Commentary

I chose to critique James' blog called Unleash The Green because I share a similar view. I agree with the fact that it is a lot less dangerous than other drugs including alcohol or even legal pharmaceuticals. He states that that there was a huge marginal difference between arrests concerning marijuana and other drugs like heroin, and cocaine but did not state which one had more arrests. Some more numbers would be great maybe even how many deaths from marijuana have happened compared to other drugs. I like that he mentions there will have to be a process in regulating sales like done with tobacco and alcohol but it can be done. Overall I think he is right though its ridiculous for The United States to not legalize it when they have already seen what happen with the prohibition of alcohol.

The Death Penalty

Some people say that murder is murder no matter the circumstances, I disagree. I feel that the death penalty is a fair punishment for someone that has taken another life away or committed a crime that is so heinous no other punishment seems suitable. However since taking someones life away is such a sensitive issue it needs to be handled very carefully, I think that the jury has to reach a unanimous decision on a national level during the trial for this to be fair; otherwise they should not get the death penalty. By this I mean any state in this nation where the death penalty exists needs this requirement including that the judge should not be able to overrule the juries decision. Due to the fact that everyone should agree that the person on trial is guilty of the accused crime before taking someones life away. This will help prevent taking a innocent persons life away. 

  The judge should not be able to overrule the juries decision otherwise it would not be a fair trial which is one of our rights stated in the constitution. Alabama allows death to be decided by a single vote: that of the judge, who may override a jury verdict of life in prison and replace it with a death sentence, relegating the jury’s status to that of an advisory body. It just doesn't seem right for someone to have their life taken away by a single vote we as a nation need to take steps to prevent innocent or unfair death sentences.

Legalizing Marijuana on Indian Reservations

In the article I read in the LA Times called How legalizing marijuana on Indian reservations could end the prohibition on pot the author is trying to reach an audience of Native Americans or anyone that wants marijuana to be legalized nationally. He talks about how marijuana should be legalized on Native American reservations due to the fact they should have the same rights as states.He also says that if this happens it could potentially end the prohibition of marijuana nationally. The author claims this due to the fact that there are states that have not made the use of marijuana legal yet, but would have reservations within the state distributing marijuana legally.
The author succeeded in making a credible article in my opinion because he did things like using statistics and specific examples. For example he states "There are more than 300 reservations in some 30 states."(cavanaugh,P2). With that many reservations in 30 of our states I would have to agree that if this law was passed it would be difficult for the feds to keep marijuana illegal nationally due to the large increase of accessibility. The author also states "Indian lands are sovereign nations and should get equal or more deferential treatment than the states."  I have to agree with this as well many Native American reservations already have their own laws put in place due to the fact they are sovereign nations. So it only seems fair to me that on the reservations the Native Americans should be allowed to decide whether it is legal or not if it has already been made legal in other states in the nation.
On the other hand I think the author contrasted his opinion when he said "In some parts of the country it could be easier to legally buy pot than get an abortion." I believe that this was a poor comparison and I could see how it would throw the reader off.
  Overall at the end of the article I agree that since the Native American nations are sovereign nations they should have the right to decided if they want to legalize it. I also agree that it would increase the access of marijuana nationally. I also think that the author should of given more positive examples of the legalization of marijuana being decided by the reservations instead of contrasting his own opinion in the article.

Health Care in America

In an article on L.A. Times called Do people really overuse healthcare when it's free? Michael Hiltzik argues whether or not free healthcare is a good thing. In a graph that shows total healthcare expenditure per capita in 2010 for selected countries even though America does not give free healthcare we are still spending the most at $7,910. Where as there are countries that provide government-funded universal healthcare like Canada at $4,285 and Britain at $3,253 who are spending much less. An economist named Steven D. Levitt says in the article that "It doesn’t take a whole lot of smarts or a whole lot of blind faith in markets to recognize that when you don’t charge people for things (including health care), they will consume too much of it." While that does seem true you still have to put other factors in to account such as with families that have high deductible plans. They probably won't spend money on small but important preventative treatments like mammographies, cervical cancer screenings, or even blood test to check glucose and cholesterol levels for things like diabetes. They may save money at the moment but in the long run they could end up becoming very ill and then having to go spend money on very expensive treatments. Just because healthcare is free doesn't mean people are going to be running into the hospitals asking to get chemo treatment. Your thought process is a little bit different when deciding to spend money on a car for example as to when your deciding on whether or not to spend money on a treatment that may save your life. I think this was a great article to read even though I am not particularly intrigued by politics just because it gives great examples of how bad our healthcare is and why a government-funded universal healthcare could be a good thing.