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The abortion controversy is the contemporary moral debate that simply will not die, and opposing ideas of the issue seem totally irreconcilable. Although the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade made legal access to abortion the law of the land as of 1973, the war of words that preceded the decision has dogged it in a variety of ways since that time. Because the abortion decision is weighted with moral and cultural as well as psychological predicates, dramatically antagonistic perspectives of abortion as such and the decision for abortion inform debate on the issue. The abortion debate is not confined to opinion holders and makers or even to pregnant women but rather has implications for public policy and those who face the decision. The purpose of this research is to examine the debate with a view toward identifying the basis of various positions as deontological, utilitarian, or based on virtue ethics. The plan of the research will be to address the issue fron

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Introduction Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the United States and in the world. It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 who determined that mass merchandising would be a successful marketing strategy in rural America; an area populated with small and medium-sized towns that were considered too small to be served by national retailers such as Sears. These areas were served by Sears' catalog, which had proved successful, but residents depended on small local retailers with limited selections of goods if they wanted to purchase and take home an item immediately. Wal-Mart recognized that if it could move goods to these communities effectively, and offer a greater variety, it could offer low prices and immediate gratification to shoppers. Walton did not pioneer mass merchandising; Kmart and Sears both preceded him in this area but Walton refined the idea by combining a highly efficient distribution system with a new analysis of demographics to generate a new busi

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To most modern societies, the mention of pirates conjures up the image of swashbuckling men in eyepatches with peglegs and tricorn hats, perhaps with parrots perched on their shoulders, robbing ships in the Elizabethan era of their treasure. Piracy dates as far back as ancient Greece, or possibly beyond, however, and its "golden age" ran from approximately 1650 to 1720, a period when the Atlantic was terrorized by 2,000 or so pirates (Adams, 2007). Pirates were not the amusing Pirates of the Caribbean variety but were "murderous and cruel," perpetrating attacks that were "frequently accompanied by extreme violence, torture, and death" (Adams, 2007). Interestingly, though, there has been a resurgence of piracy in recent years that has made the issue a modern problem as well. In fact, so far in 2009, the International Maritime Bureau reports a minimum of 80 commercial cargo ships attacked in the Gulf of Aden, along with 19 successful hijackings; 2008 saw 111 ships attacked and

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Today's Hip Hop generation is markedly different from the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King's generation, but the message put forth by both generations is very similar. Derrick P. Alridge (2005, p. 226), in his article "From Civil Rights to Hip Hop: Toward a Nexus of Ideas," points out that today's Hip Hop artists have upheld the principles of the earlier Civil Rights Movement but have done so in the vernacular common today. He suggests that Hip Hop has essentially taken the Civil Rights Movement's platform and brought it forward to the 21st century to make it relevant to contemporary society rather than allowing it to remain an anachronism from the past. The question debated by some, though, is whether Hip Hop has hurt or improved on the advances made during the Civil Rights Movement. In large part, the answer is that Hip Hop has improved on the earlier movement. In an interview for Nati

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Different cultures often use language in substantially different ways, making cross-cultural communication problematic. In the article "Cultural Intelligence: Understanding Behaviors that Serve People's Goals," by Richard Brislin, Reginald Worthley, and Brent Macnab, the authors make a cogent point about cross-cultural communication between Japanese and American businessmen. They note that among the Japanese, the communication that takes place in business meetings is predicated upon the exchange of business cards and that there is an important reason for this ritual-"there are differing language levels in Japan that are dependent on peoples' status" (Brislin, Worthley, & Macnab, 2006, p. 43). In fact, the authors assert, "If Japanese counterparts cannot ascertain people's status from their business cards, they cannot speak to them without fear of making a mistake" (Brislin, Worthley, & Macnab, 2006, p. 43). Thus, a close scrutiny of the business cards exchanged at a meeting

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There are infinite ways to interpret Bram Stoker's 1899 novel, Dracula. The more you read it, the more intricacies and variations you find within its text. Looking at it from a specific point of view, in this case, through the lens of gender theory, changes the meaning of its classic story. Mina Murray and Lucy Westerna become less like characters and more like caricatures of two female stereotypes. Reading this novel through the lens of gender theory changes it from a passive to an active experience. One definition of gender theory explains it as, "an approach to literature that explores how ideas about men and women, what is masculine and feminine, can be regarded as socially constructed by particular cultures" (LitGloss). Mina Murray, then, who is the p

