Feelings towards Essay Example for Free

Feelings towards Essay All throughout this scene there are various indications about the rising tension caused by Eddies feelings towards his niece Catherine. It begins when Eddie confronts Rodolfo about taking advantage of Beatrice and not treating Eddie with respect. I know, but in your own town you wouldnt just drag off some girl, without permission. Here he is highlighting the lack of respect he feels that Rodolfo treats him with. He is referring to Beatrice as some girl, which shows that in Eddies eyes Rodolfo does not see Beatrice as anything special or important. Beatrice (Eddies wife) suspects that Eddies feelings towards Catherine are un-natural and contributes throughout this scene to the rise in tension. Well he didnt exactly drag her off though, Eddie. This would annoy Eddie, as he is not receiving any support, she is also saying that Catherine is independent and chose to go with Rodolfo which would raise tension further. When Eddie tells Rodolfo that he is simply her uncle, Beatrice pounces on this and retorts Well then, be an uncle then. The others would take this at face value, however Beatrice is referring to Eddies un-natural affection for Catherine, which will shock Eddie. Marco then issues a challenge to Eddie, asking him to say what Rodolfo has done wrong. Eddie says that Catherine was never out on the street till twelve oclock at night before Rodolfo came. Marco instantly tells Rodolfo that he must come home early now. By saying this Marco has eliminated the supposed problem, which leaves Eddie with no problem in which he can camouflage his jealousy. Now that Eddie has no more problems but has a dented ego. He begins to create new problems, however he disguises them so that these problems are perceived as concern for Rodolfo; I mean suppose he gets hit by a car, wheres his papers, who is he, you know what I mean? Beatrice states that the same risk is generated during the day when he is at work. Here we see that Eddie is holding back a voice full of anger almost like a car revving up. This simple action is showing the rise in tension as a result of Eddies problem. Eddie now retreats to his rocking chair, showing that he is fighting a losing battle. As Eddie is reading his paper, awkwardness is felt in the room. Catherine reacts by putting the record Paper Doll on; the title in itself indicates the song content. Then Catherine is overcome with rebellion/revolt and asks Rodolfo to dance, causing Eddie to freeze and feel uncomfortable. Rodolfo realises this and refuses to dance however Beatrice and Catherine soon persuade him. As Eddie burns a hole through Rodolfos back he asks, Whats this, a new record? Eddie has heard this song many times before, however he is no hearing it through new ears, new jealous ears. When Marco reveals that Rodolfo is a very good cook, Eddie finds this amusing and mockingly says, Its wonderful. He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses. Thus making another dig at Rodolfo, implying that he has homosexual tendencies. Rodolfo mistakenly takes this as a compliment and smiles thankfully. This is another opportunity for Eddie to put Rodolfo down and he says that he should not be working on the boats but instead working in a dress shop. Yet again he phrases it so that it may be perceived as a compliment. During this speech he unconsciously twists his newspaper into a tight roll, which gives an insight into his somewhat angered/resentful thoughts and also symbolises the rise in tension.

Newspaper and Credibility Essay Example for Free

Newspaper and Credibility Essay In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an improper argumentation in reasoning often resulting in a misconception or presumption. Literally, a fallacy is an error in reasoning that renders an argument logically invalid It is important to use relevant, accurate, and reliable sources in a research paper. What do you need to consider when searching for useful sources? How do you know when sources are reliable? What are some warning signs that indicate you should avoid a particular source? If biases or fallacies are part of the source material that you want to use, how do you manage this issue? Sites which have org, . gov, .edu, as opposed to .com, are all sites that are usually credible sources. I frequent both the University of Phoenix website and Facebook. UOPs website is certainly credible vs. Facebook, not a credible site, which I mostly use to keep in touch with my family in California and Hawaii.Credibility with online sources is being a reviewed and published source, and example of a non-credible source is wikipedia because anyone can go in and change the sources of information. In order to verify the credibility of online sources, you can ask yourself the following questions. Does the author of this article have enough credentials or knowledge about this topic? Does the author subject his/her works to peer reviews? Is the information on this article updated or the latest? Does the site include information on how often the site is updated? Is a copyright date listed? Credibility doesnt matter in fiction. My space ship can fly at 1,000 times the speed of light and nobody cares. Credibility always matters in non-fiction. Even when looking for support for an opinion, it is important to consider the source. Credibility is most important if you want people to know that you are dependable and reliable and your word is good. If you say you are going to do something,they know it will be done and it is less important if you do not care what people think of you. For example:Your car is not running and buddy one says he will be over in the morning at 9 am to fix it for you and then never shows up. Buddy #2 says he will be over at 9 am and shows up at 8:30 am with tools in hand. Now which one of these two do you want to associate with? Advertising has a clear money-making agenda. But bias is prevalent in everyday situations, too. One way to better understand the difference between fact and opinion is to read the news in your local newspaper and then again in the tabloids. Watch what words are used in each one. See how many facts you can spot in each story. How do they differ? Demographic factors affect views toward advertising (Shavitt et al., 1998) as do endorser and corporate credibility (Lafferty Goldsmith, 1999) and an individual’s attitude â€Å"to a particular media product within a particular medium† (Bryant Thompson, 2002, p. 289). Attitudes toward advertising differ depending on gender, age, education, income, and ethnicity. The attitudes of males, consumers