Op-Ed contributor Bob Barr writes about how a possibly innocent man (Tony Davis) may be in fact executed for the murder of an off-duty police officer in Savannah, Ga, in 1989. Lower level courts may in fact convict him on the basis of 7 of the 9 witnesses have proclaimed him guilty. The hard part about this case is that there is nothing else to turn to. Because there is no weapon, DNA or video surveillance to back up this case, Mr. Davis’s life rests solely on the accounts of a few witnesses. Barr also adds that some of these witnesses later admit to being pressured into testifying! One lady says that since she was on parole, she did not want to make the officers resent her for not testifying against Mr. Davis. If she did not testify, she felt they would take her back to jail. Barr states many times that the United States Senate MUST take up this case to protect justice and the rights of the Constitution.
I completely agree with Mr. Barr but I will go further than he may be capable as a writer for the New York Times. In today’s world, corruption has struck many places. We as a nation try to believe that the US is free from this but it is obviously not true. It is unacceptable for a possibly innocent man to die because of the anger of other police officers. Yes they are mad because of the loss, but they can not take their authority to far. In this situation, it seems that because the officers feel they are so close to “even up” for the death of their colleague that they break a few rules to see it finished. In today’s legal system where the motives of attorneys seem debatable, the last thing this country needs is a biased police force. Policemen should be held to the highest standard because they are the first line of defense. They have the most opportunities to break the rules and if they as a whole are not the most dependable, our legal situation will continue to get worse.

Forests and the Planet

Forests and the Planet are huge concerns on many minds now days. The writer of this article explains how we are not doing enough to help the world. “An estimated 30 million acres of rain forest disappear every year, destroying biodiversity and pouring billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.” Global warming is becoming more and more dangerous as we do less and less to take care of the world. The writer also explains how we are generating all this gas and pollution from our cars and trucks, and it is too much for our Earth to handle. The bill for global warming is $60 billion every year. We need to take the extra effort and take responsibility for our actions.

On the contrary, I believe in some parts of the world, people are taking initiative to make the world a better place. I recently visited Puerto Rico and there I found my counter example. We went to a rain forest and our tour guide told us that next year, they will be building a parking lot before entering the rain forest. The reason for that is because many plants are dying due to cars and their gas. If a parking lot is built before entering the rain forest, many plants are able to be healthy and live longer. But I do agree with the author of the article. We cannot just have one part of the world doing all the work. We all are the reason the Earth is struggling to survive, and we need to help it.

Jon and Kate's Mistake

An opinion- editorial writer for The New York Times Gail Collins focuses on the downfalls of fertility treatments and reality shows about day-to-day lives of any family in her article. She uses the Gosselin family-most well known for their show “Jon & Kate plus Eight”- as a prime example of the effects of fertility treatments and reality shows. She explains that the viewers of these shows are drawn in to see how something will workout-in the Gosselins’ case: having sextuplets and twins. I am in full agreement with Collins when she states that these families who put themselves out there like that are not allowed to complain about the downside.

Collins uses examples of previous cases that did not work out as a sign to others the negative side of reality. She expands on Jon and Kate’s situation with the media to back up her argument of reality shows and fertility treatments being two of the new millennium’s 10 worst ideas. Collins uses a “you got what you were asking for” view when writing this article instead of choosing a side or trying to stick up for the family. At the end of the article Collins reassures the Gosselins that they will keep a place in history by having a spot in list of Ten Worst Multiple-Birth-Reality-Show-Meltdowns-of-the-Millennium.

Hey CLASS!

is this thing on???

Opinion-Editorial Response

The New York Times opinion-editorial columnist Ross Douthat claims that in the past three decades the average female happiness rate has dropped dramatically. Douthat bases his ideas off of a paper that was written by two economists, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, and titled “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”. Stevenson and Wolfers’ paper explores the role of the modern woman and how women’s relatively new position in society is negatively affecting the state of female happiness. Douthat quotes from “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” throughout his column in order to enforce his argument that changes in the American society within the past thirty years have placed more responsibility upon women and forced them to suffer.


Douthat states that during their study, Wolfer and Stevenson measured current female happiness and compared it to the happiness of the past generation of women. However, he does not find it important to inform the reader on how the economists gathered the information. How were Wolfer and Stevenson able to measure current happiness? There is no scale for calculating how happy mankind is! Their data most likely consisted of a series of questions, but how do they know that participants answered truthfully? How do the researches know that they did not interview women who were simply having a bad day? In addition, the studies of current happiness levels and those of thirty years ago were not conducted by the same researchers or even with the same method. The measurement of the modern woman’s happiness has a monstrous margin for error, making it unwise for Douthat to hold Wolfer and Stevenson’s study in high regard.

Just so everyone knows, I asked Cecily to make that last post to see if the blog was working, and I made her write those things to inflate my ego.

-Mr. Glenn