Well...

The author of this article, Let a Thousand Licensed Poppies Bloom, does a really good job of making an effective argument. Even the title gets my attention, which I think is the first time EVER any article we've read has accomplished that. Mad, mad props. The author has a very well thought-out argument. She appeals to all three corners of the rhetorical triangle, ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos and logos through relevant and sufficient (once again I revert back to that one stinkin' article that cited a poll of four mothers...) statistics. However, she does not go overboard and drown you in numbers and pie charts, which I can tell you from experience, via diversity day, via the speaker who spoke immediately before lunch, is not a good way to hold an audience's collective attention. (Although, to be fair, the scent of pizza wafting through the air probably didn't help either.) She then appeals to the readers pathos by talking about the people around the world suffering from AIDS and cancer who can't receive pain medications that work well, because those that would work are in fact outlawed. In all, its a very well written, very effective piece that not even the scent of pizza could distract me from. Ok, well maybe.