John Locke Essay

John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government has been, and continues to be, a cornerstone in Western political philosophy. The theory of government he presents in this particular document – that government is based on the sovereignty of the people – has been overwhelmingly influential since its publication in 1690. Before going further, however, it is necessary to understand the events from which the Second Treatise stems. As stated, this document was published in 1690, and it was done so anonymously. Two years prior to the publication, the highly unpopular King James II of England had been deposed – with no bloodshed whatsoever – and replaced by King William III and his wife, Queen Mary, who was a daughter of the deposed king. This event was known to history as the Glorious Revolution. Yet, when it occurred, Locke was not residing in England. However, he did have ties to the party that oversaw the Glorious Revolution – the Whigs. As a result of this relationship, Locke sought to justify the ascension of King William. Though the Second Treatise was written to justify the resistance that occurred to King Charles II, it was published to justify the Glorious Revolution. Locke’s Second Treatise begins with the premise that society is made up of free and equal individuals, all of whom are endowed with natural rights. He goes on to state that these same individuals will want to acquire possession, and most likely will engage in conflicts with one another. Therefore, he suggests that the natural law of morality be utilized to govern them. One major presumption made by Locke is the fact that, for a society to best protect itself and its property, the individuals within that society must join together and form a body politic, in which they agree to adhere to certain standards of behavior. To accomplish this, they must give up some of their natural rights. As history has since demonstrated, the giving up of natural rights has not always been met with a good response, as in the case of the American Civil War, where states’ rights was a major underlying cause. Within this civil society, the people must submit what they consider to be natural freedoms to the common law of that society. In return, they receive the protection of their government. An executive power – i.e. president – is given the authority to enforce the laws of the government, punishing any that break those laws. However, should the power held by the executive or other officials within the government fail to live up to their responsibilities, the people have the right and the responsibility to rebel against that government. Once they have rebelled against it, if they are successful in removing it, they must replace it with one that will abide by the laws set up for the smooth running of their society. It is this last concept that proves to be the crux of Locke’s document. It was what served as his motivation to write the Second Treatise. He wanted the British to understand they had the right to replace one government with another. It would be this concept that would serve as one of the underlying philosophies that would inspire revolutions in both America and France, as well as the documents on which America was founded on: the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. The various ideas presented in the Second Treatise – limited government based on natural rights and human dignity, unlimited personal property based on those same natural rights – are what make this document a superbly constructed argument against the concept of absolutism. Thus, it remains a most influential work within the realm of political philosophy, and within history in general.