between the age of 18 and 34, consumers with less education and income, and non-Whites are generally more favorable toward advertising (Shavitt et al., 1998).The credibility of an advertiser also plays a role in how people view advertising. Any bias that a source holds may not always be directly stated; sometimes it is implied by only presenting one side or viewpoint of a topic. Some people believe that the media controls the world; I feel this claim has merit. Many people do not question information reported on the news, because what would the media gain by exaggerating a story or only presenting one side? One must keep in mind that the media is run by ratings; sensational stories make for great ratings. This is where thinking critically can be your best ally. Even a seemingly impartial source could have a hidden agenda. The vital factors that influence credibility of newspapers are the decline in newspaper sales, advertising, ownership of the newspaper agencies, and inaccuracy. The severe competition for magazine sales also causes magazines to exaggerate or misconstrue their stories. Other factors that can affect the credibility of magazines are the journalists. There are various genres of television programming. Television programming can vary form news to cooking shows. TV programs also exaggerate and over sensationalize their stories to grab the attention of viewers. Between television programming are advertising. In a sense, TV programs are basically a means to get people to watch commercials (Cyber College Internet Campus, 2007, paragraph 8). These factors of advertising and the competition for viewers affect the credibility of television programming. Factors that influence internet credibility are trustworthiness and expertise. Does the source have good intention? Is the source honest and unbiased? Is the author an experienced professional on the sources topic? Another factor, that influences the credibility of the internet, is that anyone can post her or his own website. They can claim that the website is trustworthy. Thus, it is vital that one evaluates the sources taken from the internet. Advertisers use various methods to persuade the public to purchase their products or services. Advertisers know how to make their products and services appealing without sufficient information. Advertising is designed to generate a need to buy certain brand-name products, which may be more expensive than lesser-known brands, while not being significantly better (Cyber College Internet Campus, 2007, paragraph 8). The fact that advertising will fallaciously depict or appeal to one emotions to sell a product is the most essential factor that affect credibility. I personally feel printed resources to be more credible. People increasingly rely on Internet and web-based information despite evidence that it is potentially inaccurate and biased. Newspapers, books, magazines, and television all undergo certain levels of factual verification, analysis of content, and editorial review, whereas Internet information is subject to no such scrutiny. Internet sites that parallel their print counterparts, such as major newspapers and periodicals, invoke the same editorial processes as their print forms, but they constitute only a small portion of the information available over the Internet. More people are turning to the internet because it is more of a convenience factor in my opinion. I stumbled across a study conducted on the credibility of printed resouces vs.online. I found it to be very interesting. Here is the link for those that are interested. http://com.miami.edu/car/miamibeach1.htm

Substance Abuse Prevention Program

Substance Abuse Prevention Program Substance abuse is a serious problem. It can cause a lot of problems in peoples day to day functioning. Problems of substance abuse can be correlated to family problems, health problems, school problems and also occupational problems. Bigger problems lay within adolescents that have substance abuse problems. Substance abuse of adolescents between the ages of 12 to 17 has increased to 11.4%. This data was collected in 1997 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration. Their data also presented an increase from 2.2% to 3.8% between the ages of 12 to 13 years old (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, 1999). Therefore it is to be said that substance abuse is becoming more relevant at younger ages as time progresses. According to the National Institution of Health, the abuse of Ecstasy has increased in 12th graders from 3.0% to 4.5% and has also increased in 10th grades from 2.4% to 3.5% between the years of 2005 to 2007. Hansen and Ponton indicat ed that adolescent risk behavior of the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs will only get worse in the future. Adolescents that continue to abuse substances often experience a number of problems. Another substance that adolescents are increasingly abusing is alcohol in which 40.9% of 10th graders reported they had been drunk in the past year. According to the DSM-IV a substance abuse can be diagnosed if there is a continual pattern of substance use resulting in either failing to complete task such as school, work, or home, risking the harm of others by operating heavy machinery while under the influence. If the recurrent substance also creates legal problems by getting arrested or creates social or interpersonal problems within a 12 month period is to be considered a substance abuse. Because of these dangerous affects this paper will focus on the prevention of substance abuse rather than treating it. Negative Consequences: Adolescents are taking more risk than ever before. The consequences of these risks can encounter problems that affect their health, their lives, and their futures (Danish, 1997). Because of this early age of substance abuse more and more adolescents who are being treated are found to have more social and emotional problems (Fisher Harrison, 2000). One major consequence of a substance abuse is that it can negatively affect users health. Adolescents that are abusing illicit drugs increase their risk of death by suicide, homicide, accidents and illness (McCaig, 1995). The results of the drug abuse warning network study revealed that drug related emergencies increased by 17 % (McCaig, 1995). Not only is the physical health perceived as a negative consequence but also the users mental health. Adolescent illegal drug use causes problems involving healthy psychological growth and functioning for a healthy lifestyle (Brook et al., 1998a). Substance abusers frequently leads to depression, developmental lags, apathy, withdrawal and psychosocial dysfunctions (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992).Substance abusers can also develop a wide cluster of personality disorders. One personality disorder that is associated with adolescent substance abuse is conduct disorder (Stratton, 1998). Conduct disorder consist of behavior and emotional problems in adolescents. Adolescents with this disorder are viewed as bad or delinquents. They have a difficult time following the basic social and cultural norms and rules in which they behave in ways that are considered socially unacceptable. