No to same-sex marriage Essay Example for Free

No to same-sex marriage Essay Everything is permissible, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up. I Corinthians 10:23 Against Same Sex Marriage The Six Point Case Each of these six points against same sex marriage will be explained in detail in the following articles. Click on each link for more explanation. Natural marriage is the foundation of a civilized society. Homosexual behavior is inherently destructive. The law is a great teacher, and it encourages or discourages behavior. Government-backed same-sex marriage would encourage and normalize homosexual behavior, and it would harm natural marriage, children, adults, and homosexuals themselves. The law should promote behaviors that are beneficial and prohibit (or at least not endorse) those that are destructive. Therefore, the law should promote natural marriage, and it should provide no option for government-backed same-sex marriage or civil unions. Against Same Sex Marriage The Executive Summary Same-sex marriage is a very emotional issue for many people. However, when one separates emotions from facts, it is clear that the state has compelling reasons to endorse natural marriage and not same-sex marriage or civil unions. Natural marriage is the immune system of civilization. When our marriages are strong, our civilization is strong; when they are weak, individuals and communities suffer. Legal endorsement of same-sex marriage would destroy the institution of marriage, resulting in negative effects on children, crime rates, health and health-care costs, tax rates, and religious freedom. Same-sex marriage activists want to redefine marriage as simply a personal relationship between two committed parties, but marriage is much larger than the two parties involved in a marriage. Marriage is a social institution of long-established rules (based on the natural design of the human body) that provides society with the very foundation of civilization—the procreating family unit. That is, marriage is fundamentally about children and the civilization of society both now and for the future. Only natural marriage can procreate and consistently provide a nurturing and stable environment for the growth and maturation of children. In this sense, the most basic and effective â€Å"form of government† is the natural two-parent family. Statistically, children and adults inside of natural marriage are much better off socially, physically, financially, mentally, and emotionally than those outside of natural marriage. Those outside of natural marriage are not only worse off personally by those measures, but they cost society billions of dollars in social welfare and law-enforcement expenses. The law is a great teacher—it encourages or discourages behavior. Since the law is a great teacher, government-backed same-sex marriage or civil unions would put society’s stamp of approval on same-sex relationships and behavior. This endorsement would fundamentally change the institution of marriage to our detriment. It would do the following: Equate same-sex marriage with natural marriage, thereby teaching citizens the socially disastrous ideas that natural marriage is no better than any other relationship and that marriage is not a prerequisite for children. Disconnect marriage from childbearing by making marriage just about coupling. This will result in soaring cohabitation and illegitimacy and painful costs to children and society. Encourage more homosexual behavior, which is medically destructive to those who engage in it and financially burdensome to the public in general. Result in higher medical, health insurance, and tax costs to the general public. Provide legal grounds to  restrict or prohibit religious freedom and free speech. Much of this is already happening in countries that have government-backed same-sex marriage. Natural marriage is weakest and illegitimacy strongest where same-sex marriage is legal. Most homosexuals are not interested in marriage—approximately 96 percent of homosexuals in countries with same-sex marriage do not get married. They want government-backed same-sex marriage because it would validate and normalize homosexuality throughout society. (Homosexuals can already marry privately and many of them do—what they want is government endorsement.) Some homosexual activists admit that they would like to destroy natural marriage by legalizing same-sex marriage. Since they refuse to live by society’s standards, they will only feel validated if they beat down those standards to the level of their own behavior. If they succeed, everyone in our country will be harmed in some way. This House Bill may seem to be very good in its outward appearance but it will simply gave way to the Promotion and Acceptance of Homosexual Lifestyle in the Philippines. If this bill will be approve in Congress who knows whats next. Lets Fight Against this Bill to protect the Divine and Natural Institution that God himself Pre-ordained ever since the beginning of time. Lets make sure that the Philippines will be secure from any danger of accepting a Culture that will go against the Balance of Nature and propagate a lifestyle that will be harmful both today and the Generation to come. A Culture that will be a potential Treat to the Divine Institution of Marriage and the Family. Lets be vigilant and make sure this Bill will not be approved by participating in this Signature Campaign.

