Blog entry 10

Powell, Corey. "Black Cloud." New York Times 26 June 2006: F7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The Article Black cloud is about the dangers of coal mining, and the dangers of burning coal. It gives examples of coal mine accidents, such as an accident that happened in Kentucky that killed five miners. He goes on to give similar examples of other mine accidents and tells about how the fines that are put on mines for these types of accidents are very low. He gives an example of a mine accident where a mine flooded and only nine of the workers survived, the company was only fined 14,000 dollars and received about 500,000 dollars from the state to help rescue the miners that were trapped inside. He also goes on to talk about Coals impact on the environment such as global warming and pollution. He advocates for awareness and a shift away from coal to other types of power such as wind and solar. I agree with him that coal can be very dangerous but I still think it is a huge part of our economy and something that we can't transition away from in the near future. Coal mining is a huge job creator and provides much of our nations energy. I think that we need to make the process safer for the miners but we can not transition away from coal right away. Rimer, Sara.

"College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs." New York Times 22 Sept. 2008: A14. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs talks about how a panel of college admissions officers led by William Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid ad Harvard, are advocating for college to stop relying so heavily on ACT, and SAT scores of high school students. They say that the current tests show difference in scores based on social class, race, and the level of education achieved by someones parents. They also say that students are spending a large amount of time trying to "Game the SATs" and this is causing disparities in the scores. They advise focusing on the grades of a student an the courses they are taking in high school to determine entrance into a university. I however disagree with this view. I think that the standardized test is a good measure of a students ability. If they base there admissions solely on grades then there could be some major differences that are not accounted for. First of all how could they account for individual teachers. Someone could have a much easier teacher than someone else in the same class, the student in the harder class would actually learn more and be more and be more prepared for college than the student in an easy class but their grades would not reflect that. Also the standardized test is fair, it is the same test for every person and does not deviate in difficulty

Douthat, Ross. "Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P." New York Times 7 Dec. 2008: WK10. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P. talks about how may people view the republicans loss as having to do with abortion when that is actually not the case. Douthat says that the pro-lifers are actually more uncompromising than you might think. He states that our perception might be mislead by the media because they only show the extreme of an issue, they show people protesting outside an abortion clinic when that is only a very small percentage of pro-life supporters and a very small minority of them. He gives examples of how the pro life campaign is starting to trend towards changing peoples views on abortion rather than changing the laws. He also says how they are willing to compromise and are adapting the pro life movement to the 21st century. I believe that abortion should only be used in the case of rape. If it was not your choice to have sex then you should not have to go through the challenges and pains of a pregnancy, but if it was your choice to have sex you should be prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be.