Jfk Assassinaton Essays - Kennedy Family, , Term Papers

Jfk Assassinaton J.F.K. Assassination If Lee Harvey Oswald killed J.F.K. and it wasn't a conspiracy, then why is the government still withholding reports done on the assassination from the public's eyes, in the FBI's possession? President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 on November 22. He was elected president in 1961. First he was a senator. Then he went straight from Capitol Hill to the White House. Robert Kennedy was attorney general and was J. F. K.'s brother. He was head of the investigation of the assassination after Kennedy was killed (3: 1-5). Both Robert and J. F. K. knew that people wanted to kill them. J. F. K. didn't worry about it. But after John F. Kennedy was killed, his brother Robert Kennedy ordered that the casket was to be kept closed to public viewing. Robert thought it would have been him to get killed first, not his brother (5: 83). Robert encouraged his brother to sign three anti-crime bills. The bills targeted organized crime. They were used to stop gambling or at least crack down on it (7: NP). But even with the bills, the FBI director, Hoover, was afraid to go after the mob before the assassination because he thought his agents would become corrupt, and because Castro knew about the conspiracy against him. Hoover even told his agents that if the Mafia caught them, they would be fired and would be treated as a renegade (5: 84). The government didn't approve of the crack down on the mob that was in America. Teddy Kennedy loved busting the Mafia. People like Jimmy Hoffa. Even Frank Sinatra became close friends with Teddy, even made trips to the White House (3: 12-18). But just like his brother John, Robert was also killed (3: 105). After the assassination Robert carried on the bills and got killed also (3: 105). In 1962 Cuba was known to have missiles from the Soviet Union in Cuba. They thought Cuba or the Soviet Union would make a nuclear strike. Accused of helping the soviet union wage war on the U.S., enemies and suspects were made (7: NP). Neither the FBI nor the CIA approved of getting into the Vietnam War. They didn't approve of any of the president's decisions (3: 105). There were three shots, even a possible four. Some people think that the last shot was one from an agent's gun going off into J.F.K.'s head after reacting to the shots (5: 84-85). The first shot missed. The second shot hit J.F.K.'s shoulder, back, and throat; and Connally's shoulder, wrist, and leg (5: 84-85). But how could one bullet travel with that much force to go through all of that flesh? The third shot was fatal to Kennedy but was very far away, very accurate, and deadly efficient (5: 99). Even the FBI's best couldn't shot with Oswald's gun that accurately (5: 84-85). The gun was tested by the FBI and was found to be off centered. Many people coming from the grassy knoll heard the possible fourth shot. Someone was also seen running away from the knoll and was seen lingering there before the shots rang out. Whoever it was seemed to look like a FBI agent. The three shots that rang out on that very famous day can not be done in that same amount of time or with that accuracy even today (5: 84-85). Oswald was a very simple person with many mental problems. He mail ordered the gun that he supposedly shot Kennedy with. It only cost 21 dollars and was bought under a bogus name (5: 90). And after buying the gun Oswald had his wife take a picture of him holding the gun up by his side (3: 1-3). Why would Oswald take a picture of himself and the gun if he was planning to kill the President? You can't expect a very good shot to come from a mail order gun for 21 dollars and with a mental case handling it. During the middle of the cold war Oswald ran to Russia and came home disillusioned. Oswald tried to get citizenship in Moscow and when they refused him he cut his wrists (5: 71). And soon after Oswald met with Valery

Cosmic Time Travel essays

Cosmic Time Travel essays The book Cosmic Time Travel, by Barry Parker, is about finding out if time travel is possible or not. Is time traveling possible? Time traveling is possible and is proved by many scientists, such as Albert Einstein, Roy Kerr, Nathan Rosen, Schwarzschild and Stephen Hawking. The question is how? To Travel time, you will need to travel through a wormhole in space. The wormhole is not visible, but astronomers can point it out in space. A wormhole is an empty space, surrounded by galaxies (See picture below). Earlier on, the scientists discovered that passing through a wormhole is impossible. If a spaceship attempts to travel through this wormhole, it would pinch off, crushing the ship and the crew. In addition, severe stretching forces will be encountered as you enter the wormhole. They would pull you apart; in fact you would be stretched into a piece of string. And finally, if you did somehow manage to survive after getting into this wormhole, you would encounter high radiation levels. They would be so high that you would be literally fried. The problems were so severe that scientists soon abandoned the idea. As far as they were concerned, time travel was impossible. This was a great disappointment to science fiction writers and many scientists. For many years it seemed that time travel was beyond the reach of mankind. No one knew the way around the difficulties. Then, in the late 1980s, an important breakthrough was made. Scientists discovered that wormholes could be made traversal . The instability, or pinching off, could be prevented by applying a special balm to the sides of the wormhole. But this is no ordinary balm; nothing like this was known on Earth. It was so strange, and different, that scientists referred to it as exotic matter. When this exotic matter is applied to the wormhole, it can not pinch off. Furthermore, it was soon found that the stretching forces would be minimal, but unfortu...