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992) Another consequence that is related to adolescent substance abuse has to do with the performance in academics. Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller (1998) cited research revealing that low levels of commitment to education and high truancy rates are related to an adolescent substance abuse. Truancies rates are also know as inexcusable absences. Low commitment to school and inexcusable absents set up bigger problems for education in the future. These bigger problems include users producing low standings compared to their class and even dropping out of school. The school consequences are very important to consider in the development of adolescents. Education is one aspect that dictates ones present and future quality of life. School dropout rates are highly correlated with adolescents that have substance abuse problems (Crowe, 1998). It is important to understand the different causes of the negative effects from a substance abuse. The more knowledge we know the better chance we have to preven t it. Cause: One cause that can make an adolescent vulnerable to start abusing substances at an early age could be due to social influences. Instead of only looking at the individual for explanations of the cause/origin of adolescent substance abuse it is also important to consider the social influences in which adolescents are surrounded by as an important causal contribution. Chau-Kiu Cheung and John Wing-Ling (2008) had conducted a study concerning the impact of social influences of adolescent substance abuse. Their study was directed to demonstrate how social influences, such as social encouragement and support are relevant to a cause of a substance abuse (Cheung and Ling, 2003). An adolescent is more likely or at greater risk of substance abuse when the adolescent is helpless due to contextual unhappiness (Patterson, 1999). From the results of Cheung and Lings study (2003), found a main interaction between social influences and contextual unhappiness. When external social influences engage i n an adolescent while they are unhappy, can create a vulnerability to abuse a substance (Cheung and Ling, 2003). Adolescents being stressed combined with an external social influence (encouragement support) also creates a vulnerability to cause a substance abuse (Cheung and Ling, 2003). The overall findings from Chau-Kiu Cheung and John Wing-Lings study (2008) shows that external forces play an important role in an adolescent substance abuse. These external forces lay in lines of our environment (peers, family members, and others) and are a huge contributor to the cause of a substance abuse. The findings from the previous study suggested that our environment is a causal factor to substance abuse. To better understand why our environment possess causality to substance abuse, we need to determine what aspects, domains, or settings put adolescents at risk for becoming substances abusers. Settings that include risk factor can include families, peer groups, schools, and your community. The more risk factors that adolescents are exposed to, the more likely the child will abuse a substances. (Hawkins and Spoth, 2001) Risk factors that appear in a family setting converse around the parents. Furthermore the risk factors revolve around parental active roles of supervision and appear in family situation (Kumpfer, Olds, Zucker,1998). For example, if there is a lack of attachment or nurturing between the parent/caregiver while that adolescent is developing. A number of investigators have shown that a close and mutually warm bond between the parent and the child is associated with less adolescent abusing drugs (Brook et al., 1993;Schmidt et al., 1996). Also drug use by a parent or sibling has been found to cause a substance abuse (Conger and Rueter, 1996; Duncan et al., 1995; Kandel, 1990; Kazdin, 1987; Loeber and Dishion, 1983; Patterson et al., 1989). If a family member is or has abused a substance and if there is a poor relationship between the child and the parent will put adolescents at risk of a substance abuser (Brook et al., 1990, 1998b). Children that have used drugs were compared to kids that have not and were found to be three times more likely to have a family member who is or has abused a substance (Brooks, La Rosa,Whiteman, Johnson, Montoya, 2000). In a study done by Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) did research examining family drug use, parent and child relationship, and environmental factors that contribute to a cause of a substance abuse. Strong parent and child relationships were found to decrease the chances of a substance abuse. In this study, parent-child relationship were described by support, identification, and non-conflict relationships. Results from the study (200) about parental identification suggest for a better internal representation of the father will decrease the chances of a substance abuse. This means not only the mother but the father has to spend more time with the child engaging in his or her life. This creates a close mutual relationship that will allow the child to admire his or her parental figure as a role model according to Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2002). Another aspect of the parent-child relationship was found to decreased a substance abuse was the amount o f time the parent spends with his or her child. Furthermore by parents not having a close mutual relationship and not engaging with the child will create a risk factors for a substance abuse. Overall this research presented by Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) demonstrated that parental drug use and poor parent child relationships are key risk components to developing a substance abuse. (Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya, 2002) Environmental causes outside of the family home setting can decrease the chances of a substance abuse (Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya, 2002). For