Mormon leader: Same-sex marriage laws cannot 'make moral what God has declared immoral'

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/06/mormon-leader-same-sex-marriage-laws-cannot-make-moral-what-god-has-declared/

The article addresses that the Mormon leader asserted same-sex marriage is immoral. Even though the negative stance against homosexuality would be misunderstood or prompt accusations of bigotry, the Mormon leader emphasized to the members that the most important priority is to serve God for them, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' policies are based on God's decrees. According to a perspective of "Latter day saints," it must not be allowed to condone gay's behaviors or to find justification in the laws that permit same-sex marriage. The Mormon church teaches the members that attraction of homosexuality is not a sin, but responding to the attraction is a sin. According to the Mormon website, "Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them." Therefore, the church embraces their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, but their behaviors should not be accepted in the Mormon's belief. In my opinion, I completely disagree with the Mormons because they overlook that being gay is a personal expression and people have their own ability to choose how they live their own life which should not be dictated by other religion, so there is the possibility that God wanted it that way. Their negative stereotype against homosexuality leads to other social dislocation. They are a religion, but they have no rights to infringe on others' rights.

Joe Soucheray: This Catholic Town is Weary of Sordidness. Throw the Bums Out.

The article I have chosen to analyze this week is an opinion piece written by Joe Soucheray, and was published by the St. Paul Pioneer press. I think Soucheray could have been more detail oriented and implored more argumentative devices to create a stronger argument. Soucheray relied too heavily on what he assumes to be shared knowledge within the Pioneer Press' readership. 

His claim is that we, Catholic residents of St. Paul are tired of the immoral acts of priests being covered up by the Church, and we should "throw the bums out." He supports his claim with a lack of factual or hard data. Instead he refers to an incident that occurred with Priest John Shelley. Although names are given of the parties involved, there is little mention of the dates or other details about the incident. This information would be helpful to the casual reader of the Pioneer Press. Soucheray seems to assume that readers of his opinion would have already read the article posted earlier in the day about the priest sexual misconduct task force members who were named today. The assumption is not a far stretch, but me being a casual reader, had to dig to find the article he barely mentions as data. All of his assumptions can be grouped together to be called the qualifiers of the argument - they limit the strength of his argument by relying too heavily on the assumed knowledge of the reader. 

In conclusion, after reading this piece, I think Soucheray needs to spend more time constructing his arguments to make them stronger and to complete the ultimate goal of argumentation - to persuade his audience.

http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_24269241/joe-soucheray-this-catholic-town-is-weary-sordidness?source-hottopics

Has Boeing lost the battle for Japan?

The author put forward a claim that Boeing may have lost the battle in the aircraft competition with Airbus of European planemaker, specifically.  The grounds for the claim are that the belated entry of Airbus to the market which had been monopolised by Boeing and the own trouble of Boeing in its 787 Dreamliner. The warrant connects grounds and claim is that Japan Airlines (JAL) had ordered 31 Airbuses and placed an option for a further 25 jets. To back the warrant, the author provided the historical information that JAL was one of the two launch customers for the Dreamliner and was loyal to Boeing. The reason why JAL turned back on Boeing is the delays and technical issues besetting the jet, such as the battery fires. The real problem for that is the electrification of fight controls, which may deter some airlines. Boeing is hoping to make up the bad influence of Japanese decision with the new version of 777, but it is hard to restore the reputation.  

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/10/airbus-wins-big-order

Oliver Killed Himself in Front of Family

I read the article, “Oliver Killed Himself in Front of Family” on Fox News website. Paul Oliver, who was a defensive back in NFL, committed suicide in front of his two young sons and wife. According to the Oliver’s wife, he was depressed over the end of his career because he hadn’t played since 2011. In addition, they had marital problems. They got into an argument on the day of the suicide. During the argument, Oliver went to the stairs to get a gun, and said, “I’m going to do it in front of you.” At that time, Oliver’s wife did not call the police because Oliver had talked about ending his life before but had never done it. However on that day, he fired a shot into the ceiling, and then shot himself in the head. The article makes a statement that several suicide cases by football players have pushed the issue of football-related brain injuries. The article claims that Oliver’s case is one of the examples of the issue of football-related brain injuries. It point out that suicides or crimes by retired football players have become a pattern nowadays, and society ignores this phenomenon. It argues that it is a serious problem that cannot be overlooked. I completely agree with the article’s opinion. Retiring may makes peoples’ lives meaningless. Most athletes retire faster than the general public. Therefore, I think that we should give them continuous concerns. The article also point out the problematics of Oliver’s suicide. The article claims that Oliver made a wrong decision even though he suffered from football-related brain injuries such as depression. They support their claim by emphasizing that he committed suicide in front of his family. I believe that people don’t have a right to commit suicide as people don’t have a right to kill somebody. Even though he had a difficult time, he gave deep hurt to his children and his wife. For whatever reason, Oliver left his family with indelible scars by killing himself.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/10/03/oliver-killed-himself-in-front-family/?intcmp=obnetwork

