TASK DEFINITION: Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
PROBLEM: State of the Union: Advice for Joni Ernst. Here's a suggestion for Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa , who will deliver the GOP response to the State of the Union address Tuesday night . Get a chorus together and open with this old Sammy Cahn-Jule Styne number:"It seems to me I've heard that song before; it's from an old familiar score, I know it well, that melody." Advance leaks of the president's address indicate he will call for higher taxes on the wealthy and successful in order to pay for programs for the poor and middle class . This is boilerplate Democratic wealth redistribution we've heard since New Deal days , which appeals more to emotions than it does to principles with a long history of success . Since the advent of modern "anti-poverty" programs 50 years ago, according to an analysis by The Heritage Foundation, "U.S  taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs." And yet the poverty rate remains essentially unchanged . One might conclude then that if you've spent 50 years and $22 trillion trying without success to fix something , perhaps you're doing it wrong and should try a different approach . If the goal is more successful people who can take care of themselves , incentives must be put in place to encourage people to make right decisions . First on any anti-poverty help-the-middle-class list must be a stable family life . A two-parent home where adults love and are committed to each other and in which their children feel loved creates a climate in which moral and economic values like hard work, self-control, personal responsibility and accountability flourish . To help achieve this, parents must be educated and they must have jobs . Government can make this easier by reforming the tax code to remove the "marriage penalty," which in too many instances charges higher taxes to married couples than to singles, and increasing the exemption deductible for children, which might make it possible for one parent to stay home with young children; allow college tuition to be deductible to incentivize more people to obtain a college education and ease their debt upon graduation . Better yet, scrap the tax code entirely and replace it with a flat tax or consumption tax that allows people to save, invest and spend more of the money they earn . Economically, there must be a change in attitude from working to pay bills, to working to build wealth . Bills, like the poor, we will always have with us, but in building wealth one moves toward independence and personal satisfaction that pays dividends in liberty and personal choice . Government should also make it easier for people to move in pursuit of new opportunities . My late grandfather worked for the B and O Railroad for 50 years . He retired with a pension, a gold-plated watch and a lifetime train pass . Those days are long gone . People need to be ready to move to places in pursuit of opportunities that can bring economic and career growth . Earning more produces more in taxable income and more income means more tax money for federal and state treasuries . My wife and I have moved eight times (so far) and each move provided new opportunities, more experience and eventually higher incomes . Here's another suggestion for Sen  Ernst and the new Republican Congress . Let the Democrats focus on misery, poverty and failure . You promote hope, opportunity and achievement . Begin featuring people with stories to tell of how they overcame difficult circumstances -- from poverty, welfare, addiction, single motherhood, and so on -- and are now independent, strong and if not prosperous, then at least free of their addiction to government . Leaders should inspire others to follow examples of people who have succeeded in life . Instead ,  the Democrats' mantra has been that the poor and middle class can't succeed without government help . If that were true , the money spent on programs aimed at the poor and middle class would have succeeded by now . It's long past time for a new direction and for a new "song" with different words . In the month we observe the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr , how about "We HAVE overcome"?

SOLUTION: Here's a suggestion for Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa

PROBLEM: Sony scraps 'The Interview': Dark day for America when we cave over silly Seth Rogen comedy. Exactly what country are we living in? How the hell could Sony give in to the demands of terrorists? And make no mistake about it... The hackers who broke into their computer systems are just that: Terrorists . Sony is a commercial enterprise and it has the prerogative to scrap the release of "The Interview." But Sony is also the face of the United States in this heated relationship with North Korea , and the United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists . Neither should Sony . It's a dark day for America when we cave over a simple, silly Seth Rogen comedy . It's embarrassing . It's humiliating . It's exactly what these hackers wanted , and it creates an open season for anarchists . I can' t help but think of that brilliant scene in Steven Spielberg's much maligned but hilarious World War II comedy "1941," (1979) when Toshiro Mifune, playing a Japanese submarine commander, is under orders to destroy Hollywood from off the coast of Los Angeles . Mifune beams with pride after destroying the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier . He thinks his mission is a success . He thinks he's conquered America -- just as North Korea probably thinks it has conquered us . But in a way it has . Have at it, guys . Sony has just created a ridiculous, yet dangerous, precedent . Watch the first episode of the brilliant British series "Black Mirror"(which debuted in 2011 and is currently streaming on Netflix) to see just how this situation played out and will continue to play out within our society . In the episode, a British princess is kidnapped, and the ransom demand calls for the prime minister to go on live television and have sex with a pig . The world stops ; the masses are enthralled ; the news and social media go to town with the juicy fodder . Some cheer the prime minister's humiliation , some are disgusted , some are apathetic . But beneath it all, society is brought to its knees -- and the Twitterverse welcomes it because it is a damn good spectacle . "Black Mirror" -- the first episode, especially -- was incredibly prescient . Sony Pictures' "The Interview" is just a movie . It may be just a stupid comedy , but it is still a work of expression -- free expression! -- something that separates us from them . George Washington said,"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." For anyone to silence our creative voice is just wrong . Laughably wrong . That is why Sony should not buckle to the pressure of these vile threats . I understand that people may have been afraid to go to the big chain theaters to see "The Interview," and I respect their desire to protect themselves and their families . Sincere props, though, to the Alamo Drafthouse in Dallas/Fort Worth for announcing they would show the equally controversial film "Team America: World Police" (2004) in place of "The Interview." Thursday afternoon, Paramount announced that they would not publicly screen the movie ,. Sony should seriously consider releasing the Seth Rogen-James Franco (and phenomenal Lizzy Caplan) comedy on-demand for a number of reasons :. One : Sony and all involved will get their incredible payday . Has any recent film received more free hype than "The Interview"? Two : No theater will be harmed , even though theaters will lose potential revenue from the film . Three: Most importantly , Sony -- and we, the United States -- will not give in to this ludicrous and obnoxious threat from an impotent and juvenile country . This is America . We stand by our freedom . Even if it's a stupid comedy .

