Hunter S. Thompson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hunter S. Thompson - Essay Example Unlike her teeth, reality has the power to bite. So have I and here comes Lola the lesbian with the pizza. Her boots thump and stomp up the stairs, shaking but not stirring the peace, momentarily. Lola's cool. She's kind, she knows the right people to score the best stuff, she shares. Lola's lonely, an angry, aging remnant of the Women's Movement. She's discarded it, but in truth, it discarded her. She was too loud, too active, too passionate, too public. Honesty was her worst policy. So here she is with her pristine apartment and pedigree pussycat, Comfort. And me, worn out, washed-up, woozy and unpredictable. Or am I But for now, just on the edge, the brink of a life, new and shiny or corroded and crusted with the rust of broken promises "Napkins, forks, here you go, sweetie" Lola croons. "Who the fuck eats pizza that way!" - but I hold the scream inside, there are larger issues at stake. I have a duty to be nice, for now. We need each other, we share a place, a history and a hatred of Bush/Blair. I know we will get to them, come what may, never mind the pepperoni, the buzz and the Bud. Like war, it's inevitable. I hold onto the buzz, see the lights but they become the nights of 'Shock and Awe', bigger lights, more impact, you know Am I myself or somebody else, and who gives a shit I go forward with Lola to Guantanamo Bay, hearing the voices of expert salesmen. "Yes we have a nice range of used cattle-prods, or if they don't appeal, how about some out of date sodium pentathol" Now ain't that their truth, the inhuman, dehumanized leaders of the civilized world. The anger rises, then subsides, Lola and me, we think on and speak on. "And Bush tells Blair: "If I put my hand in the fire, you must do it too, to prove you are my friend. If burning ash, cinders and shit fall on innocent bystanders, why, what the hell, it's the price they pay for us showing strength." And we are right to loathe and fear these creatures from the dark side. This bullshit hurts. Lola rolls another joint and the hiss and clink of beer and glass make it easy, like Sunday morning. I eat, I drink, I feel the need to expel these bastards from the vicinity. I don't want Lola's tears to dilute the purity of my anger. The poison of these creatures is enough to keep my resolve alive. But for now, let's party with warm love. There's Lola, the cat, the lights, the grass and me. A soft breeze, the comfort of kindred spirits, all anybody needs. A muted scream from over the way brings a shadow of fear to Lola's soft face. Eyebrows raised in alarm, old memories surface, she's going weird on me. I could show her weird, but I won't, keeping my scars to myself and feeling no pain. A sweeping swarm of locusts now encircle me, are in me, and time moves me onwards to the edge. The soft murmur of her voice forms the backdrop, but cannot drown them out. No matter, I want to finish it. The tide is high but I'm holding on, and ask myself why All I have fought for, all I believe in, destroyed, denigrated and demeaned. The American dream is now my waking nightmare. I could end this and wake up elsewhere. I bought the ticket. I will take the ride. She sighs, shifts, leans to plant a kiss on my head, and leaves to sleep. Thank Jesus she's gone, it's just me and my decision. Exciting, nerve-wracking, life-changing, no, life-ending. Another slice of pizza,

Judgment Heuristic and Biases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Judgment Heuristic and Biases - Essay Example These heuristics are very useful but at times can leads to severe and systematic errors. ( Harding,707 and Tversky, Kahneman,1124) In case of representative heuristics (Tversky and Kahneman, 1126), the likelihood of an event is judged based upon the extent to which it represents the essential features of the parent population or the generating process. Representative heuristic is generally used by people to make judgment or impression about someone or something. (Koning, 1) The relative frequency of an event often depends on the availability or accessability of the object or the event under perception memory or construction of imagination. This is availability heuristics. (Garns, 1) A bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. Biases drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. (Doughert and Franco-Watkins, 23) For example, the apparent distance of an object is determined in part by its clarity. The more sharply the object is seen, the closer it appears to be.