Traditional Digital Infrastructure

Traditional Digital Infrastructure Introduction As time goes on, our clubs are expected to have more and more of an online presence. This is especially true for those university organizations that are technology oriented. People expect us to have our own website, email, calendar and other services. Traditionally, having all these services can be costly and time consuming. However, using virtualization, many of these problems can be mitigated. In this paper we will discuss the problems faced by university organizations (thus giving us critereon for our solution), and walk through the best solution for virtualization. After reading this paper, you will fi the best solution for your specific organization. Problem With Having A Traditional Digital Infrastructure You may not think it affects your organization, but increasingly it is expected of us to have digital infrastructures. Part of maintaining a professional organization or student organi- zation with credibility is having an online presence (websites, emails, calendars, etc). This faces us with many new problems that come with having a digital infrastructure: cost, time needed, complexity, and security. Cost of Maintaining a Traditional Digital Infrastructure Traditional digital infrastructures require organizations to have servers, networking capabil- ities, and public domain names. Servers can be made out of almost any computer; however, for it to be reliable for your users it should be a dedicated and powerful machine. This is usu- ally in the form of a server blade; which can cost anywhere between $380[1] and $45,751.95[2]. Similar costs are found when buying networking equipment such as routers, switches, hubs, networking cable, etc. Then to top it all off you need a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for people to fi your website and email. This cost is usually minimal: usually are around  $20 or so. In the end, it all adds up and can be very costly. Time Needed to Setup and Maintain a Traditional Digital Infrastructure Not only does it cost money to buy equipment, it costs time. The fi thing that has to be done is determining the specifications of the server(s) and networking equipment you need. After your organization has determined this, someone needs to search the web for the servers and networking equipment that meets these specifications for the lowest price. Then, if your universitys student clubs are organized anything like Virginia Techs, your club needs to request the funds to do so and justify it. Now, you have acquired the server and networking equipment; but, that isnt the end of your time commitment. Next step is to set it all up; which takes, someone who knows what they are doing, a few days. The servers are all set up and networked; it is time to put them on the internet. Someone needs to buy a FQDN, and assign it to the IP addresses of your servers. After all is said and done, the servers are up and running. However, this is only the beginning. As time goes on you will need to update the servers, fi errors, and change configurations based on your needs. As you can see, having a traditional digital infrastructure is very time consuming. Complexity Maintaining a Traditional Digital Infrastructure As stated in the above section, there is quite a bit of maintenance that needs to be done to servers and networking equipment: updating, debugging errors, configuring, etc. There are many diff t ways to go about doing these tasks; however, they are outside the scope of this paper. No matter the way to complete these tasks, you need to worry about the complexity of these methods. Most methods require someone who has worked in a command line interface (CLI). Otherwise, it is necessary to fi or build a graphical user interface (GUI) that everyone can understand. Making it simple to complete these tasks is important; the officers that take over after you need to be briefed on it. If it is not simple, they will probably not follow it. It will become broken, no one will use it, or even worse it could be hacked and used for malicious purposes. Simplicity is key when it comes to keeping things running smoothly. Securing A Traditional Digital Infrastructure The fi problem, but not the least important, is securing the digital infrastructure you have created. There are many people out there who would love to have the power of your server at their disposal. To keep them from gaining control of your systems it takes time, adds complexity, and may increase costs. Securing them requires someone with the time and mindset to keep up with current vulnerabilities, monitor the systems, keep them updated, and configure them. Therefore this needs to be someone who is either willing to learn, or knows what he/she is doing. This is a big and multifaceted area of the digital world, and cannot be delved into in this paper; but, it should never be taken lightly. Virtualization: The New Digital Infrastructure There is a better way to go about creating a digital infrastructure: virtualization. Virtu- alization allows you to use one server to create many virtual servers within it. All these servers are managed by what are called hypervisors. There are many companies that even provide virtualization in what is called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Amazon Web Ser- vices, Rackspace, SoftLayer, and DigitalOcean (to name a few). We will be excluding these from our virtualization solutions in this paper as we are focused on hosting our own digital infrastructures. There are two types of hypervisors: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the hardware of the server; whereas, type 2 hypervisors run inside of an Operating System (OS)[3]. Type 1 hypervisors allow us to virtualize our services as if they were on their own physical servers and are largely more efficient than their type 2 counterparts. Type 2 hypervisors on the other hand, usually have well thought-out, and easy-to-use GUIs. As part of our critereon we are looking to reduce cost, increase fly (decrease com- plexity), and increase security. This is achieved by using type 1 hypervisors which are both efficient in their usage of server resources, but also in their programming itself: fewer lines of code means less vulnerabilities. By using up less resources, we are able to provide more services (or better services) with fewer servers thus lowering costs. Out of these type 1 hypervisors, we are looking for the cheapest ones. There are many projects via open source that provide free hypervisors. In addition, some companies have made versions of their en- terprise hypervisors free for people to use/try. This leaves us with a few options at this point: KVM, Xen, Citrix XenServer, VMWare ESXi, and Microsoft Hyper-V. The next critereon was the time necessary to setup