Reader Notes Roundup #1

17Aug08

New tradition here, since I often do short notes on articles I find in Reader (recent updates at right), I figured once a week I would highlight some of the key posts of the week in the blog.

Without further ado, some of the best notes of the week:

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Rise of the Sea Turtles | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

via www.newsweek.com on 8/16/08

David:

“What’s interesting to me about this piece is that the students all mention social factors like bias and cultural misunderstanding, while all the wester researchers point to anti-Westernism. Perhaps we should listen more to what the students are saying rather than what the data might suggest they could say?”

Rise of The Sea Turtles

China’s most modern citizens aren’t drawing it any closer to the West.

Photos: Tony Law / Redux for Newsweek

The Expat Life: Novelist Zhao Chuan (left) says the Internet makes it easier for Overseas Chinese to avoid Western influences. Film teacher Shu Haolun (right) thinks some nationalism is simple homesickness.

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Race Card – What Race Card?

via The Moderate Voice on 8/13/08

David:

“The big hole in this article I want filled? How would the author define African-American if not an American citizen with an African heritage? Without a definition that stands on its own, I’m hard pressed to be convinced one way or the other that someone is or isn’t African American. I’m not lending support to any particular definition, but his exclusion of Obama makes me wonder how he defines the term.”

I have been stewing over this issue for several months and I have finally put the proper words to the thoughts I have been accumulating. My central thought is that there is no race card in this campaign because Senator Obama does not fall into one of the categories of racial antagonisms in this country. Simply put, he is neither White nor Black; his father is Kenyan and his mother is American. Therefore, by definition, Barack Obama is not African-American; rather, he is an American citizen that has an African person as a father.

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Negative ads: They really do work (Mark J. Penn/The Politico)

via memeorandum on 8/12/08

David:

“Ya know, I wouldn’t have a problem with attack ads if they were genuine attacks, but I think all too often the attack ads that are problems outright lie, or attempt to equate two things without any reasoning behind them. For example, I don’t dislike the Celebrity ads against Obama right now because they hit Obama, I hate them… well first because being “ready to lead is something absolutely impossible to prove”… but second because there is ZERO sound reasoning presented when the ads try to link Obama to other celebrities. Simply being popular, and showing images of him being popular, is NOT an argument. THAT’s what makes me mad about “attack ads.” I wonder if we had more legitimate attack ads, ads that hit on actual policy proposals and implications, if the country would feel differently about them. I dunno…. but if they picked up any sort of reasoning we’d at least be moving in a better direction as a country.”

Mark J. Penn / The Politico:
Negative ads: They really do work  —  Clever negative advertising works.  That is reality.  —  The tactic meets with media and pundit disapproval and spawns accusations of negativity, but the reality is that a clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective.

Filed under: Media, Politics, Society   |  1 Comment
Tags: china, google, negative, race, reader