instance, by having children attend to church regularly. Church can teach morals, values, and give guidance about life. Brooks, La Rosa,Whieman, Johnson and Montoya (2000) also hit on the importance of neighborhoods being a component of an environmental cause. Neighborhoods that are found to have violence, drug availability, low familism and non regular attendance to church will increase the chance of causality of a substance abuse. Like I mentioned previously there is more than one domain or setting that can cause an adolescent being involved in substance abuse. Not only can the family play apart in the causality of developing a substance abuse but also schools. Instead of blaming the victim we can put blame on our school systems. For example, the classrooms adolescents are attending to might not be conducting good classroom behavior or good social skills. These skills play a big role in the developmental process of an adolescent. This leaves kids very vulnerable to external forces from the classroom. Not only can the classroom be the problem but the school itself. Schools offer a lot of social activity and interactions. While being at school adolescent are at risk of associate and becoming involved with adolescent that have a substance abuse problem. This also opens up new doors for the availability of getting a hold of drugs; quantity and variety. (NIDA, 2001) Pervious intervention: Although there are a variety of types of treatments that show positive effects for a substance abuse. I want to focus on preventing a substance abuse and not blame the victim. Some adolescent substance abuse programs have attempted school based approaches, community approaches, and family based approaches. Pervious school based drug prevention programs have focused on protective factors of social influences on drug abuse. Some have been successful by delaying the use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs for adolescents in middle school. Programs that have been targeted toward middle school have been found to miss the importance of the transition phase from middle school to high school. It is important to set prevention programs to gear in to adolescents that are making this transition phase. (Lynskeyet al., 2003) Another problem with previous prevention programs (ALERT) found that their programs affect boys more that girls. The cause of this problem still remains unknown (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). The Project ALERT program was focused on middle school students. This programmed aimed its principles to motivate youth against using drugs and develop skills for resistance behavior. Project ALERT used small group activities and used techniques to examine questions and answers. These are important components to an effective program (Tobler, 1992). Pervious trials of the ALERT program have produced positive results, but they found room for improvement. Their new program called ALERT PLUS is based off the same fundamental principles of their old program; however, they have made changes to address problems. The ALERT PLUS added changes to focus on developmental changes during the transition phase of middle school to high school. Developmental changes can affect opportunities and motivation to drug use (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). These developmental changes include friendship networks and dating opportunities. Overall, the new program goals were to strengthen norms a gainst drug use, help students cope with drug situation, and learn ways to quit. Furthermore they wanted to have a better educational system for teaching students consequences of drug and cope with emotional stress. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007) Pervious results from their old program were able to prevent and reduce marijuana and tobacco in 8th grade students. However the program was not able to help students how have already smoked cigarettes. Also the old program only affected alcohol use in the short-run and not long-run. Therefore the PLUS program strengthened their lessons to improve education on alcohol use and was designed to help those who have already smoked more than one cigarette. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007) The results of the ALERT PLUS program showed significant improvements. Girls in the PLUS program reported lower rates of weekly alcohol use. Girls in the plus program were compared to girls in the original program showing a reduction of alcohol by 32%. Reductions were also found in marijuana use by 49%. Another important finding that contributed to the new program was the scores of alcohol consequences and high risk alcohol use all showing improvements. (Longshore, Ellickson, McCaffrey, Clair, 2007). Other programs mostly rely on school teachers and police officers to educate the youth during school time. In my opinion they never left enough time that adolescents need to be well educated/rounded on substance abuse. This next prevention program created by Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, (2002) set its principles on family based substance abuse prevention. This program offers skills that are directed toward parents. These skills are designed to increase family communication and bonding. Skills in this direction will decrease the chances of an adolescent substance abuse. The families in Action (FIA), includes techniques for a stronger parent-child communication, positive behavior management, ways of interacting among the family, factors for school achievements, and education on substance abuse. These were designed to create a better overall relationship. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) The FIA programs goal was to increase resiliency and protective factors within the family. The program was aimed toward children who are entering middle school. This prevention took place between 1994 to1995. It involved 37 children and 38 parents. The program involved once a week sessions for six consecutive weeks. The session went no longer than 2.5hrs. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) Families were measured on three different accounts for pre and post data. They were measured on family cohesion, family communication, and family fights. Cohesion was measured by the family environment scale on a nine point rating. Family communication was also measured on a nine point scale by participants indications the number of times they had different behavioral patterns. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) There were no significant finding presented between children in the FIA program when compared to a baseline group. However, the parents produced an important finding when compared to the comparison group. Parents in the FIA program had lower scores on attitudes toward tobacco, an appropriate age to drink at, and family cohesion. (Abbey, Pilgrim, Hendrickson, Buresh, 2002) Program Description: Because substance abuse is becoming active at earlier and earlier ages as the time goes on, it is important to start prevention early in a childs life. What is needed is more consistent and long term adolescent substance abuse prevention that stays associated and involved with children during their courses of development. The program needs to be consistent by reaching out to where adolescent spend most of their time. This adolescent substance abuse program includes educations and developmental skills across the family and school settings. Because substance abuse can affect ones academics, physical and mental health and ones future, it is important to start prevention as early as 8 years old. For prevention to start this early prevention needs to be focused on families and more so on parents. One leading cause to a substance abuse is having a family history or a parent who was chemically dependent. Family members who were chemically dependent put their child to be genetically vulnerable to a substance abuse (Kumpfer, 1999). The first step of prevention is to get the parents to be well rounded and educated on drugs and substance abuse. Parents need to become aware of the origins of substance abuse. Meaning they need to know the causes and effects of a substance abuse. A great way for parents to become educated is to take part in neighborhood leader groups. Leader groups offer a great opportunity for getting and giving input and output. This also leads to another important prevention aspect in the family setting. Getting involved and paying attention to the child is important. Parents need to become very active when it comes to supervising. Staying involved with your child will heighten protective factors to outweigh the risk factors. Parental involvement is a crucial ingredient to preventing a substances abuse. Involvement doesnt just mean being around the kid when he/she is at home. Parents need to reach out past the home setting. A great skill for prevention is to get involved with your childrens interest. This can include friends, activities and their fantasies like a hero/role model. This is why it is important to take part in neighborhood leader groups. It gives the chance to know your childs friends and their families. Becoming aware of who their friends are, where they come from, and getting to know the parents makes for a very strong and effective way for staying involved and having a tight relationship. Getting to know your childs interest can really make a positive impact on the child an d is a great skill for prevention. For example, take your childs favorite superhero/role model and exemplify a new anti drug message once a week that has consequence toward that hero or role model. Parents being educated, staying involved with the childs interest and having good supervising skills offers a big part in keeping this prevention program consistent and long-term. Because it is important to keep the program consistent and long term in the development of the child, education and skills need to be implemented at school settings. At this point schools offer more risk factors than protective factors for substance abuse. Because of this window of risk factors and because schools take part in a big section of development of children; prevention needs to be enforced. Most school systems do not seem to be aware of the severity of negative effects of a substance abuse. This is apparent because of how high dropout rates are correlated to substance abuse in which rates are only going up. Instead of school systems only setting aside 15-20 minutes for drug awareness assemblies, school need to set aside more time for children just as their parents. In doing so the school systems have to change their academic system. They need to implement a full education class three days a week. Instead of the children just sitting in the class room and listening to the te acher, the class is going to involve a lot of participation. This participation will not only involve inside the classroom but will also take part as an extracurricular active outside of the school. By giving children extra actives to do outside and inside of school, will lessen the chance of them becoming involved with children that already have a substance abuse problem and take away from the availability of drugs. Inside the classroom teachers will be instructed to keep kids well rounded on types of drugs, health effects, academic affect, behavior affects and what a substance abuse can lead you to, like in the juvenile system. Activities inside the class room will be meant for participation toward learning coping skills, emotional control skills and social skills. Because this program is constructed to be long term and consistent, inside school classes and the extracurricular activities need to be practiced and implemented into school academic circular systems and not just as a b rief assembly or an announcement. The extracurricular actives outside of school are going to involve children reaching out into their communities beyond the school and family settings. This component to the program will stay active throughout the whole year and the summer so transition phases are not in effect. These activities will involve children from schools giving educational seminars in public place around their community. They will take what they have learned from inside the classroom and propose anti drug messages consistently across their community. Seminars will include places such as libraries, parks, beaches, neighborhoods, churches and shopping centers. Unlike other program this program needs to stay consistent and long-term through the stage of development. That is why this program is implemented into the family, school and beyond. In summary, this educational and skills substance abuse prevention program will strengthen the protective factors and weaken the risk factors of a substance abuse. For this program to be affective it has to take place in our families and school staying consistent and long term. All the aspects of family and school settings combine to create a chance of involvement of socializing creating strong relationship in a positive manner for being substance free. By having the protective factors outweigh the risk factors we can stop this continual pattern of adolescent substance abuse.