and maintain this digital infrastructure. Naturally by using virtualization we have reduced the number of physical servers to take care of. All of the above hypervisors have large wikis and support communities[4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. However, two of these communities VMWares and Microsofts arent as varied as those of the OpenSource community, and must be paid for to get quality customer support. Our second to last critereon was the complexity of the solution. From personal experience, all three of these solutions are very simple. However, not all three are very fl Citrix XenServer is OpenSource, but requires a host OS of Microsoft origins. This means one would have to have Windows installed on the server. Thus reducing the amount of fl y one has with the configuration of the server. The other two, KVM and Xen, are both OpenSource and Linux based: allowing for the most customizability. Xen used to be the best type 1 hypervisor in use, and is still used by major companies such as AWS[13]. However, recently Linux has been moving further and further away from Xen. From my experience, it has been relatively diffi to get an up-to-date version of Xen running on many Linux distros that are supported. This is not a problem, as KVM is absolutely comparable, and was recently added into the Linux kernel. Thus, KVM can be used on any base Linux distro and can  even run Windows OSes, Linux, and with some tweaking Mac OSX. Finally, security is our last critereon. As discussed, the fewer lines of code, ostensibly the more secure the hypervisor is. Looking at Xen and KVM, both have extremely small amounts of base code; however, KVM, being part of the linux kernel, is smaller. It is also more integrated into the most secure part of the Linux OS, and is thus considered more secure. In addition, both are OpenSource, allowing them to be reviewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Thus security is inherent with these two hypervisors. Conclusion University Clubs are requried increasingly to have digital infrastructures for websites, email, and calendars. However, creating and maintaining traditional infrastructures is costly, time consuming, diffi and can be insecure. Virtualization has become the best way for com- panies and clubs to provide a digital infrastructure in the most efficient and cost effective manor. More specifically for clubs, KVM seems to be the best solution, and the easiest to implement on a server. References [1] Server Supply, IBM7870G2ABLADECENTERHS22-1XINTELXEONQUAD-COREE5620/2.40GHZ,6GBDDR3RAM,GRAPHICMATROXG200EV,GIGABIT ETHERNET,BLADESERVER.NEW.INSTOCK., ServerSupply.com, Inc., January 11, 2017. [2] Neobits, CiscoUCS-SP7-B200-VCiscoB200M3BladeServer2xIntelXeonE5-2640v2Octa-core(8Core)2GHz128GBInstalledDDR3SDRAMSerialAttachedSCSI(SAS)Controller0,1RAIDLevels2ProcessorSupport768GBRAMSupport 10Gigabit, Neobits, Inc., January 11, 2017. [3] IBM, Hypervisors,virtualization,andthecloud:Learnabouthypervisors,systemvirtu-alization,andhowitworksinacloudenvironment, ibm.com, January 11, 2017. [4] Debian, KVM, wiki.debian.org, January 11, 2017. [5] Canonical, KVM, wiki.ubuntu.com, January 11, 2017. [6] Arch, KVM, wiki.archlinux.org, January 11, 2017. [7] Xen Project, MainPage, wiki.xen.org, January 11, 2017. [8] Citrix, MainPage, wiki.xenserver.org, January 11, 2017. [9] Debian, Xen, wiki.debian.org, January 11, 2017. [10] Arch, Xen, wiki.archlinux.org, January 11, 2017. [11] VMWare, vSphereHypervisor, vmware.com, January 11, 2017. [12] Microsoft, Hyper-V, technet.microsoft.com, January 11, 2017. [13] eWeek, AmazonRebootsCloudServerstoPatchXenHypervisor, QuinStreet Enter- prise, January 11, 2017.

Rise And Fall Of Joseph Stalin

Rise And Fall Of Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin, a man of great ambition and power, played a significant role in the transformation of Russia throughout the 20th century and up until his death in 1953. Joseph Stalin was a coldblooded leader, capable of provoking revolutionary loyalty in his followers. Nikita Khrushchev, who followed Stalin to power, described Stalins guidance as creating a cult of personality. What gave Stalin such power? Was it because he could persuade people on his behalf? Was it his rise to power along with the rise of industrialization? Or did he simply create a cult? Stalins success likely derived from a combination of all three. Its undeniable however that Stalins leadership played a massive role in the present portrayal of Russia. By the 1930s, he managed to lead Russia into the industrial age and at the same time alter the Soviet people into a strong-willed and modern nation able to counter the Western powers. Stalin was without a doubt an aggressive yet remarkable leader, and it would be te sted when World War Two broke out in Europe in 1941. He characteristically ordered vigorous attacks and was willing to take risks with the lives of his soldiers, and urged the Central Committee to discharge commanders that proved futile. Stalins behavior during the civil war anticipated exactly the role he would play as Leading Commander throughout World War Two. However, it was this behavior and his fear of losing power that would haunt him until his death in 1953. Born into a dysfunctional family in the mountains of Georgia in 1879, Joseph Stalin from childhood embraced his strong desire for greatness and respect. Joseph was a devout Orthodox, and often involved himself in sermons. Due to an early outbreak of smallpox and a deformed arm as a child, Stalin felt inferior to many intellectuals and from that point on he would distrust many of the people hed meet in his future. Because Stalin grew up in a dangerous village where blood feud persisted, he learned to crush any individuals that would attempt to harm him. Georgian popular culture had a broad emphasis on honour. This involved loyalty to family, friends and clients. Joseph by contrast felt no lasting obligation to anybody. He was later to execute in-laws, veteran fellow leaders and whole groups of communists whose patron he had been. On the surface he was a good Georgian. He hosted lavish dinner partiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦he dandled children on his knee. But his sense of traditional honour was non-existent (Service 27). Through a traumatic childhood event, where he witnessed the hanging of two local Georgian men, Joseph learned that state power was an essential factor in any society, and that if changes in government were to ever happen, force would be a key component to go against the status quo. Prior to his engagement in school education, Joseph loved Georgian literature including thirteenth century epic poetry such as The Patricide by Alexander Qazbegi, a story about the great resistance against Russian Imperial power in the 19th century. When