Human Resource Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Resource Management - Research Paper Example Introduction Before going into the discussion regarding compensation and benefits, which is one of the most specialized parts of the human resource management, let us get a better understanding of the importance of a well-structured compensation plan in maintaining a productive workforce. A compensation plan is a set of those rewards, remuneration, and benefits, which are provided to the employees by the HR department of the company in order to increase employee productivity. Compensation plans not only help the companies retain skilled employees but also assist HR staff in recruitment processes. Obringer (n.d.) asserts, â€Å"To make your company competitive and attractive to job candidates, you have to offer an exceptional total benefits package†. The thesis statement for this paper is, â€Å"Why is it important for a company to offer a well-structured compensation plan to its employees?† Importance of Compensation Plans Compensation and benefits play an important rol e in making a company achieve increased employee productivity. A well-structured compensation plan is one of the key motivating forces behind increased productivity. If human resource department of a company offers a competitive compensation plan to the employees as a reward for their individual performances, the employees become motivated and they put their efforts to do more for their company. Employee efficiency and organizational productivity depend directly on the types of compensation that are offered to the employees by the company. It is a common fact that the employees like to work for such companies, which give value to the employees’ needs and demands by offering them attractive compensation plans. Keimig (2008) asserts, â€Å"Generous benefit packages (especially those with an emphasis on health insurance and retirement savings) tend to attract employees who are looking for long-term, stable positions†. A well-structured compensation plan needs various fact ors to be considered during development, which include type of the compensation plan, conditions for plan implementation, payment calculation method, culture of the organization, and practicalities of the compensation plan. Some of the main reasons behind the need to design and implement a well-structured compensation plan include increasing employees’ moral, ensuring internal and external equity, reducing the turnover, encouraging employees’ performance and productivity, increasing employees’ loyalty, hiring and retaining skilled staff, and making the employees satisfied with their jobs. Dalton (n.d.) states, â€Å"The employee's family can also receive benefits, should the employee die as a result of the injuries or illness sustained at the company†. Another reason for implementing an appropriate compensation plan is to succeed in today’s competitive markets. It is the 21st century and the level of competition between the companies has reached it s heights. Implementation of compensation plans play a valuable role in making the companies excels in the markets. Therefore, it is extremely important for the companies to hire and retain skilled employees in order to get competitive edge over the competitors. Why Is It Necessary To Have A Compensation Plan? It is very necessary for a company to implement a compensation plan because it increases productivity of the workforce. We can hardly find any employee who is not interested in getting higher pays and

Sam 386 unit 6 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sam 386 unit 6 - Assignment Example There is a special set rules that apply to the prosecution of defamation of public figures. In order for a private citizen such a neighbor or a friend to prove defamation against an individual, they only must prove that the individual acted negligently. The concept of negligence means that a â€Å"reasonable person† would not have made or published the defamatory statement. For a public figure, it is much harder to prove defamation since the accused must show â€Å"actual malice† in their statement. The plaintiff must prove that the accused published the statements with knowledge that the statements are untrue or in restless disregard of the truth. This makes the prosecution of defamation of a public figures much harder to proof for the plaintiff in a court of law. For a public figure it is important to recognize these differences in the treatment of defamation cases. Although it may not seem fair for public individuals to be treated differently under the law, a public figure by definition has agreed to have their private lifes scrutinized under the public lens as part of their responsibilities as a public

Device Hardening and Secure Network Design Term Paper

Device Hardening and Secure Network Design - Term Paper Example Bragg, Rhodes-Ousley, & Strassberg (2009) stated that routers have the capability to carry out IP packet check and filter. Access control lists (ACLs) could be configured to authorize or refute UDP and TCP network traffic. These factors are foundational upon the destination or source address, or together, and on the UDP or TCP port numbers enclosed in a packet. Additionally, the firewalls are implemented for additional in-depth examination; tactically positioned router ACLs thus they augment network security. For instance, access control lists could be employed on border routers to drop visibly not needed traffic, eliminating the burden from the border firewalls. Access control lists can as well be employed on WAN links to drop broadcast and additional needless traffic (Bragg, Rhodes-Ousley, & Strassberg, 2009). Servers are intended to bring data in a protected and dependable style for web-based users. Thus, they need to make sure that data confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility are maintained. However, one of the main steps to attain this guarantee is to make sure that the servers are maintained and installed in a way that they could stop illegal access, illegal utilization, and disturbances in service. Additionally, the reason for establishing the server hardening policy is to express the requirements for installing a new server in a secure fashion and maintaining the security integrity of the server and application software. In addition, the server hardening process offers the comprehensive information necessary to harden a server as well as have to be applied for UTEP IT official approval. A number of the wide-ranging steps incorporated in the server hardening process contain (Microsoft Press, 2005). At present, network security has become the most important subject of discussion. Additionally, there are many networking security management and handling measures are available.  Ã‚  

