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echoesinking · 2 months ago

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I plan to

Someone put me on to the commodification of black culture and espionage, and I revisit old lectures from the 90s and early 2000s and things line up to show how the infrastructure of the sector involving self-development started by carnegie Hall and earl nightenhale pipelined subculture and subgenre of archetypes into caricatures, it is a method that cia use called behavioral modification

The methodology is outlined in a document available for anyone interested

To the lectures that speak to these topics, sirius times media on YouTube has that

To the scholarship I've gathered thus far, there is documentation available on the government website, mk ultra and documentaries on the subject matter on YouTube

Bobby Hemmitt and A. A. Rashid touch on these matters as well, in regards to the mental health and commodity of black culture that has been constructed by outsiders, for a more critical insight into these things discussed by many others

Sister Zul is a master teacher from Newark, New Jersey who offers her insights and observations on this construction of demographics, to what speaks to the level of influence of music that denotes what has been part of being able to observe confluences

"hater bitches marry hater niggas and have hater kids", to this degree of how archetypes are adopted, Carl Jung has literature on this, where people adapt to images and identify with that to symbolize characteristics and traits, to that end, there is also the book on signs and symbols, to that extent of how the sector of business exploits this, the industry that offers relationship advice and psychology are determining factors to keep people in those communities who trauma bond to those psychoacoustics remain in a biofeedback loop, to this there is academia touching on this polarity:

Post traumatic slave disorder by joy degruy is one

Breaking the chains of psychological slavery by naim Akbar is another

As the gender politics, spiritual community, and new age spirituality have become cults, the book that is anti-thesis to that is, combatting cult mind control by Steven hassan

To part & parcel to how the funnel of netizens falling into these transhumanistic movements of being against one another, "chaos & cyber culture" by dr. Timothy leary ph. D., he is one of the people who sat with cia agents to discuss the automation of online activity

Alan Watts, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Terrence McKenna are also people who speak about how computers will be built to outpace humanity, as they were put at the frontlines to influence such, as the book that speaks to this is in "mind control in the United States" by Steven Jacobson as mass media has made for mass followings, what began in the 90's to blackplanet, paxed, crushspot, and other social media platforms priming the earlier generation to make way for the next, as the crack epidemic was only an aspect of destablilizing black families

Strategies to demoralizing a group of people is a covert operation, the book "art of war" and military pdf files can inform many on how that goes and went and what has come to be the conditioning of this generation and the one who has come after sharing memes about normalization, as normalizing is another mind control technique, to this degree, the book speaking to that is, "the unseen hand" by A. Ralph epperson, there is also an interview with a kgb agent who reveals this stuff circulating on the web to anyone interested in searching that out, and to that extent, there is a documentaty titled, "double talk"

Double talk is used in politics to exact layered speech that is stacked to not actually give solutions but rhetoric, a feedback loop nuanced to how Governor, mayors, presidents, and other elects speak to keep people in line with a belief system

Belief systems are another form of mind control, especially for people who have suffered deep trauma, as to traumatize is another technique to induce susceptibility in believing as belief is a controlled to influence others, what agents are taught to persuade others and why social media has influencers, the unseen hand, to that effect, the book "new world order" by a Ralph epperson addresses that

In offering this much, people should read, "the power of now" by eckhartt tolle on the chapter involving the topic of the pain body, as that connects with how consumers get stuck in the cycle of consuming content involving attachment styles and trauma bonding, as this is what is constructing the mind set of the current generation

Trilateralism by Holly Skar is why I mention the infrastructure of both relationships and spirituality creating the archetypes that feed the hostility bred by black men and women, as animus and anima are jungian types from experimental psychology to induce a populous and the popular underpinning of making status quo

Experimental psychology is discussed in lectures by Dr. Phil Valentine, a brotha, and there are also books available on this as well

Eugenics is a form of experimental psychology, to impact and impose the idea of interracial dating, as swirling is a sector that is a business of mixing, to why there is a hashtag called mixed babies, as the literature on Willie lynch superimposed the ideology of breeding out complexions and genetics, what can also be read on aryan ideologies, where women adopted the idea of men as lesser or defect actually comes from the aryan race as an adaptation of how wiccan magic utilizes subversion, to that degree, one should read sexpionage: the explotation of sex by david lewis and "how the illuminati create an undetectable total mind controlled slave" by Cisco Wheeler and Fritz springmeier