Three Strikes Law Essay -- Law, Recidivism, Career Criminals

Three Strikes Law Recidivism is a tendency to relapse into a former pattern of behavior or a tendency to return to criminal behavior. Many studies have been conducted about criminals who begin with petty crimes (misdemeanors) that repeat the same crimes or graduate to serious crimes (felonies). The fear of repeat offenders and the increase of recidivism ignited the federal and state governments to seek harsher ways to protect citizens’ safety. Mike Reynolds a photographer whose daughter, Kimber, was murdered in1992 during a purse snatching incident introduced the Three Strikes Law in 1993. State legislators did consider and rejected this law because they believed the measures were harsh and costly. However, the Three Strikes Law received national attention from a second incident, the 1993 kidnapping of Polly Klaas from her Petaluma home. Polly was kidnapped and murdered by Richard Allen Davis who was on parole during this time. Because of this second incident, in January 1994 during Preside nt Clinton’s State of the Union Address, he requested for the enactment of a federal Three Strikes Law. In March 1994, California passed the Three Strikes bill. â€Å"Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy criticized the politics surrounding the enactment of the Three Strikes Law of California’s famous recidivist sentencing scheme as ‘sick’† (Romano, 2010). Although the Three Strikes Law centers on California, Washington was the first state to adopt the law while California followed with a broader version. According to Dickey and Hollenhorst (1999), â€Å"23 states and the federal government adopted some form of â€Å"three strikes and you’re out† law intending to target repeat violent offenders (p.1). The law varies among states, but the intent i... ... of offenders convicted on a second strike and 44 percent of those convicted on a third strike† (p. 10). Overcrowding Conclusion Generally, the Three Strikes Law is effective. It has met the goals of deterrence and incapacitation of career criminals without putting a strain on state budgets and overcrowding prisons. The law has progressed to ensure that it targets only career criminals. Each state has its own methods of exercising preferences to ensure the law is fairly applied. The Three Strikes Law focuses on individuals and determines whether they receive longer sentencing because of their past criminal conduct. Justice O’Connor explained, â€Å"Recidivism is a serious public safety concern in California and throughout the nation† (Goodno, 2007). The law was enacted to handle this concern, and currently, the law is showing that it is doing its job.

