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The law of common fate is one of four visual perception laws as theorized by gestalt psychologists. Paul Martin Lester, the author of Visual Communication, an expert in the field wrote: “The fourth law of Gestalt psychology is the law of common fate. A viewer mentally groups five arrows or five raised hands pointing to the sky because they all point in the same direction. An arrow or a hand pointed in opposite direction will create tension, because the viewer will not see it as part of the upwardly directed whole.”

Gestalt’s law of common fate is a pretty simple concept. It is basically referring to visual directional lines within a design or layout. In a photograph, if two or more people are moving in the same direction, they have created a directional line known as the law of common fate. Together, they have a common fate or destiny. Another example of the law of common fate could include similar shapes aimed in the same direction. You might wonder why the law of common fate is of importance to artists. First of all, when two objects (whether it be shapes or organic forms) are pointed in the same direction in a layout, the directional lines become dominant in a design. So, if two or more powerful shapes are aimed at or moving in a certain direction, an artist knows to put the message at the point of destination.

Directional lines push our eyes around a page. This can be a problem every bit as much as bonus. For instance, visual collisions frustrate the viewing audience. It can cause too much tension and cause anxiety for the reader which in turn, makes the layout uninviting and too intense.

If a candid photograph of a moving car is heading to the right, the law of common fate dictates that the directional line is pointing to the right. Then again, if a candid photograph of a car is aimed towards the left and the image is part of a design, the directional line is now aimed towards the left. Therefore, if a car is headed towards the right (on an image), the image of the car should be placed towards the left-hand side of a layout, because our eyes read from left to right. This is why the law of common fate is so important. The law of common fate should not be ignored in graphic designs and advertisements. Understanding the law of common fate and how directional lines work on layouts can make all the difference in how information is read and understood.

Debbie Jensen, Graphic Designer and Photographer debjensendesigns.com debjensendesigns.com

Why don’t the pictures of your new living room, basement, kitchen or bedroom look as nice as the pictures in the catalogs? After all the money you spent on furniture, drapes, carpet and accessories, it should look beautiful. The human eye sees an angle of view of almost one hundred eighty degrees and at the same time can resolve sharp detail. In order to come close to this feat of magic, the camera’s abilities must be stretched to the limit.

A twenty-four millimeter wide angle lens sees an angle of eighty-four degrees, sufficiently wide for our purposes. A wider angle lens starts to show too much distortion through foreshortening and a less wide lens will make the room seem smaller. A second choice of a twenty-eight millimeter lens with an angle of view of seventy-five degrees is acceptable. A trick I have used to increase the width of view is to shoot through a doorway, just missing the sides of the opening. Unless you own an expensive perspective correcting lens, a distance of four feet from the floor is ideal to prevent convergence (when the walls appear to tilt in). If you own a digital camera with a 28mm lens, perspective can be corrected digitally with software from Adobe Image Ready or the equivalent. Most wide angle lenses share the fault of barrel distortion. This can be corrected with software from radcor.com.

Walk around the room and choose a view that includes the best look for most of the furniture. Two different views may be necessary to tell the whole story. For a spacious look, shoot into a corner, slightly to the right or left of dead center. Pictures taken at right angles to a wall look constricted and less spacious. Interesting table tops will look better from a higher angle. Be sure to light all lamps in the rooom.

Another method of presenting a whole room in one picture is to use the stitch method. First find the center of the lens node. This is a point halfway between the front element and the sensor chip. Place the camera on a tripod, attached at the node point. Level the camera, set the lens on 50mm* (equivilant) and take several slightly overlapping pictures. The images may be stitched manually or helped with software for that purpose. Be sure to smooth any indications of joining.

While flash on the camera is safe and will render the whole scene in accurate color, too much is lost in the way of depth, highlight and shadow detail and in attaining an interesting look. Flash on the camera flattens the scene, reflects unnaturally off flat surfaces and introduces a dark shadow around every object in the room. A better lighting includes a single bright light in a large reflector and a second light bounced off the back wall not appearing in the picture. Items of a dark nature like a dark stained cabinets need an additional spotlight in order to balance the tones in the picture. Night time pictures avoid the problem of overly lit windows, but if the window treatment only looks good with light coming through the window, time your photos at dawn or at dusk. The bluish light entering the window at these times while not matching in color temperature is quite dramatic and attractive. This blue light can be corrected later in the computer.

