Blog #2 - Still Unanswered Questions?

We did a power writing session earlier this week, and in it, you were asked to write about five things you were certain of, and write down three things you were confused about concerning our unit on industry and unions in the late 19th Century. Now, I'm asking you to think once again about the stuff you're still unsure of even after taking the test on Friday.

After linking corruption in the business world today to the abuse of power back then, and contrasting moral businessmen like J.P. Morgan with modern ones like the Enron head honchos, after comparing Carnegie Steel and Standard Oil with Clear Channel's vertical and horizontal integation, what nagging question still remains? Is there something that you're not quite still clear about?

There were some great questions on the power writing. For example:

1. How could Enron look profitable for so long yet practically collapse almost over night?

2. Why do people get so greedy that they'll risk everything?

3. How is Clear Channel a monopoly if they only own 10% of the market?

4. Apple appears to be nice and friendly in their ads, but that article, at least the author, seems to really hate Apple. Why?

Your job, in Blog #2, is to pick your toughest question that still nags you and try to answer it in no less than 150 words. Due Monday, Sept. 22, 2008.

Blog #1 - Pick a quote and analyze it

Pick one of these quotes and tell me what you think the speaker means by it and what the President is saying about democracy / government specifically.

1. Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind...War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. John F. Kennedy

2. No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. Abraham Lincoln

3. Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion. Richard Nixon

4. People ask the difference between a leader and a [political] boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives. Teddy Roosevelt

5. Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. Woodrow Wilson

6. No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Franklin Roosevelt

Minimum 150 words. Due Monday, September 8.