The Ex Basketball Player by John Updike Essay examples -- English Lite

The Ex Basketball Player by John Updike A Loss of Motivation In English Seven we read a poem called the "Ex Basketball Player" by John Updike. The main character's name was Flick Webb. The poem explains how Flick lost motivation. In high school Flick was an excellent basketball player, if not, the best. After high school Flick didn't continue his basketball skills, and he never had tried as hard on his academics as he did on basketball. Flick now works at Berth's Garage and has a dead end life. I think that Flick gave up because he didn't want to work at something that didn't come easily, such as academics. I enjoyed this poem because it makes you think, I will now tell of a time when I lost motivation. In fourth grade I took gymnastics. I really like it, and had a lot of fun. The problem was that after a while my teacher didn't seem to teach us many new tricks. On top of that, they were ready to move to a new building. This building had a low ceiling, so I couldn't do the uneven bars. The uneven bars happened to be my favorite event, so I decided to quit. ..

Changes Kennedy brought to American Foreign Policy

Eisenhower believed that there could not be a military solution to Cold War problems and that America could to shape the world's destiny. He accepted limitations on America's role. Kennedy did not. The changes he brought to American Foreign Policy were active and bold. This contrasted Eisenhower passive and cautious approach. Kennedy sought to restore the prestige and primacy of the presidency. His recurring theme was â€Å"l think it is time for America to start moving again†, and his actions sought to reveal a dynamic militancy.He set to dramatically increase American strength including increasing the defense budget ($40 bill to $56 b†), and arms production (missile launchers, long range bombers, submarines, and CUBISM). This ignited the greatest arms race in the history of mankind. In hindsight we can now see that the more missiles America built, the less secure the country was. However, his changes extended far beyond nuclear delivery weapons. Kennedy wanted to Incre ase America's conventional war capableness and guerrilla warfare forces. Unlike Eisenhower, he wanted the ability to intervene anywhere; this new strategy was called flexible response. The Third World provided the key to Kennedy's new American Frontiers. He wanted to be able to respond to Communist aggression at any level and set out to build a interdependency force that could stamp out revolutions in Third World countries. The force came to be called the Green Berets, and its aim was to apply American techniques and know-how in guerrilla warfare situations to solve the problems of national liberation.Its greatest appeal was that It avoided direct confrontation with the Soviet Union. Vietnam was an Ideal battleground for the Green Berets. The US Increased economic and military aid In South Vietnam. However under the SEATS Treaty the US was not able to get involved in a civil war. Kennedy was not willing to and opposition to the government came from within. He carted the removal of f orces through a coup of a South Viet leader that was not effective enough. America's active role in Vietnam was a culmination of the policy of containment rather than a military- industrial complex conspiracy.Kennedy also initiated the Alliance for Progress program. It was a significant aid program to Latin American countries, many of which were at the stage of authoritarian military dictatorships. These were the kind of friendships that the United States attempted to foster. Kennedy's commitment to be part of the new frontier was to combat third world liberation efforts. The USA wanted to ensure that there would be a degree of social and economic development. Through aid and investment, he believed that the Latin American countries would benefit.However, the Alliance was a failure primarily because there was significant underdevelopment and those who controlled the land, were the ones that benefited from such aid. Unlike Eisenhower, Kennedy initially believed that there was room fo r peaceful coexistence between the free capitalist world and communism. He attempted to compromise with the Soviet Union but when faced with aggression within Berlin, he returned to containment policies. Berlin was a problem for Kennedy. As a result of his foreign policy decisions, what had occurred was the emergence of a divided city by war.The Soviet building of the Wall and the eventual Western acceptance of it signified something about Kennedy's diplomacy. It indicated that the Germans did not want liberty and demonstrated that the intentions of the Soviet to push the West out of Berlin were firm. However, failure to do so lead his search for opportunity elsewhere. He found it Cuba. The issue of Cuba was something of a bear trap by departing Eisenhower. The United States had significant investments in Cuba. But it had undergone a revolution that was led effectively by Fidel Castro, who began to nationalism American properties.The American response under Eisenhower was to underta ke effective covert actions to sabotage Castro. The United States was determined to oust the Castro regime by training, organizing and equipping Cuban exiles in Guatemala and exporting them to the Bay of Pigs. This was an absolute disaster for the United States because Khrushchev saw this as an opportunity to place nuclear warheads close to the east coast of the United States. This crisis represented a direct threat to the United States.Rather than to listen to military advisors or the CIA (as had been done during the Bay of Pigs), Kennedy's response was to convene Coxcomb, an executive committee of national security counsel. The Committee initiated a minimalist naval blockade to prevent the Soviets from sending any further material into Cuba. This quarantine on all offensive military equipment then allowed Kennedy to warn the Soviet that any missile launched from Cuba would require a retaliatory response. Through meetings with Soviet official, a deal was made to remove Soviet missi les from Cuba. This was a satisfactory ending