For sharpest results, use manual camera settings. The best f stop to use is F11 or F16. These stops provide the most depth of field and the sharpest detail. Wider f stops might produce a softening of focus near the camera and a more narrow f stop (F22 or F32) will bring in less detail due to the diffraction effect. Take a meter reading at the recommended f stop for the appropriate shutter speed. Animals or people may be included in the composition, but remember to make sure they don’t move for the duration of the exposure which may take several seconds. These photographs are great for your album, insurance records and an aid to decorating. Good luck!

*A wider lens setting will introduce too much foreshortening for stitching successfully.

I’m happy when you’re happy.

Before you read any further, please note that this is not a piece out to damage or cut down the important role of women in our society. Read below only as humour and nothing more. These are intended solely for a good laugh.

Women are unique in many ways (and by this I mean different than men) and its this specific uniqueness or certain traits that I refer to when likening a woman to a personal computer. Do not get offended; it is intended to create a smile.

1) A woman is like a computer in that she costs more than you thought it would.

2) A woman resembles a personal computer in that she will not do exactly what you thought it will.

3) After a while, you simply cannot do without both: your computers and your woman.

4) Computers are just like women: after you have gotten used to them and cannot do without them, you discover that one is not enough.

5) Some computers, like some women, serve many people.

6) You can work miracles with both by gently using your fingers if you only know the proper code.

7) If you are inactive with them for more than fifteen minutes, they go off.

Just like a computer, the one who runs her has more privileges than just anyone else who is just running her.

9) When there are short-circuits of electricity, they shut you off and then you cannot always return to what was before the short-circuit.

10) Normally, they are available and receptive in the night, but it’s a lot better when they are available and receptive in the morning.

11) When you are, at last, sure that they will do what you wanted, they go off and do something else.

12) The only thing that you predict about the future with them is that they will react unpredictably.

13) Just like women, so too for computers: every year a new model is released that is younger, more advanced and gives a lot more.

14) A woman is just like a computer: you are happy with what you have but when you see what your friends have got, you are sure you want what they have.

15) Women are like computers in that no matter how much you improve and put into them, they only improve for a short time and then go back to their same old pace.

16) Women are like computers in that every day a new program comes out promising to revolutionize your knowledge and use of them, but after spending a lot more cash you realize that none of them work better than the old one you had before.

17) Women are like computers: you always want what others have and they want what you have but you cannot switch even for a trial basis.

18) Women are like computers in that when you get them you are sure that they are the best. But when the days go back, you wonder why you did not get them with a replacement note.

When not editing an gambling-portal.com online casino portal, Jack Reider makes up and post jokes on various subjects. Go to gambling-portal.com gambling-portal.com and read some more.

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Product Description

A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN—FROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLAND

Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bush’s America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned off—or radicalized—by electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (“they hate us for our freedom”) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.
Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.
Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-08-03
Taibbi commendably takes his journalist spotlight off the corrupt actors on Washington’s center stage, and instead investigates the most disaffected ordinary Americans. But to do so he goes undercover, posing as a believer in far right-wing Christian-Zionism, or far-left 9/11 conspiracy theories. He basically plays Borat, inventing oddball past experiences to play his part, and letting the unsuspecting locals make fools of themselves for the camera. Later Taibbi gives his real opinions of what idiots they are, and asks what America is coming to.

Only slowly does Taibbi’s basic compassion for these people rise to the fore. These are people, he reasons, both conservatives and liberals, who feel so conned by the political rip-off system that they can’t tell who to trust. And maybe, Taibbi suspects, part of the con has been to get them to blame and hate each other.

Review date : 2008-08-01
I really enjoyed this book. The author has a good sense of humor and his adventures are quite interesting. Probably not for you if you are sensitive about religion.

Review date : 2008-07-31
This book was a complete eye-opener. Literally prying open the third eye. Must read for any remaining free-thinking Americans. Matt Taibbi is absolutely brilliant.

Review date : 2008-07-26
Much of the book focuses on the insider game in Washington, the non-functioning government bent on both sides twisting reality while continuing to rake in millions from big business. Meanwhile, Boeing, G.M., and Ford are headed towards becoming Chinese companies, and OPEC is likely to begin trading in the Euro. In between safaris into our government, Taibbi also reports on his immersions into both far-Right evangelical religion and far-left (?) 9/11 Truthers, finding them both living in an imaginary world. The common link in all this nuttiness - Madison Avenue and its world of make-believe messages and promises.