he began attending school, he was soon to be recognized as a competent student that was well-behaved and quick to learn. By the end summer in 1894, Joseph had completed his term at the Board of the Gori Spiritual School, and was recommended to attend the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary. The school itself followed many rules, which ranged from prohibiting students to only spending up to an hour a day in the city, to only being allowed to speak and write Russian. Inevitably, Josephs desire for more power and intellect led him to join the rebel students. Through his rebellious acts, he acquired texts by Marx, Darwin, Plekhanov and Lenin. During his attendance, Marxism was on the rise and he would not hesitate to learn in its tenets. By the end of his term at Tiflis Spiritual Seminary, Stalin lost interest in poetry and religion, and began to focus on his study of socialism, Marxism, economics and politics. During the Revolution in 1905, Stalin along with other Marxist and Bolshevik organizations across Russia were involved in a series of thefts from banks to help fund their party. Lenin and Stalin, who were firm supporters of Bolshevism, demanded for money to help sustain the party. By the end of 1906, Stalin was well-recognized in Georgia as The next Lenin. In 1913, Stalin, along with other Bolshevik leaders were sent to exile in northeast Siberia. Their planned term of life in exile was cut short however, when in March of 1917, news came to Stalin that Nicholas II of Russia abdicated his position as ruler, thus ending the reign. A Provisional Government was formed on March 3rd, with Prime Minister Prince Lvov, cabinet members made up of Constitutional-Democrats, and Minister Alexander Kerenski. Immediately, Stalin and Kamenev were demanding a revolutionary democratic dictatorship. On their journey back to Petrograd, both Kamenev and Stalin agreed that they would seize control of the Bolshevik Central Committee in the capital. The Central Committee was not pleased with the arrival of Kamenev, when they discover which side he, Stalin, and Muranov were taking in the political debate. The Committee members were determined to avoid giving the three of them high ranks. Over the next few months, Stalin, who did not adopt all of Lenins policie s which demanded state ownership of the land, argued that it would alienate peasants who wished to control the countryside. Stalin and Kamenev both agreed that in order for their Bolshevik party to grow, they had to convince everyone that they were the only party in Russia that could bring peace. Inevitably, the Provisional Government ran into difficulties, mainly due to the prolongation of the war with Germany and the dislocation of the economy. Food supplies fell. Factories faced closures as metal, oil and other raw materials failed to be delivered. Banks ceased to bail out industrial enterprises. The civilian administrative system, which was already creaking under wartime strains, started to collapse. Transport and communication became unreliableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Workers called for higher pay and secure employment. Soldiers in the garrisons supported a peace policy: they were horrified by the possibility of being transferred to the front line (Service 128). By 1918, Civil war broke out between the Red and White groups. Slowly overtime, Stalin and other Bolshevik groups begin to seize control. It was not until 1922, when Stalin was appointed to General Secretary of the Communist Partys Central Committee. Stalin understood his power, and used it against the committee, and it was not until much later that the organization came to a realization of what he was planning. The only person who could challenge Stalin, was Lenin, who was near death after a series of strokes. In due course, Stalin became the leader of the country up until Mikhail Gorbachev. After Lenins death in 1924, Stalin went about destroying the ally commanders. At first, hed remove them from their posts and exiled abroad. Stalin was still not satisfied, however, when he culminated a series of show trials in the 1930s against the founding fathers of the Soviet Union. Stalin successfully managed to manipulate the public of Russia that these revolutionaries were enemies of the p eople. Driven by his own sense of inferiority, Trotsky along with any other intellectual professionals were liquidated or sent into exile. The First Moscow Trial accused Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, two prominent party leaders, of attempted assassination of Stalin. The two were sentenced to death. The Second Moscow Trial involved Karl Radek, Yuri Piatakov, Leon Trotsky and Grigory Sokolnikov, in which they were said to have conspired with Nazi Germany. Most were either sentenced to death or exile. The third and final trial, known as The Trial of the Twenty-One involved Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Nikolai Krestinsky, Christian Rakovsky, and Genrikh Yagoda. The twenty-one members were accused of belonging to the Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites. All the leading defendants were executed except Rakovsky and two others. Through a series of purges in 1936-38, Stalin became the sole intellectual force of Russia, and began to pursue an economic policy which would mobilize the enti re country to achieve rapid industrialization, so that he may stand alongside with other Capitalist leaders. To this end, he forcefully collectivized agriculture, instituted the Five-Year Plans to coordinate all investment and production in the country, and undertook a massive program of building heavy industry. Although the Soviet Union boasted that its economy was booming while the Capitalist world was experiencing the Great Depression, and its industrialization drive did succeed in rapidly creating an industrial infrastructure where there once had been none, the fact is that all this was done at exorbitant cost in human livesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and the discovery of a source of cheap labor through the arrest of millions of innocent citizens led to countless millions of deaths from the worst man-made famine in human history and in the camps of the Gulag (Abamedia 1). Inevitably, Stalin managed to make Russia a world power, only to the demise of millions of innocent people. In the early hours of August 24, 1939 Stalin came to agreements with Hitler a ten-year non-aggression pact. The agreement, which took place in Molotovs office in Kremlin, ended six years of mutual discrepancy between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. Stalin, who was greatly pleased and signed the treaty which ultimately divided the northern regions of Eastern Europe into two areas. Stalin believed that he and Hitler had a truce, thus he refused