Cognitive Dissonance in Marital Satisfaction Essay

Most people get married because they love their partner. They like the way they are with each other, honest, loving, understanding, fun, etc. Some are arranged marriage as they are unable to find the love of their life. However some get divorced as they are no longer compatible and they get turn off very easily. They are frustrated and bored. For those who want to continue to stay in an unhappy marriage due to many reasons such as the kids, their reputation, family, etc. as an alternative to divorce will ignore their feelings and convince themselves that the marriage is working well. They tend to adopt a cheerful attitude. They offered patience and understanding to make it appear as if the marriage was happy. Cognitive Dissonance is a feeling of discomfort caused by performing an action that is inconsistent with one’s belief (Franzoi, 2009, p.162). Basically it is a disagreement between one’s personal beliefs and one’s actions. It is the difference between how they would like to be and how they are. Cognitive dissonance is an aversive drive that causes people to (1) avoid opposing viewpoints, (2) seek reassurance after making a tough decision, and (3) change private beliefs to match public behavior when there is minimal justification for an action. Self-consistency, a sense of personal responsibility, or self-affirmation can explain dissonance reduction. (Socio-psychological tradition) (Festinger, as cited in Griffin, 2011) How can we observe â€Å"cognitive dissonance† in Marital Satisfaction? In Marital Satisfaction, we can observe cognitive dissonance in 3 different areas: Behavioural, Mental & Emotional. Behavioural Observation There will be marital stress. They wear ‘masks’ at home and they will feel exhausted as they struggle with their life. Their journey will be full with pain and grief. They pretend things are okay in their marriage when there is distance. They say nothing is wrong when their feelings are truly hurt. They don’t necessarily lie to their spouse; they just shade part of the truth. They don’t feel comfortable being their true self with their spouse because they are afraid of judgment or mockery. They will purchase self-help books, confessed their feelings to a marriage counsellor or friends that they can trust. They offer patience and understanding to the spouse to make it appear as if the marriage was happy. They will smile and put on a happy face especially in front of the children to avoid them from knowing but will let out their true feelings and cry it out at night. They will lay awake at night and try to rationalize things that they have done so that it is acceptable. Their physical health will be affected as they are facing with too much stress in their life. They too may run into problem as they seem to be lying to themselves. Even though cognitive dissonance can resolve internal anxiety, it can also reinforce future bad decisions or behaviours e.g. lying Mental Observation Their mind will be filled with thoughts of whether they are doing the right thing. They feel turned off with what they are doing. They could not be themselves and their anxiety in wanting to be themselves and do what they like to do increases. They have sleepless nights thinking the sacrifices that they have made to make others happy when they themselves are not happy.. The dissonance caused by such contradictions will also create an unpleasant mental tension, which can range from minor irritation to deep pain as long as it continues. They are unable to relax and feel comfortable until they have been able to eliminate the dissonance or at least reduce it considerably. They can use Self-justification to escape from the discomfort. This is also a major threat to marital satisfaction because both partners tend to justify their behaviour in a way that allows them to be right while either explicitly or implicitly making their partner wrong. Emotional Observation They will be unhappy or semi-happy. They are unwilling to admit their frustration, acknowledge their crumbling marriage and obtain a divorce due to their culture, religion or the children. They constantly experienced a lingering feeling of doubt about the relationship. With that, they attempt to change their opinions to coincide with the behaviour they felt was expected of them and adopted a cheerful attitude towards their marriage to convince themselves that the marriage is working well. On the other hand, this can also make them become stronger in facing any challenges in their life. If they are optimistic, they will make the best of the marriage as the decision is in their hands. They are not able to be the person that they are but who they are might not be the best person. Cognitive dissonance can also reinforce future good decisions or behaviours e.g. more understanding, patient, increase communication between spouse, etc. Conclusion Successful marriage is not about getting their partner to do what they want; it’s about being who they are. This aspect of cognitive dissonance isn’t bad; it can act as a motivation to be true to their deepest values, by making them behave in more loving and compassionate ways. It can help them change the unhealthy attitudes and behaviours. However, cognitive dissonance is most painful to people when some significant part of their beliefs about themselves is threatened. This usually occurs when they have done something that is inconsistent with their image of themselves. If a person has a fairly positive self-concept, believing herself reasonably smart, competent, and moral, she will use self-justification as a way to preserve her positive self-image.

