Pacific Northwest History Essay Example for Free

Pacific Northwest History Essay This paper will present, and ultimately prove that the Pacific Northwest of the United States has undergone economic, racial, environmental, and political changes due to events such as World War II, the emigration of people from the Midwestern U. S. , etc. The Pacific Northwest of the United States has for generations been a land that provided the substances that the rest of the country needed in order to survive and thrive. From the times of the earliest explorers to the region, throughout the 1800s, the economy of this region relied on the production of raw materials and natural products, such as lumber, produce, fresh fish, and the like, leading experts on the area to refer to the Northwest as â€Å"the hinterland† of the U. S. (Schwantes). This economic model changed drastically with the outbreak of World War II, which led to the Northwest becoming a center of aircraft production, shipbuilding, and other industries related to the war effort, but different from the traditional products that came from the region. Forces at work in the Region to Cause or Fuel a Changing Economy Having the luxury of viewing the history of the Pacific Northwest in retrospect over the past century or so, speaking in general terms, there were several major forces at work which ultimately caused, or fueled a changing economy. While these forces are explained in greater detail in subsequent sections of this paper, they warrant identification and a brief explanation at this point to set the stage for the research that follows. In no particular order, the forces that facilitated the changing economy of the Pacific Northwest are as follows: ENVIRONMENTAL- The eventual industrial development of the Northwest changed the environment, depleting many natural resources, such as the timber, precious metals, and fish that helped the people of the Northwest to provide for them and export these natural products worldwide. However, once these resources were exhausted, the region was forced to turn to manufacturing of durable goods to sustain themselves, such as the many products the region turned out in support of the campaigns of World War II. ETHNIC- Events that transpired during the World War II area changed the racial composition of the Pacific Northwest, with its effects being felt even today. To be more specific, when the United States was forced into World War II as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the fighting was focused mostly on the Pacific Ocean area, which made the Northwest highly important logistically for the American troops, and launched a massive war industry, including aircrafts, ships, and soldier supplies. What this industrialization did for the region was to draw people from the rural areas to live in cities, making the region more urban than rural, and likewise attracting minorities from other parts of the nation, changing the ethnic composition of the region as a whole. Additionally, the movement of Americans from the â€Å"dustbowl† of the Midwest to the lush and fertile lands of the Northwest brought new cultures, traditions and hard working people to the region. POLITICAL- Because of the move of many people from a rural to an urban environment, and the increased presence of minorities and the Americans who came from the Midwest, the attitudes and value systems of the region changed, as reflected in voting patterns and political attitudes which now focused on urban issues such as poverty, crime, and social programs, whereas the previous rural way of life focused more on environmental concerns and the like. ECONOMIC- The proliferation of industry in the Pacific Northwest, beginning in the era of World War II, changed the economy from a natural/agricultural one to a largely industrial one. These changes were not all generated from within; rather, they often took place as a result of forces beyond the Northwest. Those forces are identified and discussed in the next portion of the research.

Internet Regulation :: Internet Essays

Internet Regulation What is the Internet? The definition of the Internet put in one sentence is: A worldwide network of computer networks that use the TCP/IP network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange, where anyone with a computer can access the internet through an ISP (Internet Service Provider). The Internet consists of a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks (e.g. ARPAnet, NSFNet, MILNET), mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols, chiefly the Internet Protocol. The Internet is a global network connecting millions of personal, institutional and company computers. The number of computers used by the internet is growing rapidly. The United States is connected with over 100 countries worldwide and linked together to exchange of data, news and opinions. The Internet is decentralized design. This means that there isn't just one computer that stores all of the information from the Internet. There are many independent host servers located throughout the US and the world that store the information made available to the global Internet community. The Internet is primarily used for these functions: 1. To send and receive e-mail. 2. To transfer files from one computer to another (the files may be text, images, audio, video, etc.). 3. Research to locate information for either government, educational, commercial, etc. 4. To communicate with other computers, either one at a time (Instant message) or many at once (chat rooms or discussion groups). The internet is a work in progress and will continue to evolve. What is Internet Regulation? Internet regulation is basically restricting or controlling access to certain aspects or information. Internet regulation consists of mainly two categories: Censorship of data, and controlling aspects of the Internet. Most of the Internet regulation is imposed by the Government in an effort to protect the best interest of the general public and is concerned with some form of censorship. Other forms of Internet regulation is domain registration, IP address control, etc. In domain registration, once a domain is purchased the Webmaster’s address has to be registered at the time of purchase. A governmental agency can track someone down if they put up information, that the government considers unacceptable. IP address is you Internet identity when you are connected to the web. It is synonymous to a postal address.

