Why get arrested for small amounts of marijuana?

The article "Marijuana law just creates criminals," talks about the injustice of arrest of people with small amounts of marijuana. The author, Hakeem Jeffries, stated that the majority of these people are black and latino. Jeffries said that in New york, this law was dropped. Meaning that if you have a small amount of marijuana, you won't go to jail. However, New York police do something called "stop and frisk." This allows the police to stop anyone they want and tell them to empty their pockets. Now, if the person has marijuana, it's seen, and the police can arrest them, even if it's a small amount.

Jeffries also stated that this is unfair due to the people they frisk. He said that a lot of white young people have a large possession of marijuana, but the police rarely check them. This is bad because, now they have a lower chance in doing anything in life. Their lives basically "spiral downward," Jeffries said. He said that possession of marijuana is a crrime, or is not a crime, but it can't be bad for one group, and okay for another.

In my opinion, I totally agree with Jeffires. I mean, to me, marijuana is terrible, but if you're going to have a small possession, why is it a huge crime? If it's going to be a crime, then it needs to be a crime to everyone, not just a certain group. Crimes are supposed to be illegal to everyone, not just a specific group of people.

Also, I don't think the police should just go around frisking people. Unless you have a search warrant, I don't want you frisking me. I don't care if I have marijuana or not, it's just not polite to frisk people all willy-nilly. That's just how I feel.

Jovan Belcher, Cheifs football player, dead with girlfriend

In the article "Tradegy in KC," the author brings to light the death of Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend. The article states that Jovan first shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, then shot himself. The way it went down, however, was tragic.

According to the article, Belcher first shot his girlfriend, with whom he had a 3-month daughter with. Then, he went to his home stadium. He was saying his final goodbyes to his coach. With suspicions, the coaches called the cops. Just as the cops arrived, Belcher shot himself in the head; in front of everyone in sight.

This story has many different ways to look at it. I heard that he and his girlfriend had just came back from a Trey Songz concert, and that she was pverly hype over Trey, so Jovan shot her. Then he didn't want to go to jail for life, so he shot himself. However, he may have been going through a rough time, and just went crazy. He shot his girlfriend, then shot himself. What makes it worse is that now their baby doesn't have any parents. He also could have been just a murderer and shot his girl, and didn't want to do life in jail. Either way you put it, the sotry is just a tradegy.

When I first heard about this, I didn't even know he had a daughter. Her exsistence makes this whole thing a different situation. She has to grow up with no parents. She's too young to even remember them. It's just so sad. I apologize to the short length of this blog, but there's not much to say about it. It was tragic

New Information On Casey Anthony's Murder Case

In the article "Evidence missed in Fla. girl's case," the author (doesn't say) talks about the missed information that was missed during Casey Anthony's trial. They have found that the day Caylee, Casey's daughter, went missing, there was a computer search on "fool-proof suffication," evidently spelling suffocation wrong. After this was searched, the person clicked on an article that talked about suicide that involved posion and putting a bag over someone's head. The history of the browser then recorded that this person got on MySpace, which was Casey's, not her father's.

This evidence came out before the trial began, but no one said anything. Everyone assumed that the father had searched it, wanting to kill himself after Caylee drowned.

But, not knowing about this, everyone thought that Caylee was poisoned with chloroform and then suffocated by duct tape being placed on her nose and mouth. They could have found out the truth, but Caylee's body was too decomposed to do an autopsy.

Of course, everyone wished they had this information sooner, but it's too late...

In my opinion, I truly don't care. Whatever happened, happened. She deserves a private case like anyone else in the world. I'm minding my business. Do I think she's wrong? I don't know. I don't know the entire story to make a decision. But, in all reality, she's human. The media needs to leave this case alone. It happened four years ago, and she already pleaded guilty. She's guilty. No evidence can help her get out of jail. Oh well. That's her fault.

Sorry I don't have a lot of opinion, but that's really how I feel

Mixed Emotions To The President's Re-election

The article "Yay! Boo! So? Reactions to Obama win vary" talks about the different emotions shared about President Obama's re-election. Different people felt different ways. Some people felt happy, some people felt angry, while others were in the middle.

"I'm a little bit disappointed," Marty Brenna, 49, said, "I wasn't really happy with either candidate." According to Marty, Obama ran a better campaign, therefore his voting turnout was higher.

However, Barbara Drucker, who is 61 says, "I'm thrilled to death. I would never have voted for Romney on women's issues alone." Barbara feels that because Obama killed Osama Bin Laden, and saved the auto industry, that's how he got 4 more years.

"I'm not happy. I haven't had a job in over a year," Chuck Rihl, 51, said. Clearly, he is angry about the entire situation.

"In contrary to what these 3 people said, Lisa Pierce, a 30 year old, says, "I'm pretty indiffernet. Either way, they need to get their act together." Pierce didn't vote, and we can clearly see why. She believes that the politicians are out of touch with the "real-world" issues.

