Literacy Blog #10:

Article: http://www.reuters.com

The reason for President Obama creating Obamacare was to in the end make sure that the people did not have lose coverage between them and their healthcare providers. I think the reason for people not trusting the government is because we don't exactly know what goes on in the government as much as us Americans citizens should. They tend to keep things private from citizens and out of the public eye, and some of us see that as being real shady.

Insurers not paying for healthcare, will probably get the same care backed up by any other person. As said in the article they are suppose to inform their customers about their options and helping them to enroll them. Health care is not only provided by insurance companies but also the American Health Insurance Plan.

I'm pretty sure that buying Health care directly and buying insured health care Health care is the actual supplying of medical treatment to patients--tests, diagnoses, prescriptions, nursing care, and so forth. Health insurance is a means of paying for it over time, we pay into a fund even while we are well so that when we get sick there is money to pay for our care. I think that if the government calls for taxes and pays for everyone wouldn't have the same freedom, because they wouldn't be making their own decisions, the government would be. Obama said, "Remember, before the Affordable Care Act, these bad-apple insurers had free rein every single year to limit the care that you received, or used minor pre-existing conditions to jack up your premiums, or bill you into bankruptcy."

I do not believe that the president should be untruthful to the public. It is our right and freedom to be aware what our country is up to, especially if it concerns our health. I may not know a lot about politics, and I don't find this subject the most interesting, but I do thing we should be able to know what America is doing.

Literacy Blog #9: Dogs Are People, Too

The reason for some scientist trying to dismiss questions about what animals think and feel is because dogs don't have some of the actions that humans have, such as talking. As said in the article "You can’t ask a dog why he does something. And you certainly can’t ask him how he feels. The prospect of ferreting out animal emotions scares many scientists." Does an MRI tell us the content of someone’s thoughts or feelings? I do believe that dogs do share some of the same emotions that are present in humans. For example, when a master comes home from work, the dog may show excitement by wagging its tail in joy. MRI's don't necessarily show a persons thoughts, but it does show the internal state of the brain. Different emotions trigger different parts of the brain, showing that dogs do have different emotions It is Berns right to say that the law treats dogs as things because it is his opinion and he has a right to express it. On the other hand I don't exactly agree with him, because I have always thought that dogs were apart of a family. I treat my dog as just another member and not as a thing that are playthings for humans. It would be wrong to treat humans like they do dogs being we are the dominant species and I would be weird the other way around. Dogs don’t have opposable thumbs, they don’t talk, they don’t have as clever minds as humans do, so I don’t see how humans could ever be treated as a lesser being. I mean dogs are animals, they don’t do the same things as humans, although they have similar emotions, doesn’t replace their right to be treated higher than a person. If our world does come to a time where dogs somehow gain the ability to think and act like people, then we should be scared because an animal talking is crazy!

Literacy Blog #8

Athlete suspended for driving friend

I would have probably done the exact same in Erin's situation. The reason for this being is because I wouldn't just abandon my drunk friend, that would leave them in a dangerous situation of getting in a car accident. On the other hand it would also be a smart idea to not drive them home. Alternatives would be to just call their parents or just let the police handle it.  I think this decision will affect her future colleges she wishes to go to. This incident  will be on her record, and colleges don't want to see things like that, so it will make it harder for her to get in. The principle regarding alcohol that schools are trying to stand for is "Teen drinking is a serious problem." as stated in the article. Yes, I do agree that teen drinking is a serious matter, but someone who is not under the influence of alcohol should not be submitted to this kind of punishment. I think the reason that schools are getting involved in the efforts to prevent teen drinking is because if students are found drinking then schools should take away things that are dear to them, just like Erin was "suspended for five games and stripped of her captaincy." She was the captain of her team and they took that away from her. She wasn't drinking though, and that's why I think the school went a little overboard with that. As said in the article the school sent out a "dangerous message -- that young people are better off letting their friends drive drunk..."  I think the reason they suspended her was because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and they suspected the worst outcome. I do think my school would suspend me if I were found at a party of drunks, even though I never took one sip, it just matter that you were there you can still get blamed. Erin was doing the right thing, but it were others who over thought the situation. 

Link to article: http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/id/9826842/high-school-athlete-massachusetts-suspended-driving-drunk-friend

Literacy Blog #7



Pencil and Paper
2006
Link
 

Based on the evidence from the atricle I can see that the SAT can be useful for college in the furture, but on the other hand it is giving students a hard time to actually write well in this SAT. The article stated, "No scratch paper is provided for outlining or essay planning." It made me think that they are really limiting us to our best abilties with a short amount of time. They actually say that "the best approach is to just make stuff up.", so I guess they don't care what we have to say. We just put whatever and they grade based off of our vobaulary skills, not on the accuracy of the information. Also, when the article stated that graders basically don't "do anything more than skim an essay before making a grading determination." It shocked me becasue we could write anything in the that essay, and they could just run over it without noticing.




Dipper writing stuff
3/4/2012
Link

The best way for the SAT's writing evaluation to be accuratley judged would be to take out the skimming grading proccess. It might take longer to grade and read over a bunch of SAT's, but in the long run it will give the fair results that some of the students need. They also need to focus more on the writing ablility and what the writers are actually trying to prove or disprove. If they ask a question about themselves that is personal, I guess that they can't actually ask them if it were true, but the content has to be relavent to the topic.

After this article I don't think I would be prepared to even look at the writing SAT. Now that I know, I can further my writing abilities and practice for when the time comes. I might need to spiff up my vocabulary a bit, time myself when given a topic to write about, and try to use my time wisely. I think teachers should give their students a few pointers in the classroom to make them more prepared.

Here is the Link: http://kellygallagher.org/resources/AoW%201314_8%20SAT%20Writing.pdf