March 2012 Archives

I thought that this film was very interesting and thought provoking. She appealed to me, as a viewer, by using ethos, pathos, and logos. She gave herself credibility by talking about the counter parties and ensuring the audience that this was not about men vs. women, she was merely presenting the case for women. She appealed to my pathos but offering many examples of the types of things she was arguing to support her case. She also appealed my ethos, because as a women, I felt connected to her case. She made me think about the types of things I buy and the shows I watch and how those portray women.

There were many visuals used in this case which strengthened her argument tremendously. Without these ads I do not think that her argument would be taken seriously. I thought that they were effective because a lot of them were directly proving her argument and were clearly sexist. One of the visuals that I remember clearly is the Michele Pifer cover and her argument about how these advertisements make women think that this perfection is possible if you just work hard enough. On the cover they show her saying she doesn't need anything to look they way she does, but actually she was photo shopped in multiple ways. I think that this is interesting because they are making girls think that she can look like that without any help and I should be able to as well.

I also thought that the styling hair product add about breasts not being perfect was very convincing. I didn't understand why they had to talk about women's boobs at all when they were advertising for hair products. She made here point that these are the types of things that make us question whether we are flawed. This made me think that these types of advertisements do not only affect women and how they view themselves they also effect how men view women and what they expect.

Only 5% have the body type shown in most magazines is not representative of our population. I think that her using this logic in that argument strengthens her argument that advertisements give us unrealistic ideals of beauty.

Overall I thought that she was convincing and clearly has an abundance of ads that advocate her case. This made me feel angered that we are presented this way, and these advertisements give messages we may not even realize we are being effected by. Through the reading and this film I found myself thinking all the things the feminists fear. That they have no case, that they are over exaggerating, that they hate men, that I am not effected by these ads, but then I started realizing that this was not my opinion it is one that I have adopted to be mainstream or socially acceptable. I have been told these things so I have started to believe that I could never be an advocate for these cases. That it is not 'cool' to be critical of these types of things, but in reality these advertisements and portrayals of women do effect society and you when you don't even realize it. I found this topic to be eye opening.

-Alex Mountain

This article was written for the Star Tribune by Matthew Perrone. In this article two sides of the case for BPA in food containers were presented. I think that it is interesting to see the argument styles and techniques they are employing to persuade the audience, rather then analyze the author in this case.

The FDA has rejected a petition from environmentalists that would have banned BPA from all food and drink packaging. Their argument was that 'petitioners did not present compelling scientific evidence to justify new restrictions on the much-debated chemical.' I thought that this was a typical response given by those in power. This is meant to assure the public that there is not enough scientific evidence and they should not worry. I think that it is interesting that they do not actually define what enough would be, so its totally up to then as to when it would be enough evidence to call for removal. They also stated that the finding found in animal test subjects cannot be applied to humans. That lead me to wonder, why do they even test the animals if it would be no indication of what it would do to humans? They say that the studies were too small to be conclusive, but again this is vague. How large were they, and how large would they need to be? They also state that some involved injecting BPA into animals, whereas humans ingest the chemical through their diet over longer periods of time. They do no clarify how much they are injecting? Small amounts injected would be equivalent to small amounts ingested. "While evidence from some studies have raised questions as to whether BPA may be associated with a variety of health effects, there remain serious questions about these studies, particularly as they relate to humans," the agency said in its response.

- Alex Mountain

This story was written for the Star Tribune by John Ewoldt. He is trying to explain to his audience how 'a little inspiration and a dab of creativity can turn household castoffs into beautiful baskets for Easter.' The picture shown with the article was an Easter basket made with a lampshade, and a gold Easter bunny in the middle. I think that this picture is shown because of the vibrant colors and gold Easter bunny candy made of chocolate that most people are familiar with, associate with Easter, and find appealing. The way the author chooses his words to appeal to the readers pathos can be seen in the first line, 'You can repurpose things you have stashed in your junk drawer, closet or garage into a fun, fanciful basket to hold your Easter goodies.' At first he uses words like stashed and junk and then these things transform into fun and fanciful. This is trying to make the reader understand that your junk can be a treasure if you make it into an easter basket.
-Alex Mountain

This story was written for the Star Tribune by John Ewoldt. He is trying to explain to his audience how 'a little inspiration and a dab of creativity can turn household castoffs into beautiful baskets for Easter.' The picture shown with the article was an Easter basket made with a lampshade, and a gold Easter bunny in the middle. I think that this picture is shown because of the vibrant colors and gold Easter bunny candy made of chocolate that most people are familiar with, associate with Easter, and find appealing. The way the author chooses his words to appeal to the readers pathos can be seen in the first line, 'You can repurpose things you have stashed in your junk drawer, closet or garage into a fun, fanciful basket to hold your Easter goodies.' At first he uses words like stashed and junk and then these things transform into fun and fanciful. This is trying to make the reader understand that your junk can be a treasure if you make it into an easter basket.
-Alex Mountain

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/business/apple-supplier-in-china-pledges-changes-in-working-conditions.html?hp

Foxconn, the manufacturing giant in China is going to reform its plants. Previously, I have read news about how poor the condition workers are in. I remember approximately 10 workers in Foxconn have been reported committing suicide during these recent years. The article says Foxcoon faces harsh critique and decides to make a change, to curtail work hours and to increase wages. There are policy claims. It is time for Foxconn to carry out new policy, considering more about their workers. The process of making products for Apple is given as an example to illustrate the poor condition Foxcoon workers face. Details and statistics work together as a pathos proof. For instance, "43 percent of workers had experienced or witnessed accidents, and almost two-thirds said their compensation "does not meet their basic needs." Foxcoon's reputation is endangered now. It really needs to make a change.

This article talks about the Arkansas Supreme Court overturning the law that bans sexual relations between teachers and students. The court argues that if both parties are 18 then they have a constitutional right to engage in consensual sexual relations. Attorneys for the state argued that this law protects students from teachers in a position of authority that make sexual advances on students. However, the court found this law to be unconstitutional because it criminalizes sex between consenting adults. This article brings up an interesting point using logos. I think the main arguments against it would be based on ethical issues.

-Erik Pokki

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/29/arkansas-high-court-overturns-teacher-sex-law/

In the Minnesota Daily editorial by Melanie Williams, a gut-wrenching story was chock full of implicit arguments with the most minimal, but forceful grounds.

She told a story of a brutal assault that she and her partner witnessed in front of their Loring Park apartment, in which a 13-year-old Native American boy was attacked by his drunk uncle and posse. The boy was beaten brutally, and suffered several broken facial features. The group abandoned him lying under a car, and Melanie and her partner called the cops.

Their initial response took 25 minutes. After the boy was taken to the hospital, Mel and her partner were told they would be informed as to the boy's condition later, that someone would be out to clean up the sidewalk, and that the police would be patrolling to find the perpetrators. Shortly thereafter, they saw the group of men again. They phoned the police, and although were told they would be there shortly, watched the drunks wandering the highway median for 45 minutes before disappearing.

The scattered response of a usually-strong police force can't help but be noticed with respect to the racial features of the victim.

The story lends itself an immediate implicit contextual argument that the features of the particular day, city, and neighborhood ought not to matter for police concerns so great as assault. Particularly the assault of a minor evokes strong emotions in readership, asserting the importance of oversight, re-evaluation of standards, and processing standards.

Stories are effective arguments for the contextual richness they provide, the credibility of personal experience, and the relatable nature of many narrators. The story evokes strong images and therefore ties into the strength and connection that these visual components have to tap into one's sentiments.

A mathematics professor at Cambridge University knows Usain Bolt, the Olympic sprinter who also happens to be the fastest man in the world, could run even faster. According to John Barrow, this faster time could happen without Bolt actually running faster.

The two conditions that would make this possible are reaction time and wind speed. Bolt has a slower reaction time to the starting gun than other top sprinters. If Bolt could improve his starting gun reaction time to at least 0.13 seconds, this could be a starting point for gains in his times.

The second condition, wind speed, is largely due to chance. "Barrow has also worked out the top wind speed Bolt would be allowed within Olympic rules to have helping him along - a maximum of 2 meters per second - and the optimum altitude at which he could race in thinner, and hence less resistant, air" (Kelland).

Barrow believes if Bolt can achieve these two conditions during a race, his world record time of 9.58 seconds could be chopped down to 9.4 seconds. Math has shown this is possible without Bolt even running faster.

This article is heavily saturated with logos and ethos, evidenced by Professor Barrow at Cambridge University using math to calculate a way for Bolt to get a faster time. Barrow is making a policy claim backed up by fact claims: Bolt should do what Barrow has outlined in order to show his calculations will be true.

The Article by Kate Kelland

Yesterday at the UMN campus about 5,500 people came to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. The seventeen year old boy who was shot and killed while walking home on February 28th in Sanford, Florida. Many protestors argued that Trayvon was killed on the basis of racial profiling. Jenny Balsito the organizer of the rally said that "The hoodie represents a really dangerous stereotype, something that's deeply rooted." Who knew a hoodie, skittles, and tea would make a person suspicious of a kid. Many didn't believe the protest would be a good turnout. Jenny thought it would be 30 of her friends but it ended up being around 5,000 people. It goes to show how controversy this topic is and how many people are angered by what happened.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/144984745.html

The Washington Post highlighted an article recently posted by the Associated Press, arguing that there are rising concerns about how heavily U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul is being tracked by government-run news sources and reporters. He is concerned that government officials have been able to track his every move by hacking into his e-mail accounts and listening in on his phone conversations. The author of this article qualifies the argument by saying that the United States has had a strong history of tracking ambassadors to our country as well, but they are baffled as to how these people are learning all about our ambassador's schedule. He argues that he is being harassed like no other ambassador to Russia, and he is never able to get away from the relentless questioning by the reporter. This, the author argues, should be a warning sign to be more wary of the actions of Russians in our country that we should do more to make sure that our ambassador's communication remains private and not available to various media sources around the country.

Apple supplier audit finds major wage and overtime violations

The FLA (Fair Labor Association) finds faults in an outsourced company owned by Apple located in China.

This article first caught my attention because I watched a documentary on Chinese labor that was created to bring about awareness for the unfair working conditions of factory laborers. What I though was the most absorbing though were the comments at the bottom, a lot of them being policy claims dealing with America's economy. On another note, the director of the documentary I saw went to China with the idea that all Chinese working conditions in the factories are completely unfair and unfit for humans, but one convincing argument came up against that. This was the fact that those who go to work in the factories are being housed and given work so as to bring money back to their families, and that they are being freed of the otherwise extremely toilsome work in agriculture which has a very poor economy in China. This is the argument that I thought of when I read this article, which I think would be considered an argument by precedent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/us/justice-anthony-m-kennedy-may-be-key-to-health-law-ruling.html?_r=1&hp

The healthcare debate is no doubt a current, and heated issue. Both sides of the issue make persuasive points as to how constitutional it may or may not be.

Currently the case is being heard by the Supreme Court, and right now, all prosecutors and defenders are focusing on one justice in particular: Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Kennedy, as the article explains, is the swing vote among the current court, and if the health care law is to be upheld, he'll have to be persuaded of it's constitutionality.

Kennedy has historically voted to protect sexual orientation, as well as laws governing medical marijuana, and abortion. However, he must be persuaded of the liberty of the situation.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

In this article, New York Times columnist Gail Collins argues that there as been little political response to Trayvon Martin's death in the form of restricting gun rights. Rather, she says, politicians are pushing for extended gun rights. Collins describes several different laws and bills that would extend gun rights alongside descriptions of the consequences or would be consequences of these laws and bills. She particularly focuses on a bill in the Senate that would allow conceal-and-carry permits in one state to be valid in all other states.

Collins largely depends on pathos to develop her argument, along with a little bit of logos. Her descriptions of the consequences of gun rights, of innocent people being harmed by another's right to carry a gun and defend themselves with it, trigger an emotional response from the reader. And the style of her argument, relying slightly on sarcasm and irony, helps develop the logos by pointing out the flaws of such laws and bills. At the end of the article, Collins writes that she's "worn down" by this debate over gun rights, that she doesn't even want to fight against them anymore; based on the way she developed her argument, I could feel this exhaustion as well. While I think that she ended the article with a strong appeal to pathos, she could have rather ended with an actual solution that would strengthen her argument against gun rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/collins-more-guns-fewer-hoodies.html?src=me&ref=general

JetBlue Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Texas.
BBC News

The captain of a Las Vegas bound airplane had to be locked out of his own cockpit after being restrained mid-flight. The pilot became incoherent. An off duty captain that was a passenger helped land the plane in Texas. The airline has blamed this episode on a "medical situation." Passengers say the captain began yelling about a bomb. JetBlue flight 191, was carrying 135 passengers. No one was hurt during this episode, but the FBI and local police are now investigating the incident. This story has just been released so there is not much information yet as to what actually happened. The link I have provided is actually a video. The way the news broadcaster fluctuates her voice during this video makes you assume things. When she says that the airline is "blaming it on a medical issue." The tone in her voice, she is almost saying, can you believe that is what they are blaming it on? I just found it interesting, since this week we have been talking about rebutting arguments. I think the tone you use can say things you didn't mean to imply. The tone in your voice can either help you or harm you. Just something to be thinking about.

-Anna Srock

Currently in the United States of America we have a healthcare system that is beneficial to those who want to pay for it. For those people who do not want to purchase healthcare, they are simply out of luck when it comes to any medical needs. The article states that this ultimately will put us at about 50 million people being uninsured. State officials have to make a decision with the healthcare reform. Meaning that they should make the coverage more accessible, or else a good amount of the money would be lost. One of the claims made in this article states, "By allowing people to avoid buying insurance until they need it, and then requiring insurers to cover anyone who comes knocking at their door regardless of medical condition, you create a risk pool of exclusively sick people." Because the uninsured are getting treated those who do pay for healthcare get a higher bill every time. Now a day's people are trying to help open the Medicare to people of a lower income to help with the outstanding balances that are owed to people. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120330,0,1491023.column (Alex Davis)

This week we have been talking about feminism in all it's glory and all it's shame. And the article written by Rebecca Traister, "Ladies, We Have a Problem" published in the "New York Times" touches on both sides. It focuses on the SlutWalkers, who after a policeman comment in Toronto, march the street in practically thier birthday suits in order to make a point. Traister feels "irritation that stripping down to skivvies and calling ourselves sluts is passing for keen retort," and moves through the article searching for another method of speaking out effectively. She touches on stories of rape and assault victims and for the most part their failed attempts at making their crime known and pulled to their side. Regardless of whether it was "an 11-year-old Texas girl who was allegadly gang-raped by 19 men," who should gain the pathos of the audience or a "young French woman who is pressing charges of attempted rape against Strauss-Kahn," nothing seems to end or charged in their favor. Traister comes to the conclusion that in order to gain a response of any kind you need to make a scene because "the standard response to any public attempt by a woman to uphend expectations of consent, passivity, and silence -- whether she does it calmly or hurridly, in court or in fiction, or while wearing a corset on Michigan Avenue -- is still that she is a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty," so why not make a scene and make sure that your voice is heard. So although the SlutWalk may cause hesitation and uncomfortable emotions, it is neccessary in order "to draw a spotlight" on a pressing issue that has been hiding behind the shadows of those in the limelight, men, and those who wish to remain in power above women. These women have gone about ways of argumentation on their issue of equality, but now it seems to be that the way to go, is go big or go home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/clumsy-young-feminists.html?