That's just a few of the comments from the article, but most people felt like this. Either they were happy, angry, or they just didn't care for either one of them.

I'm ecstatic about Obama getting 4 more years. I feel that he is trying his best to make a change. The people that are angry about his second term are clearly not understanding. Obama promised change, and we are getting just the change we need. It's just that some people are too blind to see that the world is changing.

Also, I think that people think Barack is a robot that can do multiple things at once. HE IS HUMAN!!!! Change isn't going to come over night, and I think that's where some people think. They think that Obama is supposed to change the world over night. It's going to be hard to do that, because of the president before him. If it weren't for Obama's first election, I think we would all be underwater. However, Obama did his best to change it, and he succeeded.

Is the world perfect, and doesn't need more change? No! But I feel that we can't push all of our problems on Obama. If we want a change, then we need to help him make that change. In his speech, he clearly says "Yes We Can!" That "We" is not just him, Michelle, and the two girls. The "WE" is for all of us. The "WE" is for the United States of America to help Barack Obama make the change we want. So I guess the main question is, "Do we really want change?" Because if we did, then would not be crying and being angry, we would do the little things to help Obama. But the change first starts in us.

Hurricane Sandy Brings Climate Changes to Light

In the article "Will Climate Change Get Some Respect Now?" Nicholas D. Kristof brings to light the climate changes that are happening in the world today.

The article states that, because Hurricane Sandy came, it brought to light this one question: "Isn't it time to talk not only about weather, but also about climate?"

"You can't say any one single event is reflective of a climate change," William Solecki said. Kristof even said that not every storm is caused because of a climate change. "But it's illustrative of the conditions and events and scenarios that we expect with climate change." Solecki added. With that being said, the article states that Sandy may not have been caused due to a climate change, but whatever it was, the storm is opening many eyes to climate changes.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is from New York, said he recently told Obama "we have a 100-year flood every two years now." The article says that this is actually true. Therefore, the article encourages you to brace yourself for a few reasons:

1- Hurricanes are formed when the ocean is warm, and the warmth is their fuel. This summer, the Atlantic waters were at a record high temperature. Most of this was natural, and some of it was due to human-created climate changes.

2- According to computer models, hurricanes won't happen more often, or more frequently, but they might become more stronger. "The intensity of these storms is most likely to increase in this century," the Untited States Global Change Research Program says.

3- Because climate changes add moisture to the atmosphere, there is a strong possiblilty that the storms may come with more rain and flooding.

4- Sandy was destructive because it couldn't move back out to sea by a "blocking pattern." A recent study said that melting sea ice from the Artic may be the cause of the blocking.

Yes, politicians dropped the situation of climate changes, but so have those in the news business. The article says that, "the number of articles about climate change fell by 41 percent from 2009-2011, according to DailyClimate.org."

There aren't easy solutions to fix the climate change, but we can do a few things. We especially need stronger FEMA. (because we need stronger FEMA, this makes Romney's suggestions to privitize it dumb.)

At first, I didn't even know what a climate change was. But, I looked it up, and it found out what it meant. So, I feel that we as a people need to understand that climate changes are no joke. We could really be affected by them if we don't watch out for them. I didn't even know that climate changes were that serious, but, according to this article, they truly are. I don't know why we have climate changes, the article didn't really make that clear. But, I do know that we need to help stop them. However, 1 person can' make this happen. I'd need the whole world to help. From politicians, all the way down to homeless people. We all need to help stop these changes




 

Teenage Texting...Taking a Bad Toll???

The article "Texting May Be Taking a Toll," Katie Hafner explores the issue of teenage texting, and the problems that it is creating.

With texting becomming so popular, physicians and psychologists are becomming worried. They say that texting is leading to anxiety, school distractions, bad grades, thumb injuries, and bad sleep.

Dr. Martin Joffe surveyed students at 2 high schools. He saw that the teenagers were sending hundreds of messages every day. "That's one every few minutes," he said. "Then you hear that these kids are responding to texts late at night. That's going to cause sleep issues in an age group that's already plagues with sleep issues."

Because texting is something that goes on constantly, more like everyday, psychologists have not come to a conclusion on the health effects of texting. However, Sherry Turkle who is a psychologist, studied teenage texting, and she said that it might be changing the way we grow up.

"Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be," Professor Turkle said. "Texting hits directly at both those jobs."

Doctors expect teenagers to break away from parents, "but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that's harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers every 15 times a day, asking things like, 'Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?'" Professor Turkle added.

However, Michael Hausauer feels that "Texting can be an enormous tool. It offers companionship and the promise of connectedness. At the same time, texting can make a youngster feel frightened and overly exposed."