to listen to any warnings in 1941 that Hitler was planning a massive attack. On May 5, 1941, Stalin addressed a speech in Moscow which declared: War with Germany is inevitable. If comrade Molotov can manage to postpone the war for two or three months through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that will be our good fortuneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Until now we have conducted a peaceful, defensive policy and weve also educated our army in this sprit. But now the situation must be changed. We have a strong and well-armed army. A good defense signifies the need to attack. Attack is the best form of defenseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦We must now conduct a peaceful, defensive policy with attack (Service 407). As Hitler began to take over France, Stalin realized it was only a matter of time before Germany would attempt to takeover Russia. If the Soviet state would fail to defeat the German armed forces, it would mean the end of the communist party. On the 23rd of June, Stalin worked with the members of the Supreme Command to plan for war. Over the next few days, the members would vote on Supreme Commander. It was not until the 10th of July, that Stalin was appointed the position. As the three million German forces crept closer to Moscow, panic began to pervade all of USSR. Because the military had been removed of its best commanders in the 1930s, it took much time for the Soviets to reorganize. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦owing to Stalins purges the army was to all intents and purposes leaderless. In this respect Hitler was right in declaring that the Red Army was a headless giant, and in hurrying to invade the Soviet Union while its head had still not regrown (Wegner 381). Stalin ordered that armament production be boosted, along with labor discipline be tightened and food supplies be secured from villages. Stalin encouraged à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦enhancing the Soviet defensive position along the USSRs western borderlands. Hence the takeover of the Baltic States and the move into Romania (Roberts 122). Unfortunately, the lack of military experience by Stalin was detrimental to their early success. After the battle for Minsk came to a close, Stalin lost more than 400,000 Red Army troops to German forces. The Soviet air force had been destroyed, and the areas of transport and communications throughout USSR had been shattered. In October of 1941 the German forces, having lunged across the plains and marshes to the east of the River Bug, were massing outside Moscow for a final thrust at the USSRs capital. Critical decisions needed to be taken in the Kremlin. The initial plan was for the entire government to be evacuated to Kuibyshev on the Volga. Stalin was set to leave by train and Lenins embalmed corpse, was prepared for the journey to Tyumen in west Siberia. Moscow appeared likely to fall to the invader before winterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and Stalin, could scarcely expect that Hitler would grant him his life in the event of the increasingly probable German victory (Service 420). From 1941 to 1945, the forces under the command of Stalin ordered nearly 50 different strategic operations, nearly a quarter of which were defensive. Because of Stalins lack of military knowledge, he was not able to forecast any future attacks by Hitler. Thus many of the battles were spontaneous defensive battles, which was mainly due to the lack of preparation in long-term strategy for the whole USSR. As military leader, Stalin attempted to maintain morale of his forces through means of Stalinist methods and propaganda. He would pay less attention to strengthening the roles of his commanders and political commissars, and focus more on violence and punishment. It was not until Zhukov, one of Stalins assisting commanders, concluded that they must abandon the Ukrainian capital in order to conserve resources and human lives. Stalin, who did not agree with Zhukov, followed through with the plan. While Zhukov worked on a campaign, Stalin promoted the expansion of the armed forces. Miracul ously, Stalins war slogan Everything for the Front! helped provide a massive economic boost. In the second half of 1942, Stalin managed to have the USSR produce 15,000 aircrafts and 13,000 tanks. However as a result, farms fell out of production and a deeper impoverishment of the countryside. By November, Stalin and Zhukov arranged a new operation called Uranus. Operation Uranus consisted of a series of telegrams, in which Stalin would order a series of attacks to crush the enemy. Thus Hitler would order his fellow general to break into Stalingrad, which had been prepared with Russian army groups. The battle persisted until February 2, 1943, when German resistance finally ceased. Stalingrad was a Soviet city again. Following the war, Stalin met in the Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences and ordered for the Soviet Union to directly seize property from conquered nations. Stalin managed to successfully negotiate with the other leaders and secured three seats for Russia at the UN, a nd took control the Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Communist governments were installed in the newly controlled territories, and many people began to leave. The Soviet Union was now a recognized superpower worldwide, having its own permanent seat with the Security Council, giving Stalin the respect hed been dreaming his whole life. The strains of the Second World War on Stalin were great, by this time he was old, a long-term smoker and drinker, and was inevitably driving him to an earlier death. After the suicide of his wife, Stalin and his family began to lead odd lives. While Stalin lived, however, his policies remained unchallengeable. He was not absolutely inflexible and most war-related decisions were kept in policy. While many of the churches had been reopened due to the war thrived, Stalin consented to act as unofficial ambassador for the peace policy of the USSR government. Thus the Russian Orthodox Church began to occupy previously recognized Christian buildings. Cultural expression became as wide as the war, where the level of material provision for Soviet citizens maintained the Stalinist mindset. While Stalin did not play for an economy of shortage, he still aimed to expand the supply of food and industrial products through the retail trade. Stalin agreed that in order to stimulate the production an d distribution of consumer goods, he would have to cease wartime inflation. As a result, in December of 1947, Stalin declared the devaluation of the ruble, reducing its value to a tenth of what it had been valued at. At the end of January in 1953, Stalins physician Miron Vovsi was arrested in relation to The