Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Guest Speaker


Today, I had the pleasure to listen to Dave Saunders who is the Chief Idea Officer of Madison+Main. Mr. Saunders graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University. Madison+Main is a company who did the Richard Bland commercial and is based in Richmond, VA. Listening to Mr. Saunders talk was truly enjoyable. I learned that there are three types of business: 1) The ones you love 2) The ones you hate 3) The ones you don’t know about. Richard Bland right now is considered a number three. That is why Madison+Main is trying a new approach and is trying to make Richard Bland known with the commercials and new website. Also Richard Bland is a people based business, if you look on the internet there are pictures of students all over the website. The pictures are of real students and are not actors. Another business that is considered a people business is Chick-fil-A. Whenever you say thank you at Chick-fil-A they always say “My pleasure”. I’m glad I attended the speach especially because I want to major in business.  

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Difference between Living or Dying


Gun control is a big topic in the news right now because of all the shootings. Personally, my feelings are strong about gun control. The second amendment states “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” I believe that there should be harsher laws for someone to obtain a gun. If someone has a mental health problem or has gotten in trouble with the law then of course he or she should not be able to have a gun. I think the media has a negative effect on people’s opinions toward gun control. The media rarely airs a story on how a gun saved someone’s life. For example, a woman rushed to the aid of her neighbor’s daughter, after hearing her screams, a man was ripping the young girl’s clothes off. She said, with a gun in hand, to the man “Stay put or I’ll shoot.”  This woman prevented a 12 year old girl from being raped. People never think what if someone had a gun could this have been prevented? A gun may be the difference between living or dying, being raped or not, or even saving someone or watching them die.

 

Source: http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/02/02/10-stories-that-prove-guns-save-lives-n1503549/page/full

Thursday, September 12, 2013

"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth"


 
In class we were talking about the writing guidelines and paper topics. The point of the Writing Guidelines is to get people writing.  You ask yourself many questions and it gets you to write down thoughts and ideas. It allows you to get everything out of your mind and on to paper. I will definitely use the writing guidelines when writing my paper. When I am at a dead end I will ask myself some of the questions to get me going again.
 
The research paper I am most passionate about is Crime and Punishment. I feel like if the government had a harsher system that there would be less crime. If people knew they could not get away with things they would not do it. Any criminal would say “I didn’t think I was going to get caught.” The saying “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” is my motto for crime. If someone was proven guilty of a crime, or confessed, whatever crime he or she committed should have harsher consequences. Criminals have so much leeway on the crimes they have committed. Harsher consequences equals less crime.  

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Intro Post


 
My name is Anna Smith, this is my second year at Bland and I will be graduating in the spring. I intend to go to William and Mary and major in business, then continue onto law school. Last English class, we had to decide on three paper subjects which was difficult to do because there are always a couple of people who are stubborn and don’t want to agree. I’m used to a democracy; it has worked so far in America so why can’t we use it in class? Some of the paper subjects interests me, while some I have no desire to write about. The one that interest me the most is the Crime and Punishment, I could go on all day about do I think the death penalty should be used and how often it should be used. The topic gender, I honestly have no idea what I would write about. English is not my subject, I would much rather be doing 100 math problems, rather than writing a blog. I honestly don’t know what the point of blogging is. I think people use blogging to just complain, at least the ones I have read so far. I hope I get better at this.

Anna Smith