Blog 4: Opinion Piece

ear infections suck and staying up to do this sucks :(( I NEED SLEEP!!!! anyways................


1) The End of Privacy?

I picked "The End of Privacy?" because it was the first article I saw and it seemed interesting as I began to read it. The author, who I cannot find on the page, starts off by stating that the government has not updated the privacy laws which is a big consequence to the nation. He/she talks about the importance of the federal government having access to phone calls, emails, etc, of people in order to track down crimes or other issues. The author also brings up how "warrants for wiretaps" has declined since last year by 14 percent and believes that the government needs to step up and change this. Senators have been trying to pass bills to make this change happen but according to the author, he/she believes that the Supreme Court is not supporting this issue.

Rhetorical Moves:

Description: The author clearly uses a lot of description of the issue of privacy. He/she explains how the government uses wiretapping to investigate issues and how it's been declining due to laws that are not being passed or updated due to the improvement of technology. He/she also brings up senators that have been trying to push for more laws that allow the government more access to the people's information.

Structure: The article has an ethical structure in the author's point of view. He/she believes that the government should put more work into tapping into peoples' privacy and states many reasons why with statistics and facts.



2) More Pain for the Working Poor

I picked "More Pain for the Working Poor" because it relates to the issues that my family goes through. We are low-income and every year it becomes harder for us to get benefits from the government. This made me  really mad because the owners of farms are government officials and they steal all this money that can be handed out to people that need it. The author, who I cannot find again, discusses how the House Agriculture Committee has passed a bill that will cut food aid by $16.5 billion. This denial of money to the poor will cut food stamps, cut free meals for kids at schools and put more pressure on the working poor to work harder. Apparently, the money is being handed to farms to grow more corn and soybeans rather than split the money to those that need it. The author believes that this is a bad idea and the officials should work on other issues.

Rhetorical Moves:

Description: Just like the previous article, this one has a lot of description. The author uses facts about the government cutting the budget for food stamps and how the Republics loured in Democrats to want more money invested into farms.

Tone: The tone of the author seemed sympathetic for the working poor. He/she feels bad for the poor that will no longer be able to get food stamps with many examples that he provided. In the end, he/she shows sympathy by saying "That may not be a good outcome, but it would at least delay cuts to food aid."