Comfort Women Essays - Comfort Women, Forced Prostitution

Comfort Women Comfort Women In 1932, the Japanese armys comfort stations began. The Japanese Lieutenant-General Okamura Yasuji, was trying to find a solution to the 223 reported rapes by Japanese troops. So the only solution that he could find was to ask for comfort women to be sent for his soldiers in Shanghai, China. The Japanese Army made use of comfort stations a lot until the war ended in 1945. At a typical comfort station, a soldier paid a fee, obtained a ticket and a condom, and was admitted to a woman's space. Pak (her surname) was about 17, living in Hamun, Korea, when local Korean officials, acting on orders from the Japanese, began recruiting women for factory work. Someone from Pak's house had to go. In April of 1942, Korean officials turned Pak and other young women over to the Japanese, who took them into China, not into factories. Pak's history is not unusual. A majority of the women who provided sex for Japanese soldiers were forcibly taken from their families, or were recruited deceptively. Sometimes family members were beaten or killed if they tried to rescue the women, most in their teens. Once the women arrived at the comfort station, they were forced to have sex, typically with 20 to 30 men a day. If they resisted, they were beaten or killed. Nearly all of the two-and-a-half million Japanese soldiers who surrended to the Allies in 1945 would have known about the comfort system, according to George Hicks' book The Comfort Women. However, after the war the comfort stations quickly faded from public consciousness, and for years the issue received little attention. Accounts of former comfort women reveal that many told only a few family members or no one about their experiences. The events that led to international awareness of the issue began in 1988. In that year, Professor Yun Chung Ok of Ehwa Women's University in Korea began to lead an activist group that conducted and presented research about the comfort women. In 1990, 37 women's groups in Korea formed the Voluntary Service Corps Problem Resolution Council and demanded that the Japanese government admit that Korean women had been forcibly drafted to serve as comfort women, publicly apologize, fully disclose what happened, raise a memorial, compensate survivors or their families, and include the facts in historical education. In response, the Japanese government denied that women had been forced to work at comfort stations and maintained that it was never involved in operating comfort stations. In 1991, three Korean former comfort women filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government. History

Running Delphi Applications With Parameters

Running Delphi Applications With Parameters Though it was much more common in the days of DOS, modern operating systems also let you run command line parameters against an application so that you can specify what the application should do. The same is true for your Delphi application, whether it be for a console application or one with a GUI. You can pass a parameter from Command Prompt in Windows or from the development environment in Delphi, under the Run Parameters menu option. For this tutorial, well be using the parameters dialog box to pass command line arguments to an application so that itll be as if were running it from Windows Explorer. ParamCount and ParamStr() The ParamCount function returns the number of parameters passed to the program on the command line, and ParamStr returns a specified parameter from the command line. The OnActivate event handler of the main form is usually where the parameters are available. When the application is running, its there that they can be retrieved. Note that in a program, the CmdLine variable contains a string with command line arguments specified when the application was started. You can use CmdLine to access the entire parameter string passed to an application. Sample Application Start up a new project and place a Button component on Form. In the buttons OnClick event handler, write the following code: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject) ;begin ShowMessage(ParamStr(0)) ; end; When you run the program and click the button, a message box appears with the path and file name of the executing program. You can see that ParamStr works even if you havent passed any parameters to the application; this is because the array value 0 stores the file name of the executable application, including path information. Choose Parameters from the Run menu, and then add Delphi Programming to the drop-down list. Note: Remember that when you pass parameters to your application, separate them with spaces or tabs. Use double quotes to wrap multiple words as one parameter, like when using long file names that contain spaces. The next step is to loop through the parameters using ParamCount() to get the value of the parameters using ParamStr(i). Change the buttons OnClick event handler to this: procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject) ;var j:integer; beginfor j : 1 to ParamCount do ShowMessage(ParamStr(j)) ; end; When you run the program and click the button, a message appears that reads Delphi (first parameter) and Programming (second parameter).

The Value of Jackson Pollock's Painting Assignment

The Value of Jackson Pollock's Painting - Assignment Example The paper "The Value of Jackson Pollock's Painting" concerns the paintings of Jackson Pollock. Jackson Pollock’s painting can be sold for millions dollars because the artist is generally identified as a self created legend, is related to the innovative painting technique of drip painting within Abstract Expressionism genre, his artworks are renowned for spontaneity, his artistic career is interconnected with the development of mass media, and his artworks are symbolic of Americanism with immense artistic and economic value. One can see that fame and success within the scenario of art cannot be attained without any individual effort. Harold Rosenberg stated that, â€Å"The act on the canvas springs from an attempt to resurrect the saving moment in his â€Å"story† when the painter first felt himself released from Value-myth of past self-recognition†. For instance, the popularity of the artworks by Jackson Pollock is interconnected with the artist’s effort t o go beyond the limits of traditional mode of painting. To be specific, the artist did not try to follow the painters who adopted traditional methods in painting. Instead, he chose his own way and method within art. Besides, he knew that traditionalistic approach towards art, especially in painting, cannot help him to attain the status of a legend. But one must not misunderstand that his aim was to acclaim fame because he believed in individual freedom of artists. Similarly, Jackson Pollock was deeply interested in experimenting with different types of paints.

Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 5

Final - Essay Example He was also among the first philosophers to believe that kings did not have any rights over commoners. Hobbes had a strong conviction that no man has a natural right to dominate another man (Hobbes, 2013:21). He was also among the first people to express – in writing – that he trusted that all men were created equal. This seems to have been the genesis of the two ideologies of liberalism and conservatism. Hobbes represented the latter (Lieberman, 2013:54). At face value, Hobbes’ views appear to lean towards liberalism, but a closer look reveals a deeply entrenched conservative mindset that does not waver in the face of the strongest winds of liberalism. The fact that Hobbes often features – constantly – on the conservative side in liberalism versus conservatism debates shows that he was a conservative thinker (Mannheim, 2013:14). He is the epitome, the embodiment, the perfect example of what a conservative should be. Hobbes, while employed as an instructor to a young King Charles II, exerted so much influence on England’s throne that the king had to agree to be the first monarch to divide his ordained power over Britons with the British Parliament. In spite of this, there was a malicious angle to Hobbes’ views (Gert, 2013:34). For example, his theory of human n ature was that the inherent state of man was to be in conflict. In fact, Hobbes held this view so strongly that he termed the theory of peaceful times as nothing more than the absence conflict. In other words, his opinion was that the perpetual clashes between men, households and governments was as inherent and natural as sunset (Gert, 2013:14). Hobbes’ opinion was that mankind, by his true nature, is evil, conceited and ready kill another man because that is what mankind does. This notion resulted in what ultimately became the foundation of today’s contemporary conservative philosophy (Bunce, 2013:16). With this in mind, how can

Human Resources Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Human Resources Management - Essay Example The organisational structure in PM is hierarchical, whereas, the organisational culture in HRM is flexible based upon the business requirements. The training process in PM is limited to non-managerial staff only while in HRM the process involves all key employees within an organisation including non-managerial staff as well. The outlook of employee relations in PM is ‘pluralist’, which involves low trust however, employee relation outlook in HRM is ‘unitarist,’ which involves high extent of trust. In addition, PM is inclined towards reducing the overall cost of HR on the other hand HRM is inclined towards optimum utilisation of HR and controlling the cost associated with it (Henderson, 2011). HRM function at ASDA plays a key role in meeting the long term purpose of the organisation. Workforce planning is the primary function of HRM at ASDA, which determines the workforce requirements both in present and future context. ASDA also promotes employment opportunities through its recruitment and selection function of HRM. Training and performance appraisals are the most vital part of HRM at ASDA, which influences employee performance and their productivity level. Furthermore, employee acknowledgment and motivation is included in the HRM function, which helps in contributing towards the long term strategy of the organisation (Wilton, 2010). HRM as mentioned above plays a key role in workforce planning wherein the actual requirement of workforce is determined in the organisation. In addition, HRM has the responsibility of recruiting employees in the organisation and training them in an appropriate manner to enhance their skills as per the business requirement. Performance appraisal and employee motivation are the key roles of HRM in ASDA, which helps in alleviating the performance along with the productivity level of employees through employee

Lighting Techniques Used In Murder My Sweet Film Studies Essay

Lighting Techniques Used In Murder My Sweet Film Studies Essay The visual effects performed in various film noirs was not to give the viewer the perception of an ordinary setting, but to provide a visual manifestation of terror and abnormality into human emotion through twisted plots and camera techniques. The plot is twisted and complex, taking the viewer into dark, terrorizing, and incomprehensible place. The camera techniques used in the visuals seen in Murder My Sweet instills these feelings, which are common in horror films. Art cannot be rushed and cinematographer Harry Wild had a nightmarish vision for this piece, to invoke fear and chills into everyone who watched it (Dmytryk Chandler, 1944). The visual motifs seen across all film noir are filled with the lighting and shadow effects needed to consume the viewer with moods of paranoia, phobia, and despair. Such attributes are acknowledged in an article by Janey Place and Lowell Peterson; Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir. Nearly every attempt to define film noir has agreed that visual style is the consistent thread that unites the very diverse films that together comprise this phenomenon. These moods could not be created just by reading the script alone; the effects desired results wound not happen. The lighting and shadows in Murder My Sweet are typical among the horror genre. The opening sequence in the movie takes the common creation of shadows and bright light a little further with low key lighting. This technique creates a deep shadow effect which is a key tool to produce a character that is mysterious and unknown. The use of low key lighting is not uncommon among film noir, but Murder My Sweet takes it to the extreme. Other noirs like The Big Sleep and Detour utilize the same technique, but to a lesser extent resulting in a more gray monotone-like image. It all boils down to the narrative reasons, and the usage in the opening sequence makes clear to the audience that the person is crucial and sets the tone in which the viewer interprets the rest of the film. Philip Marlowe, the main character, is shown with consistency