Scrubs' "The Todd" as High-Level Rhetorical Theorist

Hard to tell what is the best thing about this brief clip. JD's announcement that after having just watched Hoosiers, he now likes sports? The wonderously relatable concept of a "Who Cares Award"? Or The Todd's Screamingly Awesome Shirt?????

Something Oxymoron and Harrogate Could Easily be Found Saying and Doing...

We must hang in there and believe that Soon, Oxy, people will be similarly having to remind us that we are "Doctors." Heh.

Question of the Day Part the Second: IS an "Adult Pretending to be a Child Still an Adult"????

Solon's favorite blogger over at TalkLeft, TChris, offered up this fascinating post on Sunday, and Harrogate has had it rolling around in the back quadrant of his teeming brain ever since.

The issue before us, Situationers, is succinctly articulated by TChris

A troubling trend that vexes those of us who believe the police should prevent or solve crimes, not manufacture them, is the detective sitting in a chat room posing as a 15 year old waiting to engage in salacious conversation with an adult. Courts have typically held that an adult who travels to meet the "15 year old" for a sexual encounter can be charged with attempted sexual assault of a minor, even though the defendant never chatted with a minor and no actual minor was ever at risk.

TChris's own position on this issue is compelling:

Whether a mistaken belief about a chatter's age (when the belief is induced by a lying law enforcement officer) should lead to any form of criminal liability is questionable. Putting that question aside, it is reasonable to recognize, as Indiana now does (at least until the legislature closes this "loophole"), that people who don't put a child at risk deserve greater leniency than those who do.

It is of course no surprise that he or Jerlayn would take this stance, as standing up for defendants' and/or criminals' rights (unfortunately for some commenters who tried to morph it into a mouthpiece for a particular brand of feminism) is the true backbone of TalkLeft.

But in addition to the Legal Question, there is also a Rhetorical Situation here that needs to be examined. (Oxymoron, for example, continues to argue that when you are watching a football game on television, that the colored first down line is actually on the field. Of course, Oxymoron also once argued that Styx was a great band, so you have to be careful with Oxymoron.)

So, likely all of us on this Board dislike the idea of Entrapment. But will anyone here straight-up say that detectives should stop trolling for "pedophiles" in this manner? Or conversely, will anyone say straight up that the detective posing as a fifteen year old (what if the detective poses as an 8 year-old) is doing the right thing, indeed, protecting children?

Harrogate will leave the light on for you.

Kid Rock Goes Deep

I saw this on Storytellers last night. I dug it. This is Kid's attempt to write something relevant. From his album Rock N Roll Jesus:



"Now God damn it! I'm scared to send my children to church." Amen.

A Happy Musical Tribute to Tuesday: Wherein Harrogate Rejoins Oxymoron's Gesture

Since we're on the subject of songs we'd forgotten about, here's the perfect thing for a chilled Tuesday in November. This was long before Magnolia, friends. This was back when John McCain was in his forties. This, in short, was a long time ago.

A Word on Entrance Music

Readers, what would your entrance music be? Yesterday Harrogate asked his students this "Question of the Day" and got several surprising answers.

One student chose this: an excellent choice indeed.


For Harrogate the answer is still what it always was and forever more shall BE.

You know, sort of like this guy.

Happy Wednesday Musical Tribute; and a Word on Covering Great Music

Back to that famous conversation between Oxymoron, Solon, and Harrogate, on the way to the bar, discussing what is wanted, and what is not wanted, out of musical covers.

The record on which this song appears is just so awesome. Harrogate loves it so much. Perhaps some would say that bringing a country-western flavor to Pink Floyd, without harming the Greatness of the Original, is a task tantamount to bringing a Stanley Cup to Buffalo. But years ago, Luther Wright & the Wrongs proved it could be done, in what has now become a cult classic album: Rebuild the Wall.

Here's a general rule about cover songs: if they give you a renewed appreciation for the value of the original, they have done good artistic work.

Analyzing Gibbs's Methodology; Or, Rachel Maddow Listened to Her First-Year Composition Teacher

One of the things that I constantly tell my composition students is that they need to "show, not tell." That is to say, they should demonstrate their points through examples and description, rather than simply stating their points and expecting their audiences to concede said points without evidence.

In an effort to emphasize the importance of this rhetorical necessity, I often remind students that I am from Missouri, and that Missouri is the "Show-Me State." Consequently, if their arguments are not showing me, then they're not persuading me. And if they're not persuading me, then they're not effective. And if they are not effective, then...well, then they're far from A-territory.

On Countdown last night, Keith Olbermann discussed the Hannity-Gibbs clip that the almighty Roof posted yesterday. In doing so, he asked Rachel Maddow to comment on Gibbs's methodology and to describe how he acheived success against Hannity. Maddow's response:

He did it by showing, instead of telling.