Griswold vs Conneticut Essays - Birth Control In The United States

Griswold vs Conneticut Essays - Birth Control In The United States Griswold vs Conneticut Griswold v. Connecticut Estelle Griswold was a former office worker and a certified medical physician. After several years of traveling abroad she returned to her home state of Connecticut. While searching for a job she came across an executive director position at Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, but having little experience she took the job anyways and was willing to learn about contraception. She than began a movement to supply Connecticut women with information on birth control. This essay will clarify the history of rights under Connecticut?s state law, which turned the Griswold v. Connecticut case, an influential case for many different reasons. Until 1965, The United States Supreme court dodged cases that had involvement with reproductive rights which then most of the cases would be dismissed due to the lack of standing until Griswold?s case that came along. The case from Connecticut?s outdated and unforced laws against the usage of contraceptives like birth control. After taking her position Connecticut?s planned parenthood organization, Griswold met two men would help in to campaign to battle with the state?s anticontraception law. The two gentlemen were Dr. C. Lee Buxton and Fowler V. Harper. Together, the three of them would fight for the legalization of birth control. Griswold, Buxton and Harper felt that a ban on the use of contraceptives violated the right privacy. ?Their efforts would also prove instrumental in revolutionizing American law by bringing the so-called right of privacy under the protective umbrella of the U.S. Constitution.?(Johnson, I) Estelle Griswold?s fight for legalization would be faced with a cha llenge of Connecticut?s 1879 statute that made it a crime to use contraceptives. ?Although several other states in the 1950?s maintained restrictions on the manufacture and advertising of contraceptives, Connecticut?s statute forbidding the ?use? and ?abetting? in the use of contraceptives was the most restrictive in the country.?(Johnson, I) The constitution doesn?t protect a general right to privacy, but within the Bill of Rights there were zones created that established privacy. The Amendments that were used to justify a right to privacy were the ninth and fourteenth Amendment. The argument of the ninth and fourteenth Amendment related to this case is to ensure the civil and political liberties of the people and to make sure the government is not infringing on them. Another argument could be ?the privacy that is lurking between the lines or behind the words of the Bill of Rights that point to the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments.?(Johnson, 54) The First Amendment vows that one?s idea is simply one?s own and would not be dictated by governmental power. The Third and Fourth Amendments are quite similar because people feared a violation of their private space, which concerned the writers of the Declaration of Independence as it repeated itself in the Fourth Amendment of unreasonable search and seizures. Finally c oming to the Fifth Amendment, it may offer some protection for personal privacy because it manages individual right not to give evidence that could be used against them. Therefore there were several legal ramifications for the decision to uphold a right to privacy was first that the Supreme Court not only overturned Connecticut?s out of date state law, but it also ended up establishing a new constitutional right to privacy as written right in the constitution. The decision had also brought the movement for people to freely yet personally choose whether or not to use contraception. The second ramification of the decision was that Buxton and Griswold hinted that the Planned Parenthood League was planning on reopening the clinic within six weeks. Thirdly, several months after the decision was announced, The Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut ran its first birth control counseling sessions since 1961. Lastly, within one year Connecticut had opened two birth control clinics in two of Connecticut?s cities. ?Two and half years after the Supreme Court decision in Griswold, according to responses to questionnaires prepared by Buxton, there were six PPLC C birth control clinics operating in the state.? (Johnson, 182) In conclusion, Estelle Griswold was the center of a controversy and made outrageous, but valid points to the people of Connecticut. She fought for what she believed in and by the ruling of the Supreme Court she wasn?t the

Legalizing drugs or not essays

Legalizing drugs or not essays The question to legalize drugs is not a hard one. Drugs are one of the most common used illicit items in the United States today. Legalizing drugs or not has been questioned and discussed so often on television, books, and newspapers. Gore Vidal noted in Drugs Simply make all drugs available and sell them at cost. However, simply because of the lack of researching and the misunderstanding of the usage and effect of drugs, the writer misdirected his readers on the issue of drug legalization. First of all, writer pointed out that marijuana is actually not dangerous. However, earlier research has found that smoking marijuana increases the chance of developing cancer of the head or neck. In fact, marijuana smoke contains 50 to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke does. People who smoke marijuana inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than tobacco smokers do, which increases the lungs exposure to carcinogenic smoke. These facts suggest that, unquestionably, smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer more than smoking tobacco and cause great damage to the body which rejects the writers idea of marijuana is not dangerous. The writer also stated that marijuana is not addictive. Experts who worked on the Center for substance Abuse Treatment project consider however consider marijuana both psychologically and physiologically addictive. Over 52 percent of the youthful marijuana users who were involved in this project were shown to have dependence problem after using marijuana which rejects writers idea of marijuana as non-addictive substances and proves that the writer is misleading his reader on the drug legalization issue. As many would probably point out that the United State was the creation of men who believed that each man has the right to do what he wants with his own life ...