throughout the film. His facial expressions are barely visible because the majority of his face is always in deep shadow. He has just enough light to give the impression to the viewer that he is hardcore and tough; existing in life with very little emotion. By using this type of lighting, the character gets situated such that he appears to be trapped or lost in a nightmare (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). In the article, Towards a Definition of Film Noir, Borde and Chaumetom uses qualities like nightmarish, weird, and cruel as pivotal. These qualities are encompassed in the film and define Marlowes character; as can be seen by the way he is lit or visually manifested. The lighting schemes used on Philip Marlowe are in direct contrast with the ones used on the female characters in the film. Not only are they in contrast with Marlowe, but also with female characters in other films; the soft diffused lighting in melodrama. This is easily noticeable in the opening sequence when Moose Malloy questions the woman in the bar. She is just sitting in direct hard light with no shadow at all. To achieve the desired results of the scene, the bright lighting gives the illusion that she is in some sort of interrogation room. The shadows in the movie suggest mystery and secrecy, so by using high key lighting, all shadows are eliminated. The way she is lit or visually manifested is to set the record straight that she has nothing to hide and does not know anything with regard to the whereabouts of Mooses girlfriend (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). Jessie Florian, the second female in the first sequence, carry a little bit more shadow than the girl in the bar, but still much brighter than Marlowe. When Marlowe interrogates her at her apartment, his lighting is still deep in this setting but she is not as lit up as much. In contrast to the woman in the bar, the light shadow gives the impression that Jessie might be a little mysterious or hiding something. Though her face has a light shadow, her face is fully visible, allowing the viewer to see facial expression and think about her motive. A little snippet is when Marlowe peaks through the window after leaving to verify if she was drunk or not; she was not drunk and unsuccessful in deceiving him (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). The lighting and shadow differences of male and female characters continue throughout the film. The extremes and exaggerations of light and dark, low key, indicate the level of mystery of the character; in Marlowes case, nightmarish. Murder My Sweet transforms these normal people into twisted people living in a dark world with dark events. Borde and Chaumetom discuss the removal of physiological reference points to take consume the viewer, to take the viewer away from reality. The lighting techniques of the characters are not the only tellers of the story, the physical locations of the events are telling as well. What is so interesting is that the mood s tends to be consistently different in interior and exterior locations. The interiors of My Murder Sweet are not safe, secure, and warm. They are shot in a way that seems chilling, creepy, and ominous; filled with blinding light and deep shadows. The intent is to instill fear into the viewer that something terrible is about to happen (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). Even the darkest character, Marlowe, appears scared in his own office. His feelings of unease are amplified by the lighting. While in his office, he is shot or framed close up cutting out much of the office. By cropping out the rest of the office and the ominous setting created by the lighting, there is a feeling that he is not alone and that he is not in control. This chill can be seen when Marlowe sees Malloys reflection while staring out of the window. The sudden surprise along with no noises announcing his arrival scares him (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). The exterior scenes provide a much different feeling; it is more subdued with few high contrast areas. This lighting scheme, along with voice over moments, makes Marlowe feel more relaxed. The voice overs are monologues about drawing conclusions on events which have happened thus far or contemplating his next move; giving the impression that he is on top of the situation. Interior shots are consistently of close-ups, the exterior shots are created such that there is much more space. Marlowe is no longer in a boxed in setting, the wide framing allows the viewer to see much more of the scene (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). These dynamics of space pertain to all characters, but Marlowes character is the most common. Not only how the characters are represented in both dark films and horror films like Murder My Sweet are very important in setting tone, how the movie is pieced together is crucial as well. How the elements are tied together is a special craft that cannot be overlooked. Film editor Joseph Noriega was truly an artist who made a mark film noir (Mubi Online Cinema, n.d.). The movie follows the classic Hollywood structure with spatial and temporal progressions and flashbacks, but the shot to shot editing is highly irregular, as can be seen in the opening interrogation when the shots of Marlowe blindfolded are pieced together into a circular motion (Murder, My Sweet (1944), n.d.). The purpose of this style of editing is to not allow the viewer to relax. The constant chills and paranoia felt by the viewer can only be achieved through the use visual techniques, settings, and unsettling characters. Murder My Sweet uses a dark and twisted plot to take the viewer to an alternate reality that is very uncomfortable. In his book The Dark Side of the Screen, Forest Hirsch says American films gravitate toward a neutral rendering of a recognizable physical reality rather than toward the delirious inner landscapes, the overwrought transmutations, of full-fledged expressionism. The camera techniques, the sounds, mise-en-scene, and editing produces an environment that is nightmarish from beginning to end.