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 70

History - Essay Example The Athenians were innocent of this (Kagan). As a matter of fact, the Athenians did not join in the battle at Corcyra until their defeat was imminent. The Athenian siege of Potidaea did not cause the war as this was an act of defense against the true aggressor, Corinth. Corinth had been sworn into a binding oath to respect the dominion and rule of the Athenians in Potidaea. By sending military forces to Potidaea, Corinth had broken the treaty. Athens, as a sovereign state, has every legal right and mandate to control the economic issues and aspects of the empire. The treaty that had been signed by both parties did not specify that one party could not issue a decree against the other (Thucydides, Hammond and Rhodes). This means that Athens was within its legal and rightful power to issue the decree against Megara. In conclusion, the Athenians did not in any way cause the war. Certain policies may have played a role in fueling the war, but considering the facts that are specific to this war, the Athenians acted within the law. Their actions served to protect their sovereignty within its

Environmental Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Environmental Management - Essay Example Effects of floods may be limited to either a small area or a wide area. United Kingdom is one of those countries that are greatly affected by flood over the last 3-4 years. In 2007 the country saw one of the most devastating floods in its history. This report includes the major causes of floods. Furthermore the significant risks and immediate impacts that are caused by the floods are also included in this report. Moreover the report identifies various agencies and their role in the massive flood that took place in 2007 in Sheffield. An effective environmental management system should be in place to deal with situations like flood. In this report the effectiveness of such a system is evaluated. Lastly the report contains a conclusion that includes the summery and major findings of the research. There are several contributory factors that cause flood. A particular incident of flood can be seen as a result of either one contributing factor or multiple contributing factors. Floods can be divided in two separate categories namely river flood and coastal flood. There are three different hazards that cause these two types of floods. These are atmospheric hazard, technologic hazard and tectonic hazard. Each of these hazards are actually result of several other contributing factors like rainfall, ice jam, snow melt, landslides, dam failures, tsunamis and storm surges. These factors can be considered as the major contributory factors that lead to floods. A clear picture can be obtained from the following figure. Atmospheric hazards like rainfall, landsides and ice jam are the main causes of river floods. Among them rainfall is perhaps the most important as well as most common cause. Excessive rainfalls that vary from random convectional storms to semi-predictable seasonal rains can cause flash floods as well as annual floods in the tropical regions. The areal coverage and duration of the rainfall is dependent on the precipitation. In the words of Keith Richards

