tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-227945382010-01-02T06:54:49.923-05:00Thoughts and musings on culture, society, rhetoric, and confluences in the digital realm. Some topics: open source software, free speech rhetoric, sociocultural rhetorical constructs, the Constitution, legal rhetoric, media criticism.C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-73626105615813598222007-06-28T03:30:00.001-04:002007-06-28T03:33:40.929-04:00

Yes, I'm moving on. You'll still be able to read my rants. I've joined culture-cast.org - my blog will be hosted as a part of that site from now on.The URL: http://rhetortech.culture-cast.org/Thank you.Chris

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-61566724072382828582007-05-01T17:37:00.000-04:002007-05-03T10:49:01.587-04:00

I know - it's been a while. I'm not done yet, either. But, I had to share this. It's a photo of an iPod vending machine that was forwarded to me. Look at the screen.iRonic, no?

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-32693493495601355162007-02-28T15:11:00.000-05:002007-02-28T15:14:42.210-05:00

I think that of the many pages of John Nelson, Allan Megill, and Donald McCloskey's The Rhetoric of the Human Science (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987) that I have read in the past few days, the first few pages of the first chapter are among the most thought-provoking (as introductory essays frequently are). The first sentence, "Scholarship uses argument, and argument uses rhetoric," followed

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-8411187826433945152007-01-22T10:17:00.000-05:002007-01-22T10:40:08.415-05:00

It's been done to death in the news and in the courtroom, and repeated setbacks in both the public eye and the legal sphere have yet to deter proponents of "intelligent design." In case you haven't heard, the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based nonprofit, is claiming that parts of the ruling of Judge John E. Jones III against the inclusion of ID in science classrooms was copied from a series of

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-36485481205166960212007-01-18T15:34:00.000-05:002007-01-18T15:35:49.912-05:00

I'm sure some of you are sorry to hear it, but I'm back from my six-week hiatus and ready to bait you once more. Posts to follow are guaranteed to piss someone off.

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-3876050985833290532006-11-27T15:16:00.000-05:002006-11-27T15:18:56.012-05:00

In case you haven't guessed by the date and my graduate student status, I've been (and will continue to be) taking a hiatus from blogging until after I've handed in all of my final projects (and handed back all of my students' final papers).

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-68707704631653683852006-11-09T13:24:00.000-05:002006-11-09T13:53:52.507-05:00

Last week, in response to my post, I received a comment that, while it didn't address my post directly, did raise a question that is increasingly common (one that, in fact, I read at least twice in letters to the editor this morning): "What reasoning precludes producing a photo ID as a measure to prevent election irregularities?" The simple measure suggested by many, would not be simple to enact

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1162916620557800502006-11-07T11:22:00.000-05:002006-11-07T11:37:12.636-05:00

No matter your political party, your schedule, your personal feelings: cast your vote today.

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1162511936103691472006-11-02T18:55:00.000-05:002006-11-07T11:37:12.576-05:00

I'm placing the religious rhetoric on pause for a moment to discuss an article [link] in the Washington Post today, entitled "MD Democrats say GOP Plans to Block Voters." From the article:A recently distributed guide for Republican poll watchers in Maryland spells out how to aggressively challenge the credentials of voters and urges these volunteers to tell election judges they could face jail

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1162324137794609952006-10-31T14:47:00.000-05:002006-11-07T11:37:12.517-05:00

Ahhh. The joy of acceptance... Of being told (by someone other than one's own arrogance and ego) that you are RIGHT. That's right, kiddies. Yours truly was accepted for a peer-reviewed panel at CCCC. I'm one of 15%. That includes tenured profs.

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1161367058953463312006-10-20T12:45:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.456-05:00

This election has brought the rhetoric of public religiosity to the fore, and with a vengeance. Sadly, socially if at least not legally, our candidates seem to be subjected to a religious litmus test by newspapers as well as voters. I'm fine with voters asking these questions in a public forum: you are bound by conscience to vote with your values, and although I feel that religion is only one

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1160424425575320022006-10-09T15:47:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.393-05:00

"Politics is the struggle for existence" - Wallace Stevens, Opus Posthumous, "Adagia"Although political rhetoric has always been charged, emotional, even brutally competitive, the language used by news outlets reveals a good deal about the way that they deal with politics. The term long-used to describe our current style of coverage - "horse-race" politics - isn't quite as accurate as it once

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1158866341250551162006-09-21T14:25:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.332-05:00

It's time I inserted my own voice into the controversy concerning electronic voting. As an increasing number of states consider moving to electronic voting, industry-leading Diebold continues to try to quell the swelling number of studies and reports of security flaws in its equipment. Meanwhile, a number of websites, including engadget, i-am-bored.com, blackboxvoting.org, and