Pakistani Prunes Essay

I began my preparation for this negotiation by reading the section in the textbook, The Pakistani Prunes, on page 498. Although this did not give me any additional information on the negotiation itself, it did make me aware of the main idea of this negotiation which was â€Å"work together in cooperation.† When I realized this negotiation was based on collaboration, I studied article 1.8, Implementing a Collaborative Strategy, more in depth. I took notes on points that I would be able to use during the negotiation. Then I made a list of possible questions that I could ask at the very start of the negotiation and the specific steps to a collaboration. I also used an article by Robert A. Steinberg called, The Game of Negotiation. From this article, I used the tactic of, â€Å"Identifying with others in similar circumstances.† With this tactic, I made sure to get the other parties’ story and listen to their whole side before jumping to conclusions. 1.8 (Implementing a Collaborative Strategy) This article stated the steps to the collaborative strategy. I used this during the negation by following the steps to ensure that I was not rushing through the process or forgetting an important issue. During the â€Å"Generating Alternative Solutions† step of the negotiation, we â€Å"expanded the pie†, by both using the whole prune, and we also â€Å"bridged† by creating the idea that one person bids while the other pays the bidder themselves. 1.9 (Solving Joint Problems to Create and Claim Value) In this article, I focused on the idea of ZOPA (zone of possible agreement). I remembered not to pass my ZOPA but instead listen and learn everything about the other parties’ needs. With this strategy I was able to acquire the information that the other party only needed the outside of the prune while  my organization only needed the pits. Another idea in this article that I used was to â€Å"Adopt a Persuasive Style.† Although I did not like the idea of being persuasive, I did remember to understand the other parties’ story. Instead of just listening and thinking of my next move, during this negotiation I focused on their needs and the key points to their research. 1.5 (Effective Negotiation Techniques) I was prepared to use the tactic of Fait Accompli and was set on making the first offer, but during the negotiation Tray used this method and gave me the first offer. 1.2 (Selecting a Strategy) In this article, collaboration is described in more detail, and I used this by remembering to be open and accurate during the negotiation. Strengths & Opportunities The negotiation was more integrative because Tray and I both focused on interests of both sides and not just our own. It was also integrated because we tried our best to â€Å"expand the pie.† We began the negotiation by explaining our reasoning for needing the prunes and each invested time in listening to the others interests. After this we quickly realized that we only needed part of the prune and not the whole prune. Identifying this early was the main strength during our negotiation because we were then able to figure out the logistics of the bidding process and the separation of the prunes. In article 1.8, it says not to rush the selecting solutions process. I used this to my advantage because I knew that if we were to rush the selection we would miss something important. With this reminder, we realized that we may not be the other people bidding on the prunes and decided that we should plan for this possibility. This was a big strength because we both agreed that in the occasion that someone else is bidding on the prunes and exceeded his $8 million limit, we would combine our investments to outbid the opponent. Together our limit was $13 million for this occurrence. Another strength that I had during the negotiation was that Tray did not know all of my information. I informed him that if my organization had to pick, clean, and separate the prunes, that our machines would pulverize not only the pits but also pulp. I informed him that this would make the pulp of the prunes worthless and that he would need to pick, wash, and separate the pits and the pulp. He agreed that this was the best solution, which is why he is doing all the initial work to obtain the prunes and we are purchasing just the pits from him after. In a way, I was using misrepresentation that is illustrated in article 2.11, Negotiation Ethics. I was using partially true statement when I was informing him of the machines but it was in fact a misrepresentation of the true facts. While we were writing the contract, we made the mistake of not thoroughly reading through our contract. Instead of having 65.2% on the contract we wrote 2.5% for the percentage of money I would be paying him for the pits. This meant I would have been paying significantly less money than we had initially negotiated. We both signed the contract while it had 2.5% on it and because of this I had the opportunity to take advantage of the mistake and only have to pay a small percentage of what Tray was going to have to pay. After looking over the contract, I felt that fixing the mistake was better in the long run because I would have a better relationship with him after the negotiation, and I would also not go against what we had previously discussed in the negotiation. I believed that my integrity was more important to me than the payment. I did recognize this weakness, but I did not capitalize on the weakness. I realized now that I am becoming a negotiator that analyses each move before taking it. The first negotiation I was trying to be nice the whole negotiation and because of that I forgot about some of my interest. This negotiation I was able to focus on both my interest and the other parties. I analyzed each response before taking action, which is why I gave him misinformation about our machinery. It was either pay a little more and get just the pits or do all the picking, washing, and separating and also bidding for the prunes myself. I do not think I took advantage of Tray because I did pay compensation for the extra work that he would have to do  initially. Weaknesses & Threats The biggest weakness, which was also a threat during this negotiation, was the mistake on the contract. This was an opportunity to take advantage of Tray, and if I would have taken that opportunity I could have severely damaged my reputation as a negotiator. Since I wrote the contract, it could have looked like I purposely miscalculated the percentage to my advantage. If I had chosen to keep the initial contract I would have represented myself as a sneaky and unethical person. A threat that occurred was that Tray did not understand that we needed different parts of the prune. Although, he caught on very quickly, we could have hit one of the obstacles mentioned in article 1.8. If Tray would have continued to think of his own interest and not listen completely to mine we would not have been able to collaborate on a win-win contract. I do not believe that I had any weaknesses that left me with a target on my chest. The negotiation went as I had expected it to. If given the chance I would probably give Tray all the information right off the bat, without any misrepresentation. Although the misleading of the machinery worked out in my favor, I think that I could have gotten the same effect if all the information had been presented truthfully. Also, I would not feel the internal battle that I negotiated unethically. This negotiation, I remembered to read all the possible information in preparation for the negotiation but I forget to reach deeper to the personal level during the negotiation. I went straight to business and asked questions referring to the negotiation and not the background of the negotiator. I think that if I had done this I would have gotten more background information that may have helped me with the relationship side of the negotiation. While I did listen to the organizations background and research, I did not ask about Trays background. I could have used that information to my advantage by possibly paying less due to the fact that Dr.  Wilson had a lot of money to throw around. Brief Summary of YOU as a negotiator I negotiated on the basis that I wanted to work together and figure out exactly what each of us needed. I was able to get what I needed out of the contract while coming together with Tray to figure out his needs. I was also able to figure out the payment of the prunes and how much we were both willing to pay for them. I stuck to the collaboration strategy and did not take advantage of my competitor but instead saw him as a partner. Brief Summary of your COUNTERPART as a negotiator Tray started the negotiation exactly how I was going to start it, with background information on what exactly we both wanted. He was great at thinking of possible situations that we may encounter. He did not live up to his reputation as â€Å"ruthless† but instead was compassionate to my organization. He believed that we both had a similar interest and was able to come up with some of the compromises to our contract. He also stepped up and took the initial task of bidding for the prunes and doing the labor to separate the prunes. Who do you believe did a better job of negotiating?