Rubidium Facts - Rb or Element 37

Rubidium Facts - Rb or Element 37 Rubidium is a silver-colored alkali metal with a melting point slightly higher than body temperature. The element is atomic number 37 with element symbol Rb. Here is a collection of rubidium element facts. Fast Facts: Rubidium Element Name: RubidiumElement Symbol: RbAtomic Number: 37Appearance: Grey metalGroup: Group 1 (Alkali Metal)Period: Period 5Discovery: Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff (1861)Fun Fact: The half life of the radioactive isotope Rb-87 is 49 billion years or more than three times the age of the universe. Rubidium  Basic Facts Atomic Number: 37 Symbol: Rb Atomic Weight: 85.4678 Discovery: R. Bunsen, G. Kirchoff 1861 (Germany), discovered rubidium in the mineral petalite via its dark red spectral lines. Electron Configuration: [Kr] 5s1 Word Origin: Latin: rubidus: deepest red. Isotopes: There are 29 known isotopes of rubidium. Natural rubidium consists of two isotopes, rubidium-85 (stable with 72.15% abundance) and rubidium-87 (27.85% abundance, a beta emitter with a half-life of 4.9 x 1010 years). Thus, natural rubidium is radioactive, with sufficient activity to expose photographic film within 110 days. Properties: Rubidium may be liquid at room temperature. It ignites spontaneously in air and reacts violently in water, setting fire to the liberated hydrogen. Thus, rubidium must be stored under dry mineral oil, in a vacuum, or in an inert atmosphere. It is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali group. Rubidium forms amalgams with mercury and alloys with gold, sodium, potassium, and cesium. Rubidium glows red-violet in a flame test. Element Classification: Alkali Metal Biological Effects: Rubidium carries a 1 oxidation state, like sodium and potassium, and displays biological activity similar to that of potassium ions. Rubidium concentrates inside cells within the intracellular fluid. The biological half-life of rubidium ions in humans is 31 to 46 days. Rubidium ions are not particularly toxic, but rats die when over half the potassium in heart muscle is replaced by rubidium. Rubidium chloride has been tested as a therapy for the treatment of depression. Researchers found dialysis patients suffering from depression tended to experience depleted rubidium levels. The element is not considered to be essential for human nutrition, although it is present in small quantities in nearly all human and animal tissues. Rubidium Physical Data Density (g/cc): 1.532Melting Point (K): 312.2Boiling Point (K): 961Appearance: soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metalAtomic Radius (pm): 248Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 55.9Covalent Radius (pm): 216Ionic Radius: 147 (1e)Specific Heat (20 °C J/g mol): 0.360Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 2.20Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 75.8Pauling Negativity Number: 0.82First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 402.8Oxidation States: 1Lattice Structure: Body-Centered CubicLattice Constant (Ã…): 5.590CAS Registry Number: 7440-17-7 Rubidium Trivia Rubidium melts just a little above body temperature.Rubidium was discovered using spectroscopy. When Bunsen and Kirchoff examined their sample of petalite, they found two red spectral lines deep into the red part of the spectrum. They named their new element rubidium after the Latin word rubidus meaning deepest red.Rubidium is the second most electropositive element.Rubidium can be used to give fireworks a red-violet color.Rubidium is the 23rd most abundant element in the Earths crust.Rubidium chloride is used in biochemistry as a biomarker to track where potassium is taken up by living organisms.The hyper-fine electron structure of Rubidium-87 is used in some atomic clocks to maintain accuracy.The isotope Ru-87 was used by Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Carl Wiemen to produce a Bose-Einstein condensate. This earned them the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics. Sources Campbell, N. R.; Wood, A. (1908). The Radioactivity of Rubidium. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 14: 15.Fieve, Ronald R.; Meltzer, Herbert L.; Taylor, Reginald M. (1971). Rubidium chloride ingestion by volunteer subjects: Initial experience. Psychopharmacologia. 20 (4): 307–14. doi:10.1007/BF00403562Haynes, William M., ed. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (92nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 4.122. ISBN 1439855110.Meites, Louis (1963).  Handbook of Analytical Chemistry  (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.Weast, Robert (1984). CRC, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Boca Raton, Florida: Chemical Rubber Company Publishing. pp. E110. ISBN 0-8493-0464-4.

Presentation Globalisation Outline & speech notes Essay

Presentation Globalisation Outline & speech notes - Essay Example a considerable achievement in avoiding economic crises and achieving its current situation of macroeconomic stability, the country’s economic performance in the last 40 years was below its potential. Globalization has played a big part in reforming the economy of Qatar (Basu, 2008). This paper delves some of the impacts of globalization, with a close focus on the economy, education, and foods and diet to Qatar. Moreover, the paper also looks at these impacts at personal level. 2) Globalization has also enabled Qatar to export its products and resources natural gasses and oil to other countries all over the world. Regional agreements that govern the movement of people and commodities have created opportunities both at national and international levels. 1) People originating from different countries can now look for jobs in different countries. Personally, globalization will enable me to look for a job in any part of the world after I complete my studies. Moreover, my parents who are businesspersons can sell their products as well as buy products from various parts of the world. 2) On the other hand, I must be very competent for me to be employed since I will be competing with other people from various countries. Moreover, the products produced by our family business will have to face the stiff completion from good from the rest of the world. 2) Globalization has led to Introduction of new languages in the learning institutions. This expands the opportunities for the learners since they can look for jobs in other countries that use the newly introduced languages (Basu, 2008). 1) Globalization has led to increased per capita income, higher living standards, and high educational quality in Qatar. These aspects are associated with economies that have high literacy levels among its citizen. Personally, I have been able to study in the United Kingdom where the education system is of a higher quality when compared to that of my home country. Studying from abroad

