The Complete U-Turn of Senator Portman

With the upcoming discussion on gay marriage in the supreme court, much controversy has surrounded the topic. It appears that the shift towards marriage equality has occurred very rapidly, and many politicians are jumping their original stance on the issue in support of gay marriage. One such person to jump ship was senator portman. The following cartoon serves to show how this actually ended up happening and states the irony in his situation. Portman has a son who came out to him as gay, and he cites that as the reason for his transition on the stance:

Source: http://www.cagle.com/news/gay-marriage-2013/page/35/#.UVxjaavwK9I

But under it all, Portman is still a conservative who needs to appeal to his conservative platform. The author juxtaposes Portman's stance on "family values" against his son's obvious support of gay marriage. The author makes it a point though to portray Portman as a politician and makes it obvious that politics gets in the way of his situation. The expression on the son is far more enthusiastic, whereas Portman looks like he is almost faking his support of his son. The use of juxtaposition in this cartoon is very strong and effective and works well in explaining the ironic predicament that Portman is in and the contradictions of his stance. 

Innocent, But Paying for The Crime

In a country built off of the belief of innocent until proven guilty, it seems that quite the opposite is happening in a Texas case. In 1988, Ben Spencer was convicted for murder and robbery. Later, it would be concluded that the testimony which had led to his conviction was false. The judge at the time said that his conviction should be overturned. But it was not. Instead, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said that there must be evidence presented against his conviction in order for an appeal to be considered. In a case where the conviction appears to be unfounded and without evidence, it is quite contradictory to our national belief in "innocent until proven guilty". This NYT article written by Brandi Grissom describes the case of Ben Spencer and calls attention to the ridiculousness of the fact that his case has gone unnoticed and remained dormant. Grissom presents the article in what seems to be a neutral tone, but in doing so still is able to persuade the reader that Spencer deserves justice. Accompanying the article is a picture of a man who is in the distance and covered in darkness. It is used to illustrate the exact spot and distance where Spencer was claimed to be seen committing the act. By including this picture, the reader can really see how unfounded the evidence really is. This picture was essential for the reader to understand the problem that Grissom is describing. If the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has any sense of logic, it is only a matter of time that Grissom is finally exonerated, otherwise our justice system is truly broken.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/us/declared-innocent-in-a-killing-but-still-behind-bars.html?src=recg

The instability of stocks: no longer able to fail?

"Too big too fail", a term which has been used over and over again to describe how banks have developed and been propped up by the government. They have been made failsafe to keep the economy stable. This article from the LA Times by Tom Petruno argues that the same phenomenon is occurring with the typically unstable stock market. The government continues to pump money from the federal reserve into the stock market, thereby making the market "bullish". The author also argues that should the market crash again like it has in the past, there really would not be the same level of economic destruction which has occurred in the past. Petruno presented a great deal of statistics and looked back at trends from the 2009 market crash and also presented numbers which showed the bullish stability of the current market. Although this topic would typically appear to be dull to present, Petruno takes some creative liberties and attempts to say things in a manner which keeps the reader's attention, such as quoting the typical responses of stock brokers when the market falls; "Depression!". This style keeps the reader's attention to a topic which can be boring to present, while at the same time getting his point across. It is interesting to see how the government tries to prevent further economic collapse, especially considering how every fix that our government makes seems to be a small little patch which is eventually bound to fail.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0303-bull-market-20130303,0,7845800.story