The road to polyamory

Will same-sex matrimony extend marriage's stabilizing effects to homosexuals? Will gay marriage undermine family life? A lot is riding on the answers to these questions. But the media's reflexive labeling of doubts about gay marriage as homophobia has made it almost impossible to debate the social effects of this reform. Now with the Supreme Court's ringing affirmation of sexual liberty in Lawrence v. Texas, that debate is unavoidable. Among the likeliest effects of gay marriage is to take us down a slippery slope to legalized polygamy and â€Å"polyamory† (group marriage).Marriage will be transformed into a variety of relationship contracts, linking two, three, or more individuals (however weakly and temporarily) in every conceivable combination of male and female. A scare scenario? Hardly. The bottom of this slope is visible from where we stand. Advocacy of legalized polygamy is growing. A network of grass-roots organizations seeking legal recognition for group marriage alre ady exists. The cause of legalized group marriage is championed by a powerful faction of family law specialists.Influential legal bodies in both the United States and Canada have presented radical programs of marital reform. Some of these quasi-governmental proposals go so far as to suggest the abolition of marriage. The ideas behind this movement have already achieved surprising influence with a prominent American politician. None of this is well known. Both the media and public spokesmen for the gay marriage movement treat the issue as an unproblematic advance for civil rights.True, a small number of relatively conservative gay spokesmen do consider the social effects of gay matrimony, insisting that they will be beneficent, that homosexual unions will become more stable. Yet another faction of gay rights advocates actually favors gay marriage as a step toward the abolition of marriage itself. This group agrees that there is a slippery slope, and wants to hasten the slide down. To consider what comes after gay marriage is not to say that gay marriage itself poses no danger to the institution of marriage.Quite apart from the likelihood that it will usher in legalized polygamy and polyamory, gay marriage will almost certainly weaken the belief that monogamy lies at the heart of marriage. But to see why this is so, we will first need to reconnoiter the slippery slope. Promoting polygamy DURING THE 1996 congressional debate on the Defense of Marriage Act, which affirmed the ability of the states and the federal government to withhold recognition from same-sex marriages, gay marriage advocates were put on the defensive by the polygamy question.If gays had a right to marry, why not polygamists? Andrew Sullivan, one of gay marriage's most intelligent defenders, labeled the question fear-mongering–akin to the discredited belief that interracial marriage would lead to birth defects. â€Å"To the best of my knowledge,† said Sullivan, â€Å"there is no p olygamists' rights organization poised to exploit same-sex marriage and return the republic to polygamous abandon. † Actually, there are now many such organizations. And their strategy–even their existence–owes much to the movement for gay marriage.Scoffing at the polygamy prospect as ludicrous has been the strategy of choice for gay marriage advocates. In 2000, following Vermont's enactment of civil unions, Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said, â€Å"I think the idea that there is some kind of slippery slope [to polygamy or group marriage] is silly. † As proof, Coles said that America had legalized interracial marriage, while also forcing Utah to ban polygamy before admission to the union.That dichotomy, said Coles, shows that Americans are capable of distinguishing between better and worse proposals for reforming marriage. Are we? When Tom Green was put on trial in Utah for polygamy in 2001, it played like a dress rehearsal for the coming movement to legalize polygamy. True, Green was convicted for violating what he called Utah's â€Å"don't ask, don't tell† policy on polygamy. Pointedly refusing to â€Å"hide in the closet,† he touted polygamy on the Sally Jessy Raphael, Queen Latifah, Geraldo Rivera, and Jerry Springer shows, and on â€Å"Dateline NBC† and â€Å"48 Hours.† But the Green trial was not just a cable spectacle. It brought out a surprising number of mainstream defenses of polygamy. And most of the defenders went to bat for polygamy by drawing direct comparisons to gay marriage. Writing in the Village Voice, gay leftist Richard Goldstein equated the drive for state-sanctioned polygamy with the movement for gay marriage. The political reluctance of gays to embrace polygamists was understandable, said Goldstein, â€Å"but our fates are entwined in fundamental ways. â€Å"Libertarian Jacob Sullum defended polygamy, along with all ot her consensual domestic arrangements, in the Washington Times. Syndicated liberal columnist Ellen Goodman took up the cause of polygamy with a direct comparison to gay marriage. Steve Chapman, a member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board, defended polygamy in the Tribune and in Slate. The New York Times published a Week in Review article juxtaposing photos of Tom Green's family with sociobiological arguments about the naturalness of polygamy and promiscuity.The ACLU's Matt Coles may have derided the idea of a slippery slope from gay marriage to polygamy, but the ACLU itself stepped in to help Tom Green during his trial and declared its support for the repeal of all â€Å"laws prohibiting or penalizing the practice of plural marriage. † There is of course a difference between repealing such laws and formal state recognition of polygamous marriages. Neither the ACLU nor, say, Ellen Goodman has directly advocated formal state recognition. Yet they give us no reason to suppose that, when the time is ripe, they will not do so.Stephen Clark, the legal director of the Utah ACLU, has said, â€Å"Talking to Utah's polygamists is like talking to gays and lesbians who really want the right to live their lives. † All this was in 2001, well before the prospect that legal gay marriage might create the cultural conditions for state-sanctioned polygamy. Can anyone doubt that greater public support will be forthcoming once gay marriage has become a reality? Surely the ACLU will lead the charge. Why is state-sanctioned polygamy a problem?The deep reason is that it erodes the ethos of monogamous marriage. Despite the divorce revolution, Americans still take it for granted that marriage means monogamy. The ideal of fidelity may be breached in practice, yet adultery is clearly understood as a transgression against marriage. Legal polygamy would jeopardize that understanding, and that is why polygamy has historically been treated in the West as an offense against s ociety itself. In most non-Western cultures, marriage is not a union of freely choosing individuals, but an alliance of family groups.The emotional relationship between husband and wife is attenuated and subordinated to the economic and political interests of extended kin. But in our world of freely choosing individuals, extended families fall away, and love and companionship are the only surviving principles on which families can be built. From Thomas Aquinas through Richard Posner, almost every serious observer has granted the incompatibility between polygamy and Western companionate marriage. Where polygamy works, it does so because the husband and his wives are emotionally distant.Even then, jealousy is a constant danger, averted only by strict rules of seniority or parity in the husband's economic support of his wives. Polygamy is more about those resources than about sex. Yet in many polygamous societies, even though only 