"Football's Concussion Problem, in 3 Terrifying Pictures" - Written on Oct. 8th, 2013

I read the Mother Jones article written from Matt Connolly titled, “Football’s Concussion Problem, in 3 Terrifying Pictures”.  The article begins by showing three images of brain tissue provided by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.   The purpose was to highlight the damages that occur to the brain upon a traumatic head injury, namely due to concussions.  The images compare the brain tissue of a normal/health brain, the tissue of a former football player and lastly an image of the tissue of a former boxer.   The images were a bit shocking as you can see the images of the football player and boxer having an excessive amount of “tau”, or as the article states, “… a protein that strangles brain cells and degenerates brain tissue” which occurs due to  repetitive damage to the brain.  The author touches on a recent PBS Frontline episode which discusses the NFL’s position on the on-going concussions within the sport of football and if the NFL should be held accountable due to hiding certain facts around the long term impact two players who incurred numerous concussions.  Long term brain damage can represent itself through a number of ways including depression, mood swings, aggression along with possible Dementia and Alzheimers to name a few.    I believe the majority of the article provides value claims beginning with the title, using expressive language in “Terrifying Pictures” and in implying that the NFL’s avoidance of this issue by withholding medical statistics/studies is wrong.  It was not outright stated however believe the entire article is based around a policy claim that the NFL, along with a number of other sports (both as a child through adult) must focus more on the long term damage to players and something needs to change.

 

Traffic Shutdown? Truck drivers plan 3-day protest on Capital Beltway

The article that I read claims that the truckers in Truckers Ride for the Constitution try to block three lanes of the Capital Beltway to demonstrate their dissatisfaction of the United States government. According to Earl Conlon, who claims to be the spokesman of this group, the group wants the arrest of congressmen who have violated their oath of office. As grounds for this claim, the drivers complain about wages, high gas prices, and the regulations of federal government on their industries. Conlon says that the truckers will stop their vehicles on the road and block three lanes of the Capital Beltway if police distracts their protest. However, it is interesting that the rebuttal for Conlon’s claim is appeared from the same group. Greg Ellis, the supporter of this protest, claims that Conlon’s claim is nothing to do with the original plan of the group. He claims that “nobody is going to try to affect an arrest on congressmen or anything like that,” and emphasizes that their plan is peaceful. Also, FoxNews.com clarifies the purpose of the event by using Peter Santilli’s value claim; “President Obama must be removed from office for crimes against the United States and all unconstitutional executive orders nullified […] how that is accomplished legally is for legal and constitutional experts to determine.”

FoxNews: Traffic Shutdown? Truck drivers plan 3-day protest on Capital Beltway

Debt Ceiling (Fox News)

This article was about an argument between republicans and democrats over raising the current debt ceiling. The republicans GOP logic was that the six-week extension of the debt ceiling would increase security while the democrats argued that the ceiling should not be raised until the partial government shutdown is uplifted. President Obama is pushing for the debt ceiling to be raised: his White House representative stated "Obama wants congress to approve a Long term spending bill and raise the debt ceiling before he will negotiate". The issue for debate is not so much the debt ceiling, but the debt limit overall. Obama claims "if the debt ceiling is not raised, important payments such as social security checks, Medicare reimbursements and military salaries could be halted". The added pressure of a November 22 deadline to decide has many administration members worried America cannot pay its bills.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/10/boehner-pitches-short-term-debt-ceiling-hike-ahead-white-house-meeting/

New Air Force cargo planes fly straight into mothballs

I read the article entitled "New Air Force cargo planes fly straight into mothballs".  The article was a fact claim stating that the fact that there are millions of dollars worth of new planes, C-27J's, that are being built but being taken directly to an "Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed 'the boneyard'" is a waste of money.  The grounds that this article used were mainly logos, as there were a lot of numbers and data used in the article.

Basically, the planes are great and would be very useful, but the Pentagon claimed that they were too much of a luxury and that the Pentagon could not afford them. The article also provides the reason as to why the construction of these planes cannot be cancelled.  According to the Air Force spokesman Darryl Mayer, "they are too near completion for a termination to be cost effective and other government agencies have requested the aircraft".  The cargo planes are important to our military, and it is wasteful for the Pentagon to decide that they can't afford them after they have already been nearly completed, so they should not just be being shipped off to Air Force bases where they will just sit there unused.

To read more on the exact numbers that were included, follow this link to read the whole article: 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/07/new-air-force-cargo-planes-fly-straight-into-mothballs/