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Introduction According to Lee (2007: 1-34) multicultural counseling is a therapeutic relationship that recognizes the importance of the racial and ethnic identifications of both the counselor and the client. Furthermore, it is a relationship based on a counseling process that rests on certain values, one of which is understanding the uniqueness of the individual in terms of learning styles, life purposes and goals. The National Guidance Research Forum (NGRF, 2009: 1) states that all multicultural counseling includes several key recognitions despite their differences. One of the most important of these recognitions is that therapy, as well as other helping modes, has a cultural context. The NGRF (1) also notes that what makes a given therapy 'multicultural' is its emphasis upon several factors. These factors are: client differences; the impact of family and cultural factors on clients' worldviews; and familial and cultural concerns. The purpose of this paper is to examine

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1. The vision of life and human potential reflected in the Epic of Gilgamesh is marked by transition and growth. Abusch identifies three distinct--though also overlapping and converging--narrative elements. The first is called the Old Babylonian (OB) text, the second (a literary rewrite of the oral-tradition OB text) the eleven-tablet version, and the third the Tablet XII addition (614). A version published in 1984 suggests that the most complete rendering of the narrative consists incorporation of OB into the literary rewrite, with Tablet XII completing certain themes of the second. Abusch cites scholarly disagreement about whether all three elements belong in the same story, concluding that the third element is integral to the other two. Other scholars view Tablet XII--involving Gilgamesh questioning the nature of experience in the world below--as unrelated to the actual epic. For example, writing in 1969, Wolff considers "unlikely" the idea that "a man born a hero co

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Schlesinger (2) pointed out that during the late 1970s, state and federal governments embraced determinate sentencing as a reform designed to reduce recidivism, punish repeat offenders (especially ones convicted of several violent crimes), and eliminate disparities in the criminal justice system. Schlesinger (1) that the very flexibility which allowed judges and juries to hand out sentences of varying length and severity for crimes of a similar nature and impact lead to abuse of the system; members of minority groups and certain classes of convicted felons could anticipate harsh sentences in some jurisdictions and less stringent and punitive sentences in others. The response in terms of sentencing reform was to reduce such disparities, create a mechanism for consistency across jurisdictions, and address the questions posed by the prevalence of habitual off

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Joseph Stalin's rise to power would be inexplicable if examined only on the surface. In the preface to his book on Stalin, Roman Brackman points out that he was just a "mousy" public servant whose success at taking over a government and perpetrating "a colossal mountain of horrors" seems inconceivable in retrospect, yet it happened. Because Stalin covered his tracks by destroying and falsifying public records and by murdering witnesses, his own lies and those of his propaganda machine served to distort and obscure what really happened during the years of his life and rule (Brackman, preface). What Edvard Radzinsky describes as "the constant and relentless purging of the archives" would obliterate all record of Stalin's enemies and hide what really happened, yet Stalin inadvertently left behind a trail of clues that could be pieced together to tell the story. This paper will describe how Stalin rose to power even though Trotsky was the leading man at the time, and identify wh

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Ethical monotheism as defined by Dennis Prager (2009) encapsulates two specific beliefs. First, it is based upon the premise that there is one God from whom emanates one morality applicable to all of humanity. Secondly, god's primary demand of people is that they act decently toward one another, a demand that in practice takes precedence over man's obligation to worship and adore God himself. Prager (2009) notes that the God of ethical monotheism is the God first revealed to the world in the Hebrew Bible, or what is now thought of in Christianity as the Old Testament. The primary characteristics of God include a supernatural nature, a personal presence, beneficence or goodness

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Introduction New York City is home to the nation's largest subway system with 842 miles of track, 42,000 employees, and the largest fleet of rapid transit cars in the world for a total of 5,803 cars. Covering four boroughs with 500 stations and two dozen lines, New York City's rapid transit system served over 3.6 million passengers every day all week long (Nifong 10). The steel tracks of the subway were laid over 100 years ago with its reach being extended in segments over time. While there are many other perhaps larger rapid transit systems in the world, New York City played a pioneer role in developing such a system to facilitate the movement of workers and consumers throughout the city (Metropolitan Transit Authority 1). The purpose of this essay is to identify the reasoning which led leaders in New York to undertake the development of the rapid transit system in the late nineteenth century. What originally began as a private sector effort to facilitate public transporta

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In "An Ounce of Cure," Alice Munro (665) describes a seminal event in the life of a teenage girl in a small, insular town where everyone knows everyone's business. The narrator of this short story falls in love with a student named Martin Collingwood but their brief relationship ends when he drops her for another girl who plays opposite him in the class play based on Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. While babysitting, the narrator begins to drink alcohol and becomes not only drunk, but ill. It is a disaster from start to finish and eventually the entire town knows not only that the narrator was drunk, but appears to have attempted suicide because of Collingwood's rejection. In this story, a first thwarted love affair leads to a first hangover and the long-term consequences of having one's deepest emotions exposed to an entire town. Munro's narrator begins her story by noting that "my parents didn't drink" and going on to identify her nature as causing her mother "to look at me, on any occasion which traditionally calls for feelings of pride and maternal accomplishment...