10 or 15 percent of men may actually have multiple wive s, there is a widely held belief that men need multiple women. The result is that polygamists are often promiscuous–just not with their own wives. Anthropologist Philip Kilbride reports a Nigerian survey in which, among urban male polygamists, 44 percent said their most recent sexual partners were women other than their wives.For monogamous, married Nigerian men in urban areas, that figure rose to 67 percent. Even though polygamous marriage is less about sex than security, societies that permit polygamy tend to reject the idea of marital fidelity–for everyone, polygamists included. Mormon polygamy has always been a complicated and evolving combination of Western mores and classic polygamous patterns. Like Western companionate marriage, Mormon polygamy condemns extramarital sex. Yet historically, like its non-Western counterparts, it de-emphasized romantic love.Even so, jealousy was always a problem. One study puts the rate of 19th-century polygamous divorce at triple t he rate for monogamous families. Unlike their forebears, contemporary Mormon polygamists try to combine polygamy with companionate marriage–and have a very tough time of it. We have no definitive figures, but divorce is frequent. Irwin Altman and Joseph Ginat, who've written the most detailed account of today's breakaway Mormon polygamist sects, highlight the special stresses put on families trying to combine modern notions of romantic love with polygamy.Strict religious rules of parity among wives make the effort to create a hybrid traditionalist/modern version of Mormon polygamy at least plausible, if very stressful. But polygamy let loose in modern secular America would destroy our understanding of marital fidelity, while putting nothing viable in its place. And postmodern polygamy is a lot closer than you think. Polyamory AMERICA'S NEW, souped-up version of polygamy is called â€Å"polyamory.† Polyamorists trace their descent from the anti-monogamy movements of the sixties and seventies–everything from hippie communes, to the support groups that grew up around Robert Rimmer's 1966 novel â€Å"The Harrad Experiment,† to the cult of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Polyamorists proselytize for â€Å"responsible non-monogamy†Ã¢â‚¬â€œopen, loving, and stable sexual relationships among more than two people. The modern polyamory movement took off in the mid-nineties–partly because of the growth of the Internet (with its confidentiality), but also in parallel to, and inspired by, the rising gay marriage movement.Unlike classic polygamy, which features one man and several women, polyamory comprises a bewildering variety of sexual combinations. There are triads of one woman and two men; heterosexual group marriages; groups in which some or all members are bisexual; lesbian groups, and so forth. (For details, see Deborah Anapol's â€Å"Polyamory: The New Love Without Limits,† one of the movement's authoritative guides, or Goog le the word polyamory. ) Supposedly, polyamory is not a synonym for promiscuity. In practice, though, there is a continuum between polyamory and â€Å"swinging.† Swinging couples dally with multiple sexual partners while intentionally avoiding emotional entanglements. Polyamorists, in contrast, try to establish stable emotional ties among a sexually connected group. Although the subcultures of swinging and polyamory are recognizably different, many individuals move freely between them. And since polyamorous group marriages can be sexually closed or open, it's often tough to draw a line between polyamory and swinging. Here, then, is the modern American version of Nigeria's extramarital polygamous promiscuity.Once the principles of monogamous companionate marriage are breached, even for supposedly stable and committed sexual groups, the slide toward full-fledged promiscuity is difficult to halt. Polyamorists are enthusiastic proponents of same-sex marriage. Obviously, any attem pt to restrict marriage to a single man and woman would prevent the legalization of polyamory. After passage of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, an article appeared in Loving More, the flagship magazine of the polyamory movement, calling for the creation of a polyamorist rights movement modeled on the movement for gay rights.The piece was published under the pen name Joy Singer, identified as the graduate of a â€Å"top ten law school† and a political organizer and public official in California for the previous two decades. Taking a leaf from the gay marriage movement, Singer suggested starting small. A campaign for hospital visitation rights for polyamorous spouses would be the way to begin. Full marriage and adoption rights would come later. Again using the gay marriage movement as a model, Singer called for careful selection of acceptable public spokesmen (i. e. , people from longstanding poly families with children).Singer even published a speech by Iowa state legisla tor Ed Fallon on behalf of gay marriage, arguing that the goal would be to get a congressman to give exactly the same speech as Fallon, but substituting the word â€Å"poly† for â€Å"gay† throughout. Try telling polyamorists that the link between gay marriage and group marriage is a mirage. The flexible, egalitarian, and altogether postmodern polyamorists are more likely to influence the larger society than Mormon polygamists. The polyamorists go after monogamy in a way that resonates with America's secular, post-sixties culture.Yet the fundamental drawback is the same for Mormons and polyamorists alike. Polyamory websites are filled with chatter about jealousy, the problem that will not go away. Inevitably, group marriages based on modern principles of companionate love, without religious rules and restraints, are unstable. Like the short-lived hippie communes, group marriages will be broken on the contradiction between companionate love and group solidarity. And chi ldren will pay the price. The harms of state-sanctioned polyamorous marriage would extend well beyond the polyamorists themselves.Once monogamy is defined out of marriage, it will be next to impossible to educate a new generation in what it takes to keep companionate marriage intact. State-sanctioned polyamory would spell the effective end of marriage. And that is precisely what polyamory's new–and surprisingly influential–defenders are aiming for. The family law radicals STATE-SANCTIONED polyamory is now the cutting-edge issue among scholars of family law. The preeminent school of thought in academic family law has its origins in the arguments of radical gay activists who once opposed same-sex marriage.In the early nineties, radicals like longtime National Gay and Lesbian Task Force policy director Paula Ettelbrick spoke out against making legal marriage a priority for the gay rights movement. Marriage, Ettelbrick reminded her fellow activists, â€Å"has long been th e focus of radical feminist revulsion. † Encouraging gays to marry, said Ettelbrick, would only force gay â€Å"assimilation† to American norms, when the real object of the gay rights movement ought to be getting Americans to accept gay difference.â€Å"Being queer,† said Ettelbrick, â€Å"means pushing the parameters of sex and family, and in the process transforming the very fabric of society. † Promoting polyamory is the ideal way to â€Å"radically reorder society's view of the family,† and Ettelbrick, who has since formally signed on as a supporter of gay marriage (and is frequently quoted by the press), is now part of a movement that hopes to use gay marriage as an opening to press for state-sanctioned polyamory. Ettelbrick teaches law at the University of Michigan, New York University, Barnard, and Columbia. She has a lot of company.