Doctors Plot. This plot was an alleged conspiracy made by Stalin, which would nearly bring purges again to Russia. The conspiracy would eliminate the leadership of the Soviet Union by means of highly regarded Jewish doctors. Khrushchev, along with others, suggested that Stalin had long held negative attitudes towards Jews that had manifested prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution. Further suspicions of Stalins crudeness towards Jews were seen through the elimination of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 194 and his campaign referred to as rootless cosmopolitans. The Soviet dictator accused nine doctors plotting to poison and kill the Soviet leadership. The convicted men were arrested, and at Stalins order, were tortured until they confessed. Within days of the doctors arrest, however, Stalin who was in terrible health was rapidly deteriorating. His high-blood pressure, along with his unhealth y lifestyle, led to his eventual coma. Four days later, Stalin briefly regained consciousness, and demanded the leading members of the party be brought for a conference. As a last sign of life, Joseph Stalin raised his left arm, only to die moments later. He remained a hero to the people of Russia until Nikita Krushchev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, made a prominent speech to the Party Congress in 1956. The speech attacked the policies of Stalin and revealed how Stalin was responsible for the execution of thousands of loyal communists during the purges. In the months following Krushchevs speech, thousands of the imprisoned under Stalins order were released. Attempts were further made to completely erase Stalins image from the Soviet Union. Public statues and portraits of the leader were removed, and parks and streets were renamed after being originally named after Stalin. Stalingrad, which had been associated with Stalin during both the Civil War and World War Two, was renamed Volgagrad. Finally, Stalins ashes were removed from the Kremlin Wall. While images and names of the leader were removed from the public domain, the system which Stalin had worked for still remained. The state which protected Soviet leaders was to stay unchanged for the next thirty years, until Mikhail Gorbachev took control in the 1980s. The Cold War continued, gulags remained operational, and the totalitarian government remained. The world was finally permitted to access the records of Stalin and his crimes after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the conclusion of the Cold War, and the final end of the Soviet Union in 1991-92. While most of the contemporaries working under Stalin managed to hide the corruption behind Stalins past, many people still managed to acquire some information against the cruel dictator. In the end, just as we may never gain full knowledge of his past crimes, we may never seize an absolute understanding of his motivations and personality. For decades, Stalin and his committee members managed to justify their deeds by saying that their goal, the building of a utopia, necessitated the sacrifice of any number of lives. In order to make a life which would better the whole, lives must be surrendered. While Stalin believed he never reached a complete Communist society, he did prove that his tactics such as collectivization and the Five-Year Plan guided toward an ideology that focused on Totalitarian control. While the world continues to suffer, it is important to realize Stalins unbridled desire for power can devastate millions of lives. His egocentric personality not only was detrimental to the Russian people, but to countries across the globe. While he may be revered as a man who greatly contributed to Russias success as a world superpower, it is undeniable that it was a t the cost of something much more important. While he was a political genius, it was his paranoid loss of power which led to his demise. Joseph Stalin will always be remembered as a ruthless leader of Russia, and while he may have been erased from the public streets, he will always remain in the thoughts and prayers of the people in Russia and across the globe.

Character Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises Essay

The Character Brett Ashley in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises There is a common perception among casual readers--who hasn't heard it voiced?--that Ernest Hemingway did not respect women. The purpose of this essay is to examine one work in such a way as to challenge these heinous assumptions. Hemingway's persona will be left alone. What will be examined is the role of women, as evidenced by Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises, and what, if anything, it reveals in the way of settling this account of Hemingway as misogynist. Brett Ashley enjoys a unique position of power in the novel--in today's vernacular, she "wears the pants" in all her relationships. The feminist perspective, no doubt, will find this true, but rapidly move to the conclusion that Brett Ashley's power over men is Hemingway's means of showing what a bitch she is. I'd like to suggest another possibility. Despite Brett's many faults, she is worth loving, and Jake Barnes does just that. Again, the feminist may say, yes he loves her, but as an idol, a doll, a figure admired from afar, as if eternally suspended on a pedestal. I consent that Jake is guilty of this habit, yet; he is always there for her, no matter the pain it inflicts on his self-worth. At the end of the book, when Jake thinks the coast is clear, and he's gathering himself at San Sabastian after much revelry in Pamplona, Brett sends a telegram: COULD YOU COME TO HOTEL MONTANA MADRID AM RATHER IN TROUBLE BRETT. (238) Brett has ditched her intended husband Michael, her lover Robert Cohn, and her number one supporter Jake Barnes, in order to do what? To satisfy herself with a nineteen year old hero of the bull ring. To assuage her fears of aging. For wasn't it pleasant dear, to be ... ...it, and respond accordingly. Hemingway's gift of these characters says to the reader, "Embrace life." That message comes from one who loves people, even when they insist on games and head-trips and violence. Jake is a hero because he grabs the bull by the horns (I know, I know). He could be a pitiful mess of a man, but he is not. He is chivalrous, smart, and well-adjusted. He hurts, and has second thoughts, but he is quick to joke about it. The characters in the novel that show signs of male chauvinism are whipped about by events, and are in no way intended to be admired. Hemingway was no sexist. On the contrary, his work championed the woman's cause, and in Brett Ashley he has given readers a heroine, hell-bent on liberation. Work Cited Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. Reissued by Collier Books, 1986.