Theories of Secession

Liberalism predominantly will dominate the Theories of secession an emphasis on individual rights and nationalism. They are concerned with the challenges of secession and deal with cases of complete secession of specific nationalist regions from a nation-state. Buchanan (1998) identified two types of secession theories; Remedial right only theories which claim that the people have the right to overthrow the government if their fundamental rights will violate and other peaceful alternatives have failed. Another type is the theory of primary right which claims that groups with non-political characteristics have the right to secede; and that no inscriptive features are necessary for the right to secede, it's a voluntary political choice. Therefore, political legitimacy rests on the people's consent. Regulation TheoryThis theory claims that under the modern conditions of globalised urbanization, states are being restructured to meet the needs of reregulation and rescaling of governance. According to Brenner (1999), globalization has viewed as reterritorialization. Rescaling of urbanization leads to the rescaling of the state which consequently leads to a regional organization as a productive force and social relations will concentrated within geographical boundaries. Boudreau and Keil, â€Å"Secession of a political Right,† 1710.Theories of State RescalingThe issue of rescaling, reregulation, and reterritorialization has been viewed from a structuralist perspective. Structural change has been the primary focus here. The recent debate on rescaling and governance has concentrated on state-regional and state-local relationships. The focus of these two links has been economic development policies. The part that has not been focused on is the emergence of a new sub-local scale of government as part of the regional state of large urban centers. Secession can be viewed a result of such sub-local institutionalization of rescaled governance. Boudreau and Keil, â€Å"Rescaling urban governance,† 1712. Theories of Social MovementsAlways broken down into two; resource mobilization (RMT) and new social movements (NSM). Social Movement theories claim that collective action and social movements are usually related to resource mobilization (Eisinger 1973). That political opportunities and structures develop from existing political movements or camps and structural conditions. They focus on the ability of political actors to reshape systems because of their internal solidarity/strength and outer profile to facilitate secession. Boudreau and Keil, â€Å"Social movements,† 1713.

1996 Health care reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

1996 Health care reform - Essay Example It also endorses the graduate health learning and finance different health programs including a health program for children. There is also the pharmaceutical coverage program for the elderly, initial care, countryside wellbeing care and quality advancement (Rutherford, 2004). The enactment of this act came into effect in 1997. In 1997, the HRCA substituted almost twenty years of rate controlled health compensation with an assortment of bargained rates and persisting public funding for a varied combination of significant health connected schemes. This encompasses medical tutoring, destitute care and coverage initiatives for the uncovered. HCRA authorization has been conducted two times. This is in 1999 as well as in 2003. It was considerably modified in 2002. The expansions and modifications have extended health coverage for the uncovered, gives protection funding for small corporations and employed persons, and also funding to support health security for employees enrolment and retention. Finances for these extensions were to emanate from allotment of a part of the State tobacco payment money, escalated cigarette duties and a onetime augmentation of federal income (Charles and Carl, 2002). Moreover, the public funds sustained by HCRA came via three sources. Firstly, the Public Goods source endorsed by one percent state wide evaluation on hospitals net inpatient incomes, supplementary fees on hospital services as well as protected lives evaluations on sovereign coverage organizations. These organizations depend on the number of individuals protected. Secondly, there are funds from Tobacco Control and protection initiatives, initially endorsed by cigarette excises and tobacco payment finances. Thirdly, there are resources for the Bad Debt as well as Charity Care. There is also the destitute care and inconsistent share. The resources for this emanate from