Abortion Essay

Lucinda Seongbae Eng : Persuasive essay on abortion Prof. Fitzgerald A Positive View on Pro Abortion Abortion has been a controversy for many years and viewed in many different perspectives. Some individuals see it from a very positive point when this is being caused by the nature of the woman’s health, the age and others. It may also be seen as a way of getting rid of an unwanted or accidental pregnancy for reasons that are positive and beneficial for most women. According to feminist perspectives on reproduction and the family, in some cases abortion can be a positive act depending on the cause. For instance, in the case of a rape, health reasons or in the case of having an unwanted child for reasons of age, marital status, and economical reasons abortion is a potent tool to undo some mistakes. However, whichever ways it is perceived abortion gives a woman the right to choose and should not be viewed as a negative act but instead can be seen as a positive act in most circumstances. Based on the many positive reasons for abortion, abortion should be supported. Concerning the woman’s health an abortion can be performed when the woman cannot hold the fetus for health reasons. For example a woman who has AIDs and the fetus infected already can obtain an abortion because there is no life for the baby. Also a woman who has cancer at an advanced stage cannot keep a child in her womb or she will risk dying at birth. In the case of some diseases, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia, severe diabetes, etc that can be life threatening, an abortion often helps to avoid serious medical complications from childbirth. This also brings emphasis to Roe V. Wade (1973), which granted women the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, based on an implicit fundamental right to privacy and argued that it must be weighed against competing state interests in maternal safety and the protection of prenatal life; it protected this right during the first trimester of pregnancy (Thompson, 50). At this juncture the person has very good justifications of her action and is considered a positive act on her part. Another positive issue concerning abortion is a situation where girls below fifteen years are pregnant. In such situation abortion is possible because the girls are too young for child bearing. Also in situations where very young girls have little or no health facilities to ensure safe delivery, such as in developing countries, abortion is the only possible answer in order to avoid some major complication. According to researcher Mayor, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death in young women aged fifteen to nineteen in developing countries. An estimated 70,000 adolescent mothers die each year because they have children before they are physically ready for parenthood, and more than 90% of these births are in developing countries the report says (www. bmjjournals. com). In this case, if a girl of these ages chooses to get an abortion to avoid complications of childbirth and/or death she is only making a positive decision for her life. According to those against abortion or those who perceive abortion as a negative act, one would argue that since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life. In contrary, most abortions take place in the first trimester, when a fetus cannot exist independent of the mother. As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb. Therefore, in this case abortion cannot be considered murder. According to Thomson (1971), â€Å"if women have rights over their own bodies, then they have rights not to have their bodies used by others against their will† (Thompson, 35-65). Therefore, even if it is argued that the fetus is a human life, the state has no right to force someone to donate use of their body to another person, even if that person is in extreme need. Another may argue that those who choose abortions are often minors or young women with insufficient life experience to understand fully what they are doing. Many have lifelong regrets afterwards. In defense to that, teenagers who become mothers have grim prospects for the future. They are much more likely to leave school; receive inadequate prenatal care; rely on public ssistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or end up divorced. Teenage births are associated with lower annual income for the mother. According to researcher Stanley, eighty percent of teen mothers must rely on welfare at some point. Teenage mothers are more likely to drop out of school. Only about one-third of teen mothers obtain a high school diploma. Teenage pregnancies are associated with increased rates of alcohol a nd substance abuse, and lower educational level (www. womenshealthchannel. com/teenpregnacy. index). In the modern world, abortions have become a norm of life and should not be looked upon as a negative act but an act of making a positive decision to undo some mistakes in life. Though women have been endowed with the gift of bearing a life form, an abortion gives them the option of whether they want to keep the present or not. However, an abortion should not be misunderstood for a convenience, as it does have its own advantages and disadvantages. The bigger picture that is being stressed is bodily integrity and self-ownership.