^ what ties this together with how this impacted blacks is how gangs initiate and why people should read this book these two books:

Illuminati in the music industry by Mark dice

Ritual abuse and mind control: the manipulation of attachment needs

Edited by orit badouk epstein, joseph Schwartz, and rachel wingfield schwartz

As those series of books show how the sexual liberation movement and counter culture initiated the glorification of demoralization of men and women's values around sex, the upsurge in casual sex, the normalized worship of drug abuse and sex and how that has lead to the healing movement in the health & wellness industry, as executives need to create demand in order to supply, and to understand the statistics and analytics of how a massive amount of black women and men circulate drip campaigns in the form of memes that degenerate and promote dysfunction and why toxic relationships are celebrated

The books aforementioned also highlight black magic and dark magic abused, as sex magic applied in these areas and the black culture that circle around celebrity worship is another ritual that amplifies conditions

The conditioning as a result is where bimbofication and barbie ideals are heralded, as the movie "stepford wives" goes into that, and elucidates the desire for black women to advertise luxury lifestyles around material and why escorts and sugar babies are dominant in those spaces and fields, as it is the biomarker for bioinformatics that represent the effectiveness of eugenics as a modality which will continue and is the reason for sex toys and devices, as the deeper you plunge someone into habituations, the deeper the dependency, what calls to how influenced the bad bitch archetype became the mold that so many ladies have modeled themselves after

To the polar end of why young black males have predominantly sought after to model themselves to be thugs and gangsters from the imagery in the music that celebrates killing, fetishizing women, liquor, drug misuse, gangbang sex and trains, and other dark magic rites and black magic rituals, to the book that is by Mark dice and another called secret rituals of the men in black by allen greenfield

If anyone pieces together excerpts from all the books highly recommended, it will illustrate how black culture is simply propellent of materialism, consumption, addiction, and abuse, on one end, and how that offers the capitalization of commodifying black bodies to advertise products and commodities, why corporations sponsor influencers, as it keeps the treadmill of users at pace with trilateral commissions agenda to fulfill a quota of deriving x-amount of dollars from blacks to fund industries that keep communities at a level to go no further than that

How to sell to a negro

Selling to a negro

This is why we call you the devil: psychology of selling to the negro

^ documentaries from the 1950s from when mk ultra began are what support what was stated

Having worked in retail, there is a book for analysts, psychologists, and economists that let's them know the demographic of blacks of all ages what they buy and how much and how often, so there is that as well

There is a film on this as well, the name of it escapes me so I suggest people research video lectures by Steve Cokley about the boule as it speaks to what is denoted in the film, as the comforts and conveniences and status maintain that African Americans never revolt or unite and where the term negropean came as the desire to live the affluence of upper class caucasians who are part of lodges, cults, groups, fraternities and select memberships within factions is adjacent to how black women and black men desire to be in proximity and soon resign from being educated beyond what is going on so long as they get paid, that funnel is where blacks as operatives are sworn to secrecy and those who pledge do the maintenance of influencing generations to aspire to that level of society, as that is the unseen hand that has created the digital landscape we see today

The book by mike Horowitz, occult america: the secret history of how mysticism shaped the nation is also how and why many find work in spirituality as yoga and yogis that were bought out by caucasians made it a lucrative end to turn moralism, hierarchy, and righteousness into a profit model as all things spiritual from other cultures that were paid off to do the same made the conglomerate belief system of universality and oneness to have one main way of thought that both serves as a sector for an industry and also serves the demographic of spenders who spend most of their time listening to these podcasts, organizations, and movements

So the concepts of gold diggers, dead beats, ain't shyt niggas, fuckboys, bitches, bad bitches, dogs, all Markov models to train a group of people who serve the self-help industry, the divorce court, the jewelery business, funeral homes, counselors, therapists, spiritualists, gurus, coaches, trainers, and mentors, as that keeps the pockets lined and continues the line of generations who compete and divide to be conditioned by the dominance hierarchy

The dominace hierarchy can be expanded on by looking into jordan peterson and your local library

I'm severly summarizing because my time is valuable and I typically charge for this lol so have at this and whoever seeks to make an honest buck from this, credit me and pay it forward $afromagnetic ∆ to those who value themselves, know their worth, and respect their time §