Article

This article is about how Autism is raising in America. The author is trying to persuade us that there has been an increase and that autism is almost a Pandemic in America. The author continues and persuades us that if we catch autism early enough we can prevent or at least lesson the symptoms of the learning disorder. He uses many fact claims, and provides support through experts. One thing I noticed were the statistics. I am a little wary about the stats, because over the past ten years, they have measured the number of autistic 8 year olds in 6 to 14 communities. I thought that was a small number to apply to the whole of America. I believe if someone was going to refute this argument they could point to the statistics prevented, because I found them the least effective part of the argument. I believe that autism may be increasing, but not at 78% percent. The other argument is hard to refute, the argument that if we catch autism early we can prevent it. This, I believe, is difficult because it is an appeal to emotions and morals common to most people. They don't want to be convinced that autism is a disorder that cannot be cured or prevented, so naturally it would be harder to convince someone it is. It was a thought provoking argument but I thought there were holes in it.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/144466915.html

This article makes an argument backing the proposal being considered in Minnesota to modestly increase license fees for hunting and fishing in Minnesota to support the Game and Fish Fund that draws revenue from license fees and reimbursement of federal excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.. The author aims to make a logical and ethical case, using state influences such as Governor Dayton and former Viking coach Bud Grant, as well as other statistics and numbers as backing for the increase in fees. The author gains ethos by holding a side toward maintaining Minnesota's natural abundance of beauty and wildlife, as well as using examples such as Grant and Dayton. It was a smart decision to point out that the state's Game and Fish Fund is projected to be insolvent by July 2013, which would lead to unfavorable cuts to environmentally important services. The argument continues by acknowledging and backing the positive impact DNR programs have on Minnesota ecosystems, as well as reasoning that while Minnesota is one of the largest fishing destinations in the nation, only 12 states charge less for a resident license. Additionally, the jobs argument is made as well as pointing out that it would be a modest increase from $17 to $22 for fishing licenses, certainly manageable for anglers. Overall the logic prevails because the author does a more than adequate job of logically arguing that the benefits far outweigh the costs.

-Matt Foley

http://www.mndaily.com/2012/03/28/jonckowski-fills-voice-house-passion-sports

Today's Minnesota Daily has an appealing photo on the front page: a man stands amid his massive sports memorabilia collection. Who is he? That's Dick Jonckowski, who has been the public address announcer of Gophers men's basketball and baseball for 25 years. First the front-page photo caught my eyes. Later, I found the story interesting too. The article is mainly based on an interview with Dick Jonckowski. It shows his first experience as an announcer, his announcing style, his other jobs, times at the U and memorabilia collection. I like this article, although it is not a big scoop. The way it introduces a feature is focusing on details. "Dick has more than 500 bobbleheads and 500 hats." "Their grown son's room has been converted into an extension of his collection." All these are details, which help the author vividly describe a feature. This article is not an argument. But what we learn from it is when interviewing people or thinking about an issue, it is of significance to pay attention to details. I guess the idea of the appealing front-page photo is from the detail that Dick Jonskowski's hobby of collection.

This article talks about a study that was done that found it is OK for people to drink moderate amounts of alcohol after experiencing a heart attack. In fact, the study found that those who continued to drink moderate amounts of alcohol after a heart attack actually were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease compared to those that stopped drinking all together. This is surprising for many people considering that previously the the consensus said that alcohol should be avoided if you are experiencing cardiovascular complications. However, drinking more than 2 drinks per day is still thought to be bad for your health, particularly your heart and liver. This argument uses logos to get its point across and I think it is fairly effective.

-Erik Pokki

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/28/study-finds-its-healthy-to-drink-alcohol-after-heart-attack/

Star Tribune article by Paul Walsh
http://www.startribune.com/local/144632835.html

Anthony L. Farrar was arrested and is currently on probation for a sexual assault on a woman last year. On Tuesday, he plead guilty again to charges of 4th degree sexual assault after following a woman off the bus and attacking her. Her screams for help alerted neighbors, and Farrar eventually ran away.

There is an implicit argument that since the crime is a repeat offense, that there is some responsibility to consider the punishment and justice process, and whether or not the State had an influence on this happening again.

In contrast, the article ends by thanking police surveillance and interviews. By putting the impetus on the police for those, any implications against them are mitigated, even though the citizens and employees that helped provide the information are overlooked in importance. This is an argument heavily centered in the context of the social and political climate.

In an article posted by the Washington Post on Tuesday, N.C. Aizenman analyzes the potential result of a health care bill that does not include the individual mandate component that all Americans have health insurance. President Obama argues that this is a crucial factor in sustaining the highly controversial "Obamacare" that has been debated in recent months. He explains both sides of the issue and provides their support or opposition of making the healthcare optional for all Americans. Opponents of the individual mandate argue that with something as important as healthcare, no American should be forced to spend money to have insurance that is decided for them. Proponents say that not having the individual mandate will destroy all of the other components of the healthcare bill, making the program unsustainable and invalid. Insurance companies will have too much burden placed on them, and they will fail. The author provides strong evidence from both sides to explain what will be the likely outcome from eliminating the individual mandate component of this bill. Both sides have logical evidence to show why each outcome is likely, so it is hard for me to gain an opinion on the matter without further information about the other controversies surrounding the issue.

Officials: No progress yet in containing deadly fire

A wildfire fueled by high winds and dry conditions takes two lives and multiple homes.

What I find most disconcerting about this article is the lack of policy claims. Sure, it is understood that natural disasters are unexpected and very difficult to control, but this article seems to say that people were warned about the fire, but then told they didn't have to evacuate and that is the cause of death for this couple. The question lies in who is responsible; is it the couple who should have had the common sense to leave? Or does the blame lie on the authorities for promoting a false sense of security? Either way, this article simply says that some people died and it was tragic. There are very few details regarding the incident, but even less on what should be done to prevent this from happening again.

Ron Paul was a republican candidate running for the presidency nomination. He raised a great amount of money and had thousands of people attend his rallies. He was also popular among college students. Strategists of Ron Paul don't understand what happened and why he is not in the running for the presidential nomination anymore. This article explains the strength and weaknesses of Ron Paul's campaign. A disadvantage of his campaign was the lack of people willing to argue Ron Paul's case at caucuses. He is still in the running for the presidential nomination and has done better then that of 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/us/politics/in-ron-pauls-campaign-strength-and-weakness.html?_r=1&hp

http://www.mndaily.com/2012/03/27/u-denies-democratic-reform

I found a letter to the editor in today's (Wednesday) MN Daily to be particularly surprising: U Denies Democratic Reform.

It was an interesting read, as it details a U student groups multiple attempts at democratic reform, only to be continually shut down by Students Unions and Activities, as well as the All-Campus Elections Committee.

The group, Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, has been petitioning to add a referenda to the April 2 ballot. The petition would request that U administrators take a 5-15% pay decrease, so that students won't have to face the burden of a rising tuition, and faculty and instructors won't have to suffer substantial pay cuts.

The SDS supposedly got over 600 signatures for the petition, well over the 450 minimum, yet the petition was denied because of what the ACEC claimed was "vague language". After this set back, the SDS then set out to correct the language of the petition, and set out for more signatures, this time, they got 471, again, over the maximum. Yet, once again, the ACEC denied the petition to add a referenda on the basis that the student's couldn't be identified as University students, although the petition had signatures as well as x500s.

I definitely think that more research should be done into this issue. Not only the side of the SDS and ACEC, but also the public who are affected by rising tuition rates, and a lose of democratic control here at the U.

This letter to the editor raised many questions, yet, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Although I do not doubt the severity or the realness of the claims of the SDS, but the letter lacks any credible sources, and spends the bulk of it's purpose placing blame without further substantiated claims, such as details from the ACEC for rejecting the petition for referenda not just once, but twice.

At any rate, I would hope you all to read it, and look into it yourselves!

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

Iran and world powers will meet in Turkey and re-open talks about Iran's possible nuclear development programs. Nations like the United States, Russia, and France want to curb the growth of Iran's uranium enrichment program. The world powers believe it could lead to a nuclear development program. This program presents the threat of war in the Middle East, an occurrence many want to avoid at all costs. To prevent this outcome, the world powers have been imposing strict sanctions on Iran. They believe their sanctions may have been successful because Iran is willing to at least talk about it.

The two sides of this argument are quite distinct. The world powers do not want Iran to have a nuclear development program; the threat of war in the Middle East is too great. Iran, however, believes this type of program is their inalienable right. It is for this reason that previous peace talks have failed. Iran's recent willingness to enter into peace talks is encouraging to the world powers: Iran may be ready to compromise.

Logos is present in this article through the past actions of the world powers: they wanted to stop the progress of Iran's nuclear development program, so they imposed strict sanctions. Iran, however, makes a value claim by saying the program is their inalienable right. The peace talk, in itself, will be full of policy claims about what each side should do.

In this opinion article from the New York Times website, Mark Bittman discusses First Amendment issues surrounding junk food advertising to kids: is it a company's free speech to advertise? and how is this different with regards to children? While Bittman alternates between providing support for advertising rights and against advertising rights, it is clear that he supports restricting the advertising of junk food to kids.

I thought that Bittman created a balanced argument, weighing both sides of the issue in a largely unbiased way. Up until the end of the article, I felt that I could support either side of the issue as neither had been pushed harder than the other. But within the last 2 paragraphs, Bittman brings up a policy issue: if we allow for the free reign of advertising with regards to junk food and kids, we're going to be paying for it later through the increasing costs of health care due to child obesity. I found it very interesting and poignant that the author brought health care up, as health care itself is a hot topic right now, and tied it in with this issue.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/the-right-to-sell-kids-junk/?ref=opinion

In Hungary, Burning Money for Fuel, Literally.
Published March 21st, 2012
Photography by Laszio Balogh

National Geographic put together this series of pictures telling the story of how Hungary is turning their old worn our money into heating briquettes to heat their country. The bills no longer have any monetary value but they have proved priceless during a winter of unusually brutal cold across eastern Europe. Some four tons of heating briquettes made from banknotes are dumped into a truck for delivery to needy charities across Hungary. A single 1 kilogram (2.2-pound) brick contains the remains of some 5 million forints, or about $20,000 (U.S.). Chosen charities may receive as many as 20 or 30 tons of the briquettes each year. The style of this article is very interesting and mainly fact based. Because at the bottom of each picture the author writes a few sentences about the contents in the picture. unfortunately there wasn't one photo that was depicted wrongly. I was hoping there would be so I could make that point on here. But the author and the photographer weren't wanting to write it in that way clearly. Why is that? Is it because it is "National Geographic?" I am not sure, but its a good question.

-Anna

Currently at the nuclear plant in Southern California, there have been reports of the equipment failing. Until the equipment is fixed the plant has been shut down. The cause of the shut down is due too a leak in one of the generator tubes that was spewing radioactive steam. With all of that being said there has been more damage found to other tubes in the plant. The tubes happened to be vibrating and rubbing against each other which is creating the wear and tear of the tubes. Because of these activities with the nuclear plant the NRC feels that it is not a safe place to operate in. Ordering new equipment is apart of the new deal for the nuclear plant. The evidence found here in this article is that because of the unsafe enviorment there is a reason to shut down the plant. If there is any argument as to why the plant should not be shut down, all the NRC would have to say is that there is unsafe radioactive chemicals leaking everywhere. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/nrc-prohibits-san-onofre-restarting.html (Alex Davis)

Article

This article is about how a jet blue pilot was detained after acting strangely on the plane. The authors main point is to convince us that flying on airlines is unsafe and that employees are overworked and stressed. Or it is to persuade us that employees work too many hours. The article cites another time last week where a flight attendant had a meltdown too. This article is strictly fact claims. Witnesses are quoted and experts testimonies are given. Very good at establishing ethos as a journalist. This article was effective and sound, although i am not sure exactly what they are arguing. If they are simply arguing that it happened, they were successful with their eye witness stories.

article

In this article the author addresses how we portray hooded sweatshirts in our society. The author believes that hooded sweatshirts are a sign of stereotypes. He thinks that black men wearing hoodies are viewed as thugs while white men wearing hoodies are viewed as regular law abiding citizens. His main argument is talking about the death of Trayvon Martin. He says the hoodie killed Trayvon just as much as the man who actually pulled the trigger. He says this is sad. He tries to appeal to our emotions, but he also tries to uncover how stereotyped our views of society are. His main thesis is that it is ridiculous to judge a person based solely on what they are wearing. He brings to the fore front how we can judge people differently even if they are wearing the same thing. He uses the example of a white lawyer wearing a hoodie and a black man. The white lawyer is cold, while the black man is trying to hide his identity. I found this article very interesting and the author did bring up some good points, but i think the author went a little bit too far in his claims and that hurt his credibility. Also, he was a little bit too accusing of his audience and I think that hurt his ethos as well. If he would have toned it back a bit his message would have been better received.

article

This article is about the overheating issues a lot of iPad users experience. This is definitely a persuasive news article. They use mostly fact claims. The author does a great job of establishing his credibility and developing ethos. He uses evidence from many experts and has a ton of first hand accounts from users. He covers all sides of the issues fairly, furthering his credibility. He convinces us that iPads do not have an overheating problem. He shows that the newest generation of iPads don't overheat, and even with the other ones the temperature wasn't too great. It didn't burn the skin and didn't melt the iPad. Both experts and users attested to this, which makes his claim even more effective. He lacks warrants in many of his claims but that is alright because they are not needed in this day and age of technology. It's a very well structured argument.

Article

This articles purpose is to convince us that being honest and upfront is good for relationships, and that it is good to trust. She tells a story about her time with her best friend and how great it was and how she shared a beautiful moment with her friend, really emotionally charged. She used some policy claims at the end, as well as fact claims and emotional claims. She really appealed to emotions in this article. It was well written to get her point across. Her use of the narrative is really what strengthened it. Her claims and theses would have been meaningless without the story that went along with it. I think this article is a good lesson on how powerful narratives can be for invoking emotions and persuading.

Article

This article is about how the Hunger Games' star, Katniss Everdeen, is inspiring clothing and style off the big screen. She is clad in normal work clothes and a single braid down her back. The article first tries to persuade us that lots of moves inspire fashion trends, then it looks into that idea a little and claims that people dress like stars on the big screen because they want to capture some of those traits. Katniss represents someone who is powerful yet beautiful and in charge of her own destiny. The author argues that this is why so many people identify with Katniss and emulate her style, because she represents traits that are desirable to everyone. I found her argument persuasive because it makes sense. She clearly laid out her logic and connected the points well. I'm convinced.