Cultural Conflict in Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me”

In Dario Fo’s â€Å"Accidental Death of an Anarchist,† a character asks: â€Å"Where are all these poor people I keep hearing about? I go to a lot of parties, and I never meet any of them.† In his movie â€Å"Roger and Me† Michael Moore depicts the story when the general public can meet those poor people.   The film is a documentary about the effect of General Motors plant closing in Flint, Michigan, in the mid-1980s. From the critical point of view, â€Å"Roger and Me† constitutes a sardonic picture of corporate social responsibility, everlasting social and cultural conflict (once greatly emphasized by Marx) between working class and capitalists, now often covered in the image of managers and corporate specialists.   Simultaneously, the film can be perceived as unsuccessful attempt of the artist to abstract from pitiful effects of the event (plant closing) and to create unbiased actual picture. Practically, Moore’s â€Å"Roger and Me† represents documentary of satire, social revolt and prejudice. After the closing of plant Michael Moore tried to get in with Roger Smith, head of GM in Detroit, to invite him to Flint for a look at what had happened to people there. Practically, Moore never got near Smith, therefore he created a documentary, where people and some facts spoke for themselves.   The conflict between big company and workers regarding the issues of corporate social responsibility remains to be urgent and sensitive.   From the critical point of view, there is nothing wrong with attacking General Motors.   This company along with the vast majority of multinational corporations surely deserves to be attacked. Criticism, fair or unfair, whether de ­served or not, is a price people pay to live in a free society. Thus, Michael Moore had every right to make his smash-hit documentary film.   Like any advocate, surely he had the right to present only one side of a case. Simultaneously, there is a difference between fair and unfair criti ­cism, just as there is a difference between truth and factual distortion.   Fair criticism challenges the actions of a person or an organization, examines something your opponent has done, and attacks him or her for it. Even if it may hurt the person criticized, fair criticism contributes vigor and health to a free society. It helps check abuse of power, corruption and wrongdoing. Unfair criticism uses lies and distor ­tions to accuse someone of things he has not done and wouldn't do. Unfair criticism blames him for things beyond his control. Unfair criticism uses innuendo to attack him for things that can't be said outright because they are untrue. Unfair criticism employs dirty techniques of filmmaking (or other distortions) and degrades and endangers a free society, because it dam ­ages public trust in our institutions. Indi ­vidual judgment decides at what point unfairness becomes outright dishonesty. Michael Moore begins his story by saying, â€Å"Maybe I got this wrong, but I thought companies lay off people when they hit hard times. GM was the richest company in the world, and was closing factories when it was making profits in the billions†¦ GM Chairman Roger Smith appeared to have a brilliant plan: First, close 11 factories in the U.S., then open 11 in Mexico where you pay the workers 70 cents an hour. Then use the money you save by building cars in Mexico to take over other companies, and prefer ­ably high-tech firms and weapons manu ­facturers. Next, tell the union you're broke and they happily agree to give back a couple billion dollars in wage cuts.†Ã‚   The situation depicted by Moore seems to be outrageous. However, if critically examined GM could not sell Flint-made cars unless it modernized obsolete factories.   Moreover, in during that period GM’s average salary under the United Auto Workers contract was $15.36 compared to the national industry average of $9.07 (Kauffmann, 10). General Motors did build Mexican facto ­ries and employ low-cost, unskilled labor to assemble wire and cable â€Å"harnesses† for GM cars. The wire and cables in those harnesses were manufactured in the United States. To stay competitive, GM had to reduce the cost of hand-assembly of the harnesses. So, it worked out an agreement with the Mexican government to provide needed unskilled jobs in poverty-stricken areas of Mexico. The Mexican government then allowed GM to manufacture more cars for the Mexican (not the U.S.) market (Kauffmann, 11). Moore's camera shows an auto worker who had suffered a mental breakdown. â€Å"He cracked one night while working on the assembly line. He was now shooting hoops at the local mental health center.† Was Moore honest in blaming GM and Roger Smith because his friend had a mental breakdown? GM refuses to dis ­cuss whether the man had a previous record of mental instability, because, the company says, personnel records are con ­fidential. Was Moore honest in showing a gun-toting crazed man shot down in the street by police, to support his claim that GM layoffs had caused crime rates to soar in Flint? Moore failed to mention that crime has dropped 13 percent since 1986, when the major layoffs took place (Schwammenthal, 7). Instead of soaring, as Moore says, crime in Flint dropped 5 percent in the first half of last year, while violent crime across the United States increased 5 percent during the same period (Schwammenthal, 7). If assesses critically, Michael Moore technique can be characterized as untruth persuasion since he, being a talented director and experienced persuader, focused exclusively on the negative sides of the closing, hence corporate social responsibility in the context.   From the personal point of view, Moore abstracts from the core of the problem, social conflict, and speculates on â€Å"working class mentality.† Bob Eubanks of â€Å"The Newly-wed Game† is included as he ridicules Jews with a vile anti-Semitic remark. Moore himself ridicules a pretty young Miss Michigan, who, at the time of his â€Å"ambush interview† was more concerned with being chosen as Miss America than she was qualified to discuss economic conditions in Flint (White, 1). Moore ridicules a ho ­mosexual in a way that the film critic of the Chicago Tribune called â€Å"the lowest kind of gay-bashing, a crude crowd-pleasing gesture† (Schwammenthal, 7). Moore’s documentary becomes the picture full of controversies. Practically, the film could consolidate the general public and authorities over the problems in Flint, however its sardonic, nihilistic and controversial character does not offer any resolution and brings the conflict to the very top. Bibliography Kauffmann, Stanley. â€Å"Films & the Arts: Cars and Other Vehicles,† The New Republic. Washington: Jan 22, 1990. Vol. 202, Iss. 4 Joseph B. White. â€Å"Movie That Attacks GM, Roger Smith Opens in Flint, Michigan.† Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), New York, N.Y.: Dec 21, 1989 Daniel Schwammenthal. â€Å"In the Fray: Michael's Manipulations,† The Chicago Tribune. Chicago, May 19, 1990      