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Overview of Thales Group Thales Group is a French-based company that participates in the aerospace, space, defense and security industries. It is a global company with operations in 50 countries, and it employs more than 68,000 individuals. In the aerospace market, Thales supplies electronic components to major airframers, including Airbus and Boeing, and also provides goods directly to airlines. Its in-flight entertainment system division is based in California, and provides the hardware and software necessary to display movies and other content in overhead or seatback displays. In the space sector, Thales has partnered with Italy's Finmeccanica to engage in telecommunication, earth observation, science and navigation. Thales products are found throughout the defense market, including on aircraft carriers and flying drones. Command and control systems as well as surveillance and other security products form the core of this segment. The company uses a multidomesti

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QUESTION 1: What is the will in Mill, and how is it related to desire? Explain Mill's definition of the will. What does it mean when Mill says the utilitarian morality is grounded in our desires and sentiments? Does Mill see the will as a good in itself? What is the relationship between the will and our sensual desires? "Will," says Mill, "is the child of desire, and passes out of the dominion of its parent only to come under that of habit" (60-61). Desire for something presupposes that the thing will produce pleasure and not pain. Will is for Mill "the active phenomenon," while desire is "the state of passive sensibility" (59). The will can be cultivated and shaped by habit to be virtuous. It is not presumed to be "intrinsically good" but it is "a means to good" (61): "How can the will to be virtuous, where it does not exist in sufficient force, be implanted or awakened? Only by making the person desire virtue--by making him think of it in a pleasurable light, or of its abse

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Introduction This paper includes the findings of an assessment of the intelligence collection capabilities of the Iranian intelligence services with respect to two foreign intelligence targets. The first foreign intelligence target is the complement of United States armed forces in Iraq. The second foreign intelligence target is the State of Israel. United States Military Forces in Iraq: Assessment of the Iranian Intelligence Collection Capabilities The consideration of the intelligence collection capabilities of the Iranian intelligence services with respect to the complement of United States armed forces in Iraq focuses on three factors. The first factor is the strength of the Iranian intelligence services in the development of intelligence on United States military operations in Iraq. The second factor is the weakness of the Iranian intelligence services in the development of intelligence on United States military operations in Iraq. The third factor i

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Improvements in field treatment have resulted in increased numbers of soldiers surviving wounds that previously would have resulted in death. Many of these soldiers are eventually treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, and there was severe criticism of case management at the facility during the first years of the current Iraq war. Patients were often subjected to mu

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In the United States, people are used to everyone paying basically the same price for everything. This is a factor of the modern brick-and-mortar store where prices are set for convenience. Comparison shoppers quickly punish stores who charge more than their competitors. This concept of pricing is actually ethnocentric. In other countries people expect to be able to barter the price of various products. Giving discounts to family and friends is simply how business is done. E-business works a bit differently. Now the marketplace allows businesses to chance their prices quickly if the demand for a product changes. Likewise customers can compare prices even more quickly than before. Businesses are becoming adept at the art of dynamic pricing, where the price charged depends on the customer that is buying it. Computer record keeping has

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H.J. McCloskey's article "On Being an Atheist" raises a number of issues with respect to a philosophical perspective on evaluating the evidences concerning God's existence and the relative comfort provided to the person who believes in God. McCloskey suggests, for example that the "proofs" of God's existence cannot definitively establish the case for God so should be abandoned and that the cosmological argument implying that one can know God exists by looking at the universe has no foundation.[1] With reference to the teleological argument, McCloskey argues that no one has provided examples of design and purpose that are above dispute. On the problem of evil, he argues that God cannot exist because in God's perfection, He would not create a world that included evil. He even asserts that atheism is more comforting than theism. This paper will address each of these issues and point out the fallacies in McCloskey's arguments. McCloskey's first assertion-that what he t