Last week we talked about visual arguments and the different ways they can be interpreted and received by an audience. The advertisement, http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/ENPA_Spray.preview.jpg, is aiming to cease cosmetic animal testing. They place a 'cute' little puppy in the hands of a beautiful woman who has the expression of callus towards what she is doing to the adorable puppy she is, through testing, holding. This photo uses pathos when it uses an innocent little puppy. Most people have a soft side for animals, so one interpretation after seeing this could be that they feel bad about using animal-tested cosmetics and look for other alternatives to their perfume. However, many people also, side with the beautiful woman. If they use that perfume they will feel as beautiful as she looks, and so stopping the use of their animal-tested perfume is not in their agenda. This add has an advantage towards stopping animal testing because it uses a puppy which many people grow up adoring. You feel sympathy for the animal rather than the woman so carelessly using the 'perfume'. I think this ad is effective in that it catches people's attention but not in convincing unless you are already siding with the animal. It emphasizes that all visual arguments can be interpreted in different ways.

FOR FRIDAY 3/9

The Affordable Care Act hit a glitch after its long-awaited arrival to the Supreme Court. This glitch is the Anti-Injunction Act. Before the Court can decide on the constitutionality of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act must be dealt with.

The individual mandate requires Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty. This violates the Anti-Injunction Act, which forbids lawsuits filed for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax until that tax has been paid. The Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued that the Anti-Injunction Act does not apply in this situation. He said that the mandate applies a penalty, not a tax. The challengers' lawyer agreed by saying, "his clients were challenging the mandate to have insurance, not the penalty for failing to do so."

The debate over the Anti-Injunction Act, however, is not over. Chief Justice John Roberts did not think you can separate the punishment from the crime. The article left the reader with a feeling of ambiguity about the application of the Anti-Injunction Act.

This article uses logos when it references the obstacle the Anti-Injunction Act presents for the court case of the Affordable Care Act. Ethos is used when referencing the Solicitor General and Supreme Court Justices. Each player in the scenario used a variety of fact, value, and policy claims. These claims were most likely influenced by which side of the debate the respective player was on.

The Article

FOR MONDAY 3/19

A University of Michigan study shows the earlier a woman starts taking birth control, the more likely she is to earn higher wages later in life. These findings are in comparison to the today's situation: a woman earns 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. The studies' purpose is to analyze the causes behind the narrowing gender wage gap, particularly birth control.

Martha Bailey, a research affiliate at the U-M Institute for Social Research, made a fact claim by saying, "We found that women who had early access to the pill in the 1960s and 1970s earned 8 percent more on average by the 1980s and 1990s than women without early access."

Bailey touched on values when she said, "The pill's availability likely altered norms and expectations about marriage and childbearing." It also most likely encouraged companies to hire and promote women.

This article uses ethos through Martha Bailey and the University of Michigan. It also uses logos when analyzing the results of the studies.

The Article

FOR WEDNESDAY 3/21

The New England Journal of Medicine published two studies showing evidence that surgery may be more effective at treating Type II diabetes than typical regimens.

The studies found: "Those who had surgery to staple the stomach and reroute the small intestine were much more likely to have their diabetes go into complete remission, or to need less medicine, than people given the typical regimen of drugs, diet and exercise [...]" (New York Times). The studies had high rates of remission for the surgical groups, varying based on the respective study's definition of remission. In contrast, the medical groups had little to no remissions. Based on these results, the article draws the conclusion that surgery may be a better option than the usual treatments.

This article is oozing with ethos, as evidenced by the New England Journal of Medicine, as well as the Catholic University in Rome's and the Cleveland Clinic's respective studies. A policy claim was most likely used when the studies were created, as experts emphasized the need for better treatments of Type II Diabetes. Logos and fact claims are also present when the results of the study are presented.

The Article

This article was written for the Star Tribune by P. Solomon Banda. The author outlines the cancellation of the annual Easter egg hunt attended by hundreds of children. He states that this is taking place because of adult mis-behavior. The author states that, "Too many parents determined to see their children get an egg jumped a rope marking the boundaries of the children-only hunt at Bancroft Park last year.' As we talked about in class today clarity, efficiency, and transparency of the argument can be evaluated. The author's argument is that this is wrong and provides a reason why the parents are doing this. He explains that he thinks this is an example of 'helicopter parenting'- those who hover over their children and are involved in every aspect of their children's lives -- to ensure that they don't fail, even at an Easter egg hunt.
I think that his argument was effective, and clear. In the newspaper it is important to remain clear and transparent for the average readers. I think as far as efficiency it was right on, he didn't drag anything out and each detail had meaning to the argument.
-Alex Mountain

FOR FRIDAY 3/23
Driving is one of the hardest and most dangerous things a teenage will learn how to do. When one factors in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the task becomes almost monumental. The New York Times relates the struggles of a 21-year-old woman with ADHD still trying to learn how to drive, highlighting pathos in the article.

The article makes a fact claim by pointing out that teenagers with ADHD can learn how to drive, it will just take longer. Their inattention makes it harder for them to learn the skill of driving but also avoid dangerous situations while driving.

"When a driver takes his eyes off the road for two seconds or more, he's doubled the risk of a crash," said Bruce Simons-Morton, senior investigator at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, establishing ethos.

Dr. Simons-Morton makes a policy claim by encouraging parents of children with ADHD to delay driving lessons. Their children do not necessarily need to start learning at 16-years-old. They will gain a better hold on their ADHD through experience and medication. Dr. Simons-Morton's opinion is also that drivers with ADHD should use attention-focusing medication; he believes it should not be optional in this situation.

The Article

FOR MONDAY 3/26

I wish my parents were bilingual. As a German minor, I wish my parents could have taught me a second language as a young child, particularly German. This wish was reinforced by Psychology 1001 when we learned about the benefits from learning a second language in young children. To further the research in this area, researchers are turning to the brains of infants to find out how they distinguish between languages as they are developing.
Neurological activity in an infant's brain shows how an infant distinguishes between languages. The study heavily draws on logos in its results. Researchers at the University of Washington (showing ethos) highlighted the differences between monolingual and bilingual infants when it comes to distinguishing languages.
At six months, monolingual infants could discriminate between phonetic sounds, whether they were said in the infants' primary language or another language. By 10 to 12 months, the infants were only detecting sounds in their primary language.
In contrast, the bilingual infants' results showed that at six to nine months, the infants were not able to distinguish between phonetic sounds in languages. At 10 to 12 months, however, they were able to distinguish between sounds in both.
According to Dr. Patricia Kul, co-director of the Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, "What the study demonstrates is that the variability in bilingual babies' experience keeps them open. They do not show the perceptual narrowing as soon as monolingual babies do" (Klass). This fact statements enforces that early learning of multiple languages can only benefit an infant. Parents should capitalize on this opportunity.

Klass, Perri. "Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Languages." New York Times. New
York Times, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2012 health/views/11klass.html>.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/144033246.html

This article discusses the returning home of around 25,000 Minnesota National Guard, and makes a case that they have earned their work and education. The article aims to tell the audience that it is our responsibility to welcome the Red Bull division vets back to their previous jobs, or by giving them new openings because of the sacrifices to their civilian lives they have made by serving over seas. The article uses numbers such as 19 percent of the vets will return jobless in comparison to the 5 percent unemployment of Minnesota as a whole to convince the audience that it is an issue. The article stresses the importance of everyone at home contributing to getting the national guard member back to employment and that by giving them a leg up in individual employment decisions, we as Minnesotans will be giving them the "welcome home they deserve". The article uses patriotism and a point of making Minnesota a model state for the nation to almost guilt the audience. It is less of a persuasion and more of a "you should or else you are wrong." Definitely a policy claim as well as a value claim, that uses patriotism as its ethos based platform, along with pathos concerning the returning troops.

-Matt Foley

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/asia/unborn-afghan-child-said-to-be-17th-victim-of-killing-spree.html?_r=1&hp

According to previous news, Robert Bales, a U.S. Army sergeant, was accused of shooting 16 Afghan civilians. The American officials update the statistics, and the total number of murder is 17, including an unborn fetus. Why Sergeant Bales committed such a cruel massacre to Afghan civilians? His wife, Kari, felt unbelievable and rather shocked.
After reading the news, my ethos is aroused, with anger and sadness. I really hate wars. I hope to know more about what the reason of the massacre is from a direct interview with Robert Bales. I look for how the American government is going to deal with the Sergeant. There are lots of fact claims. However, the news doesn't include the important information people are looking for. It mentions that American officials paid compensation to the family members of the dead and wounded victims. Yes, American officials need do something to make up the crime. But is money enough? We need more truth. The U.S. Army owe Afghan civilians an explanation, an apologize and an guarantee that such horrible shootings will never happen.

This article explains that in many school districts around the country, many of the scores on standardized tests seem to be suspicious. One piece of evidence it uses involves a school district where 42% of fourth graders passed the math test and then when the same students were tested one year later only 4% of those students passed. The investigation has not proven any cheating but is prompting further investigation. There are some incentives for both teachers and school districts to cheat which include funding and salaries. This article uses logos to argue its point. I think it is an effective form of argument because it uses statistics and logical statements.

-Erik Pokki

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/26/newspaper-finds-suspicious-school-test-scores-nationwide/

This incredibly well-written article by Clifford Krauss and Eric Lipton in the New York Times lays out a cohesive but brief history of energy use in the United States. They highlight the gradual economic and social dependence on energy, the increase in tapping into what energy we have, and the recent developments that have affected those behaviors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/business/energy-environment/inching-toward-energy-independence-in-america.html?_r=1&ref=science

They use primarily logos arguments by citing statistics and making comparisons with oil giants like Saudi Arabia. The contextual importance of the piece, which is advertised adjacent to articles on the upcoming presidential campaign, is not to be overlooked. The 2008 election saw punch-lines "dependence on foreign oil" and "energy conservation" on both sides. The placement of an article touting success in this field certainly influences the way citizens may read the campaign articles, and the expectations they have for this one.

The article is very long, cohesively identifying both policy developments like carpooling and bussing, business implications, and lifestyle changes that citizens are undertaking. For the first time in decades, the US has a net export of gasoline. The incontrovertible data has an air of success, and reinforces the positive outcomes of applying technology to areas of concern.

The article focuses on its logos data, but the potential contextual implications in elections are not to be overlooked.

This article is about how seniors at Wheaton High School are suppose to complete mandatory community service hours in order to receive their high school diploma. It is something many seniors have overlooked for most of high school. And are now in a rush to finish them.
These article also talked about how Maryland had become the first state to require student service for diploma and now, twenty years later, some states have adopted the idea as well. In Montgomery, 25% of seniors still have had hours to turn in and In Prince County, 36%. It also was said that some students have procrastinated and grasp the importance too late and have failed to graduate because of it.

The article I feel was more local to Maryland students to urge them not to procrastinate on community service and do it as soon as possible. They gave some logical reasons like, when everybody waits to the last minute "sometimes charities get more volunteers than they can handle at once" and "have to turn people away".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/spring-break-for-seniors-community-service/2012/03/14/gIQAsfpqWS_story.html

For this blog posting I chose an opinion article posted in the Washington Post about a man who was raised with no clue what it meant to be loving or compassionate towards another human. He was the second child of two North Korean prisoners, and was taken from birth as a slave for the guards to use for whatever they needed. The author of this posting notes that the boy had no sense of ethos because of the way he was raised, and because he knew no loyalty out of love to another person, he was unaffected when he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother during his teenage years. The author uses this horrific story to depict a bleak picture of the oppression in North Korea today. Hearing stories like this makes most people think that it came from centuries ago, but this is a modern day story of a person's imprisonment from birth and escape to the United States without any knowledge of the outside world. The author depicts this graphic evidence as proof that there is unnecessary suffering that is occurring in North Korea, yet people are doing nothing to stop it because the country has such an unpredictable and militaristic government. He argues that we cannot ignore this suffering if we are to uphold the vow from the United Nations that we have a "responsibility to protect" those who are persecuted.

Today the US supreme court will start the hearing for the "health care overhaul law." This highly anticipated hearing is causing a stir among citizens. People came early to stand in line for a ticket to the hearing. This argument is mainly about the fact that citizens are to obtain insurance or pay a hefty fine. The crowd outside the court is big and activists and storytellers are there to speak their mind and let people hear their voice and stories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/us/politics/health-act-arguments-open-with-1867-obstacle.html?_r=1&hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/the-rich-get-even-richer.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

It's no secret that wealth and income inequality is a deafening issue facing America currently, however, the problem is worse than most may have previously thought. Even with the recovery from the recession still fresh and continuing- the top 1% of the country is thriving unaffectedly.

"...the top 1 percent has done progressively better in each economic recovery of the past two decades. In the Clinton era expansion, 45 percent of the total income gains went to the top 1 percent; in the Bush recovery, the figure was 65 percent; now it is 93 percent."

It is tremendously disheartening to know that right now, 93% of the nation's earned wealth is funneled to the top 1%, however, it is important to note that that is earned income, not inherited, and to place blame upon the wealth themselves would be irresponsible.

It is most important to focus upon the Bush tax cuts, which allowed a 15% tax on capital gains, which is how Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.

Capital gains needs to be reevaluated so that it is considered income, as for most of the 1%, it is. And thus, if it is income, needs to be taxed at the levels that normal income at that amount would be taxed: near 30%.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

Jason Cameron Back on Surface After Deepest Ocean Dive.
BBC News
By: Rebecca Morelle
March 26th, 2012

Holly wood director James Cameron has returned to the surface after plunging nearly seven miles down to the deepest place in the Mariana Trench that no man has been to before. He spent more than four hours exploring the ocean floor. James himself aided in the engineering of this "Deepsea Challenger." He has spent the last few years working on this in secret. The torpedo was equipped with cameras and other equipment to get 3D shots of what is actually down there. I am looking forward to seeing these images if they ever release them to the public. In the interview that Rebecca had with James Cameron he talks about how this has been a dream of his since he was a young boy. The chance for a human to go where no human has gone before is an amazing experience, I can only imagine. The scientific possibilities we have now to research the role that deep sea trenches play in earthquakes could provide a safer future. I am sure there will be similar crafts that will be built now that this one has been successful to do more scientific research on the ocean floor. This article is an informative one, I do not see an argument in this article, it was very well written and thought out with visual, facts and videos to inform the readers what happened. The content was mainly James Cameron's words, making it more of a compelling realistic read.

This article for the New York Times by Adam Liptak discusses the upcoming Supreme Court hearings about whether the 2010 health care act is unconstitutional. The story focuses on a strange potential obstacle for this case that is based on a law passed in 1867. The law says that a court cannot have a case based on taxes that will be paid in the future. According to some this means the court cannot hear the case until 2015 when the penalties from the health care act are actually paid.

