly seen, some blogs are proper and some blogs are pleasurable and even some blogs are peaceful. All of this is done by successfully organizing information in a creative way and by creating great content in writing. By using these wonderful skills an attractive and exciting blog can be created, and the only way to learn this is to read blogs made by other bloggers. Furthermore, by pulling all of this information together a blogger can create a blog that develops a miniature personality.

Abuse will also create behavioral effects such as problems in school, teen pregnancy, suicide attempts, criminal behavior, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, eating disorders, and spousal abuse.  One of every three abused children will grow up to become an abusive parent. (Prevent Child Abuse America, 2002)

Even in the NKJV Bible, scriptures talk about Jehoshuba taking Joash and hiding him in her room so Athalian couldn’t kill him. (p.380)  However, another scripture in the NKJV Bible that says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (p.971)

Emotional abuse is a sad but real factor in many people’s lives.  In A Child Called “It,” Dave Pelzer talks about how his mother “no longer considered him a son but a slave and no longer a boy but an it.” (p.27)

The best way to comprehend this is by reading what Carol Burnett wrote in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul.  She said, “You have to have faith that there is a reason you go through certain things.  I can’t say I’m glad to go through pain, but in a way one must in order to gain courage and really feel joy.” (Canfield, J., Hansen, M., Hansen, P., and Dunlap, I., 1996)