It was shocking to read that the "06 election saw political parties spend $160 million on negative ads, vs. only $17 million on the positive. Debate has mostly been removed from the House schedule - 79% of all bills passed during the Republican’s recent majority were "suspension bills" where only 40 minutes of debate are allowed, no amendments can be offered, and a two-thirds majority is required for passage.

The Rules Committee can completely rewrite what passes the committee of jurisdiction (usually in the middle of the night) to include anything leadership knew could not survive public discussion. House members are supposed to have 3 days to read the Rules Committee output before it goes to a vote, but this has been waived in "emergency." Thus, virtually every bill passing the House during the Bush-GOP majority years was voted on just hours after emerging from Rules.

Conference Committees again can totally rewrite the bill (majority vote of members not required for passage) and again send the bill out for vote with only a few hours’ notice.

Moving on briefly to the Army, Taibbi reports that their camaraderie is real - for a lot of them their unit is the best family they had, they are basically lonely. He also makes a similar observation regarding the far-Right evangelicals in Texas in which he immerses himself (including baptism) while revealing their inanity. Then its the 9/11 Truthers - a 2006 poll cited found 36% believed our government either "did" 9/11 or consciously allowed it, despite the preposterousness of their thinking.

Finally, Taibbi asks: "What about our corrupt medical insurance system, disappearance of the manufacturing economy, exploding prison population, takeover of politics by financial interests?" After setting aside those believing in aliens on earth, etc., it looks like there’s not enough sanity left to care!

Review date : 2008-07-22
An anecdote in journalist Matt Taibbi’s book THE GREAT DERANGEMENT proves a snapshot of what’s wrong with America. Covering the United States Congress in action, Taibbi witnesses legislation that is nothing more than a gift to well-off campaign contributors. Without shame, lawmakers approve it. The author attends a press conference regarding the bill where reporters ask zero tough questions, leaving the public they purportedly serve to figure out there’s nothing in this for them except the tab they have to pick up.

The United States government is letting the moneyed interests from which it should protect citizens run it. And with corporations owning more than 95% of media and not about to report what they pilfer, too many Americans do not get the news they need to know.

In THE GREAT DERANGEMENT author Taibbi frames political debate as liberal-conservative, just as the corporate media does. He should pick up on populist writer/commentator Jim Hightower, who says the real struggle is not left-right but up-down, between the wealthy and poor. History and the world today are little more than the moneyed interests stealing from and dominating the people.

Taking it to the streets in THE GREAT DERANGEMENT, Matt Taibbi reports from the front lines of everyday citizens. The affluent divide and conquer the middle class and poor with red herrings and straw-man arguments. Mega-church pastors who must read Bush White House talking points more often than the Bible sway congregations to doubt global warming. The corporate media does not investigate why the Bush administration ignored over fifty 9/11 warnings (most famous the August 6, 2001, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S." memo to Bush), resulting in a frustration-driven movement claiming the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks. Stress, fear and confusion from thirty-plus years of declining wellbeing for most Americans turn citizens against one another when instead they ought to unite and march against injustice. Divided, America falls.

Read THE GREAT DERANGEMENT.

In 1934, when Walt Disney called for a meeting among his artists, a rumor had spread that he was going to shut the studio down and they would all be left unemployed during the great depression. Instead he personally told them in his own spellbinding way the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which he intended to make into his first feature length film. It was a risk unlike any other he had taken before. The film would cost a million and a half dollars at a time Disney was spending anywhere from ten to thirty thousand on his short cartoons. Doubts came from his wife Lillian and his brother and business partner Roy, who were sure they would be in debt for most of the rest of the lives. Also nervous was Walt’s backer Bank of America, who at one point interrupted the production by cutting off his credit. Then there were the heads of the other studios like MGM, Universal and Warner Brothers. They would gather for their weekly poker games at the Hillcrest Country Club and speculate that Walt, who they called the Mickey Mouse Man, would never succeed, no one would sit still for an hour and a half to watch a cartoon. And the press referred to Snow White as Disney’s Folly.

Despite the doubters and his own health problems (he suffered from a thyroid condition), Walt pressed forward relentlessly for three years. The key to the film, as far as Disney was concerned was the evil queen/peddler woman. Snow White was sympathetic, the dwarfs were humorous, but the villain had to be horrifying to keep the audience interested. The vocals were performed by a renowned stage actress named Lucille Laverne. Her haughty voice was a great fit as the queen, but her playing of the character after she transformed into the old crone had some at the studio worried. Wait, I have an idea, she said. She left the recording room for a few minutes then returned. I’m ready. She delivered her lines in a way that chilled and thrilled the Disney staff. After she finished there was applause and she was asked what she did when she left. She smiled and said, I took my teeth out!