The argument in this story seems to be that this 1867 law will not actually impede the Supreme Court from hearing the case. Whether the law applies is certainly disputed and the Supreme Court can decide either way, but Liptak seems to suggest that they will likely choose to hear the case. This is a fact claim that Liptak uses logos proofs as evidence. He cites the fact that Congress can simply amend the law and that the Supreme Court will likely not want to have to hear the case again in only a short while.

In this article Gayle Green argues that, sometimes, sleep medication can be beneficial despite its poor reputation. A new study shows that those taking sleep medication are five times more likely to die after a two year period. The author will concede and refute many points regarding this new study. She begins by describing the consequences of sleep loss such as hormonal imbalances, high stress levels, poor immune system, and a volatile mind and moods. She then describes how the study was done, concedes that sleep medication has its shortcomings, and ends with why sleep medication can in fact be a good thing.

This article was prompted by a recently released study on the consequences of taking sleep medications, so it's timely. This article is a strong example of refutation. She not only refutes the claim of the study but the methodology of it as well. She refutes alternative solutions to sleep deprivation. And the article essentially ends with the author telling anti-medication preachers to butt out and let her take on her own risks for the sake of sleeping, which I thought was funny.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/opinion/sunday/the-case-for-sleep-medicine.html

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/144041836.html

This article uses a pathos-centric approach to the matter of gun control laws regarding the Florida killing of Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch patrol. The author appeals to our emotions by using word choice to put us on the side of the boy who was wrongly shot although innocent. The author is an advocate for stricter gun laws. In the news story, it is reported that the 17-year old boy was walking to a friend's house from a convenience store when 28-year old neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman stalked him. The man thought Martin looked suspicious, and after reporting him to a 911 dispatcher, who advised Zimmerman not to stalk him, shot the boy and killed him. The man claimed innocence under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law because he claimed the teen attacked him. The author refutes the mans ethos by pointing out that mn had made 46 calls to 911 dispatchers in the past 14 months, and that the victim was unarmed and a popular team. By first putting us on the side of the victim in a recent event causing uproar around the nation, the author makes the push for stricter gun laws, claiming that a "shoot first and ask questions later" policy is wrong and allows for too much leeway for potential offenders. Because of the issue's relevancy, it is a very persuasive argument.

-Matt Foley

Article

This article is about cocaine contributed to Whitney Houston slipping into a bathtub and drowning. Many fact claims were used, citing evidence from coroner reports and her life accomplishments. The aim of the article is to get us to sympathize with Whitney Houston. They outline her career and then show how sad it is that she was overcome by drug addiction. The underlying theme of the author's argument is that drug addiction is bad, look what it did to this superstar. The author points out that Whitney Houston had a heart condition, but also stresses that cocaine played a large role in her death. This article definitely advocates against drug use.

Jeremy

Minnesota Daily, March22, 2012
Page1

Generally, this news is talking about different fee funding recommendations for different student groups, provided with statistics, how much some groups actually apply and finally receive. Overall, the Student Services Fees Committee releases more funding than previously plan. Lots of groups share the benefits of the upgrade, and several are rewarded more than they expect. However, funding recommendations also decrease for some groups. An important consideration is student groups are supposed to be nonprofits.
There are lots of fact claims in this news, for instance, which student union gets how much funding. As for value claims, it is not enough. Although the writer gives the fact that which groups get more, and which groups are restricted to less funding, he doesn't analyze the potential reasons of the difference. He stands for a neutral position, and doesn't come up with value claims towards different student groups. Thus, there is also little pathos proof I can find.

The California school system has a huge payroll of teachers, but a big amount of lay-offs coming as well. The argument posed in this article is that "the state should consider alternatives to seniority-based layoffs, according to a report from the state legislative analyst's office." Meaning that the L.A. unified school district should pay attention to the details of sending out those pink slips. There is a deadline that has to be reached when sending out the pink slips, and that is what the argument is mostly about. A report says purposes that the deadline be pushed back because to June 1st because that would be more consistent with the budget cycle. Basing the process off of seniority would make the hiring easier. They would be choosing to hire someone who closes to losing their job. Another huge process of the teachers getting laid off would be measuring their abilities. AN opposing argument to this case is stated by John Deasy, he says that "'last hired, first fired' would not be the only consideration during budget crises.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/california-should-revamp-teacher-layoff-process-state-analyst-says.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/a-broader-right-to-counsel.html?hp

We're all (hopefully) familiar with the Bill of Rights, but even if we aren't, we all think intrinsically know that the right to a trial by jury, right to a speedy and public trial, and the right to legal counsel are essential in the American justice system.

This article takes note of two recent Supreme Court cases that have questionably strengthened the right to competent legal counsel in plea bargaining.

This has not only made it easier for criminal (and civil) defendants in trial, but it has also opened the doors for what Justice Antonin Scalia describes as "plea bargain law."

The statistics on plea bargains are outlined in this editorial, 97% of federal and 94% of state convictions never reach full trial, and end in plea bargaining. This is, to say the least, troubling. Although the right to a trial by jury is an individual's right and can be waived in trial, a trial of one's peers has become so much more. It is no longer an option only for the defendant, but also a regulator for corruption and unfairness in the courtroom.

I mirror Justice Scalia's remarks totally when he expresses concerns with the Supreme Court cases, as it encourages more plea bargains, and less trials by one's peers.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

In an article posted by the Washington Post on Thursday, author Liz Sly argues that with support waning for the rebel forces in Syria, they are being forced to retreat and resort to guerrilla warfare tactics in order to survive. Resources are running out. While they have plenty of money remaining to purchase more ammunition, the nature of their fight is making it increasingly difficult to purchase ammunition as sources tighten. The amount of violence in Syria has been escalating dramatically over the past few months, and the army defectors and civilians that make up the Free Syrian Army are finding that international support has not been as fervent as they had hoped. Many countries that had once been ample suppliers of ammunition and weapons for the rebel army are now tightening their borders and limiting what can get into the troubled country. In addition, rebel fighters are finding that they cannot get enough food to sustain their members and fear that they will begin starving to death soon if no one intervenes in this situation.
The author makes a fact claim in this article that without more food and ammunition, that this demonstration of defiance against the Syrian government is not sustainable. She uses evidence about the Turkish, Lebanese and other countries that border Syria pulling away from the rebel army and refusing support for their efforts. Turkey is becoming a refuge for those who make it out of the country, but no one seems to be providing the much needed support in order for this effort to continue on a major scale. They are creating widespread attacks much less and instead resorting to road side bombings and other methods to attack the Syrian army and government without as much ammunition. She does not make any value claims about whether people should help the rebels, but she seems to make a sympathetic picture about their not difficult lives and their imminent deaths if they do not receive more food and ammunition soon.

In this article it tells of the huge protesting that has begun after the death of 17 year old Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while walking home by Mr. Zimmerman (the appointed neighborhood watchman). Mr. Zimmerman claims that it was self-defense under the Florida law, but Trayvon Martin was unarmed and only carrying a bag of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea. Many people all over our country is outraged at what has happened and Mr. Zimmerman was not charged at all. Mr. Zimmerman's role is to "watch" the neighborhood and not pursue the person he believes is "suspicious." Wendy Dorival is a volunteer coordinator of a police department, she was the person to set up the neighborhood watch in Mr. Zimmerman's neighborhood. She has received much scrutiny from the community and country for her role as to appoint Zimmerman as the head watchman. She claims they don't praise people to take matters into their own hands and should call the police if they see someone suspicious.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/trayvon-martin-death-spotlights-neighborhood-watch-groups.html?pagewanted=1&hp

In this Wall Street Journal Article, authors Josh Mitchel and Maya Jackson-Randall describe the rise of student debt, how it was created, and its consequences for the future. This number, $1 trillion, is about 16% higher than experts estimated it would be at this time. As more young people go to college because of the growing wage gap between the college-educated and the not, as adults go back to college to gain skills during this recession, as borrowers fall behind on payments and interest increases, as states cut funding and tuition increases, student debt continues to rise. The authors reiterate what economists are saying about how this will effect the future: current students will take longer to hit key financial milestones like buying a house as the try to pay off their debt. This will have major repercussions on financial and housing markets, taking them even longer to recover.

While the authors merely presented facts and did not present a lot of opinion besides that increasing student debt is bad (but, hey, it is), the presentation of this information argues that its something worth thinking about. The article is presented alongside a video, which stands as a form of visual argument.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812904577295930047604846.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

This article was about a Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach who is accused of child sex abuse. In the article it talks about how Jerry's lawyer was granted the phone numbers and addresses of those who accused Jerry of child sex abuse. The court order could also lead to the prosecution turning over an psychological evaluations that were performed on the accusers. But the attorney general is trying to persuade the judge that the evaluations are protected by legal privilege and not subject to disclosure.

This article used a lot of logos. The reasons they gave as to why the number and addresses were needed were logical. Jerry's lawyer said "it would be very difficult for defense investigators to locate and try to interview them without first getting contact information from prosecutors". It was a logical reason and it made sense.

BBC News March 23, 2012

President Barack Obama has pledged to speed approval for the southern leg of the stalled Keystone XL pipeline. Obama delivered his speech in the oil hub of Cushing, Oklahoma giving officials the go to "cut through the red tape" and make fat-tracking a federal review a "priority." His speech took place on day two of an energy tour spanning four US states. The timing and location of his speech was clearly well thought out. In January, the White House put the plan on hold. But in the following month the Obama administration approved construction for the southern leg of the pipeline. The speech it self was very well attended and covered on the news in article and video forms. But this specific article that I read on BBC News was written in a very interesting way. The beginning was simple information on the Keystone pipeline, then the move on to some 'Fun politics' and then they close with 'Flat earth society' with a picture of exactly how the pipeline will go through the states. At the top of the article they included a picture of President Obama giving his speech standing in-front of some very large pipes. This article was very well written and displayed.

-Anna Srock

Today in MSNBC, Craig Berman wrote this article talking about how Idol seems to be more towards males. Men have won the crown four years in a row now. You may ask yourself what does this matter and why should I care? This article makes some good points and provides its reader with some steps to make the show more gender equitable. The points are well thought out, but the author doesn't acknowledge the fact that the show is governed by its viewers and what they decide to vote at the end of the day. No where in the article does he give a fact claim sharing the average age and gender of the viewer that votes for his/her favorite singer. This to me is a big part of his argument that he doesn't even address.

Another aspect of the article I thought interesting and I am going to pick apart a little bit, is the visual effects in the article. There is one picture on the top of three female singers performing, while this may not mean anything it is still sending a message. Then towards the end of the article there is a picture of what i am assuming are the people in the show right now. The picture is an even number of males to females and the girls are all standing in-front of the males. This was a very good picture for him to add to his article to make his point come across stronger.

-Anna Srock

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/opinion/in-uganda-kony-is-not-the-only-problem.html?_r=1&ref=opinion#

Angelo Izama, a Ugandan journalist, makes an interesting argument focusing on the conditions surrounding the entire "Kony 2012" campaign. His argument is to educate and persuade his audience that the actual conditions that allow Kony's escapade to survive are the real problem to be addressed, and must be solved using proper methods. He uses facts regarding Kony's support to back his argument, arguing that in order to end Kony, you must end his patronage from Sudan and the Congo, both countries that turn a blind eye to his actions because of old political scores with Uganda. Congo, in particular, allows his L.R.A. to go uncontested because it counterbalances Ugandan influence in eastern Congo. Izama goes on to explain how when the "Kony 2012" video was shown in northern Uganda, people reacted with anger and fear, not wanting to be reminded of his travesties. Izama uses personal experience and logical argument to make the case that if America intends to intervene, they must pursue an ambiguous regional political solution rather than a military one, which would do more harm than good. "Killing Kony may remove him from the battlefield but it will not cure the conditions that have allowed him to thrive for so long." Angelo Izama's ethos derive from his connection to the Ugandan people, as well as his prominence in the journalism community.

-Matt Foley

This article was written for the Star Tribune by Joy Powell. Today in class we talked about visual argument. There is a photo included with the article that I think is a visual argument. It shows Cottage Grove school resource officer Gail Griffith and detective Tom Euland together in an office. She is dressed in full uniform, and they are both staring into the camera at the reader. I think this is to portray to the reader the seriousness of this problem, and maybe even deter those thinking about using cyberspace as a vehicle for bullying. The reader can see her weapons and gear because of the angle, I think that there is argument here that they will punish those they catch. I also think the the computer screen in the corner is suppose to represent cyber space, the detective has his hand on the computer as if to demonstrate that his is protecting cyberspace.
-Alex Mountain
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/143590886.html

This article was written for the Star Tribune by Lynn Underwood. She is writing about a granddaughter's sprawling cottage gardens that she used to honor the two grandmothers who have passed down their plants and wisdom. I wanted to look at the photo presented within the article. It shows a very large garden in the foreground and a small cottage in the background. There is purple blossoms and a small inviting path in the photo. I think that even here there is an argument being made. The argument is that this look of a garden in desirable. That the reader should want to live in that cottage with these beautiful gardens, and even as far as that this a sounds way to honor grandparents. I think that the Kiros reinforces the message in this article. It is winter in Minnesota, we have not seen these beautiful colors and lush greens for quite some time now. This may look even more beautiful now than it would in summer months.

-Alex Mountain
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/143513146.html

This article talks about how generic drugs are taking over the United States because it is more affordable. It claims that generic drugs are ruining the rights of patients because they are not warned the underlying side effects of the drug. Debbie Schork sued a drug company for their failure for not warning her the side effects of the drug she took and she ended up losing a hand due to gangrene. She ended up losing the case because the courts threw it out due to the fact that she used the generic brand of the drug called promethazine. While Ms. Levine who had a similar case but instead was given the brand name drug, Phenergan won 6.8 million dollars from her case. The food and drug administration help protect generic brands from getting sued and many have tried to petition the companies to provide better labels. All in all if you want to sue a drug company make sure your using a brand name drug and not the generic counterpart.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/business/drug-lawsuits-hinge-on-the-detail-of-a-label.html?_r=1&hp

This cartoon was made for the Star Tribune March 16, 2012, by Dana Summers. I thought that it would be interesting to analyze an opinion cartoon and how effective that argument is. She draws a leprechaun that says 'now do you believe in the little people?' along with a man (representing Mitt Romney) in business attire that crouches over, smiling, hand on chest, and remarks, " of course! I LOVE the middle class!' I think this the argument being made is clear. I think it is effectively using humor to appeal to the audience and kiros because Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated the day after this was made, also the political figure only makes sense in this context where Mitt Romney is in the newspapers and recognizable. I think that this is appealing to pathos by the way that man is dressed and his body language, the middle class may feel enraged that the politicians are essentially thinking they are little people. I think that even the color is minimal and only where needed, this may be trying to convey a darker feeling to the cartoon.

