ART!

     Art to me is a very vague word that encompasses almost everything that can be seen or heard by humans. With this being said, art can be a picture painted or drawn by an artist, a song sung by a singer, and in my opinion the greatest artistry of all, the magnificently crafted work of mother nature. From the amazingly dressed flowers in the meadow, and the elegantly carved rock in the Grand Canyon, to the white waves crashing on the vast surface of the deep blue sea, mother nature has to be in my opinion the greatest contributor to arts history. I believe art is an expression illustrated to convey a message, thoughts and/ or feelings. Art created by a human medium is also something that cannot be completely and perfectly replicated which in my view is the reason why the original piece of art created by an artist is the most valuable and most sought after.

     A piece of art that is printed in amounts of 16,000,000+ copies a day and is handled by most Americans just about everyday is the United States dollar bill. This piece of paper has art all over it, back and front. The  all black front has a portrait of the United States first president, George Washington and also floral designs outlining the perimeters of the Federal Reserve Note. The all green back of the dollar has a bald eagle holding arrows and olive branches and also a unfinished pyramid with an eye hovering over it. Until this blog when I saw or physically handled a dollar bill, or any currency amount, I just saw money and other tangible things that I could purchase with the money. However, after researching the dollar bill for this blog, I came to notice that the artistry work on the dollar has a rich historical message, which I feel is safe to say that most Americans including my self have failed to pay attention to. The George Washington portrait on the front is obviously the tribute to the first president for his accomplishments and hand in helping build the United States of America. The bald eagle is the official bird of the United States and symbolizes American freedom along with the arrows in the eagles claws which represents Americans defense and willingness to defend it's borders and the olive branches symbolizes the longing for peace both domestically and internationally. The 13 stripes on the breast of the eagle represents the 13 original colonies and so does the collection of stars centered above the eagles head. The unfinished pyramid has 13 steps which in my observation (not completely sure)  represents the 13 original colonies, however also shows the unfinished work of the states/ colonies because ultimately today we have 50 states!

     With this art work printed on a object that many Americans have a deep passion for, I find the fact that most people can't even recite from memory what graphics are on the legal tender to be quite interesting. Obviously, the dollar isn't just an object for private use, because the government and specifically the media uses the dollar for a number of reasons. With the medias central strength and power invested in money, the U.S one dollar bill is one of the most influential pieces of art since it's first issue in 1862 as a legal tender.

Social Networking and Politics!

     Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and many other social media sources are great ways for people to stay in touch in this computer savvy age. Most Facebook pages are used for people to share information with each other and to keep in touch with friends especially over long distances. With the growing wealth of information  and diversity on these social networking sites politics has grown tremendously as it became readily accessible! 

     Social media sites are a beacon of freedom for Americans to exercise their first amendment rights, especially when it comes to politics. Facebook pages by the revered constitutionalist Judge Andrew Napolitano and also the Libertarian Dr. Ron Paul are both great examples social networking politics at its finest! Both honorable men express their views on the government through the social sites. To me, this is a great way to stay up to date with my favorite political leaders and also to stay on top of current events. 

     A political Facebook page that is not necessarily happy with the way that our American government is functioning, in particular the media corporations is the "Impeach the Government" Facebook page. I 'liked" this page just to stay informed on some of the political issues taken from a more extreme point of view and I found that theirs a good amount of people who are extremely upset with politics in America. The extent to which people on this Facebook page exercise their first amendment rights is really interesting with their sometimes controversial political agenda. 

     Facebook is a great way to let off "political steam" and to gain knowledge about current events and truths about our media corporations. Yes, I understand that Facebook is not a reputable source by any means. However, it is a great source to that enables the users to stumble upon information about a certain political situation or current event that may trigger you to further investigate the topic. 

YouTube and the Media!

YouTube has been a major source of video media since its launch in late 2005. With millions of videos uploaded to the website and with hundreds uploaded every day, YouTube can serve as a rich resource of information, laughs and scholarship via video format! With this wealth of information, YouTube is a great website to view politics. With the contentious campaign season behind us now, I am still able to reminisce about my hero and also access amazing video footage of Ron Paul thanks to YouTube!

The YouTube video “Ron Paul 2012: Why the media ignores Ron Paul” is an amazing video that depicts the media corporations as biased and unwilling to give Ron Paul fair air time. This is quite evident in both the 2008 and 2012 election seasons. Tuning into the media channels such as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC the average viewer wouldn't find much information about Ron Paul thanks to the little coverage. However, on YouTube there are numerous videos from Ron Paul interviews, documentary style videos, political debates and also any other information such as coverage of the 2012 Paul Fest.

YouTube has opened many doors and also helped educate people on different political figures through uploaded presidential debates, presidential advertisements and all other sorts of videos. YouTube is a great website to catch up on current issues if you do not have a TiVo account and also a way for users to view videos from decades ago (before most of us were even born)! This revolutionary website has truly been a beacon of knowledge and power for the 21^st century and I’m sure it will continue to inform the public even when the main stream media fails. 

                                                               Works Cited

"Ron Paul 2012: Why the media ignores Ron Paul." Video Clip. 19 August, 2011. YouTube. 13 November 2012.

Internet & the Media!

The internet has been a breeding ground for politicians, government agencies, media corporations and even individual citizens of the United States to post just about whatever they want to post on the World Wide Web.  The internet is a tremendous source of information about just about everything in the world and what is known to man. With this wealth of knowledge, people are able to become more educated, strive in their social lives and become more aware of foreign affairs. However, with this knowledge comes trouble at times. The internet while moderately regulated is still free and open to lies, biases and false truths.

Media Corporations such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC all have web sites which provide the same information that their television program provides. This is revolutionizing and makes it easier for their agendas to be advertised to the general public. The internet has a ton of resources which provides these corporations the ability to sell their agendas whether it’s through an official website, advertisements, emails or social networking. The internet has provided politics to be more readily accessible to the general public especially on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. If you don’t believe me, log onto your Facebook around the presidential campaign season and count all of your friends with their political science doctoral degrees based on political status updates.

The important thing to take away from this blog is to be aware of the biases and lies that are posted on the internet every hour of the day. With this political season in full speed, careful research on the internet is necessary to not fall victim to corporate and social networking lies.