Politidcal theory essays

Politidcal theory essays The ideas of the Enlightenment became popular during the American and French Revolutions. These main ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers were that every natural phenomenon had a cause and effect. They felt that truth is arrived at by reason and there is a natural law that governs the universe. In America in the mid 18th Century the consciousness of the colonists were triggered. They realized their distance from the King in Great Britain and rethought their loyalties. They felt that the king did not have a right to profit off the land they worked on. Money was a central factor in rebellion. Because the British protected the colonists in the French Indian War and the crown spent manpower and money to protect the colonies they felt that the colonists must repay the debt. Therefore, they enforced the Stamp Act, which taxed documents and newspapers. The colonists felt that taxation should be the job of a local government and not of one overseas. Later the British enforced the Declaratory Act, which emphasized the British right to tax the colonies, and further taxed import and exports. This infuriated the colonists who boycotted goods coming to America. This is the beginning of the American Revolution. Soon after the First Continental Congress was formed and on July 4th 1776 the 2nd Continental Congress signed the Declaration of independence. Finally in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris the United States was legally given independence. In 18th Century France the system of aristocratic privilege and serfdom dominated politics and society. The Church received tithes and paid no taxes. The nobility was exempt from most taxes, collected dues from the peasantry, and held virtually every government office, simply because they were born into the right families. The rapidly growing middle class, or bourgeois, and peasantry paid all the taxes and had no political power and little social influence. These inequalities were based...

Difference btw Law and moral essays

Difference btw Law and moral essays Basic Observations on Law and Morality At first there seems to be no distinction between law and morality. There are passages in ancient Greek writers, for example, which seem to suggest that the good person is the one who will do what is lawful. It is the lawgivers, in these early societies, who determine what is right and wrong. But it is not long before thoughtful people recognize the difference between what is actually legal, or legally right according to the political authorities and what should be legal. What should be legal roughly corresponds to what is really right or just, that is, what we would call morally right. We find, for instance, the distinction between what is legally or conventionally right and what is naturally (or as we would say today morally) right. Sometimes this is expressed as an opposition between what the gods command (i.e., what is morally right) and what the political authorities command (i.e., what is legally right). This is dramatically illustrated in Sophocles' tragedy Antigone, in whic h the heroine defies the decree of the king (the source of "legal right" in the circumstances) and buries her brothers (an act the audience would assume was morally right). The contrast between what the state demands and what the gods demand is not the only way that this legal v. moral distinction is expressed. We find it also in the important Greek philosophers, who frequently discuss the distinction in terms of appearance and reality, or between what superficially seems or appears to be the case and what a thorough rational investigation reveals. Plato, for example, holds that knowledge of what is just or moral, and the ability to distinguish true justice or morality from what is merely apparently just depends on the full development and use of human reason. According to Plato, there is a very close connection between true justice or morality and human well-being or flourishing. Legal and political arrangements that...