This wonderful pedagogical moment begins at the four-minute mark.

Thought You Should Know

There's a Notre Dame football player named Golden Tate. No, it's not actually Golden Taint, but the announcers sure like saying it as if it were.

"College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid"; or, Oxyomoron Had Better Hope His Prospective Students Don't Read Ashley Herzog

Not too long ago, word was that Oxymoron almost made it onto Horowitz's list of the 100 most dangerous college professors. Now, though, Oxymoron is surely being targeted.

Don’t register for English classes that revolve around the writings of some allegedly oppressed group, such as “Gay and Lesbian Literature” or “Women and Writing.” These classes typically have nothing to do with great, or even good, literature. I once signed up for a Women’s Writing class to fill a requirement. Did we study the classic works of history’s best female authors, such as the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen? Nah. Instead, the class mostly revolved around short pieces by untalented women who whined about America’s “sex/gender system.” The only assigned book was the biography of Assata Shakur, a female Black Panther who fled to Cuba after she was convicted of murdering a cop.

But to be fair, it's not just oxymoron, he's only the most obvious culprit. In truth all Board Members of The Rhetorical Situation had better look out. Even as we speak Harrogate himself is putting together a syllabus the sole purpose of which is to destroy Western Culture.

Stop the Presses--Kerry Really Can Be Funny!!!!

Okay, Harrogate has to post this, partly to make up for the rants he has levied against Kerry for the incompetent, even anemic campaign he ran four years ago. This, coupled with a desire to show the silliness of the outrage expressed by some over Kerry's quite reasonable refusal to withhold praise for McCain's military service.

But today CNN posts this on Kerry, who is campaigning vigorously on Obama's behalf. Provocatively entitled "Kerry: McCain is 'dangerous' for the country," the piece includes this discursive nugget, which shows that the caricature of patrician liberalism, John Kerry, really can be funny. It's a nugget that also left the RNC mightily pissed.

“I don’t know if you know this,” joked Kerry, “John McCain is looking for someone for vice president who has more economic expertise than he does. So congratulations to all of you, you’re on the short list.”

Some Pedagogical Help, Please

I was thinking about including a section on visual rhetoric in my upcoming freshmen composition course. I thought that I would start with the following picture. I'm certain that it's ripe for analysis, but I'm not really sure what to say about it, or where to go from here. Any advice...?

Of Crows, Ice Cream, and Wedding Rings: Jouissance, Assy McGee style

The more Harrogate sees of this blog, the more he likes it. Things keep going the way they're going, somebody's gonna get blogrolled.....

Happy Friday Musical Tribute Redux; A Synthesis, and a Tribute to Larry "Thunder Mug" Craig

WALL-E Wars II: All Early Noise to the Contrary,Perhaps the Movie is Actually an "Indictment of Liberalism"!

Ahhhh, Ambiguity, thy name is WALL-E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or as one of oxymoron's students once famously queried, "so you're saying there's lots of different ways to interpret it?"

Comes today's piece by the erudite Paul Edwards, entitled "WALL-E's Indictment of Liberalism".

Some fun snippets in a read that one can't quite believe actually exists, even though it is quite mainstream in its scope and intent:

WALL-E is the story of what results when a liberal vision of the future is achieved: government marries business in the interest of providing not only “the pursuit of happiness” but happiness itself, thus creating gluttonous citizens dependent on the government to sustain their lives. The result is a humanity consisting of self-absorbed, isolated individuals with no affection for others, who thus defy what it means to truly be human.

And a Much-Needed Bible Lesson, on the House:

One might immediately surmise that the creators of the movie received their inspiration from Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Not so fast. While in the storyline humans certainly have laid waste the planet, and the government’s answer to the crisis is the removal of humans (which is also Al Gore’s solution), 700 years after the last human has left the planet it becomes quite clear that the earth needs humans just as much as humans need the earth. After all, in the Bible we learn that humans were created as caretakers for the planet: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15).

Finally, in a comment perhaps more piercingly intellectual than any Harrogate has ever seen in the history of political and cultural debate:

WALL-E exposes a fundamental flaw in the liberal worldview. In their well-intended desire to lift people out of despair, liberals often fail to factor in the depravity of the human heart. Offer a man the opportunity to get something for little or nothing and the ultimate end will be a man who believes himself entitled to everything for little or nothing.

You get the idea. Capitalism is our God-Given way of neutralizing our own depravities and becoming instead warriors for the righteous and the good. Yea, forsooth, capitalist society in its undiluted form brings out the very best in all of us, rich, poor, everyone in between. The only time capitalism is even remotely problematic is when the government gets involved in it.

The essay, in short, is filled with one gynormous assertion after another, and really, ye don't have to have seen WALL-E (Harrogate, as of yet, still has not) to be entertained by its affect of reasonableness.