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Psychoanalytic theory in its purest form-the Freudian-had the seeds of later extensions within it that consisted of other theories that used psychoanalytic theory as their base but added new insights and approaches of their own. Object-relational theories, for example, were one permutation of psychoanalytic theory that was presaged by Freud 70 years before it came about. In one writing, Freud recounted an incident in which a little boy sitting in a dark room cried out for his aunt to talk to him because he was frightened. She responded that this would not help because it would still be dark, but he answered, "if anyone speaks it gets light," thus indicating that it was not the dark he feared but the absence of loved ones (Bacal & Newman, p. 3). One such theory that grew from this historical context was Kohut's Self Psychology Theory, which is considered the foundational construct for contemporary psychoanalysis. Kohut, the major contributor to the theory, viewed the

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From the American perspective, arranged marriages are a leftover from medieval thinking and a travesty in the Western world where marriage for love prevails. The idea of being forced to marry someone that one does not love-or possibly has not even met-simply at the behest of one's parents is appalling to most of us, especially given the way most people's parents seem incapable of even giving them a Christmas gift they like. It may be one thing to receive a canister of chemical mace or a pair of sensible shoes for Christmas instead of that sleek iPod Touch, but it is quite another to be chained to someone for life when one has had not the slightest input as to the choice of mate. Despite these admittedly potent arguments, it has been pointed out that the choice between arranged marriage and marriage for love is not as straightforward as one might think. Research suggests that both of these alternatives have both pros and cons that demand a second look at their real consequenc

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The modern social implications of Janie's rhetorical situation cannot really be confined to one scene in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Rather, Janie's relationship with the world in general is defined by the fact that she is a child of rape: The dog did his business, and the bitch did hers, and her business was Janie--alas. Janie must understand above all that she was not a wanted child. Nanny's disclosure reveals that Janie is not equipped to cope with primal knowledge. Janie experiences an innocent, virginal, rather sweet kiss, and because Nanny sees it, nothing will do but Janie must marry "decent like" (Hurston 28). All of a sudden Janie must understand what life is like for "de nigger woman" (29). What that means is that Janie must know that she is not meant to be loved in the ordinary way. To put it differently: Janie must understand that she cannot experience relationships in the ordinary

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The decision to diversify Ray-O-Vac into a conglomerate-style organization is suited to the matrix mode of management. That is in significant part because the multiple divisions of Spectrum Brands are not meant to compete with one another but rather to support and reinforce one another. To see why, it may be useful to examine the origins of matrix management. It began in the 1960s in response to the specific needs of the federal procurement system. It was at that time that the U.S. government began to require that private-sector firms awarded research-and-development contracts to have a project-management system. Such a system would allow representatives of government agencies to work and negotiate with one particular person in the firm, the project manager, rather than with a number of its functional or departmental heads. The project manager would have full responsibility for meeting costs and deadlines of the project as a whole. The firm could meet the condition in one of two

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In The Arabian Nights, commonly held assumptions about Arab women are everywhere. The book and its related film suggest that men can have more than one lover, for example, depicting Arab men as being surrounded by a harem of Arab women dancing in skimpy, see-through clothing. Women are seen mainly as sex objects whose opinions do not count and who are expected to be submissive toward men, but behind this disguise, they are as cunning and deadly as the men. This stereotype fits the scene in "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," in which Ali Baba comes in to find his wife counting gold and says, "O silly woman, how long wilt thou continue turning over the coin? Now let me dig a hole wherein to hide this treasure, that none may know its secret" (Burton). His calling her "silly" suggests that she is less intelligent than he and has no common sense. When he and his wife and Kasim and his wife become caught up in an argument over the gold, one of Kasim's slave girls, Morgiana, who us

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Introduction When people think about the elements of learning, they rarely think about emotion, yet emotion plays a powerful role in how we learn. For example, emotion colors how we perceive a thing. It is easier to memorize the names of desserts than the names of chemical compounds because we enjoy dessert more. Likewise, the sensation of seeing or hearing an object can be shaped by how we interpret the sensation ("Perceptual Processes," n.d.). Emotional learning makes a deeper impression on us than ordinary learning with no emotional component, because our emotions are "where we live," while facts are merely information. Emotions are more personally relevant to us, more impacting, and more tied to the deeper part of our personality. Moreover, emotional memory is more profound, longer-lasting, and substantially different from ordinary memory that lacks an emotional component. This paper will examine the mechanisms and effects of emotional learning. Emotional learning

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