Definition and Examples of Secondary Data Analysis

Definition and Examples of Secondary Data Analysis Secondary data analysis is the analysis of data that was collected by someone else. Below, we’ll review the definition of secondary data, how it can be used by researchers, and the pros and cons of this type of research. Key Takeaways: Secondary Data Analysis Primary data refers to data that researchers have collected themselves, while secondary data refers to data that was collected by someone else.Secondary data is available from a variety of sources, such as governments and research institutions.While using secondary data can be more economical, existing data sets may not answer all of a researcher’s questions. Comparison of Primary and Secondary Data In social science research, the terms primary data and secondary data are common parlance. Primary data is collected by a researcher or team of researchers for the specific purpose or analysis under consideration. Here, a research team conceives of and develops a research project, decides on a sampling technique, collects data designed to address specific questions, and performs their own analyses of the data they collected. In this case, the people involved in the data analysis are familiar with the research design and data collection process. Secondary data analysis, on the other hand, is the use of data that was collected by someone else for some other purpose. In this case, the researcher poses questions that are addressed through the analysis of a data set that they were not involved in collecting. The data was not collected to answer the researcher’s specific research questions and was instead collected for another purpose. This means that the same data set can actually be a primary data set to one researcher and a secondary data set to a different one. Using Secondary Data There are some important things that must be done before using secondary data in an analysis. Since the researcher did not collect the data, its important for them to become familiar with the data set: how the data was collected, what the response categories are for each question, whether or not weights need to be applied during the analysis, whether or not clusters or stratification need to be accounted for, who the population of study was, and more. A great deal of secondary data resources and data sets are available for sociological research, many of which are public and easily accessible. The United States Census, the General Social Survey, and the American Community Survey are some of the most commonly used secondary data sets available. Advantages of Secondary Data Analysis The biggest advantage of using secondary data is that it can be more economical. Someone else has already collected the data, so the researcher does not have to devote money, time, energy and resources to this phase of research. Sometimes the secondary data set must be purchased, but the cost is almost always lower than the expense of collecting a similar data set from scratch, which usually entails salaries, travel and transportation, office space, equipment, and other overhead costs. In addition, since the data is already collected and usually cleaned and stored in electronic format, the researcher can spend most of their  time analyzing the data instead of getting the data ready for analysis. A second major advantage of using secondary data is the breadth of data available. The federal government conducts numerous studies on a large, national scale that individual researchers would have a difficult time collecting. Many of these data sets are also longitudinal, meaning that the same data has been collected from the same population over several different time periods. This allows researchers to look at trends and changes of phenomena over time. A third important advantage of using secondary data is that the data collection process often maintains a level of expertise and professionalism that may not be present with individual researchers or small research projects. For example, data collection for many federal data sets is often performed by staff members who specialize in certain tasks and have many years of experience in that particular area and with that particular survey. Many smaller research projects do not have that level of expertise, as a lot of  data is collected by students working part-time. Disadvantages of Secondary Data Analysis A major disadvantage of using secondary data is that it may not answer the researcher’s specific research questions or contain specific information that the researcher would like to have. It also may not have been collected in the geographic region or during the years desired, or with the specific population that the researcher is interested in studying. For example, a researcher who is interested in studying adolescents may find that the secondary data set only includes young adults.   Additionally, since the researcher did not collect the data, they have no control over what is contained in the data set. Often times this can limit the analysis or alter the original questions the researcher sought to answer. For example, a researcher who is studying happiness and optimism might find that a secondary data set only includes one of these variables, but not both. A related problem is that the variables may have been defined or categorized differently than the researcher would have chosen. For example, age may have been collected in categories rather than as a continuous variable, or race may be defined as â€Å"white† and â€Å"other† instead of containing categories for every major race. Another significant disadvantage of using secondary data is that the researcher doesnt know exactly how the data collection process was done or how well it was carried out. The researcher is not usually privy to information about how seriously the data is affected by problems such as low response rate or respondent misunderstanding of specific survey questions. Sometimes this information is readily available, as is the case with many federal data sets. However, many other secondary data sets are not accompanied by this type of information and the analyst must learn to read between the lines in order to uncover any potential limitations of the data.