Interest groups in the U.S. politics Essay Example for Free

Interest groups in the U.S. politics Essay The United States is a democratic country, which supports non-violent political and social movements, seeking different improvements in the U. S. domestic and international policies. That is to say, the requirements of interest groups are not always met, because whereas various types of interest groups are acknowledged, there still exist those factions, which have narrow social base and whose political presentation is limited in scope, as a rule, to financial interests of their members. For instance, the sugar lobbies (such as SIG) represent the opinion of 10, 000 -15,000 farmers, who call for the restriction of import of sugar and for the special social programs for sugar farmers. Such factions are usually intended as those with narrow interests and their founders and members lobby these interests in special moments and periods, when the atmosphere becomes more conductive for promotion –for instance, when they find out that the imported sugar does not fir into the international quality standards, or before the elections (Elhauge, 2002). Special interest groups are usually distinguished from â€Å"constituency-representing organizations, which have a broad social base, address a wide range of issues, and balance members’ interests with a strong commitment to the commonwealth† (Etzioni, 1990, p. 172). These organizations might pursue such non-financial interests as those related to social status, value issues in addition to financial ones, for instance the Urban League represents the interests of urban residents and seek environmental, social and political changes in large cities. â€Å"While the public views interest groups as threatening pluralistic democracy, the conventional wisdom of political science has seen them as beneficial† (ibid). In fact, it is possible to assume from the present situation, that the most beneficial activity is related to the constituency-representation. Furthermore, special interest groups are likely to bring problems to larger factions, due to dynamic interactions between political parties, movements and non-profit organizations. Small factions pursuing narrow goals are also more likely to use ‘black PR’ technologies, directed to changing public attitudes towards certain political parties and either to increase or to decrease loyalty rates. On the other hand, the eradication of small ‘narrowly-specialized’ factions is neither possible nor useful, as the statement that competing factions (Mcwilliams, 1988) are likely to reduce each other, is valid only for small groups, whose interests are temporary. On the contrary, constituency-representing organizations are more likely to produce long-term programs including political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of human life. â€Å"The balance between interest groups and the shared polity is maintained most effectively when the pro-community forces rise up, but not higher than, the level they are able to contain but not suppress interest groups† (Mcwilliams, 1988, A9). Moreover, the role of factions is viewed in the context of the historical development of the United States. Over the last three decades, the American political institutions have become less integrated, and the power of factions has increased. On the other hand, due to the growth of their number, it is much more difficult nowadays to maintain the balance between the main political course and the consent between the state and narrower interest groups (Etzioni, 1990). It would be also important to mention the functions of interest groups. First of all they serve as a supplementary force that intensifies the public opinion representation, especially during the electoral process. Moreover, they make the political process more receptive comparing to the electoral process, which is intended as a domination of majorities, while factions are more likely to have goals, which are cohesive with the main wishes of social and national minorities; and thus they serve as a mediating force standing between the person and the state. Interest groups are known to improve the disproportionate separation of the legislative and the executive branches, because their propositions of legislative changes are logically supplemented by similar propositions for the executive branch. Another important cultural function is associated with the growth of political consciousness and political culture as well as the amount of political information in media, which represents a number of standpoints. At all times interest groups and political parties served an indicator of public consciousness and diversity as well as intensified political antagonism, especially in the most critical periods: for instance, during the Vietnamese military invasion, Carter’s position were actually weakened by interest groups, including the most peaceful youth movements, dissatisfied with the resolution of Iranian hostage crisis. As a rule, interest groups arise in the most conductive atmosphere (liberal or democratic regime), in which human rights and freedoms are declared. Political, economic and social factions can originate from professional unions or leagues (like social workers’ professional organization), which seek to represent the opinions of their professional group or their customers’ viewpoint (for instance, social workers nowadays initiate law enforcement and the adoption of certain legal acts as well as get directly involved in lobbyist activities). The discontent with government policies is another important recondition for the arousal of an interest group: political activity is actually determined by the existing economic and social policies, so it’s easy to predict, for instance, the activation of industrial unions, when under the pressure of ecological groups, the U. S. government or certain local authorities put additional taxation on enterprises, dealing with toxic substances or with oil and natural gas. It is also important to note that interest groups will exist as long as the democratic system exists, because it is impossible to satisfy the needs of the whole society with respect to its diversity. Consequently, those concerns, which have already been satisfied, are likely to be replaced by new demands. This means, human needs are immeasurable and never-ending, whereas material resources are limited, so the U. S. government today can provide only partial gratification of political claims. Furthermore, the issue of representation is also quite contradictory: on the one hand, the growth of diversity among political parties signifies positive dynamics in this sense, on the other hand, due to the increase of public consciousness, the diversity in worldviews has grown disproportionably to the number of existing factions, so that even small groups (families, local communities) seek social or economic support, but in this case we cannot speak about true representation, since their influence is insufficient to initiate the changes at legislative or executive levels. The representation of each citizen’s interests is a utopia, as at the present time only large (more than 100,000 members) interest groups can achieve representation, can be heard, if speaking figuratively. Furthermore, it is important to note that the complete representation is inhibited by the demands of the epoch, to which self-respecting factions are supposed to adjust. For instance, the ISN movement, whose leaders several years ago (in 2000-2001) called for the changes in the U. S.immigration policy and were representing the viewpoints of national and ethnic minorities, who live and work in the country (Elhauge, 2002), has changed its directions and now are trying to create more constructive basis for the U. S. foreign policy. On the one hand, it is associated with the events of September 11, which were close followed by the violations of Muslim minorities’ human rights. On the other hand, political changes forced this faction to make a more profound inquiry into the current state of affairs and to find the most acute concerns of the society. Similar dynamics can be noticed in a number of special and constituency-representing interest groups which removed irrelevant concerns and posed new questions, such as those related to women’s rights, ethnic minorities’ human rights, social security and intellectual property. As one can assume, certain interests remain overlooked or underrepresented, whereas the most ‘fashionable’ sociopolitical trends (gender equality) are overstated and therefore prioritized. Works cited 1) Elhauge, E. Does interest group theory justify more intrusive judicial review? Yale Law Journal, 2002, Vol. 110 2) Etzioni, A. Special interest groups versus constituency representation: Research in social movements. Conflict and Change, 1990, Vol. 8. 3) Mcwilliams, R. The best and the worst of public interest groups; from lifting up the poor to shaking down the elderly, Washington Monthly, March 1988, Vol. 20.

