Potter’s observation Essay Example for Free

Potter’s observation Essay Potter’s observation that people’s attitudes toward upholding laws is commensurate with amount of approval they have for those laws has a lot of merit (Potter 1976). Indeed, evidence to back Potter’s theory can be seen in Dread Scott v. Sanford. Seven of the nine justices on the court had been appointed by southerners, while only two members, Peter Daniel and Benjamin Curtis, were appointed by a northern president. Every justice but Curtis had been appointed by a Democratic president. All of the southerners were in favor of slavery. Meanwhile, so were two of the northerners. The only two members of the court, who were not pro-slavery, were Curtis and John McLean (Blanchard 2005). For instance, Justice Catron argues passionately against repealing the article of the treaty of 1803, which gave Louisiana to the United States. â€Å"Because it is protected by the constitution,† he says, â€Å"it cannot be repealed. † Yet, he does not argue that, because the bill of rights grants men the right to liberty, no one can oppose Scott’s liberty. He supports the parts of the constitution he agrees with, but fails to fight for the parts he does not support(United States Supreme Court 2009). Meanwhile, Justice Curtis, a northerner against slavery, argued for the constitutionality of states’ bans on slavery and on the Missouri Compromise. Unlike Catron, he was morally opposed to slavery and thus opposed upholding the Dred Scott decision(United States Supreme Court 2009). Justice McLean’s dissent provides more proof of Potter’s theory. Indeed, he argues that the court is wrong to rule against Scott, as Sanford has merely argued that Scott’s parents were slaves. The plaintiff, he says, offered no proof to show that Scott himself was not a free man or a citizen of Missouri. Furthermore, the court never cited any precedents in ruling against Scott, he said. McLean, then, was another Northerner against slavery, and he voted in favor of Scott, rather than Sanford. This would seem to give credence to Potter’s observation (United States Supreme Court 2009). Bibliography Blanchard, Kenneth. The Case. February 7, 2005. http://web. archive. org/web/20041116095630/etech. northern. edu/blanchak/pols330/the_case. htm (accessed January 24, 2009). Potter, David M. The Impending Crisis: 1848-1861. New York: Harper Collins, 1976. United States Supreme Court. Dread Scott v. Sanford: Mr. Justice Catron concurring. 2009. http://www. tourolaw. edu/patch/scott/Catron. asp (accessed January 24, 2009). —. Dread Scott v. Sanford: Mr. Justice Curtis dissenting. 2009. http://www. tourolaw. edu/patch/scott/Curtis. asp (accessed January 24, 2009). —. Dread Scott v. Sanford: Mr. Justice McClean dissenting. 2009. http://www. tourolaw. edu/patch/scott/McClean. asp (accessed January 24, 2009). .

Euthanasia: Killing or Helping Essay -- Essays Paper

Euthanasia: Killing or Helping Is society playing the role of God or is the world so wrapped up in their lives that God no longer matters? Euthanasia has been around since the ancient Romans and Greeks and has been a highly debated subject just as it is today. In history and in arguments stated today is that â€Å"people are the created and not the Creator† (Gula 26). There are many things that society can argue about the subject of euthanasia but the main debate is that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide is wrong. Society gets euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide confused because they both have to do with physicians tending to the patient’s death. Society is either for or against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. It is debated throughout history, within the church, and even within the medical profession; however euthanasia is wrong. Euthanasia is a problem that has been facing people since the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Manning states that the ancient Greeks and Romans preferred to die, then to go through the pain and suffering (Manning 6). During the time of the Romans and Greeks, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide was a common, everyday thing. However, a group called the Pythagoreans opposed euthanasia back then because they believed that God valued the human life itself and the act of killing someone who is already suffering was considered disrespectful (Manning 6). Plato and Aristotle both opposed euthanasia for a couple of reasons. Plato opposed suicide, but on the other hand, he rejected that the right to take a life had only belonged to the gods (Manning 8-9). According to Manning, Plato believed when a person’s life was considered useless... ...at kind of relationship would that constitute for a physician? Euthanasia is a subject that society is not just going to let pass by them without society giving their points of view. Euthanasia is just another excuse for physician’s to be able to kill another human life that could still be worth living, just as abortion is seen. As society has grown since ancient times they have come across many more debates and many more reasons why euthanasia so be allowed or not allowed. If society allows such an act of degrading of a life, we will be taking life into our hands and will be leading into a whole different world. The main question that boggles many people’s minds is that if society allows this form of killing to go on then what is society going to let happen next? Is society taking life into our own hands or is our life taking us into its hands?