President Bill Clinton :: William Jefferson Clinton Essays

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American History-Civil Rights

During the years 1939 to 1953 the United States armed forces changed a policy of restricting and segregating the Negro into one that had equal opportunity and integration. This revolution took a great deal of time and struggle. Throughout American history the blacks in America considered their military service in the nation's conflicts as proof of their loyalty and as a brief for their claim to full citizenship. At the same time white Americans appear to have realized this, and they always sought to restrict or reduce the black soldier's military service.The national armed forces always were the most integrated major segment of American life. Therefore, the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces has become truly a social revolution in American history. The extent of the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces was discussed several years ago and remains actual among historians to this day. The purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate the debate among historia ns concerning the desegregation of the United States Armed Forces and the Negro's reaction to this policy. In reaching this goal, the paper will also shed some light on American race relations during these years.With the World War II crisis of 1939-1945, the questions of restriction, discrimination, and segregation in the United States armed forces became one of two major problems for black Americans. Employment discrimination was also important, and this subject has been examined by historians. Although employment discrimination was the chief everyday issue for Negroes in World War II, discrimination and segregation in the United States armed forces was the more emotionally charged issue. Most historians claim that a black â€Å"revolution† or â€Å"revolt† occurred in 1954, 1955, 1960, or 1963.Silberman (1964) writes that segregation was necessary to stop bloody racial conflict and a reduction of the armed services' potency. Silberman is one of the spiciest critics o f American race relations. In his book Crisis in Black and White, he reminded Americans that the United States â€Å"is a racist society in a sense and to a degree that we have refused so far to admit, much less face† (9-10). In 1950, members of the Court obtained evidence from the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services prior to some important decisions that pointed toward a reversal of the separate but equal position.In 1954, before the important decision on desegregation, members of the Court read in manuscript form journalist Lee Nichols' Breakthrough on the Color Front (1954), the first book-length account of military integration. Usually North Carolinians – at least most white North Carolinians – tend to look back at the years 1939 to 1953 and their adjustment to changing times with pride. But historians reporting progress in the South seldom give North Carolina high marks.Writer Roland (1984) in his book on the South since World War II writes with considerable disappointment because the southern state with the best race relations prior to the Brown decision failed to lead the region in the integration of blacks into society after 1954. In his study of southern governors and desegregation, Horton (1960) expresses a similar disappointment. The writer observes that North Carolina escaped much of the demagoguery characteristic of several neighboring states because Tar Heel governors tried to keep the peace and found local solutions to racial problems.On a contradictory note, however, Silberman (1964) calls the Patriots of North Carolina as a â€Å"sedate version† of the Citizens Council and attributes to the Patriots and their successors, the North Carolina Defenders of States' Rights, the names of some of the â€Å"most respected men of North Carolina† (14). From the beginning of a military tradition in America, black manpower has been used for military aims. Most of historians (Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution; Dudley Taylor Cornish , The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861-1865; Robert J.Dwyer, † The Negro in the United States Army: His Changing Role and Status,† Sociology and Social Research; L. D. Reddick, † The Negro Policy of the United States Army, 1775-1945,† Journal of Negro History) who have investigated the problem have noticed a desire on the part of white Americans to limit the participation of the blacks in military affairs until an emergency or crisis develops. Then black manpower was utilized as a military necessity. Quarles notices that this pattern was established in the colonial militia.Each colony followed this policy that excluded Negroes as soldiers. Dwyer writes when emergencies such as Indian threats emerged and there was urgent need for manpower, however, most colonies saw fit to overlook these exclusion laws and volunteered Negroes (19). When the Continental Army was creat ed at the beginning of the American Revolution, the black soldiers were excluded. Once more, when white volunteers became harder to find, this policy was changed, and about five thousand Negroes served with the American revolutionary arms.In The New York Times, Hinton observes that there occurred important changes by the end of World War II that made it more difficult to maintain the racial status quo in America. The ballots of American Negroes had become a powerful political force. The belligerent spirit that matured during the war made Negroes shure to fight segregation wherever it stood in the way of full citizenship. The United States became the leader of the non-Communist world. The race problem was a weakness in its Cold War attempts to influence the emerging nations.A new President took office in the centre of the changing situation. He realized that the status quo in American society relations had to give way to a new race order. Unlike his forerunner, this President would h ave found it difficult to take a passive stand on Negro rights even if he had wanted to do so. The race problems in civilian life reached a new peak with the end of war. This was especially true in the South where there was fear that the status quo in race relations would be further upset by the many returning Negro veterans.In Freedom and Equality: Addresses by Harry S Truman Horton (1960) writes about racial violence and revival of riots in this period. Many people believed that a wave of race riots would begin with a new force in the country as they had after World War I. Among those people who remembered the riots after World War I and who was afraid that they would be repeated was President Harry Truman. Two particularly violent attacks induced President Truman to some significant action in order to protect civil rights. Horton (1960) gives examples of cruelty.For instance, in February, 1946, Isaac Woodard, a newly discharged veteran still in uniform, was blinded when South Car olina policemen pulled him off a bus and jabbed their night sticks into his eyes. In July, 1946, two Negro veterans and their wives were taken from a car near Monroe, Georgia, by a mob of white men. The four Negroes were lined up and killed by approximately sixty shots pumped into their bodies (12). To stop this kind of violence President Truman created the President's Committee on Civil Rights on December 6, 1946.The purpose was to examine the nebulous authority of the Federal Government in the civil rights area and to recommend appropriate legislation. Horton (1960) considers the beliefs on civil rights of this man from Missouri with a Southern heritage. He quotes Truman, â€Å"I was raised amidst some violently prejudiced Southerners myself†. Perhaps Truman reflected his own transformation on this matter when he stated his belief that â€Å"the vast majority of good southerners understand that the blind prejudices of past generations cannot continue in a free republic.â⠂¬  Horton says that it is clear that Truman had support from Negro voters as early as 1926. He inherited black support from the Pendergast machine of Kansas City, and he managed to maintain this support throughout his career as a senator (34). At President Truman's first news conference a Negro one reporter asked him a question – what stand he would take on civil rights matters. Truman replied: â€Å"I will give you some advice. All you need to do is to read the Senate record of one Harry S Truman† (Public Papers of the Presidents).As a candidate for the Vice-Presidency in 1944 Truman had also directed interested persons to his Senate record. Surely he was proud of his position on civil rights. â€Å"Without exception,† one student of Truman's Senate record has concluded, :Senator Truman acted to provide greater protection for minorities and to afford equal treatment under the law† (Horton 14). Truman continually supported antilynching bills. He also sig ned petitions for cloture and voted for the amendments to the Selective Service Act of 1940 intended to stop discrimination.