-Alex Mountain
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/cartoons/142956035.html

This article is about the opening of the movie Hunger Games. This movie was adapted from a popular book with the same title. Screenwriter and director Gary Ross was faced with the challenge of adapting the book to the screen without changing the storyline dramatically. His goal was to preserve certain aspects of the novel to keep fans of the book pleased. Many if not most of the people going to see the movie have read the book and will likely be disappointed if the movie strays too far from the book. This argument uses logos to argue that the approach needed to make this movie successful must appeal to the fans of the book.

Erik Pokki

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/21/showbiz/movies/hunger-games-novel-film-adaptation/index.html

Older generations of people want to get in touch with technology. Senior citizens are trying to understand their children, and grandchildren with all of their computer knowledge. A fact claim made in this article is "20% of the population is going to be over 85 by 2050," meaning that because of this statistic it is good knowledge for older people to know how to use computers and operate them. There are groups that are set up to teach older people computer tricks, and the amount of people interested continues to grow. Although people are eager to teach their mother or father to use computers, it is just not the same. Pathos is a part of that argument, because of the emotions people have when trying to teach something to a person who may not be a fast learner. Patience is a virtue, and not all people have that amount of understanding. The older people are saying that because of the changing times, when they place a phone call with their son or daughter, even grandchildren they have to email or text. Everything is becoming more and more technological and people of all ages are going to have to begin adapting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senior-tech-20120321,0,6967609.story

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the uprising that has lasted for months now in Syria could impact many more people than just the Syrian citizens themselves. U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has expressed great concern over the ongoing violent protests in the torn country as many are fighting for a new government structure.The country has strong ties with neighboring militant groups, and there is considerable worry that those groups may come to the aid of their allies, thus pulling more nations into the conflict.
The author argues that the tight relationships with neighboring groups such as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda may supply weapons to those whose views they support, adding fuel to the already tense protests. He explains that the Syrian protests began peacefully, but as more groups became involved and wanted to put pressure on others, the protests began taking lives and becoming more explosive. He uses some key figures involved in the discussion and their beliefs about the danger of the situation to encourage the reader to believe that this uprising has the potential to impact multiple other nations, dragging more people into the conflict and furthering the severity of the struggle.

In this New York Times article, David Brooks argues that maybe we shouldn't be so surprised would people "snap" as Robert Bales did. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 women and children while stationed in Afghanistan, was described by people who knew him before this occurrence as a stand-up guy--caring, confident, and a good leader. Everyone that knew him before is shocked that he would do such a horrific act. Brooks claims that people always seem so shocked when human do bad because, at least in America, our world view leads us to believe that humans are inherently good natured, when really this is not necessarily the case.

Brooks makes a strong use of evidence to support this claim. He cites a study done that demonstrates that people have often deeply contemplated killing another person. He explains that humans are descended from animals that need to kill to survive. He describes how living in a world where violence is muted/silenced can cause people with violent feelings to build up from anger to rage. Brooks suggests that viewing the world in black and white, light and dark, good and bad doesn't allow society to accept humans for the good and bad that they might do. I think this is an interesting point, because I constantly think about how things aren't black and white, that there's always gray area. The incident of Robert Bales is an example of this gray area: a human capable of both good and bad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/opinion/brooks-when-the-good-do-bad.html?_r=1

In class we are discussing evidence and how to discern a good source from a bad one. Using the article published in the New York Times, "Why is it Important to Keep Moving?" a few sources are used and it is up to the reader to decide whether or not the sources information is not only "true and credible, but believable" (Keeping Faith With Reason 177).
The article closes with the claim that "inactivity creates the psychological conditions that produce chronic disease" and throughout the article evidence is set out thanks to sources such as John P. Thyfault and his colleagues and students at University of Missouri. Thyfault, as the information gathered from him was via interview is a primary source. Thyfault gained most of his knowledge and conclusions from an experiment done at the University that tested the levels of blood sugar as an active individual and as a sedentary one. He makes the claim "it's increasingly clear that blood sugar spikes, especially after a meal, are bad for you" and follows up with evidence that "spikes and swings in blood sugar after meals have been linked to the development of heard disease and Type 2 diabetes".
By using averages in reference to the experiment conducted and analyzing the data, creating statistics, the team is able to present the readers with numbers. This makes the argument more believable because readers like facts. Facts that are easy to understand, and with them they can blatantly see that the effects of a sedentary life are not beneficial to the individual. When your facts are easy to understand, the chances of the argument rising to full persuasion possibilities more attainable.
Also, the author ends with Thyfault's policy claim, where to finalize the claim that individuals should stay active for health reasons, they need to move about and stay energetic in a consistent workout plan.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/why-is-it-important-to-keep-moving/?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/opinion/in-uganda-kony-is-not-the-only-problem.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

In this article, Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama makes some persuasive points concerning the recent popularity that Invisible Children and Joseph Kony have garnered.

The campaign 'Kony 2012' was created by the organization Invisible Children as a means to bring to attention the atrocities that Kony has committed as leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. However, not only is Kony no longer located in Uganda (rather, the Democratic Republic of the Congo), but also, Kony himself is not the major issue facing the central African countries.

Kony believes that,the LRA is a liberation, and although has committed serious crimes against humanity (such as the abduction and rape of young children), he is supported by a surprising amount of authoritative figures in all of Africa.

Izama argues that this spotlight upon Kony, and the subsequent military interference, has done, and will do, nothing to stop the detrimental issues facing not only central Africa, but the entire continent. Because military interference only inspires more violence, it has outraged many.

At any rate, it is worth noting that the efforts of IC have been for the best, yet it is unfortunate that there is still ignorance of the entire issue, and the issues facing Africa to date.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

This article is about Douglas Davis who was part of a hit-and-run accident, who struck and critically injured 22-year old Mai Kaw Xiong as she was walking across the street. This happened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my hometown. Douglas can face up to 15 years and $50,000 in fines for fleeing the scene after hitting the girl.

I feel this article maybe without even thinking it, used some pathos, because this article is about something and someone who was from Milwaukee. Mai Kaw Xiong, attended my High school and was really good in sports and was well known and liked. The fact that a lot of people knew her, we feel emotionally connected to her and just upset at what he did.

http://fox6now.com/2012/03/20/douglas-davis-held-on-20000-cash-bail/

Article

This article is about how vital and yet how difficult Match Day is for doctors, the day they receive their residencies. Match Day makes or breaks careers. If you get a good match you get a good job, a bad match gets you a bad job, no match gets you no job. The point of the article is to convince us to sympathize as well as to persuade us not to be doctors (to some extent). They use mostly fact claims but they appeal to our emotions. The underlying premise, or warrant for the claims, is that getting a doctorate is a huge time and money investment. This makes their fact claims that unmatched M.D. holders will not become doctors much more meaningful. Compare it to the statement that a 1 day training seminar will not land you your dream job. This is much more difficult to appeal to the audience emotions because the warrant is different, even if the claim is similar (similar, yes, but not the same at all).

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/143003005.html

This article is an argument for a call-to-action regarding the Asian carp epidemic that has slowly been affecting large marine ecosystems, becoming a huge environmental issue over the past years. The argument is sound, and logical, as well as appeals to our emotion by allowing us to visualize how it will affect our own personal lives. It is a general well-known fact that the invasion is extremely detrimental to marine habitat, because the "fish army" sucks up massive amounts of plankton and fish that other fish populations need to survive. The article touches on how not only will they affect rivers, but also our precious lakes and fish supplies, giving examples such as Mille Lacs. The author pointedly makes the logical argument that action and funding of research to stop the infestation is necessary and important to protect our ecosystems. Additionally, the feasible idea to close up the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock to stop the fish appeals to the audience because it is a simple fix to the problem short-term. The author pushes for this method, acknowledging that while it would inconvience river recreationists and force businesses to reroute products carried on barges, a costly endeavor, inaction could prove costlier. The author's argument is sound and persuasive, calling legislation to action.

-Matt Foley

France on high security alert after 4 killed in shooting at Jewish school

Such is this: a grisly reminder that racism and violence is still rampant in our world. When I first read the headline, my mind immediately jumped to Columbine and invoked the melancholy emotions of what had happened there. However, after further reading, I realized this article was more along the lines of the continuation of the blood-soaked lineage of antisemitism; though not nearly comparable to its predecessors the crusades, the reformation and the holocaust. This is a small yet very powerful analogy by precedent laced with pathos in which it captures its audience in order to make them feel the sorrow of many lives lost and many years past.

http://www.mndaily.com/2012/03/19/gophers-win-ncaa-title

Minnesota women's hokey team brings back NCAA title! "Minnesota beat Wisconsin 4-2 to win its first national title since 2005". This is an exciting news, full of happy emotion. The article gives lots of details about how was the game going. For example, an uncalled trip left Badgers defender Kelly Jaminski floored for several minutes before she too was helped off the ice at the 10:54 mark. The author provides the kairos, 10:54 mark. All these details can be considered as fact claims, making the news more vivid. Meanwhile, the author quotes what the coach and players said, which I think is a good way to enhance pathos proof. We can feel their passion in the competition, and we can share their joy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/us/politics/moderate-republicans-losing-ground-in-illinois.html?_r=1&ref=us

This New York Times Article by Monica Davies discusses the upcoming Republican Primary in Illinois. Davies explains that while it was once thought that Mitt Romney would be the clear cut winner in a state that has generally favored more moderate conservatives, the primary is now seen as another potential battle. The article describes how voters Republican voters in Illinois have changed, and how many have now shifted further to the right. This means that candidates like Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum will have an easier time winning delegates in the state than was previously likely. The article does also point out that President Obama is likely to have a landslide victory in the state come election time, so the battle here is really only for delegates not for a potential win in the upcoming election.

The claim being made by this article is that Republican voters in Illinois have changed their perspectives and have shifted to more conservative opinions. The grounds for this claim are poll numbers, which show a close race between Romney and Santorum, and recent Republican nominations, which have favored less moderate, more conservative candidates. The article uses logos by giving statistics like poll numbers and other rational arguments to support its claim, and uses ethos by giving the opinions of prominent Illinois Republicans. The article mostly gives fact claims, as it does not try to suggest that something is right or wrong and does not give any instruction on what should be done, it simply states what is happening in this primary contest and speculates on what could potentially happen. Comparisons are also used as Davies suggests that Romney may be similar to previous candidates who have had success in Illinois, but also compares recent winners to Santorum.

This article talks about Obama's effort to raise money for the 2012 elections. The fact claim they make is that he has raised $45 million dollars in February and a total of $300 million altogether. They also claim that Obama's support has come to a halt and he has made less money than the 2008 elections. His campaign manager has "cited a poll showing Obama trailing against Republican Mitt Romney and asked them to get involved." It goes to show Obama is losing support and he's trying to gain back the support of American citizens by visiting cities and trying to raise money.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/143294276.html

Afghanistan massacre suspect named as Sgt. Robert Bales
Published on the 17th of March on BBC News.

"The US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a massacre that has undermined relations with Kabul has been named as Staff Sgt Robert Bales. The incident has been confirmed by the US Army. The Taliban called off peace talks in the wake of Sundays deadly rampage, in which men, woman, and children were shot and killed at close range. "
This article is mainly a fact based style argument. The contents of the article isn't very meaty, and there is hardly any personal words from the author. Something to this capacity taking place over seas is a big deal. What happened and the reactions on both sides is important. The author wen t about this article in a very intelligent way. When something like this happens, we as Americans deserve the facts and actual evidence not personal opinion.
When I heard about these killings, I called my friend up who served in Iraq a few years ago. He shared with me some insight as to how the the army works. We had a long discussion on how to know if what we read on the news is actually true. He told me to keep reading on the subject but to keep in mind that they won't release the whole story, in his words, "they never tell the whole story went it comes to things happening in our military." So even though this is a fact based argument article, we still need to question the contents.

-Anna Srock

In this article, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee makes a fact claim that being bilingual makes you smarter. He refutes the past claim that knowing more than one language can create handicapping interference in your brain; rather, he says, this interference challenges and strengthens the brain. The author details the benefits of being bilingual, other than just being able to speak two languages, citing research and studies on the subject. For instance, bilingualism can shield against dementia, can solve certain types of puzzles easier, and improves the brain's executive decision-making function. This is all due to inhibition, the brain's suppression of one language while using the other has external benefits and allows the brain to focus better on not just language but on other tasks as well.

This article is interesting, but it feels like a claim I've heard before. While the author does refute an opposing point, that being bilingual causes handicapping interference in the brain, I'm not entirely sure this point is relevant anymore. This, therefore, makes his refutation and argument as a whole almost irrelevant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html

The article "New Worries About Sleeping Pills" was very interesting not only because as a college student, sleep is a precious commodity, but because as our society has become more aware of our health, the findings showing that those on pills are "five times as likely as non-users to die over a period of two and a half years" and that they are enablers in "cancer development" are worrisome. The new studies have had many sleeping pill consumers "quitting cold turkey" or at least blowing up the phones on the doctor's end with questions.
The main claim is that those "taking sleeping pills should do so with extreme caution." Also, the definition of insomnia places an enormous number of people in that category, stating that if "you get less than six and a half hours of sleep, and it takes you 30 minutes or more to fall asleep" you are an insomniac. At the end of the article, as this is a delayed thesis structure, is the claim that if you are on sleeping pills, ween off of them, and find other ways of aiding in sleep success. Also, because it follows the claim with actions one can take it is a policy claim.
I agree with this article because it backs up all claims with evidence of credible studies and facts, as well as bringing in scenarios that can relate to the readers.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/new-worries-about-sleeping-pills/?pagemode=print

The Washington Post reported Sunday that the rate of drop-outs before a student has completed high school has declined rather quickly over the past 5 years, especially in the south and in suburban parts of the country. Analysis of the country's graduation rates show that the rate of students completing high school has risen 3.5% from 2001 to 2009. Still, many business owners are concerned that there will not be enough qualified people to fill opening positions in the coming years. These numbers are expected to continue rising as "Dropout factories," schools that have a more than 60% dropout rate, are either closed or are being overhauled in an attempt to keep more students in school.
The author uses fact claims in this article, asserting that the high dropout rate in our country, currently estimated at roughly 75%, is still going to be a drain on the economy and poses a significant problem to our growth over the coming decades. She also attempts to offer solutions to this problem, and provides evidence to show that reconstructing the way that failing students are being taught can help students to be more successful and be motivated to graduate on time. She predicts that this will provide the best possible outlook for the United States' future economic development.

This article was written for the Star Tribune by Jackie Crosby. Here she outlines the details of the new 2.5 million dollar grant the Mayo Clinic researchers received to look at a new approach to stopping heart attack damage. There is a drug based off of the green mamba snake venom tat might stop damage, she mentions that it is already on a fast-track for approval by the FDA.

