What are the positive's and negative's of smoking?

Tyler Milligan

Mrs. Erin Franken

English 111

February 10, 2014

Free Choice Blog

                In thinking of a topic to write about for my free choice blog the other night the news announced that CVS stores would be no longer selling cigarettes to their customers so I came up with a question and topic for argument. Do cigarettes have any positive effects and the negative effects if they are truly bad for you? Re- searching my topic I came upon an article stating five positive impacts on a person which the first one is smoking lowers risk of knee replacement surgery with surprising results from a new study have revealed that men who smoke had less risk of undergoing total joint replacement surgery than those who never smoke. Another positive benefit is smoking lowers the risk of Parkinson’s disease with long- term smokers are somehow protected against Parkinson’s it’s not because smokers die of other thing earlier, another positive impact is smoking lowers risk of obesity the relationship between smoking and weight control is very complex: Nicotine itself acts as both a stimulant and appetite suppressant; and the act of smoking triggers behavior modification that prompts smokers to snack less. The fourth positive impact is smoking lowers risk of death after some heart attacks so the theory behind this is after therapies smokers are younger when they have their first heart attack approximately ten years before the non smoker. The last positive impact is smoking helps the heart drug clopidogrel work better the drug is used to inhibit blood clots from people suffering from coronary artery disease and other circulatory diseases leading to strokes and heart attacks. Smoking seems to help dopidogrel do its job better these are the positive effects moving on to the negative effects there is a lot there is a report seven thousand chemicals in a single cigarette with two- hundred fifty of them are very harmful including cyanide, carbon monoxide, and ammonia out of the two- hundred fifty at least sixty nine can cause cancer like arsenic, benzene, nickel, and vinyl chloride. Smoking can develop many diseases including cancer of the lungs, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, stomach and cervix. In this case my opinion the negatives outweigh the positives by a huge margin that’s why I will never smoke a cigarette so next time you think it’s cool to smoke just think of the negatives and possible cancer that could develop.

How Hip- Hop Music Lost It's Way and Betrayed It's Fans

Tyler Milligan

Mrs. Franken

English 111

February 4th, 2014

In my text opinion blog I found an interesting article "How Hip- Hop Music Lost It's Way and Betrayed Its Fans". Many African- American teenagers grow up on Hip Hop and Rap music but this genre of music is dangerous it's especially troubling against the past in the 90's, when rappers provoked a real- world gang war with using songs and music videos to insult their rivals. In my opinion tow of the biggest rap stars Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were shot and killed because of the genre of music they were in. These events could have been avoided if the recording labels didn't exploit violence just to make money. I feel if these events didn't happen we would still have two of the greatest rappers would still be living. One of the most controversial rappers is 50 Cent also know as Curtis Jackson he was highly criticized for remarks on when he was a drug dealer in the Bronx when he was younger and was shot multiple times and he used that to insult the people who shot him with the lyrics he wrote. Over time Rap and hip Hop stars get way out of hand talking about drugs, girls, money, and violence now kids these days listen to this music are involved in gangs and more innocent kids are getting shot for no reason. But the Hip- Hop industry claims no responsibility for the violence. In conclusion these rap stars need to find new creative things to rap about instead of all negative thins so hopefully all these shootings and gangs stop turning to violence.

Free Entry- Conceal and Carry

For my free choice blog entry I decided to share my opinion on a new Illinois Law which is the conceal & carry allowing citizens to conceal and carry a gun on them at all times for self- protection. This topic has alot of controversy with it because of all the shooting at malls, places where alot of people go when sick individuals obtain a gun and start shooting injuring and killing people for no reason. Regular citizens should have a big impact on this law helping politicians establish a fair, legal, and makes people know only the right mentally stable people with background checks and psychological test of the person applying for the permit. My position on this idea is leaning more towards passing the law because with all these sick individuals shooting in schools, and big public places people with a permit would have the chance to rightfully terminate the threat and save many lives also people who feel they need self defense maybe because of highly valuable possessions in their home they have the ability to defend those if anyone tries to steal them. People have their own opinions on this idea thinking what if the person with the permit goes insane and shoots a high amount of people that's when it gets complicated on how law enforcement and government agencies could stricken the requirements more and make the individual undergo multiple evaluations. In conclusion I know this law has passed in Illinois now tons of training classes are available for people to take with 8 hours of range training and 8 hours of classroom training to pass the first step of the application process.