In my opinion, I'm kind of in the middle. Do teens do a lot of texting? Yes. However, sometimes the texting is beneficial. More than likely, you will find a teenagers whereever you go texting, whether it be a friend, girlfriend,  boyfriend or parent. There is nothing wrong with texting, except for the amount of texting we do. However, you never know who we are texting. We could be texting our mother to tell her about some changes in school, or we could even be texting our friends to talk about a major crisis. Adults' problem, in my eyes, is that they can't really understand teenagers for who they are. Texting is just like Ray Bans, and skinny jeans; a trend. The only difference is, it doesn't get old.

Now, you should take the time right now and think; if I was put in the situation my child is in, how would the teenage me react?

Texting is a trend that everyone is doing. If you are not doing it, your "so many years ago." Think about it....

A.D.H.D. Pills Given to Help Students In School

In the article "Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School," Alan Schwarz brings to light the use of pills that help children in school, even if they don't have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D. for short.

According to the article, Dr. Michael Anderson gives his patients, who aren't doing so well in school, a pill called Adderall. The pill is supposed to give the children more focus and control while in school. Dr. Anderson makes the diagnosis, but he just uses it as an excuse to give the children the medicine. The article states that he gives it to children because of their academic struggles in school.

Dr. Anderson, who is a pediatrician for the poor families in Cherokee County, said "I don't have a whole lot of choice. We've decided as a society that it's too expensive to change the kid's environment. So we have to change the kid."

He, and a few other physicians are giving different children, who aren't doing well in school, this medince. Not just for A.D.H.D., but to help them do better in school.

Experts say that children who already are good in school still use the pill, but the physicians who are on this, only give it to struggling students. "People who are getting A's and B's, I won't give it to them," Dr. Anderson said.

After reading this article, my opinion stayed the same; I don't think that this pill should be given. In the beginning of the article, it stated that Dr. Anderson uses A.D.H.D. as an excuse to give the pill. In toher words, he's diagnosing kids with a disorder that they probably don't have. Also, I feel that pills like these can get really addicting. When they get addicting, some people can become suicidal, see things, and even go crazy. The article didn't even state the side effects. Therefore, my opinion has not changed.

iPad Before Bed = Bad Sleep

The article "Using iPads Before Bed ‘Can Lead to a Poor Night’s Sleep’" by Stephen Adams  is about how using your tablet or iPad, right before you go to sleep, can cause you to have a bad night's sleep.

The article says that a lot of people are beginning to get on their tablet or iPad to do last minute things, such as checking Facebook or their email right before they go to sleep. Researchers, however, are saying that the blueish light the tablet gives is stopping people to get a good night's sleep. Why? This light mimics the daylight, and it confuses our brain into thinking that is it is still daytime.

According to the article, any light can make it hard to sleep, but this blue light has shorter wavelengths, and it suppresses nocturnal melatonin. In other words, the brighter that this light is, the harder it is to fall asleep.

The article states that neurologists already knew that exposure to bright lights before sleep will make it harder to sleep; whether it be a computer screen, phone screen, or a television screen. However, the article says that because cell phones, tablets, and iPads are portable, they are now being taken into the bedroom. Researchers also say that people hold these devices closer to there eyes than they would a television or computer.

Researchers at the Lighting Research Center, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York say "Looking at tablet for more than two hours leads to a suppression of our natural melatonin levels as the devices emit optical radiation at short wavelengths."

Personally, I feel like people do spend more time on their tablet, or iPad, more than they should; especially before bed time. It's a nice thing that the researchers are trying to warn people to stop using it right before bed, but not all people will listen. That will be their fault. But in my opinion, I feel like the light shouldn't be used if it causes sleeping problems. That's just how I feel about it.













 

Cheating Made Easy

The article, "Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception," by Richard Perez-Pena, is about how cheating has been going on in many different high schools and colleges.

The article also states that the cheating that's going on is not all the students' fault. Donald L. McCabe says "I don't think there's any question that students have become more competitive, under more pressure, and, as a result, tend to excuse themselves and other students, and that's allowed by the adults around them." Mr. McCabe is a leading researcher on cheating.

"When you start giving take-home exams and telling kids not to talk about it, or you let them carry smartphones into tests, it's an invitation to cheating," said Michael Josephson, the president of Josephson Institute of Ethics. Harvard's situation involved a take-home final exam. The university hasn't had an hearing yet, but this case may take months to solve.

On top of all of this, experts are saying that parents are also the blame. It states that "1960s, parenting has shifted away from emphasizing obedience, honor and respect for authority to promiting children's happiness while encouraging their ambitions for material success."

"We have a culture now where we have real trouble accepting that our kids make mistakes and fail, and when they do, we tend to blame someone else," said Tricia Bertram Gallant. "Thirty, fourty years ago, the parent would come in and grab the kid by the ear, yell at him, and drag him home."

This simply means that times are changing. Back in the day, children knew that cheating was wrong, and wouldn't even think about cheating. Now, however, children don't even find cheating as a major offense. I think that if parents would stop trying to be friends with their children, and would actually put their foot down about something, then the cheating would stop.

I also think that if teachers would teach a little differently, that the students wouldn't have to cheat.

The overall question is "how bad do they want it?