Terrorism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Terrorism - Research Paper Example The united states need to use the all the tools, that are at its disposal including the international diplomacy, corporation and constructive engagement to economic sanctions in order to convert physical security and military force towards eliminating the vice. Therefore, this paper examines the international terrorist action and threats in the United States of America and the country’s response to the same. However, some countries like Iran seems to support and sponsor terrorism as their main specter for proliferation of weapons. Survey has also shown that Al Qaeda terrorist group has attempted to acquire biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. Thus, the stake for war with the international terrorism is increasing becoming difficult and the margins for terror as well to select the appropriate policy to prevent the terrorists’ attacks (Hamilton 381). The United States policy towards eliminating the international terrorism has more of military significant componen t as in the case with Iraq. The major concern over this global phenomenon is how to maximize international cooperation and support that is unduly compromising. The state department is to release its annual report on terrorism. From the prior expectation, the current report carries more and advanced patterns of terrorism than earlier editions. The United States has set strategic approach in its anti-terrorist plan. These plans revolve around defeating the terrorist as a major source of threat to human life. The country also aims at providing an environment that is hospitable free of terrorism across the globe. Through this plan, the United States seeks to enhance the existing national strategy for combating terrorist across the world. The US must engage in realm of ideas that are in conjunction with the ongoing efforts to protect and defect the homeland against any form of terrorist attack (Gordon 79). International terrorism is increasingly becoming a threat to the United States bot h in its foreign and domestic security. Timing and target of the terrorist to the U.S. may directly affect its effort in controlling and preserving commerce on nuclear proliferation of the Middle East peace process. The radical Islamic groups have sought to exploit economic and the political tensions of the Asian countries. Their sole aim for this attack is to overthrow the secular regimes more so in the countries with large Muslim populations (Krueger 16). The main perception is that these groups are a main threat to the United States policy objectives. The report on Iran as the most active sponsor for terrorism has forced the United States to lay some strategic plans against Middle East countries. The report cites Pakistan as one of the most important partners of the United States on the war against the world terrorism. Pakistan securities services cooperate closely with the U.S.to eliminate terrorism. Sudan and Libya have currently collaborated with the United States in the globa l war on terror. Currently, the terrorism has assumed new characteristics of ideological movements thus; fight against it must be a hard task. The much intelligence conducted on terrorist show that, today, most of the terrorism is done on the United States (Jessie and Kinney 705). The terrorist sanctuaries are within the cities or democratic societies. Countries

The Pros and Cons of the Libel Defences of Justification and Fair Comment Essay Example for Free

