Click HERE to view an extract of "Inherit the Wind", the film inspired by the Scopes trial!
Comment the cartoons below:
Tuesday, 30 April 2013
USA : is this the end?
Made in China
Click HERE to find out!
Questions/to do (cf. the above video):
- Complete the following sentence: It was "the drive to the West that gave the sense that America was ... destiny." (18secs)
- How is "decline" defined? (27secs)
- What clothing items worn by the journalist were made in China (44secs), and what does this say about America do you think?
- What is "already history"? (1min 18secs)
- What is the USA's "feeling of superiority" due to? (1min 32secs)
- What does "from the barrel of a gun" mean when describing the power of the USA? (1min 39secs)
- Where are the USA's intercontinental ballistic missiles based? (1min 42secs)
- What is "deterrence"? (2mins)
- What is the job of the two navigators? (2mins 13secs)
- In your own words, describe and comment the captain's answer to the question: "Is American power as great as it was?" (2mins 35secs)
- In your own words, describe and comment the captain's answer to the question: "Does America act for good in the world?" (2mins 52secs)
- What was the USA's military budget in 2011, and how does this compare to other countries? (3mins 19secs)
- What would "take generations to erode", and do you agree? (3mins 33secs)
- What may be "a burden, not a blessing", and why? (3mins 36secs)
- What is "the other source of American might? (3mins 45secs)
- What "seems inevitable"? (3mins 51secs)
- What is the "frontier feel" in North Dakota due to? (4mins 5secs)
- Research why fracking is "a controversial technique". (4mins 22secs)
- How will the USA avoid relying on the Middle East or on anyone else for its energy? (4mins 37secs)
- Where is the "new frontier"? (4mins 52secs)
- What is "taking us on to the next frontier"? (5mins 21secs)
- What does "patriotic optimism" mean, and, in your opinion, what other countries share this attitude? (5mins 29secs)
- Do you share the journalist’s analysis that America "is a very young country, still growing up and changing"? (5mins 36secs)
- Describe Randel Ratten's attitude (5mins 37secs)
- A "new dawn can be within reach" says the journalist; what does he mean? (6mins 8secs)
The percentage of Americans calling themselves Protestants is in sharp decline in the USA...
Questions on the NYT article:
- By what percentage has the number of Protestants declined over the past half century?
- Who are the "liberal mainline", "evangelical", and "born again" Protestants?
- By what percentage has the number of atheists grown in the past 40 years?
- Is it fair to say that US society is undergoing a process of secularization?
- What is the profile of those aged 18 to 22 regarding religious practice and belief?
- Why does the percentage of Catholics remain constant?
- Who are the "Nones" and what do they believe in?
- What are the causes of secularization in the USA?
- What aspect of religious practice do young people seem to prefer?
- What will be the likely place in American society of the Protestant faith in the future?
Monday, 29 April 2013
The "Religion Clauses" of the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantee that the USA is a secular State, i.e. that there is separation of Church and State.
First Amendment of the Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
The Establishment Clause is the first of the two "religion clauses" in the United States Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . ." i.e. Congress cannot establish a national religion or favor any religion.
The Free Exercise Clause is the second of the two "religion clauses" in the United States Constitution: "...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof " i.e. Congress cannot stop people from practicing a religion.
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Is the USA losing its influence in Latin America?
Document
1: extracts from the May 6th 2006 article “Navigating the
Nationalization and Denaturing the Strife: The Aftermath of Bolivia’s Gas Golpe”
by Larry Birns and Michael Lettieri, published on the website of the Council On
Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
Document
2: cartoon by Chappatte in the International Herald Tribune (2006)
Washington may soon be persuaded by U.S.
rightwingers to respond to the nationalization of Bolivia’s petrol industry (…)
White House hardliners (…) see Evo Morales’ action as a clear sign of a
dangerous growth in Hugo Chávez’s influence (…)
Geopolitically, Morales must also be attuned to
the needs and concerns of other regional leaders. Lula and Kirchner’s opinions,
whose countries previously received preferential pricing on Bolivian gas,
cannot be easily discounted. Both leaders are concerned with ensuring their
country’s energy supplies, and for Lula, finding a path between keeping
industrialists dependent on gas imports happy and maintaining the ghost of his
leftist credentials will be crucial for his reelection (…)
Some in Washington, who comprise the
ideological heart of the anti-Chávez crusade, have taken the nationalization as
a sign that the Bush administration, distracted by Iraq, has thus failed to effectively
contain Caracas’ spreading influence and that Washington is in real danger of
losing Latin America. The nationalization’s high media profile could force the
State Department to take a tough approach to the region, even to the point of
mobilizing the CIA and the U.S. military, but it is more likely to work its way
by undermining the all-important chink (weakness) in the armor: the Latin
American armed forces.
Why oppose globalization?
