Wednesday, December 15, 2010

No email address, no reply, no blog ):

I could not find Windsor's email, so I sent the email below to the editor of The American Spectator, but I never received a reply.
Hello, my name is Lauren McCauley.  I am currently a junior at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis, IN.  In my AP Language and Composition class we are creating blogs about op ed writers and I chose Windsor Mann.  Our latest blog assignment requires us to write one post about our writer's latest article (http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/17/fat-and-fatuous/) stating their topic, a concession, and support for their argument.  We are also required to contact our editor via email and describe what our task was for the previously explained post and ask about related issues to the topic discussed in the last article.  However; I was not able to find Windsor's email address on your website.  My teacher suggested contacting the editor, which brings me to where I am now.  I was wondering if you could possibly provide me with his email address.  It would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Lauren McCauley

Fat and Fatuous

Windsor Mann's latest essay, Fat and Fatuous, discusses how obesity seems to be more of an issue than it really is.

"If the weight of every body becomes everybody's concern, the regulatory antidotes will spread at obesity-like speed, creating yet another epidemic, but one that can be easily averted. All we have to do is do nothing. Is that too much to ask?"

A concession to this argument is that "In the United States, potbellies and thunder thighs are the look that never goes out of fashion."


Support of Windsor's claim:

1) "As troubling as widespread obesity is, widespread obesity prevention sounds much worse." 

2) "Most of the anti-obesity schemes floating around have one aspect in common: Their ultimate goal is to redesign American society, not American individuals."

3) "If you forget about the glut of oversized guts, the government will remind you."
  • September was America's first childhood obesity awareness month.
  • Michelle Obama started a program that is supposed to help solve childhood obesity, but is bringing more attention to it.
  • Girl scouts have been accused of using girls to push cookies on a nation that doesn't need them.
 Personally, I both agree and disagree with what Windsor is saying.  I do believe that obesity in America is something that has gotten out of control, but I also believe that the government is making it appear worse than it is.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Too Much Homework



 
At first sight of the title of this article, written on October 23, 2007, I became excited to see someone writing about, what I thought would be, how the amount of homework given to students these days is absurd.  However, this article is no where close to what the title leads the reader to believe at first glance.  In reality, Windsor comments on the supposed housing crisis that America is in and how the democrats are already on the way to fix it.

Windsor explains the housing crisis as something that is important to the democrats not because of what it will do, but what the democrats think it will do.  The democrats want to create affordable housing for every American family.  However, we have seen similar plans utterly fail in other places such as the USSR.   The democrats had gone a long time without having someone in office, so once they finally did they wanted to take full advantage of it- "at all costs -- to the taxpayers."  

Windsor, clearly standing against democrats, states that they are not actually trying to help, but they just want to congratulate themselves on accomplishing something.  He recognizes the fact that affordable housing is needed everywhere, but just because it is needed does not mean that it should be given away.  Additionally, over $1.6 billion is already spent doing practically the same thing.

It may seem as if democrats create the extremity of these issues on their own.  "Democrats know the solution before most people know there's a problem."  They publicize these problems in order to promote their solution; furthermore, promoting the government. The reason that people cannot afford housing is because the federal government takes so much of their paycheck.  If the government got out of the way, the problem would evaporate.  Permanent government housing is a goal that realistically can never be reached.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Windsor Mann

The American Spectator
Windsor Mann is a writer for The American Spectator.  For the newspaper, he has written a dozen or so articles, all of which are about very popular topics in today's society.  The oldest article dates back to October, 2006.  His most recent one was about obesity in America today.  He lives in Washington, D.C.  Here, he is also a writer for The Washington Times.  He began writing for them in September 2009.  He has written five articles since this time.  However, the articles that he has written for The Washington Times are not opinion based; they are primarily book reviews.
Windsor Mann

Another thing that keep Windsor busy is his twitter account.  This shows the type of personality that he has.  Overall, he is a very humorous man.  He tweets about things that most people have often experienced or pondered themselves.  He also uses twitter to advertise his new articles by posting links to them.  Again, he does this is a humorous way by posting that he has a new article, the link to it, and then a comment such as "read or die."