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1157470690292603092006-09-05T11:22:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.271-05:00

As often as I mention the chickenhawks running the war in Iraq, I am quite pleased to celebrate a politician who will put his money where his mouth is. The New York Times reports that Jonathan L. Paton, an incumbent Arizona Republican seeking his second two-year term in the U.S. House, will be at Ft. Benning, GA, preparing for a five-to-six month tour of duty in Iraq and - perhaps - Afghanistan

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1157042951810249092006-08-31T12:09:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.202-05:00

Ohio. Lovely place. Home of the Cuyahoga River, which has caught fire no less than five times (June 1949, March 1951, November 1952, December 1951, and the "big one" of 1969) [see a picture of the 1969 fire on the NOAA.gov site]. Home, more recently, to the second great American electoral fraud scandal of the 21st century (which is how old, now? Oh, SIX YEARS). Finally, someone's called them

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1156876101492695972006-08-29T13:13:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.143-05:00

First, I'll state the following, which should be obvious to everyone but - apparently - is not: there is no communication, no statement, without bias. From birth, we are conditioned to see and think by our unique individual experiences. I'll give you a basic lesson in semiotics, ripped straight from Saussure's Course in General Linguistics: every utterance is composed of a chain of signs. Each

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1156609205392048522006-08-26T11:55:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.083-05:00

I wouldn't normally plug any books on this blog: I think it's somewhat stupid to advertise for someone for free. However, Richard Lanham's new book, The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance In the Age of Information (University of Chicago Press, 2006), addresses so many of the cultural quirks and rhetorical fallacies that I discuss here that I couldn't avoid it. I'll admit, I read and

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1155228973031830582006-08-10T12:26:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:12.021-05:00

I have no idea how our government thinks we function. It must feel that, in most cases, we're so blindly stupid that we barely have enough brainpower to keep our hearts beating, but a recent article in the Washington Post really takes the cake. Defense attorneys - military officers all, appointed for said purpose by our government - for soldiers accused of raping and murdering a fourteen year

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1155227208276076162006-08-10T11:58:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:11.956-05:00

Yesterday (8/9/2006), in newspapers across the nation, Americans were subjected to yet another announcement in which our government - or agents acting directly on behalf thereof - assumed that our collective intellect was somewhere close to the "mildly retarded" mark (see last posting). In a not-so-stunning announcement, the Bush Administration drafted a proposed amendment to existing war crimes

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1154387599126169332006-07-31T18:57:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:11.877-05:00

On Thursday, July 20, 2006, the President addressed the NAACP for the first time in his six-year tenure in office. The gathered dignitaries were - surprise, surprise - rather lukewarm in their reception of ol' Dubya, whose initial election alone left a bad taste in the mouths of many African Americans, and whose administration has done more to curtail the advances of the Civil Rights movement

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1153576114644317022006-07-22T09:43:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:07.913-05:00

Negative rumors, ignorant piety, insulting and degrading slurs, and political intrigue have a long history in Native American affairs in the United States. The first instance of germ warfare in the history of the world involved Puritan settlers "charitably" giving blankets to "the savages" to help them stay warm for the winter. Of course, the blankets had been used by smallpox patients - a

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1153435613849462932006-07-20T18:45:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:07.858-05:00

Thanks to Dr. Ken Zagacki for posing the original question from which this brief entry grew.------From a cultural point of view, the rhetoric of contemporary American presidents is isomorphic. Whether they are liberal, conservative, or middle-of-the-road, their discourse stills bears the same, essential cultural marks. You can't be president of the United States unless you accept - at least on

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1153177216431546142006-07-17T18:58:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:07.801-05:00

Sorry to all readers. I've been off for about a month for a number of reasons: baby, computer issues, vacation, and a birthday. Next time I'll post a brief warning beforehand, but I am back ... whatever that may mean for all of you.

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1153176908600642932006-07-17T18:43:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:07.738-05:00

Visuals of Epic Proportions:Democratic Heroes and Republican MonstersThe politics of emotion must appearTo be an intellectual structure. The causeCreates a logic not to be distinguishedFrom lunacy-- Esthétique du MalPolitics is the struggle for existence- AdagiaThese two quotes from Wallace Stevens illustrate our political landscape quite well: the lunacy, the emotion disguised as logic,

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22794538.post-1151340731203439232006-06-26T12:46:00.000-04:002006-11-07T11:37:07.682-05:00

Before continuing with this entry, I suggest you read the introductory entry for the Visual Rhetoric & Digital Politics series, which will provide a good grounding for what I hope to discuss. I should note: this is a nonpartisan sequence of essays, meant to instruct readers who wish to learn more about the challenges facing deliberative discourse and cultural literacy in the digital era.Although

C.Berghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01428748769620647787noreply@blogger.com0