Crossfire Analysis

Going on into Crossfire, I was expecting to get emotional, educated arguments between two parties about politics; I was wrong. Instead, what I got was an “I’m right, you’re wrong,” type of argument that made very little impact on me. It made so little of an impact that I cannot even remember one of the men’s names, and I refer to the other one as “Bow Tie Guy.” One aspect of the show that did interest me, however, was Jon Stewart. Not only was Mr. Stewart the only one of the bunch that seemed to be open minded, he also brought a little bit of humor to the table, which made an otherwise unwatchable show somewhat enjoyable. Stewart claimed that Crossfire was “hurting America.” If every episode was like this one, I can see where he is coming from. The basis of this episode was Stewart making points on how the show was failing its responsibility to the public, and being completely biased. Instead of making reasonable logical statements and arguing with Jon Stewart and his position on the show, Bow Tie Guy just resorted to personal attacks, making him look very immature and unprofessional. Jon Stewart did make his own personal attacks, but not as arguments; he was just trying to interject humor into their debate (he is a comedian, after all). Stewart keeps asking, “Why are we fighting?” because it I clear he does not want to argue like this. However, Bow Tie guy is set on trying to make Stewart look dumb, oblivious to how dumb he is making himself look. The two go on for what seems like forever, with very little interaction from the other guy. Stewart remains mostly calm and collected throughout the whole thing, while Bow Tie Guy keeps getting worked up and angry, making himself look like more of a fool in the process.

Trouble with Writing

  I always dreaded writing assignments in high school. Do I hate writing papers? No, not in the least. Am I a bad writer? Not really. As a matter of fact, I’ve always received very satisfactory grades on writing assignments. The problem with writing, for me, is starting a paper. Procrastinating is never an option for me when it comes to writing, because I know it will most definitely take some time for me to finish. Choosing the topic and main ideas of my paper was always a strenuous task for me. There seem to be so many different things to say and ways to start, that I feel overwhelmed. Even when the subject is predetermined, I still have a hard time writing. In high school, I would brainstorm with other students in my class, and it always seemed as if they could come up with an introduction much easier than I could. Not me, however. I would almost have one, but as I began to critique it myself, I would always think, “That’s not good enough,” or “I can do better than that.” It seemed like it would take forever just for me to come up good introduction to my paper. After the introduction is written, and my topic is finally “set in stone,” my ideas start to flow much easier than before. It is at this point that I am comfortable with my writing. I find it very easy after I have a map of my main ideas and bullet points drawn out to expand on those to add body to my paper. As long as my topic interests me, and I can get through constructing an introduction, then I have very little trouble writing a paper that makes sense and effectively gets my point across to the reader.