The Pros and Cons of the Libel Defences of Justification and Fair Comment Essay Libel law in England is incredibly tough, so much so, that if found to be liable of a defamatory statement, ‘a statement which lowers someone in the eyes of reasonable people ’ [Quinn 2009: 210] the consequences can be very costly to both the journalist themselves and their newspapers and therefore it is very important for the defences of defamation to be used to full effect an example of this is libel tourism and the case of involving Roman Polanski 2005.The magazine had said that the event had take place before the claimant’s wife’s funeral, but it had in fact taken lace after the funeral, which Mr Polanski completely denied. As it could not be proved, the claimant won ? 50,000 in damages. There are seven different defences for the act of defamation, of which two of these, Justification and Fair comment, we will analyse the advantages and disadvantages below. For the defence of justification to apply, the defendant must prove that what they have written and published is substantially true. If this can be proved by the defendant then they will have a complete defence against the claims of defamation. The defence of justification may only be used where the defendant has published a statement of fact. One of the main disadvantages of the defence of justification is that the burden of proof relies upon the defendant, which means that they must prove what they have published to be true. Furthermore, the claimant does not have to prove that what you have written is false or that any fact found to be false was damaging to their reputation. Another disadvantage of this defence is that ‘A defendant cannot rely on the defence of justification in relation to the publication of the details of spent convictions, as efined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974’ [1] This Act has been brought in to help with rehabilitation of offenders and prevents journalists from acting in a malicious manner when relating to cases of this nature. An advantage of the defence however is that the journalist does not have to prove that what they have published was in the public’s best interests and furthermore they do not have to prove that they acted in a malicious manner. A further disadvantage to the defendant is that any rumour they chose to publish must be backed up by evidence of the accusation made within the rumour. This means that the defendant cannot base their evidence alone on a previous rumour. However an advantage to the defendant comes by way of a case where the claimant alleges that more than one fact within a publication is untrue. In such a case, the defendant need not prove that all claims within the publication to be true and must only prove that ‘the ‘sting’ of a libel’ [Quinn 2009: 212] to be true. This suggests that only the most important allegations, which are damaging to the claimants reputation, need to be determined to be true. This can be seen in the case of Turcu News Group Newspapers, where the defendant was sued after publishing a number of defamatory statements including some which were found to be untrue. However the statement made that the claimant was a ‘petty criminal with a long list of convictions’ and that ‘he was willing to take part in criminal activities’ were true, and the defence of justification stood on the grounds that the sting of the statement remained true. A further advantage to the defendant is that ‘A claim of justification need not only be based upon facts as were known at the time of publication; if other facts come to ight during the period between a claim and the case coming to court, they can be used to back up the defence. ’ [Quinn 2009: 214]. This appeared in a case in which involved Kate Moss and Channel 5, where a documentary was claiming that Moss had taken cocaine on a photo shoot in Barcelona and fallen into a coma. Kate Moss sued channel 5, but during proceedings she was captured in pictures taking cocaine. Due to such evidence, Moss chose to drop her claim. A final disadvantage to any defendant involves the likely case where, the defendant uses the defence of justification and is unsuccessful. In such a case ‘an unsuccessful defence of justification is likely to increase the level of any damages awarded. ’ [2] In the case of Archer v News of the World (1987) the newspaper was successfully sued by archer after claims were made by the paper which they could not prove, this in turn resulted in a payout to Mr Archer of ? 500,000 damages. It was later discovered that the claims made about Archer were true and he was consequently imprisoned for perjury. This case is a clear example of a situation where the jury are start struck and are therefore biased in favour of the claimant. The defence of fair comment applies to cases where the defendant has been accused of publishing a defamatory comment or opinion. For the defence to apply, the defendant must prove that, the words complained of were a comment or opinion, not a statement of fact, the words were about a matter of public interest, any facts which the comment was based on are true, or subject to privilege and that the comment was made without malice and so was an honest belief of the defendant. The first and main advantage of Fair comment applies to a case where the defendant can prove that the statement made, was one of personal opinion and one hich they fully believe ‘to have been made honestly’ [Quinn 2009: 216]. This was shown in the case of Branson v Bower (No. 1) where the claimant tried to sue on the grounds that the comment made could be taken as statement of fact. The court of appeal disagreed, stating that it was clear that the statement published by the defendant was an opinion. Another advantage of this defence is that much like that of justification, the defendant must not prove that each of the facts in the publication to be true, as long as they can prove that those facts commented on were true. In the case of Galloway v Telegraph Group Ltd (2006) the defendants claimed that they had based opinions upon facts they believed to be true about the claimant. The defendants pleaded fair comment but this was refused by the court stating that ‘the stories were allegations of fact’ [Quinn 2009: 217]. Again, a disadvantage of this defence, much like that of justification, is that it is the defendant’s responsibility to prove that ‘the underlying facts are true. If he or she is unable to do so, then the defence will fail. ’ [3] This appeared in a case involving Gordon Ramsey, where the defendant during a review complained that some scenes within the show were staged. The defendant could not back up these claims and consequently had to pay ? 75,000 in damages. Another advantage to the defence of fair comment is that any person may be entitled to comment, when the subject in matter is of interest to the public, due to either interest or concern at a matter which could affect them or another. A disadvantage to the defence of fair comment is where the claimant can show that what has been published against them has been done so with malicious intent. In such cases the defendant will not be able to use the defence of fair comment. This was shown in the case of David Soul v Matthew Wright, where the defendant criticized the claimants acting without having been to see the show. As he had not been to see Mr Soul’s play he had no facts to base his criticism on and consequently had to pay damages. A final advantage of this defence is the definition of fair comment. It is stated that ‘even very rude and critical reviews can be covered by the defence of fair comment, so long as the facts on which they are based are true. [Quinn 2009: 220] this basically means that it must only be proved that the facts upon which the opinion is based upon must be true for the defence to be used. This was seen in the case of Tse Wai Chun Paul v Albert Chang, the courts stated that ‘even where a writer is motivated by ‘spite, animosity, intent to injure, intent to arouse controversy or other motivation’ they can be covered by fair comment’. [Quinn 2009: 219] In conclusion, I’d say that in both of the defences the claimant has the advantage. The first of these reasons is due to the burden of proof, which the defendant holds, nd in turn puts the claimant in a no lose situation. The second of these reasons is the possibility for further damage to the defendant in a case where they cannot prove their innocence. This leaves the defendant in a position where they must risk further detriment to prove their case. Also, and finally, where a defence fails, this can prevent the public from knowing information which may be within their [the public’s] best interests, which could subsequently harm the good of the public. Due to the many implications and faults of the law, it is soon to be changed.