Breast Cancer, Health Insurance, and an apology to President Obama

Times have been rough recently, there's no doubt about that. With budget cuts and unemployment rates rising, it's normal for people to try to place the blame where ever they can. Obama is one of these scapegoats that most people turn to. However, this article takes an interesting stance and praises Obama for the work he's been doing. As a low-income mother facing months of breast cancer treatment with no health insurance, Obama's healthcare plan has completely changed her life. Now instead of bashing Obama for the lack of action some think he's shown in office, she praises him for helping people who need it.

This author relies mostly on ethos. The entire article is her story, from her working life, to her health and her campaigns for Obama back in 2008. She also applies pathos; she makes the story seem relatable, which is a terrifying thought. Hopefully, Obama will finish his term on a high note and more people can be helped by plans like this one.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ward-in-praise-of-obamacare-20111206,0,6794828.story

Obama holds the line on birth control

This article caught my eye because almost all I hear about from politicians these days is whether or not birth control is right. I personally don't know why it's such a big issue all of a sudden, or if it's always been a big issue and I've just been clueless about it. Either way, I think the conflict over birth control has to end. If women, or men for that matter, want to be on birth control, let them be. What's the big deal? Apparently that's the way Obama feels too. His adminastration recently announced that antiabortion groups that wanted to be exempt from a law making birth control a neccessary insurance coverage won't be getting the "wider exemption" they desire.

This article wasn't really a persuasive one, it was more about how the author's personal views on birth control were backed up by Obama's administration. It probably appealed strongest to pathos, considering I'm sure there were plenty of women who read the article. Ultimately it was a good article and although it was more about celebrating the administration's decision, I still enjoyed reading it.

Is the age of marriage ending?

This article interested me because I was curious as to what the answer was. I, and many people I know, don't particularly plan on getting married. I didn't think it was a very common thought, however. When I saw this article I wondered whether this was a more widespread, prevalent frame-of-mind than I previous thought. Upon reading the article I was relieved to read that marriage isn't a thing of the past; the article talked mostly about how marriaging young was a dying trend. The average ages of marriage in 1960 was 20 for women, 22 for men. Compare that to the average ages today, 27 for women, and 29 for men, and anyone can see that clear increase in ages, but why? The various reasons for this increase are examined by the author in the article.

The author was a persuasive one, even if he was a bit of a bore. He offered plenty of logos, though there was a lack of both ethos and pathos. The article was very long, and honestly I skimmed most of the statistics, which made up the majority of the article. The author definately got his point across though.

A smoke-free UC goes too far

This article was sure an interesting one. It's not too often you hear someone defending the right to smoke, what with all the health hazards of the habit, but that was just what this author did throughout the article. Recently the president of the University of California, Mark Yudof, announced that within the next two years all ten campuses will be smoke-free, tobacco- free learning centers.

The author very explicitly states his opinion, which is that while smoking is a disgusting, deplorable habit, adults should be able to make the decision to smoke themselves, as long as it's not hurting others. He believes the university shouldn't try to "outlaw" smoking and chewing tobacco. He uses mostly logos I suppose. His argument was very logical and he gave reasoning behind all the statements he made. I agree with him completely; if smokers are over eighteen and aren't bothering non-smokers there shouldn't be any problem. His article was very compelling and well written.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-smoke-20120118,0,880814.story 

A far cry from "CSI"

Now for those of you that know me well, you'll know I'm a murder-mystery, criminal justice tv show junkie. Shows like "CSI" "NCIS" and "Law and Order" have always been my favorite shows to tune in to. One thing that has always been painfully obvious to me is how truely unrealistic these shows are. When I saw the title of this article, it definately pulled me in. It turns out the author was writing about a recent case where a grandmother who had been jailed nearly fifteen years ago for the death of her seven week-old grandson. Gov. Jerry Brown, of California, has been reviewing this grandmother's case so as to possibly grant her clemency in her case. Why? You might ask. He's reconsidering her case because it is one of countless cases that were tried on the witnesss testimony of a forensic pathologist that may have been flawed. Not one man in particular, mind you, but the whole field. Preforming an autopsy of a child or a baby can't be easy, and a forensic pathologist's work is only made harder by their lack of sufficiant funds and equiptment.

This author did a very good job at persuasion in this article. There was logos, where he quoted studies done by reputable organizations like the National Academy of Sciences. He also had quotes from interviews with several different experts on the subject. He established ethos when he described the work he had done in the past, which included whole studies on America's corenors and medical examiners. He stated he has studied "roughly two dozen instances where people were wrongly accused of killing babies or small children." The article is also given pathos when the readers thinks about all the innocent people who've been jailed for faulty autopsies of children and babies. This was a particularly sad article all around, and hopefully the funds needed to prevent things like this from happening will be provided in the future.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-thompson-shaken-baby-syndrome-20120108,0,1962455.story

So what if America's the most religious nation?

I first chose this article because of how appropriate it seemed right now. Not only did we just finish Bless me, Ultima, a book centered around the religion of young Tony, but we're also studying religion in depth in history as well. As it turns out, America's the most religious nation in the industrial world. Now suprisingly, there wasn't much talk about religion in this article. Most of the article was facts about how America is in a downward spiral, and how the world is dying and nearly at "the point of no return." What the author was trying to do with all the logos he threw in there was show how being "most religious" doesn't help us out in the long run; America has the highest rate of incarcerated people in the world. He also brought points up like how statistically the more religious a state is, the higher the teengage pregnancy rate. While all this is interesting, he strayed far from his point and didn't really let the readers know why they were learning about things like the the poverty and hunger in America. To be honest, most of the article was just numbers, which I found myself skimming half-heartedly. Overall, if he had had a more clearcut point to his article maybe it would've turned out better, but he didn't seem to have one and it took away from the information.

http://news.salon.com/2012/01/08/so_what_if_america_is_the_most_religious_nation/