The Category of the Individual Essay -- Sociology Sociological Papers

The Category of the Individual In The Order of Things, Michel Foucault argues that there is a "pure experience of order and its modes of being" (Foucault xxi), that order exists and that it is necessary. Foucault is concerned with language because it is a mode by which we maintain order in the world, and according to his argument, what we should fear are heterotopias, which "undermine language," "make it impossible to name this and that," "shatter or tangle common names," and "destroy 'syntax' in advance" (Foucault xviii). When Foucault refers to 'syntax,' he is not just talking about our method of constructing sentences but "also that less apparent syntax which causes words and things (next to and also opposite one another) to 'hold together'" (Foucault xviii). In other words, there is need for us to take into account how the things in our world are related to each other. One of the ways in which we do this is through the method of categorization, which allows us to organize our world according to similarities an d differences. However, Foucault stresses us to be cautious, to realize that "we shall never succeed in defining a stable relation of contained to container between each of these categories and that which includes them all" (Foucault xvii). An all-inclusive category does not exist; it cannot exist. Foucault insists on the need to pay attention to what is present in the "empty space, the interstitial blanks separating all these entities from one another" (Foucault xvi). It is not that language is inadequate; it is just that we must be conscious of not only what is stated but also what is not directly stated, what is contained inside language and what is outside language. When we organize the things in the world in... ...gle words. I don't believe in 'sadness,' 'joy,' or 'regret.' Maybe the best proof that language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling" (Eugenides 217). We must realize that the only "normal" that exists is what is "normal" to the individual, to us. Our categories do not define us; we define ourselves. Through our experiences, we create identities that are unique to us, and we, as "others," must learn to value our individual experiences because that is where the answer is, where it always has been. Works Cited: Eugenides, Jeffrey. Middlesex. New York: Picador, 2002. Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Vintage Books. Moraga, Cherrà ­e. "The Breakdown of the Bicultural Mind." Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity. Eds. Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi. New York: Routledge.

The Rabbits, New Australians, and Romulus, My Father: Experiences of Immigrants

People experience a sense of belonging in varied and complex ways. How is this explored in the texts you have studied? In your response, refer closely to your prescribed text and to at least TWO other related texts of your own choosing. The migrant experience describes an individual’s change form one social context to another. Such a vast difference of results in a complicated confrontation of values. Hence a sense of belonging lies inherent in the individual’s ability to marry or reconcile identity with their social environment. Raimond Gaita’s semi-autobiographical memoir Romulus, My Father and the Australian’s feature article Alice Pung on New Australians both explore the difficulties faced when immigrating and how a new found sense of belonging occurs through a transformation of identity and values. John Marsden and Shawn Tan’s picture book The Rabbits use the graphical and written to demonstrate the loss of identity due to a loss of belonging that occurred in the white settlement of Australia. It is inherent in human nature to have a desire for belonging. This is evident in Romulus’ seeking out those of a similar history to him, namely Mitru and Hora, whose varied experience is more similar, his than Australians. In simple characteristics, such as a common language, they form a bond. â€Å"Having arrived at the camp [Romulus] set out to find those like him†. However having to work amongst and with the people of this new social context requires Romulus to confront the differences of values between him and that of Australia. Romulus has to compromise his ideals to that of Australia in order for Australia to accept him. He builds towards the Australian dream of owning a house and time to provide for Raimond the best. However Romulus also examples tat it is indeed a compromise not an assimilation of values. He finds the Australians to be â€Å"lazy† and â€Å"incompetent†. In embracing his won values of respect, honours and hard work, Romulus influences the Australian community he lives in where they come to affectionately call him Jack. Similarly, Pung’s article on her family’s migration from war torn Vietnam to Australia explorers the transformation of identity to achieve belonging. Her father fully embraces Australia ideals â€Å"to be like them ad survive† reading newpapers, having an opinion on Australian politics and opening a Retrovision franchise. She outlines the line between belonging and not belonging in the understanding of each other. â€Å"At first they stared with their eyes wide opened their mouths firmly shut. Now they laugh with their mouths wide open and their eyes firmly shut. † However, as Mitru and Christine show that an inability to marry both identity and community, Pung’s mother does the same. Never learning English or â€Å"embracing Australian society other than as a supermarket shopper† Pung’s mother becomes depressed and reclusive. The Rabbits describe the same destructive effect of not being able to reconcile identity and belonging together. The picture book reverses the situation to where the migrant rabbits assimilated their identity onto the culture, thus removing the identity of the native bilbies. Than contrasts the two cultures, in the brown and green colour of their land before the sterile white buildings of the rabbits. The bilbies gather throughout the book together, interacting each other compared to the uniformed rabbits, who are numbered and constantly demarcating, enclosing and tracing the land. Each component of the rabbits migration reflect destruction and conflict as represented by the giants machines that â€Å"eat up our grass† and the rams and sheep marked out. The bilbies are unable to reconcile their identity with the rabbits’ new society â€Å"They didn’t live in trees like us† and hence are decimated. â€Å"Who will save us form the rabbits? † An identity describes the context to which an individual belong to. In the migrant experience the individual’s ability to belong relies on the successfulness of their complicated marriages of ideals and values that vary for each individual.