The programming goes deeper than this but I reserve that for my clients, customers, and students who support me xo

Also, it should be known that it is common practice in indigenous cultures for wombyn to sleep with a man specifically for his genes and purely for the intent to birth a chilf or children to continue her lineage with no interest in marriage or the men with whom she procreates due to the lack of ancestral knowledge on parthenogenesis, the other side of the game and where my other research touches from elders that inform me of ways of old and having grown up in a matriarchal setting through my life to also be informed by women themselves of this common practice unbeknownst to men and others who are unaware of this and/or lack insight, hypergamy, and the sugar bowl or eugenics or breeding and slave training and how divide & conquer strategies are applied or applicable from germanic influences, british intelligence, chinese families, british rule, and the Roman empire to govern how blacks behave and how influencing the mentality of women and degradation of the black men from birth to boyhood to adolescence are operations being carried out and have been so for centuries

Dr. Llaila Afrika touches base on this as well and there are books on the matter about sexuality and slavery that can be found on the web and through an IG bookstore owned by dtr360, the doctor has videos online discussing how slave mastered trained slaves to have a sex drive, and to that degree, there is another book called mind controlled sex slaves and the CIA by tracy Twyman as the protocol of molestation in black homes is just a sliver of how that influences the many and why many have similar stories to tell, including men, and what that leads to

#mind control #sexuality #books #readers #black community

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eretzyisrael · 6 years ago

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When al-Najjar was shot, the media reacted as it always does, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting a civilian non-combatant.

This media bias is a key part of Hamas strategy, as the media usually has no information from Gaza other than what the Hamas-run health ministry or Hamas-controlled Gaza media operations provide. Israeli military information is discounted or disregarded.

The NY Times undertook a massive investigation into al-Najjar’s shooting. While the Times indicates it simply wanted to get to the truth, there is little doubt that the Times hoped to find Israel guilty of deliberately shooting al-Najjar. The main story is A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? with details on the investigation methodology in a separate post here.

As Lenny Ben-David points out on Twitter, the resources the Times devoted to the investigation were extraordinary:

The NYT’s indictment of #IDF is 5,500 words long & accompanied by 17 minute video! When was the last time NYT spent so many manhours & millions of $ on an investigation?

Not since Warren Commission on JFK’s assassination have I seen such research, stopped frames, diagrams.

Yet despite all those words, the investigation conclusion is almost buried in the headlines, diagrams, video and verbiage: Israel did not deliberately or directly shoot al-Najjar. The was hit by a ricochet of a bullet that fragmented hitting a total of three people.

Here are the key quotes from the main Times article, several paragraphs into the article:

The bullet that killed her, The Times found, was fired by an Israeli sniper into a crowd that included white-coated medics in plain view. A detailed reconstruction, stitched together from hundreds of crowd-sourced videos and photographs, shows that neither the medics nor anyone around them posed any apparent threat of violence to Israeli personnel. Though Israel later admitted her killing was unintentional, the shooting appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime, for which no one has yet been punished.

Notice how in that key paragraph, the first to introduce the Times’ conclusion, no mention is made of the ricochet. The paragraph makes it seem as if al-Najjar was deliberately and directly shot when Israel fired “into” a crowd that included medics. Only much later does the Times acknowledge that al-Najjar was not directly shot, the bullet did not go “into” the crowd, it struck the ground several yards away.

You have to read deep down into the article, to find these details:

Three medics down, all from one bullet. It seemed improbable.

But The Times’s reconstruction confirmed it: The bullet hit the ground in front of the medics, then fragmented, part of it ricocheting upward and piercing Ms. Najjar’s chest.

It was fired from a sand berm used by Israeli snipers at least 120 yards from where the medics fell.

To get even more details, you need to go to the separate methodology article the Times ran, including that Israel did not fire at the medics, but rather, people near the medics, and that the bullet hit the ground “a few yards away from the medics, and ricocheted off the ground:

What’s more, behind the target was a group of bystanders and medics in white coats. Former snipers in the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces told us that, without a backstop, it was a reckless shot to take.