Point of View on the Cask Bridge Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the minds of many, legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous shower scene in the 1960 classic Psycho brought the phrase â€Å"point of view† into the language of the general public. What most do not realize is that those in the many spectrums of entertainment have been taking full advantage of the benefits brought on by an audience being dealt a limited field of vision for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Prior to the advent of film and theater, the best place to find this method in use was literature. The origin of the point of view in literature can be traced back to the earliest forms of literature, where much of what was dictated and recorded was recounted from life experiences. It is of no surprise to most that the idea of point of view stayed, and evolved into many subsections, thanks in full to the fact that every story has a point of view. In the 19th century, point of view hit a creative peak, with the wildly inventive writers of the period finding new avenues to pursue with their works. Stories from that time period authored by individuals such as Edgar Allen Poe and Ambrose Bierce are still read today. What allows Poe’s â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and Bierce’s â€Å"Occurrence of Owl Creek Bridge† to be taught as shining examples of wonderful literature are not expert characterizations, moody settings, or heart-wrenching themes as one may expect after studying their other works. Instead, it is the point of view methods that both authors employ that make their works so revered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When many think of Edgar Allen Poe, their recollection of the man most likely comes back to his gothic classic, â€Å"The Raven.† Despite parodies of the story appearing on classic television shows such as â€Å"The Simpsons,† â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is probably the last Poe story the average person will identify by name. The subject matter of â€Å"Amontillado,† though, is not something that would normally be the topic of ridicule. It’s a frightening tale of revenge, humiliation, and murder. Just as Hitchcock would do over a hundred years later, Poe chooses for his audience to see the story through the eyes of a character that is far from the usual suspect; a murderer. Written forty years before the â€Å"Sherlock Holmes† era of literature, where stories found themselves based on a well-mannered detective who solved crimes instea... ... breaks, leading him to fall into the water beneath the bridge that was to be the sight of his death. The story follows Farquhar as he escapes the barrage of bullets flying at him, even making it far enough to nearly embrace his wife. It is then, unexpectedly, that Bierce introduces the truth to the audience; it was all in Peyton’s head. â€Å"Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.† The innovative narration by Bierce, who wrote hundreds of works during his life, marks this tale as a true classic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Each of these stories both represent two different point of view forms. Originating from two equally amazing writers, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† continue to survive the test of time. When one considers that vast amount of literature published before the 21st century, it is a feat in itself to even be a part of a literature anthology. But to be a highlight of that anthology, as Edgar Allen Poe and Ambrose Bierce’s expert use of point of view allows them to, is an even more staggering feat regardless of the eyes being looked through. Point of View on the Cask Bridge Essay -- essays research papers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the minds of many, legendary director Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous shower scene in the 1960 classic Psycho brought the phrase â€Å"point of view† into the language of the general public. What most do not realize is that those in the many spectrums of entertainment have been taking full advantage of the benefits brought on by an audience being dealt a limited field of vision for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Prior to the advent of film and theater, the best place to find this method in use was literature. The origin of the point of view in literature can be traced back to the earliest forms of literature, where much of what was dictated and recorded was recounted from life experiences. It is of no surprise to most that the idea of point of view stayed, and evolved into many subsections, thanks in full to the fact that every story has a point of view. In the 19th century, point of view hit a creative peak, with the wildly inventive writers of the period finding new avenues to pursue with their works. Stories from that time period authored by individuals such as Edgar Allen Poe and Ambrose Bierce are still read today. What allows Poe’s â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and Bierce’s â€Å"Occurrence of Owl Creek Bridge† to be taught as shining examples of wonderful literature are not expert characterizations, moody settings, or heart-wrenching themes as one may expect after studying their other works. Instead, it is the point of view methods that both authors employ that make their works so revered.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When many think of Edgar Allen Poe, their recollection of the man most likely comes back to his gothic classic, â€Å"The Raven.† Despite parodies of the story appearing on classic television shows such as â€Å"The Simpsons,† â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is probably the last Poe story the average person will identify by name. The subject matter of â€Å"Amontillado,† though, is not something that would normally be the topic of ridicule. It’s a frightening tale of revenge, humiliation, and murder. Just as Hitchcock would do over a hundred years later, Poe chooses for his audience to see the story through the eyes of a character that is far from the usual suspect; a murderer. Written forty years before the â€Å"Sherlock Holmes† era of literature, where stories found themselves based on a well-mannered detective who solved crimes instea... ... breaks, leading him to fall into the water beneath the bridge that was to be the sight of his death. The story follows Farquhar as he escapes the barrage of bullets flying at him, even making it far enough to nearly embrace his wife. It is then, unexpectedly, that Bierce introduces the truth to the audience; it was all in Peyton’s head. â€Å"Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.† The innovative narration by Bierce, who wrote hundreds of works during his life, marks this tale as a true classic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Each of these stories both represent two different point of view forms. Originating from two equally amazing writers, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† continue to survive the test of time. When one considers that vast amount of literature published before the 21st century, it is a feat in itself to even be a part of a literature anthology. But to be a highlight of that anthology, as Edgar Allen Poe and Ambrose Bierce’s expert use of point of view allows them to, is an even more staggering feat regardless of the eyes being looked through.