Walt’s calculations were correct, Snow White and Seven Dwarfs was a hit throughout the entire world in 1938 and for many years beyond, keeping audiences riveted. The only down side for Walt was that maybe the peddler woman was a little too horrifying, he was disturbed by reports from Radio City Music Hall in New York where the film was setting box office records. It turned out that every few days the theater management had to replace seats. . . due to excessive wetness.

About The Author

Stephen Schochet is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says, these two elaborate productions are exceptionally entertaining. Hear realaudio samples of these great, unique gifts at www.hollywoodstories.com. orgofhlly@aol.com

Nominated for 25 Golden Globes and 110 Emmys, including 7 for Outstanding Drama Series, ER has long been one of the best prime-time shows on television. Premiering in September 1994 on NBC, the hour-long hospital drama vividly illustrates the intensity and fast-paced stress endemic to hospital emergency rooms across America. Brought into being by Michael Crichton - famous Hollywood insider, novelist, and brains behind such films as Jurassic Park, Twister, and Timeline - ER fulfills its creator’s ultimate vision (it took over a decade of pitching the show before network executives bit) for a close-to-life glimpse of the technology and the humanity omnipresent in the ER. Since its inception, many cast members have passed through the halls of ER, many of them having gone on to become big stars in Hollywood…

ER follows the exploits of a group of emergency room staff who work in a busy Chicago hospital. The show attempts to examine every detail of the ER experience. From the exhilaration of saving a life to the tedium caused by mountains of paperwork, all the highs and lows are covered. In the show’s first year, a number of regular faces staffed the ER. Doctors Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), Douglas Ross (George Clooney), and Susan Lewis (Sherri Stringfield) were regulars in the ER along with Head Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) and Benton’s medical student understudy (and later ER doctor), John Carter (Noah Wyle)… Any given episode tends to run multiple plot lines throughout the show, interweaving scenes in short snippets intended to heighten audience emotion and create the aura of a stress-laden atmosphere. The show’s high drama, coupled with subplots of the staffers’ personal lives and the display of cutting edge medical technology, combine to make ER one of most adrenaline-inducing programs in television history…

The ER (Season 3) DVD features a number of dramatic episodes including the season premiere “Dr. Carter, I Presume” in which Carter begins his internship at the ER with a difficult day filling in for Peter as the ER surgery consultant. Meanwhile, several plotlines related to the staffers’ personal lives take twists when Carol runs into Shep and his new girlfriend and Peter runs into an old friend at a barbecue… Other notable episodes from Season 3 include “No Brain, No Gain” in which Peter fights to save the life of a gang member already declared dead by Doug, and “The Long Way Around” in which Carol is held hostage during a robbery at a local store…

Below is a list of episodes included on the ER (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 49 (Dr. Carter, I Presume) Air Date: 09-26-1996
Episode 50 (Let the Games Begin) Air Date: 10-03-1996
Episode 51 (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) Air Date: 10-10-1996
Episode 52 (Last Call) Air Date: 10-17-1996
Episode 53 (Ghosts) Air Date: 10-31-1996
Episode 54 (Fear of Flying) Air Date: 11-07-1996
Episode 55 (No Brain, No Gain) Air Date: 11-14-1996
Episode 56 (Union Station) Air Date: 11-21-1996
Episode 57 (Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies) Air Date: 12-12-1996
Episode 58 (Homeless for the Holidays) Air Date: 12-19-1996
Episode 59 (Night Shift) Air Date: 01-16-1997
Episode 60 (Post Mortem) Air Date: 01-23-1997
Episode 61 (Fortune’s Fools) Air Date: 01-30-1997
Episode 62 (Whose Appy Now?) Air Date: 02-06-1997
Episode 63 (The Long Way Around) Air Date: 02-13-1997
Episode 64 (Faith) Air Date: 02-20-1997
Episode 65 (Tribes) Air Date: 04-10-1997
Episode 66 (You Bet Your Life) Air Date: 04-17-1997
Episode 67 (Calling Dr. Hathaway) Air Date: 04-24-1997
Episode 68 (Random Acts) Air Date: 05-01-1997
Episode 69 (Make a Wish) Air Date: 05-08-1997
Episode 70 (One More for the Road) Air Date: 05-15-1997

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a thedvdreport.blogspot.com movie review site where you can find more reviews like this one of the thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/er-season-3-dvd.html ER (Season 3) DVD Review.