The bullet missed and hit the ground a few yards in front of the medics. Michael Knox, a forensic ballistics investigator, told us that the type of bullet used by the Israeli sniper could skim like a stone off the rocky soil. When it hits soil at a low angle, it pushes the soil ahead of it into a miniature ramp and projects itself up and out of the ground. Mohammed Shafee was hit in the torso with shrapnel. The bullet grazed Rami Abo Jazar’s thigh and continued its upward trajectory to pierce Rouzan just above her chest, severing her aorta.

#rouzan al-najjar #new york times #media bias #hamas #gaza #idf #snipers

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maxcrawfordkiwifruit · 3 years ago

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Human centred design

“Human-centred design (HCD) facilitates complex intervention design for such issues by placing people at the centre of the problem-solving process. It allows each stage leading up to the innovation to be shaped by the needs of those we seek to serve” (Impact, S. (2019). "Why Core uses human-centred design.")

Human-centred design is a useful tool that effectively involves the end-user in the design process resulting in a more meaningful and effective design solution. More often than not design research methods fail to value the insight of the user themselves and tend to focus on more statistical insights like completion times and success rates disregarding things like intuition, subjective judgement and tacit knowledge.

"HCS provides a powerful alternative philosophy for systems design and broader educational and societal development. It strongly questions the basis of the scientific methodology, which accepts only the predictable, the repeatable, and the mathematically quantifiable. This is because scientific methodology excludes intuition, subjective judgement and tacit knowledge." (Jacobson, 1999, p. 64)

This perspective on design research plays well into my project as there is a heavy emphasis on understanding students emotions when trying to break into the industry. When trying to understand what makes a good designer it's not nearly as simple as looking at someone's qualifications and grades there is a lot of subjective qualities that make a good designer. So making sure my research methods accommodated discovering more qualitative data.

https://scopeimpact.fi/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Screen-Shot-2018-09-20-at-9.39.02.png

#Uxmax2021

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bk-lostintranslation · 5 years ago

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ESSAY: The Law vs. Justice - A Troubling Dichotomy

"...Depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.”

In text or film, police stories run parallel to a mosaic of much-loved tropes and familiar cinematics: the steely-eyed officer staring down the barrel of a gun as he confronts the perp; the ubiquitous car-chase through a glittering metropolitan mise-en-scéne to the counterpoint of screeching tires and wild jazz; the athletic detective pursuing the antagonist through an urban maze of rooftops and stairwells, guns blazing and adrenaline pumping; the hard-edged police duo pummeling a snitch to a bloody pulp in a trash-strewn alleyway until he confesses to the information they're after. Genres switch from comedy to drama; protagonists evolve from stoic sleuths with a spotless badge and an unswerving mission to wisecracking cynics whose broken moral compass belies a heart of gold. Yet, as key figures in a discursive construction of culture, each character is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels of heroism for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. The dichotomy between the two, while incontestably age-old, is remarkable because the idea that one is an obstacle to achieving the other is a recurrent theme in law enforcement fiction – and because it appears to at once enable and ennoble police violence.

A cursory glance toward contemporary entertainment reveals how saturated it is with alternately gripping or poignant portrayals of the police – be they crime dramas, infotainment or film. Yet, when perusing a majority of these media-created depictions, it is also essential to note the dark skein of violence that runs through the narrative, framed as a necessity to maintain control within a gritty backdrop of urban decay (Deflem, 2010). From television shows like Law & Order, CSI Miami, The Wire and Chicago PD, which feature hard-nosed protagonists roughing up their suspects as par for the course, to critically-acclaimed films such as The French Connection (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), and Die Hard (1988), which showcase the ideal cop as a trigger-happy maverick willing to flout both institutional and legal safeguards to catch their perp, to more recent buddy-cop comedies such as The Heat (2013), where the quirky, would-be feminist twist attempts to call attention away from flagrant police abuses, there is a pervasive message that police brutality and misconduct are the panacea to clean up a city seething with crime.