Black Women in Art Essay -- essays research papers fc

Black Women in Art Historically and currently African American women use art as a way to express themselves, their emotions and as an act of resistance. In this paper, I will discuss the various ways two very influential artists, Laurie Cooper and Lorna Simpson, use imagery to uncover and forefront the various forms of oppression that affect their lives as African American women. Since the late 1970s, African American art, as a form of self expression, explores issues which concern African peoples worldwide. During this time period, African American artists use symbols which represent the struggles, despair, hopes and dreams of a people striving to debunk prominent stereotypes and dismantle the intersecting oppressions of race, class and gender. Despite the long history of African American art, many black artists in contemporary society still have a difficult time getting their art viewed or accepted by the masses. Society, in general, tends to look at African art as ethnic, trivial, simple, folk art, perhaps even collectable, but not worthy of true in-depth exploration of fine art accreditation. However, Laurie Cooper and Lorna Simpson disrupt these perceptions in their art. Lorna Simpson, a photographer, was born in New York during the sixties. Still residing there today, she remains active in the art world. Simpson brings much attention to a cause near and dear to her, the â€Å"situation of black women in society.† The ambiguity in her photographs allows the viewer to evaluate the meaning of her work and to draw their own conclusion with her spirit in mind. An excellent example of this is in her piece Counting(1991). The Albright-Knox Art Gallery helps interpret the piece: Lorna Simpson’s work, Counting, contains three images: a fragment of a woman’s body, a small brick hut, and a group of braids. The figure is anonymous and wears a white shift, Simpson’s preferred costume for her models. She likes the simplicity; she believes that it indicates what she terms "femaleness," without bringing up issues of fashion; and she also likes the fact that there are many possible interpretations for such an outfit. The times to the right of the figure might indicate work shifts, but the schedules are unrealistic if considered closely. Other possibilities for what they might mean are open to viewer interpretation. The central image shows a smoke house in Sout... ...e, the work is not answer oriented. It’s intentionally left open-ended. There’s not a resolution that just solves everything. This statement leaves the viewer free to form their own conclusion and remain open to various interpretations. Lorna Simpson and Laurie Cooper help to change the world for the better by addressing confrontational, silenced issues by opening the eyes of the world to all of the â€Å"isms† that plague society and gives us hope for the future. Both women subvert traditional imagery, physically and psychologically in prominent historic and current representations of African American’s historically and currently in American society. This subversion allows their artwork to escape the marginalization of African American art as seemingly â€Å"ethnic folk art† and exposes their works as tools for social progression. Bibliography 1. 2. 3. 4. Jorge Arango. â€Å"At Home with Lorna Simpson.† Essence Magazine, 2002, p.172 5. Audre Lorde. â€Å"Beyond the Margins† Words of Fire, The New Press, 1995, p.287

How Works Electoral College

Write an essay that explains how the Electoral College works. How does the Electoral College shape the strategy of candidates? Why is it harder to win presidential elections post 1968? Every four years, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November, millions of U. S. citizens go to local voting booths to elect, among other officials, the next president and vice president of their country. Their votes will be recorded and counted, and winners will be declared.But the results of the popular vote are not guaranteed to stand because the Electoral College has not cast its vote. thinking of the 2000 U. S. presidential election — Gore won the popular vote (more Americans voted for him), but Bush actually won the presidency, because he was awarded the majority of the votes in the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of the popularly elected representatives (electors) who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have b een 538 electors in each presidential election. 1] Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution specifies how many electors each state is entitled to have and that each state's legislature decides how its electors are to be chosen. U. S. territories are not represented in the Electoral College. The Electoral College is an example of an indirect election. The election for President and Vice President is not a direct election by United States citizens. Citizens vote for electors, representing a state, who are the authorized constitutional participants in a presidential election.The Twelfth Amendment provides for each elector to cast one vote for President and one vote for Vice President. The final electors for each state are voted on by the state's residents on voting day Today, a candidate must receive 270 of the 538 votes to win the election. In cases where no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the decision is thrown to the House of Representatives by virtue of the 12th Amendment. The House then selects the president by majority vote with each state delegation receiving one vote to cast for the three candidates who received the most electoral votes.Electoral College is a block, or weighed, voting system that is designed to give more power to the states with more votes, but allows for small states to swing an election, as happened in 1876. Under this system, each state is assigned a specific number of votes that is proportional to its population, so that each state's power is representative of its population. So, while winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory, a candidate must gain popular support of a particular state to win the votes in that state.The goal of any candidate is to put together the right combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes. In 2000, as the election approached, some observers thought that Bush, interestingly also the son of a former president, could win the popular vote, but t hat his opponent, Gore, could win the Electoral College vote because Gore was leading in certain big states, such as California, New York and Pennsylvania. In the end, Gore secured the popular vote, but Bush won by securing the majority of votes in the Electoral College.The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial United States presidential election. It was a wrenching national experience, conducted against a backdrop that included the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and subsequent race riots across the nation, the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses, and violent confrontations between police and anti-war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.On November 5, 1968, the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon won the election over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Hum phrey. Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore â€Å"law and order†. Some consider the election of 1968 a realigning election that permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years. It was also the last election in which two opposing candidates were vice-presidents