The author is in favor of this use of grant money. She supports the research when she writes, "We know even after we put in a stent, there's ongoing damage to the heart cells and the heart muscle cells," said Dr. Horng Chen, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic who identified the new direction of research for the venom-derived drug. "Our hope is that this will prevent the ongoing damage. If we can help the heart heal after a heart attack, we may prevent patients from developing heart failure in the future." She is using the doctors credibility to convince the reader that this is potentially a very useful drug.

She then mentions that snake venom has been long known for its benefits and that another drug currently uses snake venom to help a different aliment.

- Alex Mountain

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/business/economy/us-added-227000-jobs-last-month-rate-at-8-3.html?hp

The strong job growth continues in February, with 227000 net jobs added. The article mainly discusses the economic situation with a positive attitude. There are convincing statistics provided, working as a logos proof. Meanwhile, the article interviewed several economists, quoting their analyses to support the hopeful recovery. I consider economists' analyses are an effective way to enhance ethos proof. Other people, including job finders and their kids, are given as an example whether people feel about the job growth. I guess the author want to make normal readers feel more related, so there are also interviews with random people. The article as a whole shows a value claim, as one of the interviewees says, "The job market is improving". There are also fact claims, for instance, those supporting statistics. As for policy claims, there is no policy suggested here, however, the article indicates President Obama's economic policies are working.

"Beagle flips out over mouse toy," "Britney Spears to judge 'X Factor'," and "Why doesn't the new iPad have a name?" are just a few of the headlines I saw as I was searching for an article to review. It brings to my attention how much the media is a consumer conglomerate. As I was reading in chapter 12 the other day about news, I quite agree with the author when he implies that the media is a misleading source for information. Just because it's out there doesn't mean it's good; this is one of the points the author made when explaining why you should assess all of your information. The media is just one example, similar to blogs, of why it is so important to check your sources to make sure they are credible. It is astonishing to me that the news industry can still claim the position of relaying "research," considered

In an article by Jessie McKinley of the New York Times, Pat Robinson the founder and chairmen of the Christian Broadcasting Network, wants to legalize marijuana. According to the article Robinson believes that the war on drugs has failed. He believes in "working with the hearts of people, not locking them up." Robinson states that prisons are too overcrowded and the social cost of putting drug offenders in prison is too high.
The articles uses mainly pathos and logos to argue its points. The author uses an evangelical minister, who has been preaching for 50 years. Even a minister of 50 years, and a famous one at that, wants to legalize marijuana, a typically liberal ideal. The article cites logos when displaying and reinforcing Robinson's ideas. The article effectively uses karios, because it is published at a time where more than half of Americans support the decriminalization of marijuana.

Chad McFaul

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46669807/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/t/pat-robertson-its-time-legalize-marijuana/#.T1otRDEgfTQ

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/technology/hacker-informant-and-party-boy-of-the-projects.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=technology

This article for the New York Times written by Somini Sengupta and N.R. Kleinfeld tells the story of a prominent hacker whose online handle was Sabu. Sabu, whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur was a member of an elite hacking group by the name of LulzSec, which has claimed responsibility for many high profile cyber attacks. The article describes his life and tries to show that he was relatively normal other than his hacking exploits. It also details his work as a confidential informant, and talks about the potential repercussions that he will have to face because of his hacking.

The argument that it seems like the article is trying to make is that Monsegur is a relatively normal individual, but one who has committed serious crimes against businesses and individuals. It does this by making value claims and fact claims and proofs by ethos and logos. The value claim made by the article is that Monsegur is a caring person, which it backs up by explaining that Monsegur takes care of his drug addicted aunt's two children. This is also an appeal to ethos because it establishes his credibility as a moral person. The article also makes fact claims that Monsegur has committed many crimes. It describes the hacks that he has accomplished and talks about how he once sold drugs. It also appeals to logos in making logical arguments about what will happen to him as a result of his crimes.

I decided to look at some ads this time to see how they persuaded. The first ad I looked at was a commercial for Volkswagen. In it there is a dog. When he sees a volkswagen driving by, he tries to run out the doggie door but he is too big to fit. You can tell he's sad and he starts working out and eating healthy. Before you know it, it is summer and he's skinny. now when the volkwagen drives by, he shoots out the doggie door and runs through yards leaping and sprinting and having a great time chasing it. It is tough for people to lose weight in our society, and the advertisers in this commercial are trying to say that a volkswagen is awesome, awesome enough that it is an incentive for this dog to lose weight just to chase one down the road. Another one I watched was for pepsi. A little boy goes to a chinese monastery and the monks welcome him and try to train him. He cannot succeed, however, and he gets really sad. The next seen is of him 10 years later. He is an awesome monk doing all sorts of spectacular feats. Then, after he does a bunch of flips and stuff, all the monks do their ritual pepsi drinking, and he realizes they have an imprint of a pepsi can on their foreheads, so he crushed his can with his head and is officially a monk. This advertisement implies that pepsi makes you great. He went from being a terrible monk to a great monk when he started to drink pepsi. It works because it is funny and almost absurd for them to say that because we all know its not true. But the humor makes us laugh and its not derogatory towards anything, just good clean fun.

In his article "Ignorance is Strength," Paul Krugman argues that Republicans have a vested interest in cutting back on education: it will keep their voting base ignorant, and it will maintain the income gap that benefits people like presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is a bold claim, maybe a little too out there, but it certainly raises some interesting points. While America has long been a leader in education, we are now falling behind, whether it's disparities between urban and suburban schools or the decline in funding for higher education. The author questions conservatives' "traditionalist" values when they attack such a cornerstone of American society.

The author focuses on Romney's answer to a student concerned about the rising costs of college. Romney said something along the lines of "don't pick an expensive school, and don't expect the government to forgive your student debt if you do." Using statistics, the author shows that the costs of college are rising and a cheap school, even a cheap state school, isn't necessarily easy to find.

This article utilizes a delayed thesis structure. Reading the article, you know the author is making an argument for American education but not exactly what his claim is nor how the title relates to the article. But in the last paragraph, he claims that Republicans have moved away from supporting education because "they believe that what you [the voter] don't know can't hurt them." I also think this is an interesting play on words that made me think about what it really meant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/opinion/krugman-ignorance-is-strength.html?_r=1&src=rechp

This article was about the Keystone pipeline and how former Gov. Tommy Thompson said he backs the building of the Keystone which would expand oil production in Alaska and along U.S. coasts and blocking federal regulations to help contain gas prices. Thompson is looking for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate and feels that the U.S. needs to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. The claim and argument of this article is that the pipeline should be expanded and it will not raise gas prices. The article then continues to give three key ways to help rising gas prices in check.

It was a very brief article and straight to the point on what needs to be done and how it can be accomplished.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/thompson-backs-keystone-pipeline-fracking-u54euab-141530353.html

'Pink Slime:' Combo of connective tissue, scraps hidden in your kids' lunch
Published March 8th on Fox news.

How many of us really know the contents of what we put in our body everyday? Is there a way to know the truth if something is really 100% natural like the label says, or is the company just using that as a way to up their revenue? This article that has been all over the news today simply points to the fact that meat company's continue to put unknown substances in their product. But, we also continue to buy the product because most of us still enjoy a nice juicy hamburger. All over the media today this has been discussed whether it be in written form or live on the air. But my thought was aren't they just making us aware of something that we have known for years? The term 'Pink Slime' was coined by Food Safety Inspection Service back in 2002. Yes some businesses and fast food restaurants have decided to stop serving such products. Scientist and researchers have been aware of this for many years. Are they just bringing this back up to remind us, it is still in fact going on? I think they were effective with their process, whoever was behind it. Because they made it very personal right off the bat by the title they gave it. "Combo of connective tissue, scraps hidden in our kids' lunch. The targeted audience is obviously towards parents.
I am not really sure if there is an argument going on here. I feel like it is more of a fact based claim. Meat companies continue to put slime into the hamburger they sell, and we continue to eat it. They want to inform us this is happening.

-Anna Srock

Arguments have different types of structures in order better form to the audience, the claim being made, and the occasion. In the instance of the article "How Exercise Fuels the Brain" by Gretchen Reynolds, she used the the structure of a delayed thesis, where her claim that "the increased storage and utility of brain glycogen in the cortex and hippocampus might be involved in the development of a better, sharper brain." This claim is falls after extensive explainations of the studies done on animals in order to find "how much the level of brain glycogen change[s] during and after exercise." The reasoning behind finding out the answer to this is because the brain controls so many bodily functions, that the researchers in Japan and the United States were curious if, when you exercise the energy consumed from the activity is in a way subtracted from brain functioning. Basically, they found that when you exercise the energy levels via hormones in your brain lower significantly and when you finish exercising, unless you eat, do not return to their normal level, but slightly lower. This gave them the ability to make the claim that if you exercise without replenishing your energy following, levels of "glycogen in the cortex and hippocampus" decrease, and those are important because those are what fuel your memory ability and learning capacity. By using delayed thesis in this article, the author was able to really educate the audience on the issue. This was good because not many readers know anything about brain levels and what happens when you do movement in reference the hormone levels. So, by educating the reader with facts, studies, and real-life examples they are better able to agree or disagree that eating following exercise is in fact, beneficial thing for our bodies and our brains.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/how-exercise-fules-the-brain/?

Protesters are demanding Representative Mary Franson resign from office. Ever since a video was posted of Mary when she "compared food stamps to feeding wild animals and making them "dependent." People were outraged and furious at her comment. Mary thought it was "funny" but to others it was an offensive comment and many demand her apology and resignation letter but since this video outbreak she has said it is very beneficial to her campaign. She claims she has received many donations and support from people. The thing that stood out the most to me in this article is how harsh the protesters can be to her comment they fired back saying "If people are animals, then Mary Franson is a rat."

http://www.startribune.com/politics/blogs/141941823.html

http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/has-political-discourse-reached-rock-bottom/?ref=opinion

In this opinion article, Andrew Rosenthal has layed out a claim with a few grounds as to why political discourse has taken a turn for the worse.

This claim and these grounds mainly focus on women's health issues, and how they've come under intense debate in the political spectrum for the past few weeks.

Some of his grounds include the Limbaugh incident of calling Sandra Fluke a 'slut', because she spoke out about her right to attain contraceptives.

He also makes mention of the Blunt Amendment, which would allow "any employer, not just churches or religiously affiliated institutions, to deny insurance coverage based on religious of moral objections."

Rosenthal though does question whether it's really rock bottom, because many large sponsors dropped Rush Limbaugh, and the Blunt Amendment didn't pass in the senate.

However, this does make one think...how far will this all go until there is a stop by the American people or the American government?

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/141250603.html

This article urges Governor Mark Dayton to veto a recent gun owner's law passed by Legislature. The bill would allow Minnesotans to use deadly force if they feel threatened; the bill is an extension of the "castle doctrine", which already allows Minnesotans to shoot to kill in their homes to protect themselves. The author argues that Minnesota does not need this change, and that Mark Dayton should not hesitate to reject it. The author logically makes the point that one of the largest problems with this bill is that it is unknown what defines a threat. The case is made that it would allow for civilians to "shoot first, ask questions later". The author uses logos to argue that the state already has the "castle legislation", as well as conceal-and-carry laws that allow citizens who choose themselves to protect themselves within reasonable limits; therefore an extension of the law is unnecessary and will lead to more problems than benefits.

-Matt Foley

In an article posted by the Washington Post on Wednesday, the author commented on the growing focus on suicide in adolescents as a way to assert their independence and make decisions for themselves. Especially in Russia, researchers are noticing that there are a few adolescent suicides occurring every day, and they are trying to figure out the reasons for this disturbing development. The author makes a classic progression of his argument by introducing the topic with a sad story of two best friends in Russia who chose to commit suicide together to make a statement about the lack of freedom in their lives. They are trying to tell society that the strict, totalitarian nature of Russian parenting is leaving the young students feeling alone and rejected. He then provides some Russian historical information to explain why these children are not seeking help for their depression. His fact claim is that Soviet society had expressed mental health programs as a form of punishment and urged people not to express their feelings and not to trust these programs. Even though the Soviet Union has been dissolved, the feelings lingered in society regarding mental illness. Parents seem to be afraid of telling their children to share their feelings about situations in life, and because of this, mental health services have not been able to gain solid ground in Russian schools and communities. Adolescents have determined that there is no place for them to go regarding these feelings, and they decide that the only way to escape them is to die. He does not make an overt policy claim, but he seems to imply that we need to do more to provide these services to teens at risk for mental illness.

I believe the pro SOPA/PIPA side of the debate should be the debate winner. I thought they had some particularly good arguments including: SOPA/PIPA is really just trying to prevent foreign piracy, pirating music/movies/etc is illegal and should be prevented. These were effective because they appealed to logos. The ineffective arguments were the points for free speech. I thought these were somewhat off-topic and although they may be relevant, I don't think that is really what the point of SOPA/PIPA really is.

Both the pro and con sides of use of renewable energy prepared very well and did a good job. They provided lots of example and statistics to back up their main points, which I considered as an excellent application of logos proof. For example, the con side used the wind resource in Denmark to illustrate the heavy cost of renewable energy. The first rebuttal of pro side also made an analogy, comparing cigarette with oil, gas and fuel energy. All these argument strategies count. Besides, the ending session of the pro side gave me an impression. The pro side not only read what they prepared, but also concluded the whole debate, meanwhile, had some thought-provoking claims, such as we need to look into future rather than go back to stone ages. And the pro side also mentioned the job opportunities which renewable energy development can bring the U.S., which is associated to nowadays society, and a great potential advantage. As far as I am concerned, the pro side won.

I think the con-renewable energy side won the argument. They made good arguments of how cost was very high and they stated facts of how wind power wasn't as great as it was put out to be when they stated that wind energy made up such a small amount of the electricity created in Denmark and how unstable it was because some days there is not as much wind and others there is more. Even though pro-renewable energy had a good argument I thought their argument did not hold as much content as that of the con side.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/141505153.html

This article makes an argument backing St. Paul officials placing the construction of a new St. Paul Saints baseball ballpark as their number one legislative priority, making the case that the ballpark is essential to the transition of the previously industrial lower town St. Paul district to its more modern and artistic look. The article believes significant development of the St. Paul area is needed, and it begins with the creation of a newly proposed 7,500-seat St. Paul Saints ballpark. The facility would run for around 54 million dollars. The author makes a logical case for the ballpark, using ethos gained from the city officials backing. The argument continues to back the officials push for a new ballpark by making the point that the "Saints have long been a more affordable pro sports attraction for ordinary people." With the increase in fan experience and the maintenance of low prices, the stadium would draw a much larger crowd, stimulating local business. The current stadium is painted as inadequate. The argument is made in a strategic way to appeal to St. Paul citizens.