Mirabell and Millament Relationship Essay

In The Way of the World, his last comedy, Congreve seems to come to realise the importance for providing an ideal pair of man and woman, ideal in the sense that the pair could be taken for models in the life-style of the period. But this was almost impossible task, where the stage was occupied by men and women, sophisticated, immoral, regardless of the larger world around them, and preoccupied with the self-conceited rhetoric as an weapon to justify their immoral activities within a small and restricted area of social operation. Congreve could not avoid this, and for this, he had to pave his way through the society by presenting a plot which, though complicated enough for a resolution, aims at the ideal union between the hero and heroine—Mirabell and Millament. They emerge as the triumphant culmination of the representative characters of the whole period, of course not types, for they are real enough to be human. Congreve endowed his hero and heroine with all the qualities typical of the society, but towards the end the qualities, if negative, are employed as guards against the venoms of the society. At the beginning of the play, we find Mirabell shaping up a situation so that he can win the hands of Millament and her estate as well from Lady Wishfort who has the rein of power over them. In this Mirabell is perfect Machiavellian: conscious of his surroundings. He is not at all a man from chivalric romance. That he is a past master in the game of love, of course, in the sense of the period, that is, sexual relationship—is evident from his past affairs with Mrs. Fainall, from Mrs. Marwood’s fascination towards him and, one many suspect, from Lady Wishfort’s unconscious longing for him. Moreover, Mirabell has mastered rhetoric to encounter men and women around them. Consistent with the irresistible charm of Mirabell, Congreve built the character of Millament. She is the perfect model of the accomplished fine lady of high life, who arrives at the height of indifference to everything from the height of satisfaction. To her pleasure is as familiar as the air she draws; elegance worn as a part of her dress; wit the habitual language which she hears and speaks. She has nothing to fear from her own caprices, being the only law to herself. As to the affairs of love, she treats them with at once seriousness and difference. For instance, she exclaims to Mirabell: â€Å"Dear me, what is a lover that it can give? One makes lovers as fast as one pleases, and they live as long as one pleases, and they die as soon as one pleases; and if one pleases one makes more. † This, however, may be a case for Millament who is â€Å"standing at the threshold of maturity from girlhood†, as Norman N. Holland points out. But from her discussion of preconditions before entering into marriage with Mirabell, it is clear that she is intelligent and discrete enough to judge her situation. In the Proviso Scene we find Mirabell and Millament meeting together to arrange an agreement for their marriage. The scene is a pure comedy with brilliant display of wit by both of them, but, above all, provides instructions which have serious dimensions in the context of the society. On her part, Millament makes it clear that a lover’s (Mirabell’s) appeals and entreaties should not stop with the marriage ceremony. Therefore, she would like to be ‘solicited’ even after marriage. She next puts that â€Å"My dear liberty† should be preserved; â€Å"I’ll lye abed in a morning as long as I please†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Millament then informs that she would not like to be addressed by such names as â€Å"wife, spouse, my dear, joy, jewel, love, sweet-heart; and the rest of that nauseous can, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar. † Moreover, they will continue to present a decorous appearance in public, and she will have free communication with others. In other words, after marriage they maintain certain distance and reserve between them. Mirabell’s conditions are quite different: they are frankly sexual in content, directed to his not being cuckolded or to her bedroom manners. â€Å"Just as Millament’s are developed femininely† as Norman N. Holland points out, â€Å"Mirabell’s are developed in a typically masculine way. † Each of Mirabell’s provisos begin with its item: first, the general principle, â€Å"that your Acquaintance be general†, then specific instructions, â€Å"no she-friend to screen her affairs†, no fop to take her to the theatre secretly, and an illustration of the forbidden behaviour, â€Å"to wheedle you a fop-scrambling to the play in a mask†. Nevertheless, Mirabell denounces the use of tight dresses during pregnancy by women, and he forbids the use of alcoholic drinks. The conditions are stated by both parties in a spirit of fun and gaiety, but the fact remained that both are striving to arrive at some kind of mutual understanding. While the Proviso Scene ensures the marriage of true minds, the possession of dowry with Millament remains the aim of Mirabell for the rest of the play. At the end of the play Mirabell and Millament through their own peculiar balance of wit and generosity of spirit, reduce the bumbling Witwood and mordant Fainall to the level of false wit. Thus Mirabell and Millament dramatise the true wit that is so carefully and symmetrically defined through opposition. On his part, Mirabell informs that, â€Å"†¦I like her with all her faults: nay, like her for her faults†¦They now to grown as familiar to me as my own frailties†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And Millament declares to Mrs. Fainall, â€Å"Well, if Mirabell should not make a good husband, I am a lost thing—for I find I love him violently. † These confidences do not prevent their own chances for honesty in marriage. The triumph of the play is in the emergence of lovers who through a balance of intense affection and cool self-knowledge achieve an equilibrium that frees them from the world’s power. As the title of the play The Way of the World suggests, they have assimilated the rational lucidity of sceptical rake so that they can use the world and reject its demands.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Essay - 795 Words

