2011 Class Topics Notes

Practice Scholar

7 Oct

Vietnam
Anwar al-Awlaki
states quiz
liberal/conservative

21 Oct

Occupy Wall Street
Manufacturing Consent, elite control of media
media deception
Gadaffi killed

4 Nov

National debt.
Laws of supply and demand
different laws for elite and commoners

9 Dec

National Defence Authorization Act, Corporate Personhood
Astronomy science
Syria, Egypt, Emergency Laws
1000 Year War: Terrorism vs. Retaliation, 3 causes, Guerrilla Warfare
Europe quiz practice

6 Jan

Presidential Candidates (especially Paul, Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Johnson, brief comments on others), mock election, how elections work
Blogging advocacy speech

20 Jan

SOPA and PIPA discussion, copyright law, tracing the money from copyright holders to congress
citizen army vs professional army, mercenaries
blogging howto

10 Feb

Vehicle safety inspections
Noam Chomsky -- famous for liguistics and politics, socialist bias, methods criticise systems which encourage bad results (e.g. media sells audience to advertisers; CEOs are often merely employees of stockholders not owner with unilateral power)
Fact checking

24 Feb

Greek debt crisis.  bonds: investors/buyers vs government/sellers.
super-tuesday
Half of macro-economics slideshow (through Keynes)

9 Mar

Different blogging styles: opinion, factcheck, research, analysis, principles, predictive
How to fact check new stories.  Alternate sources, phone interviewing.
Chomsky chapter 3: government's main enemy is the people, role of sports

23 Mar

Latin America quiz.
Chomsky chapter 5: socialism vs communism, decentralization pros & cons, etc.
Orange shirts blog post: hiring/firing rights and practices
Travon racism issues

6 Apr

Syria, public transportation, Mali, allowing women in public vs private organizations

27 Apr

Persuasion vs. Force
Syria, Ownership, Prep for Property

Scholar

14 Oct

Occupy Wall Street (compare biases)
liberal/conservative
socialist,equity vs capitalist,opportunity
secret wiretapping
secrety: good vs bad
(did NOT do states quiz)

28 Oct

Straw polls & ron paul coverage
Manufacturing Consent (a little)
public corporations vs ownership
ownership as a principle and the united order
states quiz (take-home)
News items: greed debt (50% write-off), occupy wall street, 55% counter-protests, welfare as self-help instead of handouts

11 Nov

Presidential candidates
Greece and Italy financial crises
Economics: supply & demand
bonds and bond interest rates

2 Dec

Presidential candidate platforms and vote (Ron Paul won)

16 Dec

Blogging: writing to solidify ideas, keep ideas in the public discussion
1000 Year War: 3 causes, biases
Debate on morality of foreign intervention; interests abroad and human rights
Supply/Demand analysis of housing crisis; deflation effects on debt

13 Jan

Blogging: made pledges to blog.  Casey's 3 elements: 1) a link to your source, 2) a short summary, 3) your opinion about it.  Find something interesting in the news, and tell us enough that we would want to read it too.

War policy shift to the far east: more attention on North Korea (they have nukes and are still technically at war with South Korea and us) and China (a lot of economic issues--buying us debt, trade imbalance, currency manipulation).
Payroll Tax issues.  Still unclear what the issue it, but we discussed what payroll taxes are.
Republican candidates, and progress in the primaries.
Iranian nuclear scientists being assassinated.

27 Jan

Citizen Army vs Professional Army
election vs caucus, republic vs democracy, etc.
Europe geography quiz

10 Feb

(blogged issues) Syria protests, Iranian nukes, Catholics vs Obama over birth control, bound/unbound delegates
Fact checking
Understanding Power, chapter 2

24 Feb

Macro-economics
Fact-checking q/a
Greek debt crisis, SuperPACs, upcoming super-tuedays primaries

9 Mar

Utah legislative session, and interesting bills passed.
targetting killing/assassination discussion of pro/con issues for debate.
Income taxes... zzzz....

23 Mar

Orange shirts blog post: hiring/firing rights and practices
Travon racism issues
Joseph Kony, what can one do? military vs charity.

6 Apr

Syria: do we believe presidents promise to draw back? Do we help them somehow?
Persuasion vs Force
South America quiz
Mali

27 Apr

Syria, Sudan vs South Sudan, Student debt, domestic spying, targetted killings
Property essay, good discussion on law of force and law of reason
prep for Good vs. Expedient
Locke's ideas of government vs. the patriarchal order
Should government protect the individual or the family?