-Matt Foley

Divorcing myself from opinions of this issue and looking primarily at the arguments presented by the two sides, I think that the debate for non-renewable energy had the most solid arguments. Bringing points up against the cost was a good point but generally heard, but the really solid point came from the idea that renewable energy cannot be the sole provider of energy. An issue of this magnitude can never be agreed upon 100% and therefore a gradual move toward renewable energy seems to be the appropriate policy. My vote is for the non-renewable energy side.

After reading the article in the New York Times, "Parkinson's Disease Drug May Help Brain Injuries, Report Says" I found that the main article actually paralleled the debate given last Monday on renewable energy sources. The argument boiled down to whether or not funding should increase in order to continue the research towards finding a cure to recovering brain injury victims that could open doors to other recovery methods and antidotes for diseases across the board. The author Benedict Carey utilized morals and value claims when inserting quotes from doctors and researchers. "Hope is critical and false hope is cruel for families dealing with this [brain injury victims]" is just one quote stated said by Susan Connors that tugs at the audiences emotions in order to persuade that we must continue researching and give it everything we can because discovering that this drug , through much research and many studies, is in fact aiding in the recovery of patients, so that we will continue to build hope for families and ends with the simple statement that this research is "a little piece of hope, the real kind." Who would want to take hope away from a disabled patient, or their family? A fact claim, "the drug showed no adverse effects" gives basis for belief that what they are researching is achieving positive progress and "positive results". Near the end of the article they also play the emotional tug of war card by talking about how with more funding families who are unable to afford the luxury of recovery would be able to take part in the wellness journey. So as the research is in the late stages of infancy it is at its most critical stages and in desperate need of funding in order to continue the "positive result[s]" in order to open doors to other cures for not only severely damaged brain injuries but other diseases across the board.

In the debate concerning renewable energy sources, the main argument that shown through was, should research continue as intensely and as be more heavily funded or should the funding remain the same and society should stick with what sources we have now.
The pro renewable energy discussed how the sources such as hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind power were environmentally friendly and cost efficient, or at least more so than the current coal, nuclear, and gas sources we are currently using. They used value claims to persuade the audience on the effect on the environment, talking about how oil spills effect wildlife and mining and drilling alters the geography of the land. Pulling in statistics about cost and efficiency gave fact claims backbone, however the con side of the argument had a rebuttal to every one of these claims. The anti-renewable energy source group talked on how the efficiency of these sources was far less than what they were predicted to produce and that society due to media and activist groups have a misleading perception of the actuality of the sources and their effects. Bringing in world examples they were able to relate it to society and our situations and better explain what was going on.
As I was in the con group I am at some front of being bias but I am actually at a tie vote. I see both sides to the argument and although I find both pro and con to be persuasive I see one side shining out a little further than the other. The con side poses that yes, we will need to resort to other alternatives when the current sources of energy run dry, but for now not all efforts should be placed in one basket. Yes, we have survived on making fire from flint and stone and traveled by horse and buggy and gotten along fine. But times have greatly progressed and changed and to ask people to take steps backwards is naive. Funding should be placed towards finding new sources so that we are prepared, but into ones that ensure efficiency and are cost friendly to society, and the current options are a great distance from these parameters.

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2012-03-06/PTSD-veterans-prone-to-drug-addiction-get-risky-painkillers/53388510/1

This article details the ongoing problem with recently returned veterans being misdiagnosed and given harmful narcotics to treat PTSD These veterans are at a very high risk to abuse these powerful prescription drugs and often times other forms of opiates when a prescription runs out. This abuse subsequently leads to a number of other problems such as job loss and extreme poverty. Those in support of diagnosing veterans say that the strong opiates are necessary to combat the physical pain that many returning from combat find themselves in. Those against however say that while it is irrefutable that returning veterans need medical help it should rather be in the form of therapy and back up this fact claim by citing studies that have shown therapy to be a much more effective way of treating PTSD than prescription medication.

Both sides in the renewable energy debate seemed like they were very well prepared, and they seemed to anticipate some of the other side's potential arguments and made steps to refute them. However, I thought that the pro renewable energy side made more convincing use of evidence, and overall did a better job in the debate. Both sides made good economic arguments, but the pro side also took into account social costs, which the con side never actually addressed. The con side made an argument that renewable energy is not as environmentally friendly as many people would have us believe. This was an effective argument, but it felt as if they were trying to overstate the harm caused by renewable energy sources. It seemed like the pro side missed a potentially very strong argument in not tearing into the harmfulness of expendable energy, which was only briefly discussed. One thing that I found interesting was that the con side made a point of admitting that the resources they were defending would eventually run out. I felt that this hurt them in the end because the closing statement for the pro side was very convincing. She pointed out the infancy of the renewable energy movement and paralleled it with the original development of fossil fuels. She argued that renewable energy was the future, which the other team had already acknowledged was true. This was one of the most convincing arguments in the debate.

I think the debate was very good with both sides providing good points, I was leaning for the con side during the debate, with all the facts and statistics they provided. But by the end of the debate I felt the pro side had won me over, especially with their closing. I felt with all the facts that were given, the conclusion was a good way to close the debate. It was simple enough to be understood and also because they used the we are the future approach, which i thought was very smart.

This Article is about a 28 year old man that was fired from an Episcopalian private school who shot the headmistress. He snuck in an assault rifle and shot her and then himself. The headmistress had worked there for 34 years. This is a gloomy story. The authors main point is to get us to sympathize with the situation. At the end they even say it outright with a call to action. "We know that Ms. Regan (the headmistress) is with God in heaven, we ask you to please pray for her." This article just shows another sad story and tries to gain sympathy for it from the audience.

Apple continues to own the technology field with all of its new line of gadgets. Apple consistently tops the market in the production and sale of its products. One of the main products sold by apple is its newer tablet, which is known as the iPad. Within the same year of releasing a new IPad tablet Apple has successfully launched a new version, and keeps the people coming back for more. People are willing to spend more money and the new versions of the iPad that come out frequently. Part of the reason the newer versions always sell because people sell their older version to use the money they make and put it towards a new iPad. Arguments have been made as to why the iPad continues to sell consistently after older models have been upgraded, and it is stated that because of the faster speeds, newer gadgets, also the durability of a tablet makes people want to keep buying it. A product that they compare it to is the smartphones. People end up replacing their smartphones after two years because of how much the device is used on a regular basis. But with a tablet such as the iPad people are more likely to take care of it, which makes the item last longer. Some claims made about this product are, why is it necessary to have two of the same product? does the product have a chance to upgraded to another?, If it is the same thing then what is the point of getting a new one?. Some people feel that it is just not a good investment to look into. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-apple-ipad-20120307,0,7115670.story (Alex Davis)

I believe for me the pro side was more prepared and confident with what they were going to say. The con side did have good arguments, but the pro side just seemed more prepared.

Alex Davis

FBI offers $1 million reward for agent missing in Iran
By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent.
March 7th, 2012

The thought of someone being captured and tortured isn't something that crosses your mind very often. We all know it has happened many times in our countries history and is continuing to happen today. At the very top of this article they show three pictures of Roberts Levinson, the way he looked five years ago before being captured and two more pictures of how he could look now. This is a very effective way to make words on a screen personal in a matter of seconds. I read the headline and then looked at his pictures. The man that I was looking at has been missing from his family and country for 5 years. Visual effect is a powerful tool in portraying your side of the argument.
There is a million dollar reward for the person who finds him. Over a hundred current and former agents stood on the front steps of the FBI's Washington, D.C., office Tuesday in a show of solidarity with their former colleague and his family. Levinson's wife said the following that day. "There are no words to describe the nightmare my family and I have been living every day. I never imagined that we would still be waiting for Robert to come home five years later."
The emotional appeal this statement makes in this article plays a big factor in its success. The author of this article knew going into writing this he would play with our emotions. But to put a picture of the man that has been captured and a statement made by his wife was a very smart move on his part.

-Anna Srock

Although both sides presented strong arguments for the pros and cons, I got to hand it to the con. The pro side was already at a disadvantage missing a group member, and overall didn't seem prepared as a group. On the other side, the group clearly had prepared arguments for the debate and held their ground.

Jake Adams

The pro- and con-renewable energy sides of the debate both presented their arguments very well. They honed in on the key points and provided substantial supporting evidence.

I thought the pro team's argument did a good job of spanning their entire perspective, from environmental and social need to costs in comparison to non-renewable resources. They presented a well-rounded argument.

The con side, however, really hit their points home about the cost effectiveness of renewable energy at the current time. They were not refuting the eventual need for renewable energy; their argument was that the current technology creates too much of an economic burden and does not come anywhere near meeting the demand for energy. The benefits of the current technology would not outweigh these costs. Their proposal was to continue using fossil fuels until technology is developed that will be cost-effective and create the amounts of energy needed. I found this argument very persuasive, so I am voting for team against renewable energy.

I think that the anti-renewable energy team won this debate. Both sides seemed very prepared and conveyed their ideas well, but the con team made a stronger argument.

The con team got me to think about renewable energy in a new way; not as an idealized version of energy but as a form of energy with consequences.They made clear the costs of renewable energy. It also helped that they acknowledged the need to move towards renewable energy sources eventually, but, with their support of the cost of such sources, argued that we can't transition yet. I think the pro team should have brought up the American jobs argument before the closing statement because it's a strong point, and also the issue of climate change, even if it is heavily disputed (I mean, this is a debate).

That being said, I think the pro team's third rebuttal was very strong in that he actually refuted things the con team said rather than just addressing general aspects of the con's argument. And to refute the pro's argument about the social cost of relying on the Middle East, the con team should have argued more for drilling for oil in American than they did.

In my opinion, both sides were very prepared and had excellent arguments and counterarguments. It was a very persuading and interesting debate, and in my decision, it was very close.

By just a hair, I found the Pro Renewable Energy side as the winning argument. In all honestly, rebuttals from both parties seemed to void each other, and for me, it came down to closing statements.

I felt that in the Con Renewable Energy debate, they focused much on the fact that since it is not the future, renewable energy shouldn't be worried about. However, we all think of the future. We all imagine when we'll graduate college, get married, or have children. To keep a mind set that focuses on nullifying the future seems ignorant to me.

Also, it was over arching through both groups that renewable energy, whether we agree with it or not, will come into play no matter what we say or do about it.

Because of this, and a very good closing argument on the side of Pro Renewable energy, I found their argument most persuasive.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

The State of California is trying to keep patients out of their beds. There is going to be a new healthcare reform and the State's hospitals need to be prepared for it. The executives of the hospital must be able to change their current methods and to help the hospitals be better at healthcare. Some of the changes are that patients will now be treated in clinics and doctor's offices rather than hospitals. A fact claim made by Michael Rembis the president and chief executive of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical center, is that they are trying to change the fact that there are too many people in a hospital and do not get the full attention and care that is needed. So they now are trying to take less people and make them healthy to keep people out of the hospital. Hospitals do have various things to focus on, and it might be a good idea to have less people to help those who really need to be treated. http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-hospital-changes-20120305,0,5184223.story (Alex Davis)

This was about the how Jewish groups around Minnesota are coming together to fight for the rights of same-sex couples. They say that "the constitution conflicts with Jewish tradition." The Jewish Community invited people to an event in Minnetonka to help them support the Same-Sex marriage Ban. They claim the law is unconstitutional and it will not be supported by the Jewish Community. There was 18 co-sponsors at the event and even very conservative Jewish groups were there fighting for the cause. But not every Jewish group was there. The St. Louis Park orthodox was not there and Rabbi Chaim claims " The Torah's message is clear and should not be distorted. Marriage is a sacred ideal that only exists between a man and a women."

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/Jewish-Group-Opposes-Minn.-Same-Sex-Marriage-Ban-mar-4-2012

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/04/is-the-republican-party-almost-over/republicans-and-democrats-remain-evenly-matched

In this article, the author does a very good job of laying out the points of her argument. Her claim is simple: republicans aren't dead. Her grounds are factual: republican presidents have held the white house for 24 of the last 40 years, 29 of 50 states have republican governors, and republicans currently hold more house seats than ever, 242.

She also covers her counterargument well, she details how Americans feel of social issues when brought up by republicans and how citizens are often adverse to that.

She ends with, "Regardless of the Republicans' "apocalyptic rhetoric" in this cycle and the Democrats' "demographic predictions" of partisan dominance in the long term, the data suggest that America continues to be a 50-50 nation, and an electoral vote tie is more likely than the demise of the Republican Party." To sum up her argument.

Overall, I felt that although short it was very well written, and detailed a prepared argument.

-Jenna Peneueta-Snyder

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/world/europe/observers-detail-flaws-in-russian-election.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-election-skewed-for-putin-observers-say/2012/03/05/gIQAykbXsR_story.html?hpid=z1

I find both Newyork Times and Washington have news about Russian election. And overall, they both show a negative view towards the election.

Is Russian presidential election unfair? European points out the victory of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin was preordained, giving the reasons that a tilt was obvious before the election. However, what I feel confused is that even though there was a bias, does people's favor of Putin mean unfairness? As far as I am concerned, the logos proof here doesn't make too much sense. Foreign observers also critique it is the use of government money and the control of media that play a partial role in support of Putin's campaign. This seems to be a fact claim, but the claim needs more details and evidences to back up. On the other hand, the Russia's Central Election Commission spent almost 45o million dollars to install some 180000 Web cameras at polling station and used glass ballot boxes in order to make the election transparency. The above information acts as a fact claim, which serves to prove the fairness of the election.

The American-Russian relation is of tension now. And the article also mentioned Mr. Putin's rhetoric in the campaign somehow expressed an anti-American attitude. If that is true, the position in U.S. press is kind of doubtful. They may criticize with a bias to some extent.

I thought that each side of this debate presented their points very well to an extent that makes picking a winner quite difficult. However, if I had to chose a winner I would say that the side against SOPA/ PIPA convinced me more. Their opening statement was presented in a way that appealed to logos quite effectively. Defining valid oversight and censorship made it clear that in this case the SOPA/PIPA bill was a form censorship and subsequently in violation with the first amendment. The group arguing for SOPA/PIPA made some excellent points, including the fact that this bill will indeed stop illegal piracy of intellectual information. However, they made a fact claim that if this piracy continues it will lead to creative genius as we know it to cease to exist, which I was not convinced of. Again, each group presented very well and came to the debate prepared but I was more convinced by the side against the SOPA/PIPA acts.

First let me start out by saying that the teams were very unfair. 6 to 3. I feel that the con side had more floor time so that all of its members could talk. The pro side should have been given more time to make it fair.
My vote for the winner of the debate goes to the Pro SOPA and PIPA side of the debate. I feel that they were the team that kept bringing the argument back to the core of what it really is by stating fact claims more than just saying what big named people have said about this subject. I think that the con side of the argument only used statistics that were very drastic and dramatized instead of simply stating the contents of the bill. It is very easy to get caught up in she said he said in a debate, but that is not what we are arguing during a debate. We are not arguing what someone said about the subject. We need to be arguing the subject at hand and I think the Pro side of this debate did this very well even though they were out numbered and had a hard time getting their thoughts out.
But the Pro side has my vote!

