Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings  
Tax the Rich 

Website Wednesday (6 pm, I went in to edit this post about an hour ago, missed the error I was looking for and thought I was perfect. I wasn't. Now, I'm back to really fix it.)

The girl's essay topic for advanced freshman high school history is: Was the French Revolution worth the human cost? It's in a second-chance re-write stage now because the first essay was returned for revisions.

You think: What a nice teacher.  OK, hold your kudos for a minute. I never saw the first paper but I did get to look at the teacher's comments when it was returned. He was right, the paper did digress. Then I got to look at his outline for writing it:

Intro
-historical background
-explain historical debate
-thesis=position I'm taking plus 3 reasons why

Body Paragraphs (3)
-topic sentence
-evidence (research)
-analysis
-two quotes per paragraph 

Conclusion
-Refute the opposing argument
-Summarize arguments
-linger into future

And I thought: WTF? and I got to thinking more about this topic. You see, the girl chose to answer: No, The French Revolution wasn't worth the human cost. If she had chosen "Yes." the paper would have written itself since the human cost which came with the 10 month Reign of Terror, 1793 - 1794, killed tens of thousands and imprisoned hundreds of thousands but to paraphrase Harry Lime in The Third Man: Look what it produced. The changes to French government and society after this revolution were, well, revolutionary. I don't think the US Congress in this modern day (OK, there are a bunch of Yahoos in Congress) would even vote to pass them.

But the teacher gave the topic as a question and the girl decided to go the "less traveled road." It is not easy for a 14 year old to prove this question for the negative. Hell, it's not easy for me except in a tangential sense because even with the witch hunt executions of the Terror included, the French Revolution did change the western world, and mostly for the better.

So I'm thinking the teach was disingenuous by phrasing this essay topic as a question. I'm thinking what he really wants is: The French Revolution was worth the human cost. Prove it. 

But what saddens me the most is that the girl, mired in books trying to prove her "No.", is wailing: I hate history. Thanks, teach.

http://www.tekzoned.com/games/miniputt/miniputt.swf 

OK, let's have fun. You play what looks like miniature golf here. The graphics are great and, if you like golf, it would be a good diversion during lunch hours.

http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/40-terrific-works-of-art-made-from-common-trash.html 

I eat a lot of Healthy Choice Asian Chicken. Not that I like it (it's not bad) but because it only has 13% of sodium (most are at 20+%) and 17 grams of protein. But each time I finish one package (and there have been many), I'm left with two "dishes" in sturdy plastic which are just too sturdy to chuck since I know, one day, I will find a use for these suckers.

Which is an intro to the above link of 40 terrific works of art made from common trash. Take a look for inspiration; I know I'm going to. 

http://www.coachcalorie.com/food-advertising-tricks/

I thought this would be a good website to share with kids as a lesson to not believe everything you see on food packaging. Then you could have a field trip around the kitchen for food products and see if you can catch any advertising tricks there.
 

 http://www.taglineguru.com/survey05.html
 

And finally, some more taglines. I haven't read all of them but they go way back to the 1940s. It's fun to see if you remember these products. After all, big bucks are spent developing the perfect tagline to sear its product into your memory for eternity.

That's it for this Wednesday. It's pretty easy reading for everyone today. We all deserve breaks like this. See you next week.