A photograph is essentially a drawing made with the help of light. Usually a camera takes photographs. But you can also get images by placing an object on photography paper and exposing it to light. Even scanners can make photographic images.

Photographs are taken when light enters the camera and focuses on an image. In a camera, light exposes the film and an image is registered. Special chemicals then process this film and a negative is made that is then transferred onto a sheet of paper to create the photograph we see. Slides or transparencies are a type of film used by professionals; these are positives and are sharper than ordinary films. Today many use digital cameras that do not need films.

A very simple camera was developed in the 1500s, but the first real camera was made around 1826. They became increasingly sophisticated in the later 1800s and into the 1900s. Some of the great pioneers in the science of photography are Johann H. Schulze, Carl Scheele, Joseph Nicephore Niepce, Louis Daguerre, William H. Fox Talbot, Frederick S. Archer, Richard L. Maddox, and George Eastman.

Over the years, technology has become sophisticated and an automatic camera can now produce a photograph in just about 15 seconds, while digital cameras show you the results immediately.

Among of the first to use a camera artistically were Gaspard Felix Tournachon and Nadar Anotehr.With the camera, for the first time, real life events could be recorded. People took photos of situations like avalanches, wars, social causes, etc. The photos of William H. Jackson helped create Yellowstone Park, while Jacob A. Riis and Lewis W. Hine showed the horrors of New York in the 1800s and helped bring about improvements there. The flashbulb helped better photography, and photography began to find its place in advertising, broadcasting, and in recording family events. Photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa made their mark when they recorded important people and events.

What makes a good photograph is focus; aperture; exposure, which is determined by shutter speed; focal length, which usually depends on the type of lens used; the medium used; and its sensitivity to light and color. All of these are interconnected. For example, the brightness of an aperture could be increased by the shutter speed, while changing focal length can control depth of field.

All adjustments usually depend on the subject, the lighting, and the depth of field you want. Light affects shutter speed and aperture size. So, on a bright day, use a fast shutter and a small aperture, while on a cloudy day, reduce the shutter speed and increase aperture. Artificial light will need different settings. For a moving subject, you should increase the shutter so that there is no blurring. If you want to photograph a large area, you should use a smaller aperture. Practice will help you get the correct effects. However, modern digital cameras have made all this much easier with everything being automatic.

Photography has become more fascinating than ever before. It has been a long journey from black and white and sepia tinted photos to easy-to-create digital images. Today photography is being used in every sphere of life, from medicine to space stations to a family picnic.

i-Photographs.com Photographs provides detailed information on Photographs, Aerial Photographs, Black and White Photographs, Vintage Photographs and more. Photographs is affiliated with e-StockPhotography.com Digital Stock Photography.

The lyric writing side of songwriting is known to create an enormous number of problems for some folks. No matter how hard they try, they are unable to write a single line that they can be pleased with.

In many cases these very same people make phenomenal advancements in writing music and melodies. However they just can’t seem to figure out how to come up with suitable lyrics to match them.

If you are facing such a situation, there’s probably no need to worry. By taking certain appropriate steps you should be able to overcome lyric writing hurdles and write songs that deliver.

(1) Here are some essential ideas for overcoming these hurdles.

1. Collaboration

If you’re very good at writing melodies but can’t seem to write a single line, one solution might be collaboration. Instead of beating your head against the wall for ideas, find someone who is very good at writing lyrics and work together. You may be surprised at the wonders that can emanate from a combination of his excellence at writing lyrics and your brilliance at writing melodies.

2. Lyric writing tools

Perhaps you may be hoping for some other solution. While you don’t mind the idea of collaboration, you want to allow yourself to get better at writing lyrics, instead of leaving it to someone else.

As far as I’m concerned, the importance of laying hold on good songwriting “tools” should never be underestimated. Educate yourself as much as you can. Make use of songwriting books, programs, courses, software, articles or whatever valuable resources that you have at your disposal.

3. Motivation

You’ve probably heard it said a thousand times … Without motivation, you won’t go very far. This also applies to your lyric writing. While the songwriting “tools” outlined above can help you improve, without adequate motivation failure is inevitable.

(2) Here are a few tips to help you generate lyric writing ideas.

1. Use different lyrics to bring the same message across.

Choose a theme which is known to have made a few hits. What message does this theme bring across? Write different lyrics that bring the same message across. A typical example of this is John Denver’s “I’m Leaving on a Jetplane” and Wyclef Jean’s “Gone till November”. These songs made hits in different eras. Their basic message was similar … Baby, you don’t need to cry because I’ll return.