SOLUTION: And make no mistake about it... The hackers who broke into their computer systems are just that: Terrorists

PROBLEM: Do you really think your fat joke about Chris Christie is funny? New Jersey governor Chris Christie's weight - and whether it will impact any run for higher office- is once again the subject of discussion . (It comes up every year or so, and this year it's bound to come up every month or so.) On Sunday, Christie drew some people's ire by sitting with (ok, and hugging) the owner of the Dallas Cowboys , the team of which he is a fan . It doesn't actually seem to matter what Christie does, though : the kneejerk reaction to a hefty politician is always, inevitably, to insult his body , and now Christie's brother is even reacting to that reaction on Facebook . Fat people are described as gross and disgusting often enough that some of us loathe our own bodies to the point of self-injury . People think we're stupid and weak(or we'd just lose weight, right?) before they even talk to us . Fatness is classified as a disease in the United States . For his part, Christie, with his long history of being fat in the public eye, turned to a weight-loss surgery called lap band in his efforts to lose weight . In that last linked article, those close to him claimed it would humanize him in the eyes of the public - without recognizing that he is, in fact and in fat, already human . Our humanity hardly seems to matter to people going for the easy fat jokes . The truth is that fat people often have a more difficult time finding a good job . (Even, maybe especially, THE job .) You're less likely to get a promotion when your body doesn't match the image of a desirable employee . This bias - this discrimination - on the part of employers costs them top talent and actually winds up adding to stereotypes about us . It's hard for fat people to be perceived as hard workers when no one believes in our work ethic in the first place . But that's hardly the worst of the stereotypes: a couple of years ago, during a televised "debate" about fatness and fat acceptance with anti-obesity spokesperson MeMe Roth and model Crystal Renn, Roth finally gave in and called me stupid - using a single study that proclaim that fat people just have smaller brains and are therefore less intelligent . I laughed : it was a desperate attempt at an insult more than it was scientific discussion , but it was also honest - because it's definitely not the first time I've run across that conviction . Chris Christie, for all of his accomplishments, faces the same sort of discrimination as the fat person passed over for a job because of a hiring manager's bias - he's just facing it on a very intense and public level . People look at him and judge his body . They don't evaluate his intelligence based on his decisions ; they just assume he's stupid because he's fat . They ignore that it does actually take quite a lot of work to get elected as governor - politics is many things, but it's never a cake walk , and he's been involved since 1977 . And America has had fat presidents before - not many of them, but some rather notable ones, including Teddy Roosevelt . Chris Christie is- and this is another uncomfortable thing for someone with my own fairly radical political views to say- a complicated and intelligent politician . His actions are often well-considered (even when I screamingly disagree with them, which happens a lot) and even sometimes moderate, at least in the sense that he occasionally works across party lines ... and certainly across state lines when it comes to the NFL . But the fat jokes keep on coming :. How bout hittin the gym?? ... Christie won't back down , may watch Cowboys in Green Bay via @POLITICO for iOS http://t.co/Vn6SS5J4EB . US News & World Report's David Catanese even said that his brother's defense makes Christie looks bad because... he countered "'crazy, pathetic posts' with one of his own" . Apparently it's more presidential when you take the abuse about your body without anyone saying anything . And the fat jokes keep obscuring the actual conversation that needs to happen about Christie's political views , even as he remains cagey about running for the Republican nomination in 2016 . And if you're one of the people who'd rather insult his weight than talk about his politics , I have to ask: who is the less intelligent person, really? I don't think it's the fat guy .

SOLUTION:
New Jersey governor Chris Christie's weight - and whether it will impact any run for higher office- is once again the subject of discussion