AP US History Essays - League Of Nations, Free Essays, Term Papers

AP US History Essays - League Of Nations, Free Essays, Term Papers AP US History March 1, 1997 Period 4 Treaty of Versailles: Who was at fault for its denial? The Treaty of Versailles, which was a peace treaty that called for the end of World War 1(between Germany and the Allies), was defeated in the Senate by an unknown alliance of two forces. The two forces were President Wilson?s ?all or nothing? attitude and the strong opponents of the Treaty in the Senate. William Borah (Sen, Idaho), one of the ?irreconcilables?, brings out a clear weakness in the Covenant of the League of Nations in his speech to the Senate. The weakness is that will any country really feel comfortable, or approve of, another country?s government dealing with their domestic affairs and concerns, especially if they have an army to support whatever they decide. He also brings up a point that no one would approve of a tribunal, with 41 other nations in it, to settle a problem that might arise between members of the nation because what one nation sees a vital, another nation may see as wasteful, which might just lead to another World War. The League as he describes it is contradictorial in all that it is to accomplish (?force to destroy force, conflict to prevent conflict, militarism to destroy militarism, war to prevent war?) and it can?t work like that because it has no authority to back up its own judgment. This goes against Wilson?s idea of the League because he helped create it and it is a very important and big step to him in creating a worldwide government (Doc A) The Treaty as portrayed in The New Republic is useless, which is a strong reason it shouldn?t be passed. It wasn?t useless in the sense that it would officially end the war, but in a sense that it would not ?moralize nationalism?. The moralization of nationalism could be achieved by ending the separation of classes and ambitions that could only be enjoyed by some, not all, people in the country. According to the journalist the Treaty doesn?t make even a bland attempt to solve these problems, and that it, in fact, promotes and heightens those differences of opinion between the nations. (Doc B) In a general speech given by Wilson, he provides that Article X, which morally bound the U.S. to aid any member of the League victimized by external aggression, is the ?inevitable, logical center to the whole system of the Covenant of the League of Nations?. Although he supports it, he feels he is not at fault if the Covenant isn?t correct. On another separate occasion, Wilson defended that Article X morally, not legally, bound the U.S. to aiding other victimized nations, ergo the U.S. didn?t have to help who they didn?t want to help. Article X angered Congress because they wanted to reserve their constitutional right of declaring war to themselves. Article X also enraged the great- grandson of George Cabot, Henry Cabot Lodge (R, Idaho). He so disliked Article X that he made his own reservation to it, which provided that the U.S. has no obligation to get involved with the affairs of any other country. His reservation would later be turned down by Congress. (Doc C) Herbert Hoover correctly advises President Wilson to, in so many words, to hurry up and do something to approve the treaty in the Senate or it will never get passed. He gives this advice to President Wilson because he knows that Lodge is effectively using delay tactics, such as reading the whole 264- page treaty aloud to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to divide and sway public opinion about the Treaty to his favor. Although he is pleased with the concern the government is giving to the treaty, he feels their could be improvements and if these improvements aren?t quick in happening, then the very necessary public opinion of the Americans will start to go against the treaty because of the many ?wrongs imposed in the Treaty? and Lodge?s active lobbyism. When popular public opinion goes, in most cases, so does the bill. (Doc D) The cartoon (Doc E) shows how the Republicans felt about not being involved in the peace proceedings in Paris. When Wilson went to Paris, his delegation included not a single Republican which greatly infuriated them. He did not even consult the Republican leadership in the Senate about the peace negotiations, which was also an insult to the Republicans. Among the leading Republicans was Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who was also

Battle of Fort Henry in the Civil War

Battle of Fort Henry in the Civil War The Battle of Fort Henry took place February 6, 1862, during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and was one of the first actions of  Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grants campaign in Tennessee. With the start of the Civil War, Kentucky declared neutrality and stated it would align against the first side to violate its territory. This occurred on September 3, 1861, when Confederate Major General Leonidas Polk directed troops under Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow to occupy Columbus, KY on the Mississippi River. Responding to the Confederate incursion, Grant took the initiative and dispatched Union troops to secure Paducah, KY at the mouth of the Tennessee River two days later.   A Wide Front As events were unfolding in Kentucky, General Albert Sidney Johnston received orders on September 10 to assume command of all Confederate forces in the west. This required him to defend a line extending from the Appalachian Mountains west to the frontier. Lacking sufficient troops to hold the entirety of this distance, Johnston was compelled to disperse his men into smaller armies and attempt to defend those areas through which Union troops were likely to advance. This cordon defense saw him order Brigadier General Felix Zollicoffer to hold the area around the Cumberland Gap in the east with 4,000 men while in the west, Major General Sterling Price defended Missouri with 10,000 men. The center of the line was held by Polks large command which, due to Kentuckys neutrality earlier in the year, was based closer to the Mississippi. To the north, an additional 4,000 men led by Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner held Bowling Green, KY. To further protect central Tennessee, construction of two forts had commenced earlier in 1861. These were Forts Henry and Donelson which guarded the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers respectively. The locations for the forts were determined by Brigadier General Daniel S. Donelson and while the placement for the fort bearing his name was sound, his choice for Fort Henry left much to be desired. Construction of Fort Henry An area of low, swampy ground, the location of Fort Henry provided a clear field of fire for two miles down the river but was dominated by hills on the far shore. Though many officers opposed the location, construction on the five-sided fort began with slaves and the 10th Tennessee Infantry providing the labor. By July 1861, guns were being mounted in the forts walls with eleven covering the river and six protecting the landward approaches. Named  for Tennessee Senator Gustavus Adolphus Henry Sr., Johnston had desired to give command of the forts to Brigadier General Alexander P. Stewart but was overruled by Confederate President Jefferson Davis who instead selected Maryland native Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman in December.  Assuming his post, Tilghman saw Fort Henry reinforced with a smaller fortification, Fort Heiman, which was constructed on the opposite bank. In addition, efforts were made to place torpedoes (naval mines) in the shipping channel near the fort. Armies Commanders Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. GrantFlag Officer Andrew Foote15,000 men7 ships Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman3,000-3,400 Grant and Foote Move As the Confederates worked to complete the forts, Union commanders in the west were under pressure from President Abraham Lincoln to take offensive action. While Brigadier General George H. Thomas defeated Zollicoffer at the Battle of Mills Springs in January 1862, Grant was able to secure permission for a thrust up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Advancing with around 15,000 men in two divisions led Brigadier Generals John McClernand and Charles F. Smith, Grant was supported by Flag Officer Andrew Footes Western Flotilla of four ironclads and three timberclads (wooden warships). A Swift Victory Pressing up the river, Grant and Foote elected to strike at Fort Henry first. Arriving in the vicinity on February 4, Union forces began going ashore with McClernands division landing north of Fort Henry while Smiths men landed on the western shore to neutralize Fort Heiman. As Grant moved forward, Tilghmans position had become tenuous due to the forts poor location. When the river was at normal levels, the forts walls stood around twenty feet high, but heavy rains had led water levels to rise dramatically flooding the fort. As a result, only nine of the forts seventeen guns were usable. Realizing that the fort could not be held, Tilghman ordered Colonel Adolphus Heiman to lead the bulk of the garrison to the east to Fort Donelson and abandoned Fort Heiman. By February 5, only a party of gunners and Tilghman remained. Approaching Fort Henry the next day, Footes gunboats advanced with the ironclads in the lead. Opening fire, they exchanged shots with the Confederates for around seventy-five minutes. In the fighting, only USS Essex suffered meaningful damage when a shot hit its boiler as the low trajectory of the Confederate fire played into the strength of the Union gunboats armor. Aftermath With the Union gunboats closing and his fire largely ineffective, Tilghman decided to surrender the fort. Due to the flooded nature of the fort, a boat from the fleet was able to row directly into the fort to take Tilghman to USS Cincinnati. A boost to Union morale, the capture of Fort Henry saw Grant capture 94 men. Confederate losses in the fighting numbered around 15 killed and 20 wounded. Union casualties totaled around 40, with the majority aboard USS Essex. The capture of the fort opened the Tennessee River to Union warships. Quickly taking advantage, Foote dispatched his three timberclads to raid upstream. Gathering his forces, Grant began moving his army the twelve miles to Fort Donelson on February 12. Over the next several days, Grant won the Battle of Fort Donelson and capturing over 12,000 Confederates. The twin defeats at Forts Henry and Donelson knocked a gaping hole in Johnstons defensive line and opened Tennessee to Union invasion. Large-scale fighting would resume in April when Johnston attacked Grant at the Battle of Shiloh.