Document
1: information taken from a July 2011 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Democrat congressman Jason Altmire
announced that he will oppose a free-trade agreement with Colombia saying:
“Colombia has a disturbing history of violence against labor organizers.”
Labor activists say congressman Altmire did the
right thing on human rights by opposing the Colombia trade deal; some 50 union
activists were killed last year and 17 this year in Colombia.
Now, they say, Altmire needs to take the next
step and speak out against two other upcoming free- trade deals, one with Panama
and another with South Korea, saying they move American jobs overseas.
A steelworker explained: “Trade deals during the past decade have
caused the U.S. to lose six million manufacturing jobs and 55,000 plants.
Multinational companies easily set up operations overseas and export back to
the U.S. market. We need a fair trade model.”
Who supported and who opposed the USA going to war in 1917?
Document 1: extract of a speech given by Helen Keller
at Carnegie Hall, New York City, on January 5th 1916 under the
auspices of the Women's Peace Party and the Labor Forum
The few who profit from the labor of the masses
want to organize the workers into an army which will protect the interests of
the capitalists. You are urged to add to the heavy burdens you already bear the
burden of a larger army and many additional warships. (…) You do not need to
make a great noise about it. With the silence and dignity of creators you can
end wars and the system of selfishness and exploitation that causes wars. All
you need to do to bring about this stupendous revolution is to straighten up
and fold your arms (…)
Every modern war has had its root in
exploitation. The Civil War was fought to decide whether to slaveholders of the
South or the capitalists of the North should exploit the West. The
Spanish-American War decided that the United States should exploit Cuba and the
Philippines (…) The present war is to decide who shall exploit the Balkans,
Turkey, Persia, Egypt, India, China, Africa (…)
Strike against all ordinances and laws and
institutions that continue the slaughter of peace and the butcheries of war! Strike
against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against
manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike
against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human being. Be
not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of
construction!
Document 2: 1917 recruitment poster by J.M. Flagg
How were Woodrow Wilson’s anti-isolationist efforts perceived?
Document 1: extract of an address to Congress given by
President Woodrow Wilson on January 8th 1918
XIV. A general association of nations must be
formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees
of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states
alike.
(Conclusion) In regard to these essential
rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be
intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together
against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in
purpose. We stand together until the end.
For such arrangements and covenants we are
willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved; but only
because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as
can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war, which this
programme does remove. We have no jealousy of German greatness, and there is
nothing in this programme that impairs it … We wish her only to accept a place
of equality among the peoples of the world, the new world in which we now live,
instead of a place of mastery.
Document 2: cartoon (1919) from the National Archives
How constructive was the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration?
Document 1: extracts from the article “What Bush Got
Right” by Fareed Zakaria in NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE, August 8th 2008
… President George W. Bush now enters his 23rd
consecutive month with an approval rating under 40% … No matter what he does,
or what happens in the world, the public seems to have decided that Bush has
been a failure … Barack Obama, of course, promises a wholly different approach
to the world … A broad shift in America's approach to the world is justified
and overdue. Bush's basic conception of a "global War on Terror," … has
been poorly thought-through, badly implemented, and has produced many
unintended costs that will linger for years if not decades. But blanket
criticism of Bush misses an important reality. The administration that became
the target of so much passion and anger … is not quite the one in place today.
The foreign policies that aroused the greatest
anger and opposition were mostly pursued in Bush's first term: the invasion of
Iraq, the rejection of treaties, diplomacy and multilateralism. In the past few
years, many of these policies have been modified, abandoned or reversed … the
foreign policies in place now are more sensible, moderate and mainstream … For
many people the decision to go to war in Iraq is now seen as a mistake. But
wherever one stands on that issue, it is overwhelmingly clear that the
administration made a series of massive blunders in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. It …
arrested tens of thousands of Iraqis, mistreated and tortured some of them, and
used overwhelming military force against all perceived threats … The result was
a perfect storm in international affairs, a failure that kept getting worse. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/08/08/what-bush-got-right.html)
Document 2:
cartoon
by Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta
Journal Constitution (2005)
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Espionage Act (1917) and Sedition Act (1918)
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION
Click HERE for information on the Espionage Act 1917 and the Sedition Act 1918
Click HERE for information on the Espionage Act 1917 and the Sedition Act 1918
The 1917 engraving above was published just over a month before the enactment of the
Espionage Act. It criticizes the proposed legislation. The
Espionage Act is viewed here as taking away fundamental freedoms that are
guaranteed to each individual under the Bill of Rights.
Woodrow Wilson
“The Prosperity Painter”, by cartoonist
Clifford Berryman, which appeared in the Washington Evening Star on January 30th 1915, depicts President Woodrow Wilson as a painter of prosperity (the economy
continued to boom in America as war raged in Europe).
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