A personal opinion in favor of the trophy culture system of rewarding children regardless of performance Essay

Should kids receive an award just for participating? This question has become one of great debate in recent years following the rise of â€Å"Trophy Culture†, a system where children receive awards regardless of performance and get applauded for simply showing up.   Many parents argue that giving children awards even if they do not perform well promotes entitlement and teaches them to not try.   My thoughts on the matter were a little mixed before I did any research on the subject. As someone who has participated in track and cross-country for years, I have been a witness to Trophy Culture in many of the races I’ve competed in.   When I was a beginner runner, I rarely if ever placed in races, and was often still given a medal just for completing the course. Anyone who has taken part in a large-scale public race like â€Å"Race for the Cure† or the â€Å"Disneyland Marathon† knows what I am talking about, basically if you get across the finish line ev en if you’re hours behind the first place runner there will still be someone there putting a medal around your neck at the end.   When I was younger and slower, getting that medal was extremely exciting because I felt like even finishing 3 miles of running as an overweight 7th grader was a big accomplishment. And the girls who finished in the top 20 of the races typically got another medal on top of the participation one, meaning I still had something to strive towards, so lack of motivation was not a problem.   And as I’ve grown and improved in my running skills, the Trophy Culture that is extremely prevalent in the sport of running still does not bother me.   I could argue that getting up at 6:00 AM every morning over the summer and training my hardest, only to win a half marathon then get the exact same medal as the woman who finished last almost 2 hours after I am disheartening.   However, I believe that the â€Å"trophies† we get for accomplishing t hings like this are essentially meaningless, and the true reward is the feeling of triumph one gets when finishing something truly challenging. This feeling relates to the existence of â€Å"self-esteem†, or one’s overall evaluation of their worth as a person. Doing a difficult task well like performing excellently in a soccer game or acing a test are ways we can improve our self-esteem and feel better about ourselves.   This plays into our sense of self-efficacy, our belief inability to perform and succeed in tasks presented to us.   Some parents think that trophy culture is artificially inflating their children’s self-esteem and self-efficacy, making children think they are performing better than they actually are and allowing for them to almost â€Å"get stuck† in a mediocre performance because they have no reason to believe their performance is less than ideal. On the other side of the argument, there are parents who think that if we award children for completing sports seasons or specific events, we are teaching them â€Å"that it is worth keeping a commitment, that we value this† (Heffernan, 2015). A recent report from Real Sports With Bryant Gumble on HBO explored this problem. In the trailer for the show, he is seen interviewing a woman who says that giving trophies to everyone regardless of performance â€Å"sets the bar pretty low†, and she also makes the argument that she â€Å"wants kids to improve and be engaged in the process of improvement†, and she thinks without incentive this will never happen.   This perspective on the topic is one that made headline news when NFL linebacker James Harrison â€Å"took to Instagram announcing he would be sending back the trophies his sons, 6 and 8, received ‘until they earn a real trophy’†(Wallace, 2015).   In an article analyzing the different sides of the debate, Kelly Wallace from CNN points out that many experts side with those saying, â€Å"if you tell a kid they’re wonderful and they believe you, that’s not about healthy self-esteem, that’s about narcissism†. Lisa Heffernan, a contributor to NBC News TODAY, disagrees with this mindset. According to her, participation trophies â€Å"remind kids that they are part of something, and may help build enthusiasm to return for another season†. Another point she brings up is that â€Å"at a time when parents complain of escalating competition in youth sports, [trophies] remind kids that we value their effort, regardless of ability or results†.   Her words echo those of a writer by the name of John Kass, whose article in the Chicago Tribune includes a segment from his son who claims â€Å"What’s wrong with a participation trophy for kids? It makes them happy. They’re just 6 years old. Isn’t it good to be a kid, and happy, playing the game? They’re just kids.† Kass then goes on to explain that this conversation with his son made him realize participation trophies aren’t as bad as some people want us to believe, and â€Å"getting a participat ion trophy as a child didn’t make [his son] any less competitive†. After reading articles with opinions from both sides of the argument, I have come to the conclusion that my initial view of the topic has not changed: I still believe that Trophy Culture is not detrimental to the development of children’s self-esteem and people fighting to end a system that allows awards for participation are wasting their time.   Children need encouragement and support from their parent’s, coaches, and others to succeed and stay motivated in everything from sports to academics.   Trying to get rid of participation awards could very likely result in discouraged children.   Like John Kass’s son said in his discussion with his father, â€Å"What’s wrong with a participation trophy for kids? It makes them happy.† If giving participation trophies make kids happy and doesn’t harm anyone else, then the clear choice is to allow participation awards to continue in our society.    Works Cited Heffernan, Lisa. â€Å"In Defense of Participation Trophies: What They Taught My Son.† TODAY.com. N.p., 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Kass, John. â€Å"Is Our ‘Trophy Culture’ Making Happy Losers?† Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Wallace, Kelly. â€Å"Debate: Does Sports Participation Deserve a Trophy?† CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.