Research papper Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Papper - Research Paper Example Furthermore, it also promotes atheism because in a material world, individuals might be expected to exist without God’s existence (Olscamp 111). However, Berkeley’s main charge against the current philosophical tradition was that philosophers were guilty of complicating knowledge by introducing unnecessary abstractions. It is in this regard that the main focus of this research paper is to defend philosophy against the said charge by stating a position of endorsement and by showing the metaphysical and epistemological issues involved, that is to say, whether abstractions are epistemologically necessary, and whether Berkeley’s metaphysical charges were correct. To start with, the metaphysical and epistemological issues involved in Berkeley’s charge, as opposed to his materialist predecessors, aims to defend idealism and immaterialism. As result, Berkeley argues that no material thing exists; he rejects that material things are mind-independent things or substances, as the rationalists would call it. Hence, he argues that materialism promotes cynicism and disbelief. For this reason, Berkeley presents arguments to prove that when people perceive ordinary objects, they only perceive the idea of those objects and therefore, ordinary objects are mere ideas. Thus, Berkeley defends two metaphysical theses: first, the idealism claiming that everything that exists either is a mind or depends on a mind for its existence (Olscamp 27), and second, the immaterialism which claims that matter does not exist. Herein, Berkeley argues against the common views, which suggest that sensible objects are mind-independent. Sensible objects are perceived by sense only sensations are perceived by sense and, therefore, sensible objects are sensations. Similarly, sensations are mind-independent. Therefore, sensible objects are likewise

The inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded of a Essay

The inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded of a commodity - Essay Example This implies that as the price of a commodity increases, the quantity demanded for that product would reduce, similarly as the price decreases, the quantity demanded for that commodity would increase. Behravesh (2008) describes the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded is a constant law in economics. There seem to be no real exception to the inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded as long as it is a commodity that consumers crave to get, this law would always hold its ground. The quantity demanded for a particular commodity depends on the price. The quantity demanded would begin to decrease when the suppliers or manufacturers decide to increase the price of the commodity. Consumers would begin to look for substitutes to these commodities that have a lower price and these means that the quantity demanded for a commodity that its price has just been decreased would begin to reduce drastically. The reason for the inverse relationship that exists betwe en price and quantity demanded is not far-fetched. There is always a price that consumers are willing to pay for a particular commodity and when there is a change in this price, they begin to change their mind. Some consumers may even look for other alternatives and this would affect the general quantity demanded for that commodity. ... ists between the price of a commodity and the quantity demanded is seen below: Quantity Demanded Price 600 100 300 200 150 400 75 800 40 1500 The effect that the increase in the price of a particular commodity would have on the quantity commodity is clearly shown above as an increase in the price would drive the quantity demanded downwards. However, there are exceptions to this law of demand as there are some commodities that the price of a commodity does not affect the quantity demanded for the same commodity. Drugs seem to be an essential commodity for sick people that the price of this commodity does not really affect the quantity demanded for that commodity. Consider a drug that has proven to be the most potent solution to a particular ailment and the price suddenly goes up. A patient that loves his or her life would pay anything to get that drug. Thus, an increase in the case of potent drugs would not in any way affect the quantity demanded for that drug. Hence, there are some e xceptions to the inverse relationship between price and the quantity demanded for a commodity as there are some commodities that some consumers can pay through the nose to get (Jones 2008, pp. 23-26). Another thing to consider is the income of consumers. The quantity demanded for a particular commodity may reduce and the price of that commodity may still remain constant. In this case, would we say that there is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded? The answer is no. the quantity demanded reduced due to the reduction in the income of the consumer as consumers would only buy what they can afford as they cannot in any way spend beyond their financial limits (O'Sullivan, Sheffrin, & Perez, 2010). Hence, this represents a somewhat exception in the law of demand’s inverse