International business finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

International business finance - Essay Example On the other hand, too high or too frequently declared cash dividends may deplete internally generated capital, compelling the company to resort to more costly external financing according to the pecking order theory. Miller and Modiligliani (1961) proposed that the value of a firm was not dependent upon its dividend policy (Azzopardi, 2004). Rather than imply that the prospects of a regular cash income are not an important motivation of shareholders to invest in a firm, it is more likely, rather that there are different preferences and investment horizons for different potential investors. Generally a type of firm or industry would tend to attract investors of a similar profile with similar investment expectation, although not to the extent that deviation from one, ideal, type of dividend policy would dissuade potential shareholders from investing. Shareholder wealth is enhanced in two ways: by capital gain through the rise in the price of the stock, and through income distribution in the form of cash dividends. The dividend discount model implies that stock valuation should rise with rising cash dividends. On the other hand, pecking order theory proposes that retention of earnings in the company allows the firm to explore new opportunities for expansion without sourcing additional capital from external, costly sources. Finally, there is the signalling theory that opines that cash dividend declarations conveys the information to investors concerning the company’s long-term sustained earnings potential (Azzopardi, 2004; Kapoor, 2006). Determinants of dividend policy formulation Despite the apparent straightforward relation between dividend policy and stock price that determines shareholder wealth, empirically the relationship between them is not clear cut. There exist conflicting factors that qualify the manner dividend policy impacts upon the firm’s value and, therefore, shareholder wealth (Malla, 2009). The market therefore tends to associate va rious factors with dividend payout, which in turn influence the manner policy makers approach the issues surrounding dividend policy formulation. It is commonly assumed that the best dividend policy is one that increases shareholder wealth by the greatest amount, since it is presumed that the objective of policy setting is to increase the wealth of its shareholders (Adefila, 1995). However, correlation studies of stock prices and dividend policy revealed a relatively loose correlation between shareholder wealth and dividend policy, leading to the conclusion that various internal and external factors affect the formulation of dividend policy, some of which may not impact positively on shareholder wealth in the short term. The studies recommend a holistic approach to the formulation of dividend policy, since shareholder wealth is not the only consideration, nor even the overriding purpose, of setting the dividend pay-out. The findings of Adefila, made two decades ago and in relation t o an emerging market, are consistent even with findings of recent studies conducted in developed markets such as the United States. Gill, Biger & Tibrewala (2010) determined that in the US setting, the particular firm’s industry is also determinative of the typical (if not optimal) dividend payout policy adopted by it. It was found that the dividend payout ratio is dependent upon the

Opening up a tavern at NDNU Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Opening up a tavern at NDNU - Article Example because this was what the contract with Bonjur provided for. Menlo College which is also a small university located nearby has the same situation as in NDNU in which its cafeteria operates between 17:30 p.m. until 19:30 p.m. for dinner but then has a tavern that opens at 19:00 p.m. until it closes at 23:00 p.m. Students are able to take snacks from burgers to sandwiches if they failed to take dinner at the cafeteria. Menlo students can use their meal plans (chits or â€Å"tavern money†) when ordering (C. Dixon, personal communications, January 28, 2014). This is the same idea that NDNU is going to offer its own students. â€Å"I do not have a car and if the caff is already closed, I have to wait until morning so I can have a real meal,† said Jay Tsuruoka, an NDNU student athlete. Nico Charvet, also a NDNU student athlete, is likewise agreeable to the idea of a different option, especially if the cafeteria is closed already after his soccer practice. â€Å"I am not hungry after practice so I eat much later,† he added. A survey will be conducted among the NDNU students to know what they might want in a menu of snack foods. The plan is to allow students to use their meal plans (called â€Å"flex dollars† in the NDNU community) in order to make the Tavern a success this time around (Hurst,