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was created by Congress in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. The role of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is to provide judicial oversight of Intelligence Community activities in a classified setting. It is composed of federal judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The decisions of the court can be reviewed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) and the Supreme Court. After the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act of 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has to rule on important and novel Fourth Amendment issues raised by the government s proposed targeting and minimization procedures (EPIC, 2015). The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was originally composed of seven district judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve for a maximum of seven years. Amendments in the USA Patriot Act increased the number of judges on the Court to eleven, with three required to live within twenty miles of the District of Columbia in 2001. The Chief Justice appoints a Presiding Judge for the court from amongst these eleven judges. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court operates out of a secure location in the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., but can authorize searches or surveillance anywhere within the United States (EPIC, 2015). The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance CourtShow MoreRelatedThe Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act2036 Words   |  9 PagesDomestic Surveillance Citizens feeling protected in their own nation is a crucial factor for the development and advancement of that nation. The United States’ government has been able to provide this service for a small tax and for the most part it is money well spent. 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This proved to be illegal since the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act states that the government is prohibited from eavesdropping inside the United States without first getting a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court). In order to counteract the issues he had caused, on October 26, 2001 Bush signed the Patriot Act; a law that would expand the government’s electronic surveillance powers. After signing this law Bush stated, â€Å"The existing lawRead MoreThe Piracy of Privacy901 Words   |  4 Pagesthis can only be told through time. During the Cold War, at the height of the ‘Red Scare’ FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover conducted mass clandestine operations on US citizens. â€Å"Even before he became director of the FBI, Hoover was conducting secret intelligence operations against U.S. citizens he suspected were anarchists, radical leftists or communists.† (NPR) The specifics of these programs were not completely released to Congress or even the Supreme Court for rulings and oversight. Many politiciansRead MoreSharing Is Not Always Caring1406 Words   |  6 PagesCourt case of United States v. United States District Court shows an instance where governing officials, an Attorney General, decided that unwarranted electronic surveillance was necessary to spy on another American citizen that was â€Å"accused† of committing and act of domestic terrorism on a building belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Without actual evidence, the courts felt that the citizen was protected under the Fourth Amendment. Later, during the Nixon administration, the incidentRead MoreThe End Of The Second World War1130 Words   |  5 Pagesdefend themselves from another surprise attack. Therefore, they formed the Armed Forces Agency. This agency was also short-lived, by 1952 the Armed Forces Agency had lost governmental trust because they rejected communications with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other federal agencies. Longing for a structured security agency that would be able to break the code systems used by opposing forces, President Harry Truman established the National Security Agency on November 2, 1952 (Plethrons