DUE MONDAY, 12/21: Current Events Assignment
Sandra Derstine
connect events across time and to recognize significant themes.
Find a news article in an online database (approved sources
are below). Read the article thoroughly. Post a 2-paragraph
response, using the guidelines below. BE SURE TO POST A LINK TO YOUR
ARTICLE!
In Paragraph 1, summarize the article using the prompts below.
Remember that to truly understand the article, you may need to do some
side research!
• Who is the article about? Who are the major players in this
issue?
• What event/issue is this article about? Explain the facts/
opinions of your article.
• When did the story take place? Does it have anything to do with
past events or issues?
• Where is this event or issue occurring?
• Why is this event happening? Is it interconnected with anything
else that is going on or has gone on in the past? What are the events
that have preceded and influenced this?
• How is this story significant? How does this article fit in
with a study of government?
In Paragraph 2, respond to the article using one or more of the
following prompts:
• What did you find interesting about this article? What did you
learn from the article?
• What are the implications of your article for you? Your
community? The US? The world?
• What questions do you have after reading this article?
• If this is mainly an opinion article, how would you respond to
the author?
• Predict what you think may happen as this article develops.
Catherine Denis
Democrat Joseph Lieberman is the Democrat turned independent within
Congress. Many have held a grudge toward him when he supported
President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain in the views on Iraq.
However, the new issue is that he has successfully forced Democrats to
move away from their health care plan in order to sell access to
Medicare to people over 55 years of age. Now a liberal advocacy group,
called MoveOn.org, has raised 1 million dollars in order to create an
advertisement against him.
The ad really caught my eye. I was wondering if the Muppets were doing
something political. It did affect me though because I did feel a bit
annoyed with the Lieberman puppet's constant rejection. Then he
started making demands and I just laughed. This ad really made me feel
the power that he has. I mean, he can filibuster all he wants. The
magic number 60 is so close for Democrats to cloture all of that but
its hard to say if it's a reachable goal that'll come anytime soon. I
wonder how, and if, Democrats will try to pass their health plan.
n.plaetzer
Lomborg
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,665703,00.html
The article criticizes the hype of both sides, the deniers of the
global warming as well as the ultra-alarmed environmentalists. The
author points out that a positive result of the UN climate talks in
Copenhagen would not have solved the problem of a changing world
climate anyway. Moreover, he goes so far to make calculations of costs
of global warming compared to the costs of the efforts that would be
necessary to stop it.
I agree with the author so far as I do not understand the hype of the
media and neither the evaluation that the climate talks ever had the
chance to really change something. Nevertheless, I can not follow the
author in calculating the costs of the climate change: While we as
rich countries could cover the costs of making a change in
environmental matters, it is impossible for poor countries, which
would be more effected by global warming, to sustain a decent life for
their citizens. Therefore, I think we, living the “Western lifestyle”
need to be the ones who try to take the costs.