This article is about the approval of a revamped mining bill in Wisconsin, even though the bill was okayed by the committee opponents of this article said the changes were not enough to win their votes. The legislation is aimed at changing regulations for iron mining while leaving other kinds of mining laws intact. This article covered come material in chapter 11 about forming an argument, they maid a clam that the changes were not enough and then gave reasons as to why the changes were not enough. lastly they concluded with a call to act, that if they were to change the regulations to provided more certainty it will be accepted. The action is that, they need to make changes if they would like them to commit to the mining legislation.

Recent debates have surfaced over the number of horned dinosaur species. Experts like Nicholas Longrich at Yale University believe that while fossils of the triceratops and torosaurus are similar, their differences indicate they are, in fact, two different types of horned dinosaurs. It was previously thought that the torosaurus was the mature version of the triceratops. The experts examined several factors when trying to determine the truth, including whether the two species were present in the same place at the same time. While the debate is still happening, the evidence (and the article) seems to suggest that Longrich's findings are true.

In this article, Longrich is not only employing ethos, but also logos when trying to figure out the truth behind the debate. There are many fact claims present about different aspects about the research, such as differences in the fossils.

The Article

Although both sides of the issue were well prepared, in my opinion, the pro-SOPA group argued their points better. While the anti-SOPA group mostly used only logos and fact claims, the pro side used ethos, logos, fact claims of their own, and refuted claims made by the other side. By effectively refuting their opponents claims and supporting their own fact claims with sources and with a more variety of argumentative tactics the pro-SOPA group was in my opinion, the winner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-all-topple-campus-walls.html?pagewanted=2&ref=us

This article by Tamar Lewin for the New York Times discusses the new concept of Massive Open Online Courses, in which anyone can participate either for free or for a small fee. The classes are often taught by reputable professors from traditional institutes of learning for example the article talked about a class taught by Sebastian Thrun, who is a Stanford professor and a Google fellow. The article explains the potential revolution in education that this type of resource could create by giving students more feedback, and giving people with less resources the chance to take higher education classes.

The article makes mostly fact claims and uses logos and ethos as means of persuasion. Fact claims made in the argument include what is implied by the articles title, which is that by providing these online classes with reputable professors at the head, people who previously would have been unable to attend a university might be able to get a job with the education they have received online. The article also claims that the MOOCs may be in some ways superior to traditional lectures because students are able to work at their own pace, receive feedback in the form of computer graded quizzes, and have easy access to a forum where they can ask questions of their professors and peers. As stated earlier the article uses logos in backing its claims by giving logical evidence for why these might be true. The reporter also uses quotes from distinguished professors and past students as an attempt at ethos.

Make-up for Friday 3/2/12

Female bonobo, a species of primate, use sex to climb the social ladder when they join a new community of bonobos. Sex is used in all social situations, from fighting to entertainment, to relieve tension and develop relationships between the members of the community. The Huffington Post reported that the newcomers seek out higher status bonobos to have sex with in order to gain social status. Their method of doing this is by being very loud during sex, especially if they are mating with an alpha female or if an alpha female is present in the audience while they're having sex with a bonobo of higher status than the newcomer.

This article contains mostly fact claims, as these are scientific observations of bonobo behavior. However, the interpretation of the fact claims may be a form of value claim from scientists. Zanna Clay, a post doctoral researcher at Emory University (displaying ethos), is using the observations and equating it with climbing the social ladder, similar to a human social system. The sex could be just that: sex. However, I think the researchers are attempting to display logos in their argument by logically constructing the reasoning behind the bonobos behavior.

The Article

The argument of the article "Eating in Public: Pleasure or Peril?" discusses the consequences of eating on city subways. The main one being rats. The enforcers of the bans that are trying to be set in place set parallel cases with 19th century issues having to do greatly with racism. By binding "squalor, disease, and shame" with "working-class public eaters and food vendors - many of whom were immigrants" is what they are afraid will happen now. If they begin connecting "litter and filth" with subway riders it may unstoppably lead to relating the issue to "racial and class stereotypes". The article also pinpoints at morals and how eating in public goes against them, again paralleling the actions with 19th century events. By doing this comparison it is able to show the fragility of the argument and how the senators in charge of the possible bans are taking all possible assumptions and affects into consideration.

http;//www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/opinion/eating-in-public-pleasure-or-peril.html?

In this article, William Johnson, a special education teacher, describes his experience as both a teach and a student. The author's use of personal accounts builds credibility for his argument but also acts as support for his claims. His claim, in its most explicit form, comes at the end of the article, allowing seemingly separate details to come together in a cohesive manner. He makes a combination of a policy claim and a fact claim:

"Until we provide equal educational resources to all students and teachers, no matter where they come from, we can't say -- with any scientific accuracy -- how well or poorly they're performing. Perhaps if we start the conversation there, things will start making a bit more sense."

What I find strange about this argument is that, in his claim, the author brings up access to educational resources. He did mention in the beginning of the article that budget cuts have made his classrooms bigger and have cut support staff, but other than that he didn't talk about how this affected his teaching or the students learning. The article is really about how current methods of evaluation of both students and teachers don't accurately translate to degree of performance.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/opinion/sunday/confessions-of-a-bad-teacher.html?ref=todayspaper

This is make-up for Friday, 3/2.

In this article, Nicholas Kristof claims that slowly but surely, states are creating new laws that abuse women's health rights. He begins by explaining Texas's new law that requires any women seeking an abortion have a vaginal ultrasound and a 24-hour waiting period after the ultrasound before she can get the abortion. Kristof describes this as "state-sanctioned rape," pulling in definitions and quotes/testimonials from both doctors and legislators. He continues to illustrate how women's health rights are in retrograde, with more obstacles popping up to abortions than progress.

While the debate over women's health issues can be largely value based, this author's main claim is a fact claim: that women's health rights are under attack. The details he uses concisely back up his claim. Although some of his word choice depicts his bias towards women's health rights, he is able to strongly make his argument based on fact and logic, not values. He ends his argument with a policy claim, a suggestion for a different approach to the problem of women getting abortions: prevent unwanted pregnancies with better access to contraceptives and family planning. This policy claim further emphasizes that states are approaching women's health rights in the wrong way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/opinion/sunday/kristof-when-states-abuse-women.html?ref=todayspaper

In my opinion, the team debating in opposition to SOPA/PIPA was the winner of the debate. While for team for SOPA did a good job managing the debate with a much smaller team, I feel as though the against team came much more prepared than the pro team. While both teams had very valid points, and the pro team did present very key issues that allowed for the audience to consider SOPA in maybe a different light than previously. Both teams highlighted important issues. There were a few instances in which the against team brought in points that did not always flow well for me in building their case. I felt as though both teams had strong parts to their case, as well as weaker parts. One area that confused me was that the Pro-SOPA team's closing statement was a fantastic rebuttal; unfortunately I felt it was much more of a rebuttal than a closing statement. In conclusion, while it was a pretty close debate, I felt as though the Against SOPA team had a much more prepared argument, which won it for me.

While both sides seemed to have some legitimate arguments about why a person should or should not support these proposals, I felt that the Pro-SOPA/PIPA side won the overall debate. While the Anti-SOPA/PIPA side definitely seemed more prepared, I felt that they were refuting arguments made by the other side much less and were instead relying on prepared scripts to just add more information to the conversation. There was also some talking on the Anti-SOPA/PIPA side that was a bit distracting while the Pro-SOPA side was taking their turns, and this made it harder to focus on the debate as a whole. I felt that both sides provided good information, but it just seemed that the Pro-SOPA side had better tactics and arguments.

I think the pro SOPA side won. I believe this because they refuted the against sides argument better. I felt like the against side based their argument heavily on the fact that SOPA is censorship and against free speech, but the pro side explained to us that it will only shut down foreign sights with pirated material, and it wasn't even shutting those sights down, it was just blocking the links on search engines. They basically said its not violating free speech, its protecting property. The con side did have a much more structured approach, but they didn't refute as well as the pro side, and because of this I'm going to have to go with the pro side.

In this SOPA PIPA debate both sides had high and low points. I thought that the negative side was very well prepared and presented the audience with testimony from other sources. I thought that the pro SOPA PIPA side was very conversational and directly addressed the other teams arguments as well as talked about the actual bill.

I am not sure whether I am suppose to talk about which side had better arguments or whether I was persuaded to agree with one. I am going to leave what I think about SOPA and PIPA out of this and just talk about which side had better arguments.

In my opinon the pro SOPA PIPA side presented their case in a manner that was flexible (not overly planned out), and easily understandable. I found that they were less confusing and explaining more to the audience. I found this effective. The downside to that was sometimes they ran out of things to say or lost their train on thought. I thought they they could have used their time in a better manner.

The con SOPA PIPA side was very well rehearsed and they never had a moment where they lost their thoughts, they always had more information to present so they were using all their time correctly. The things I didn't like is that they didn't address the content of the actual bill and they were talking and shaking their heads when the other team was presenting. I found this to be disruptive to the flow of the debate, and a little unnecessary.

It is very hard to decided between the two teams but I thought that they con SOPA PIPA side used their time in a better way and therefore won the debate.

-Alex Mountain

Pakistan decides to censor some of the internet and that has outraged many people living in Pakistan and outside of Pakistan. The article claims it is a 10 million dollar project to a "development, deployment and operation of a national-level URL filtering and blocking System." The government has blocked porn sites, search engines, and social media websites already. The Pakistanis have tried to force internet providers to block specific sites but it wasn't effective enough. So now the government is trying to build a internet blockage similar to that of "the great firewall of China." The people claim that the government really look up to the "firewall of China" and they fail to look at the fact that Pakistan is a democracy and China is an autocratic regime. What makes this so alarming is that Pakistan when out and publicly stated they are looking to create a system to block specific sites. Peoples freedom to speak is going to be limited by this new system and is causing havoc in Pakistan and around the world.

The Washington Post reported today that Dover Air Base Mortuary Supervisor Quinton Keel has resigned following a series of "whistle blowing" documents being released about ongoing practices within the complex. Workers in the mortuary were horrified by the gruesome treatment of fallen soldiers, and when they attempted to report Keel's orders to his superiors, Keel attempted to have them fired. The author is assuming that his beliefs are universal in this topic, so he does not need to go into much effort making policy claims to his readers that the gruesome treatment of the deceased soldiers was morally wrong and inconsiderate to the families. He mostly just relies on logos and ethos to carry his argument. One of the more outrageous actions involved sawing off an arm of a soldier to make it fit into a suit better. The author backs up his arguments with comments from other people closely linked with the situation. He discussed the feelings of the family members of this deceased soldier as well as the feelings of other workers in the compound to show that this was absolutely not acceptable behavior.

Auto Sales Pick Up Pace Despite Rising Gas Prices
By Nick Bunkley at The New York Times
March 2nd, 2012
This article, even though the title sounds boring, is actually a very interesting piece that is full of good information. The whole point of this article is to inform its audience that automakers have sold more cars in the month of February since the recession started in 2008. Nick wrote this with a very fact claim article in mind. Pretty much the whole article is facts, there is maybe two paragraphs oh his own words. I think this is a very effective way to inform your audience what is really going on.
A interesting statistic that he gives is that, Chrysler had a 40 percent increase in their sales in February. The company was also greatly helped by its widely discussed ad featuring Clint Eastwood during the Feb. 5 Super Bowl, sold 126 percent more passenger cars. I read that and thought that is crazy! One ad during the Super Bowl can do that for a company. He also explains that Ford reported a 14% gain, Toyota and Honda a 12% gain, Nissan's 16% gain, and Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Kia, Suzuki, and Jaguar Land Rover each reported increases of more than 30 percent. Giving statistics like that are very effective in a article. At the very end, he says that "the average age of a vehicle on the road today is 10.8 years, the highest on record, according to the research firm R.L. Polk." This statement that he made as his last sentence made me wonder if he wrote the article to sound like we are climbing out of the recession, but then wait the real reason our automobile sales have improved is because the average age of a car being used today is close to 11 years old, so it is time for people to buy a new car before it dies on them. I think this article is very well written and I thought I had it all figured out until I read that last sentence.

-Anna Srock

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/01/10552338-limbaugh-contraception-advocate-should-post-online-sex-videos

In response to a law school student's testimony in front congress where she advocated for contraception to be provided at no cost by the government, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" along with saying that
"If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch."
Along with the initial appearance of ridiculous discourse in Limbaugh's statement, it also provide an interesting look in how badly Limbaugh misused syllogism and enthymemes. The student initially claimed that contraception can be too expensive and because it prevents pregnancy along with STIs, should be made available to everyone at no cost. Rush spins her argument around and says that she "wants us [taxpayers] to pay for her to have sex' which is basis for a bad argument considering that she did not indeed say anything like that and to infer so is ignorant.

This documentary was undoubtedly thought provoking. I identify myself as a fairly big sports fan so some of the points that Dave Zirin made had me thinking critically about the world wide sports landscape. I could not agree more with his fact claim that sought to prove that the separation of sports and politics was a myth and that indeed sports and politics are incredibly tied together. He showed this very well through the various clips of football coaches militaristic speech to get their players excited to play the game. He also showed that politics and sports were related when he pointed out the extravagant pre-game display of nationalism with the national anthem combined with a giant American flag (usually walked out by those previously in the military) and fighter planes usually reserved for the battlefield. He also made some interesting points regarding the status of minorities in sports. One thing that always comes to my mind when watching a sporting event is the difference in how commentators talk about minorities athletes compared to whites. In what seems like most cases announcers will attribute a black athletes success to natural ability using words like "athleticism" and "natural talent or ability." However, white player's successes are usually seen as a result of hard work and desire. Commentators will frequently use words like "heart" and "hustle" to describe white athletes. Perpetuating such a stereotype that whites work harder and minorities are simply born with skills is a dangerous thing to do and has a profound negative consequence on attempting to promote equality in our nation

This article is about the successes Apple has achieved. It is trying to persuade us that Apple is making impressive progress and thats quite a feat for a company that was only worth $10 billion 10 years ago. I am convinced. Although I know better to believe that Apple is worth more than Poland, they are effective in making their point. Some fact claims that I found particularly persuasive are the following: "one of the five most-valuable companies at any point in history" - this I found persuasive because they provide evidence of the other five companies and give numbers on what each was worth. "The company reported in January that its sales grew 73% last year. It also posted the second-most profitable quarter in history for a U.S. company." - This I found good as well. They don't provide a source, but their specific numbers give the impression that the information is reliable. What really highlights Apples progress is this claim: "It was only a month ago that Apple's market valuation rose to $400 billion for the first time." For me, specifically, I remember because I blogged about it then as well. This is an example at how fast the company is progressing and does wonders to convince us that Apple is a very successful company.