2. Add a unique twist to a cliche.

Turn on your radio and you will hear cliches being repeated over and over. Using these very same cliches is simply a futile exercise. My suggestion is to add a unique twist to these cliches. This is something I am focusing on more and more.

A typical example of adding a unique twist to a cliche is found in Dianne Warren’s “Unbreak my Heart” made popular by Toni Braxton. The ever popular cliche, “break my heart”, was twisted.

(3) Here are three lyric writing suggestions.

1. Write a song about a particular incident. Your song should tell a story.

2. Write lyrics that have absolutely nothing to do with anything you’ve actually experienced.

3. Get lyric writing ideas from newspapers, magazines, movies, TV and so on.

Overcoming lyric writing hurdles involves a lot of determination, hard work and perseverance on your part. Implement the suggestions presented above and move one step closer to lyric writing success.

About The Author

Mantius Cazaubon offers lots of valuable ultimatesongwriting.com” target=”_new songwriting tips, techniques, suggestions and advice on his site ultimatesongwriting.com” target=”_new ultimatesongwriting.com. Visit Ultimate Songwriting for the ultimate truth about lyric writing and songwriting.

As the body count mounts in Iraq, it has become evident that the terrorists, along with the homicidal sectarians, have developed a new form of argument that is not found in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.

The philosopher’s civilized inclinations never prompted him to include, among such acknowledged forms of argument as Argumentum ad Populum and Argumentum ad Hominem, the terrorist oratorical mainstay, Argumentum ad Homicidium. In other words, argument by murder.

We might also note that Aristotle neglected to include it even though he himself had to flee threats against his life by his former, and apparently much disgruntled student, Alexander The Great.

How does the terrorist and sectarian argument proceed? By killing as many people as required to horrify the American public enough to demand that our troops leave Iraq. Is there a fallacy in the approach? Yes, and a rather large one.

They have soiled themselves with the blood of their own people. After they triumph, which they are likely to do, they cannot bring back to life those they have killed nor cheer up the families of the dead, who will continue to mourn, and detest those who caused their sorrow. Remorse will also be the lot of the perpetrators. They have murdered, and, as the result of the iron bar of natural justice, they have become murderers. There is no escape.

We know how low they will go. They will kill however many people they must to achieve their goal. Of course, that brings up another fallacy in their method of argumentation. Among the families of the murdered are people who will argue back with the same tactic. So it seems that the argument is circular. It will spin on until enough of the people who practice this form of argument learn that Argumentum ad Homicidium is a two-way firing range.

Is it too much to hope that one day they will pick up Aristotle’s fine little treatise and learn the more congenial forms of rhetoric?

Tom Attea, humorist and creator of NewsLaugh.com NewsLaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway. Critics have called his writing “delightfully funny,” “witty,” with “good, genuine laughs” and “great humor and ebullience.”

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Product Description

The premier jazz magazine in America provides uncompromising, comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the international jazz scene. In addition to insightful profiles of emerging and established stars, every issue contains over 100 reviews of the latest CDs, books, DVDs and performances.

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-02-28
I recently subscribed to JazzTimes. I had visited their website regularly, and I decided to receive the hard copy magazine. I like their mix of coverage of the established stars and the up-and-comers. They have some great contributors (Nat Hentoff, Gary Giddins). I like their wide-ranging disc review section. There is so little Jazz on the radio now - we need to find the new Jazz grooves through the Internet and magazines like JazzTimes.

Review date : 2008-02-10
Good magazine. Lousy customer service. When subscription ends I’ll be looking at another magazine. Currently with Downbeat, no complaints there.

Review date : 2007-11-19
I’ve been a JazzTimes subscriber for many years and it is far and above the premier Jazz book on the market. Superior writers, better coverage, and a design that is much easier on the eyes than their imitators, all make JT a bargain. I even got a free DVD for subscribing. Customer service was polite and helpful when I needed to change my address, and I plan on staying a subscriber for years to come.

Review date : 2006-11-21
Entertaining enough magazine - but upon missing delivery of an issue multiple emails to the ‘Front Desk’ and ‘Subscription Department’ simply go unanswered and the customer service phone support person never followed through. So, when my subscription expires I’ll move on.

Review date : 2004-09-06
over the years I’ve enjoyed many articles,interviews&takes within this magazine. it always makes you think&debate the topic.you get an Old Guard versus a New Jack element.so many takes&spins from how Cats play to the Politics of the Industry&everything else in between.