Sentencing Guidelines Reform Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sentencing Guidelines Reform - Research Paper Example Likewise alternatives have been looked at for offenders of non-violent crime, such as community service. The Need for Sentencing Reforms The prison population has been rapidly growing for many years, with an increase of 7% in the period from 2000 to 2005 (King, 2007). The cost per day per prisoner of keeping criminals incarcerated is significant making the increases in prison population detrimental to the budgets of many states. In addition, there are costs associated with building new prisons if the population increases to that extend, and the associated space and land use. This places heavy demand on policy makers to try and determine sentencing laws and reforms that will limit the prison population. Punishments for crime are developed for multiple reasons including political, such as trying to win votes in an election, however one of the predominant drivers is decreasing the level of crime. The potential outcomes for committing a crime play a large role when individuals decide whe ther to follow through with a crime. For example, crime and punishment can be viewed as part of an economic model, where those who consider crimes weigh up the benefits of the crime versus all the potential costs. If the punishment for crime is high compared to the reward, then they are more likely to reconsider, this is especially true if the likelihood of prosecution and punishment is high (Reynolds, 1990). For this reason changes in sentencing must look at a balance between keeping the number of prisoners low, but still providing effective punishment and deterrent for crimes. In addition, punishment for crime can act to change behavior in criminals. For example, drug offenders are often driven largely by a need which comes from their addiction, and thieves may be responding to greed. Prison life may change this desire in a portion of those who are incarcerated, giving them time to think about who they are and what they are doing. Programs within prison and outside of it that focu s on breaking addictive behaviors, such as treatment options for drug offenders can also be very productive methods of reducing crime rate. This is because without the addiction driving them, many criminals that committed drug offenses will no longer have the same strong need or desire to. Finally, incarceration is not an effective solution in all cases. When a crime is committed out of a perceived need, particularly in the case of drug addiction, incarceration acts as a punishment, but does nothing to reduce the likelihood of re-offense. When the criminal is released, the drivers that caused him to offend in the first case are still present, and re-offense is very likely. Drug Based Sentencing Reforms Sentencing reform legislation has focused on criminals who have committed low level offenses. This section will examine some of the types of legislation in more detail. Thirteen states passed legislation that looked at increasing the available options for drug treatment for the large number of non-violent drug-based crimes. Of these states, nine passed laws that created or extended sentencing diversion for drug offenders. Sentencing diversion involves sentencing sending the criminal to a facility or a program that worked with them in treating their drug problem. This was already present in a number of states, but sentencing reforms worked to clarify ambiguities within the law, thus allowing sentencing diversion to be used in an increased number of cases. Louisiana established a different sentencing diversion model for drug crimes than is used in other states. The model in this state allows for the sentence to be diverted and the individual to begin the treatment program without a statement of guilt, or a

Argumentive Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Argumentive - Essay Example Similarly mass murders are carried out by boys more often. Results show that all these teens seemed to have harbored a deep feeling of hopelessness or rage. Other factors that compel boys to respond more to peer pressure includes the violence and music they face while playing video and television games (Decter, pars. 11-13). In the process of trying to prove themselves, boys tend to get attracted to power. With power comes responsibility. Misuse of it leads to delinquent behaviors. To be a part of a specific group, adolescents acquire specific traits. This helps them in socializing and the peer pressure compels them to remain rooted to those traits. A social ecological influence leads a person to adopt specific behaviors and hinders them from doing certain things. Certain studies are carried out that report the affect of peers on tendency towards delinquent behaviors. One such study is carried out that uses data from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. They conclude fro m this data that adolescents who hang around with delinquent peers tend to be more delinquent. Also, if the choice of their friends is not structured, they develop a tendency to be delinquent. They also conclude that to some extent age, gender, institution, or family structure does not intervene from the influence adolescents accept from their peers. This study has also divided their results based on socialization and opportunity models. A number of social and parental control variables are also considered in this study. This helps understand the impact of social circle of peers and their tendency to be delinquent (Haynie, pars 1-7). Delinquent behavior is not only the result of peer pressure but also societal issues that push people towards such extremes. Studies have shown that adolescents are forced towards delinquent actions to avoid being the outcast in a society. They get addicted to please people and do things to get in their good book that they won't do under normal circumst ances. Adolescents need to stay focused on principles in order to realize they are not crossing any lines when it comes to moral values. This can be achieved through values taught at their homes. It needs to be strongly embedded in the child's brain that they understand who they are and what they need and what ways are moral or immoral to attain their goals. The development of this understanding is only possible if the family is complete and not a broken home. Single parents may not be able to instill a sense of responsibility in their teens alone. They might require additional help as in the case of Hubert who was supervised by his mother alone. She had to look after other children as well and to make his space in society among people who do not mock him, he joined a gang. The importance of the role of father supervision in a boy's life is highlighted in this case. Adolescents who get carried away due to peer pressure need to be guided by a trusted but authoritative family member w ho can influence the adolescent and make the teen realize the implications of their actions (Greer, pars 2-4). The role of parents in controlling delinquent behaviors has been discussed a lot in the past. It has been noted that parents who spend more time with their children and keep in touch with their social circle seem to prevent them from delinquent company. This phenomenon can be categorized as exposure control as the parents control who their