The execution of this concept is certainly exciting from a storytelling standpoint. After all, there are countless instances where the law is stymied by historical framing, its message and purview a product of its times. Neither ironclad nor teleological, laws evolve according to their own methodology, not in smooth sequences but in messy, haphazard, often incoherent increments that reflect the protean nature of society itself (Hutchinson, 2005). However, the diegesis of law vs. justice becomes fraught with complications when it is used repeatedly to promulgate fictional constructs as truth – to frame violence as the only means to fight fire with fire, with the hero cop acting in the best interests of the underdog, against antagonists who will ultimately and most deservedly be trounced in a simplistic narrative arc of Good versus Evil (Geller, 1997; Jacobson, Picart & Greek, 2017). Unfortunately, what these formulas tend to overlook – either due to disingenuity or pure carelessness – is how they function as propaganda pieces for institutions already entangled in civil rights violations. More to the point, their depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.

To be sure, crime dramas have been a popular staple of entertainment for decades. In their work, Media and Crime in the U.S, criminologists Yvonne Jewkes and Travis Linnemann remark that crime films are "arguably the most enduring of all cinematic genres..." and that their attraction is rooted in the fact that they "reassure us that criminal behaviors can be explained and serious offenses can be solved. They offer immutable definitions of 'the crime problem' and guide our emotional responses to it" (2017, p. 173). But beyond the comforts of catharsis and closure, these films provide an intimate view into worlds that exist as ciphers to the general public. Research has repeatedly shown that viewers glean knowledge of law enforcement not from direct interaction with said entities, but from mass media consumption (Surette, 1998; Skogan, 1981; Mawby, 2003). While public opinions of policemen are, on the whole, encouragingly positive (Huang and Vaughn, 1996), it is imperative to ask ourselves whether these opinions are factual or colored by the glamour and gloss of mediated representations. In their work, Media Consumption and Public Attitudes toward Crime and Justice, Kenneth Dowler and Valerie Zawilski note that,

Presentations of police are often over-dramatized and romanticized by fictional television crime dramas while the news media portray the police as heroic, professional crime fighters. In television crime dramas, the majority of crimes are solved and criminal suspects are successfully apprehended. Similarly, news accounts tend to exaggerate the proportion of offenses that result in arrest which projects an image that police are more effective than official statistics demonstrate. The favorable view of policing is partly a consequence of police’s public relations strategy. Reporting of proactive police activity creates an image of the police as effective and efficient investigators of crime (2007, p. 3).

Of course, it would be simplistic to claim that all audiences imbibe and interpret media-constructed images of police in the same fashion. As Yvonne Jewkes remarks in the work Captured by the Media, "people are not blank slates who approach a television programme without any preexisting opinions, prejudices or resources" (2013, p. 145; Kitzinger, 2004). However, it is equally impossible to believe that these sources do not feed social constructions of law and order in its myriad forms. Indeed, the media's portraits of crime and justice are often pivotal in influencing both policy and day-to-day events. A large body of research devoted to the relationship between public attitudes and criminal justice policy has shown that representations of crime news catalyze public pressure toward harsher policing and more punitive sentencing. Additionally, a close appraisal of police-related television shows and films yields disturbing trends. Not only is there an overblown emphasis on offender-based violence, i.e. murder, rape, and robbery, but the offenders themselves are portrayed as cunning to an almost, if not outright, psychopathic degree. They can play the criminal justice system like a fiddle, and can run circles around the average police officer, whose by-the-book approach only leaves him/her mired in red-tape and frustratingly stultified by Internal Affairs. Instead, it is up to a tenacious few, with the guts and grit to transcend these bureaucratic impositions, to dispense justice towards offenders (Barille, 1984; Surette, 1998).

Given that the ontological divide between fiction and fact can often risk becoming disquietingly blurred, the study of sensationalist fiction's influence on criminal justice policy becomes doubly relevant (Potter & Kappeller, 2006). An example can be taken from 24, a hugely-popular Fox Network series that ran from 2001 to 2008. The show followed the exploits of counterterroist Jack Bauer, a resourceful anti-hero willing to resort to everything from mass property destruction to torture in order to save the American public. Bauer's legacy survived well beyond the screen, to the point where he was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice, Anton Scalia, as pertinent to constitutional jurisprudence and the use of torture: "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" The fact that Bauer does not exist is beside the point; rather, it is the durable imprint his heroics left on the minds of the audience. For them, the thrilling, nick-of-time rescues and terrorist intrigues exemplified by 24 were not escapist fantasies, but a dire reflection of the national state of affairs (Lattman, 2006, p. 1).

Similarly, Clint Eastwood's wild card, Harry Callahan, immortalized by the 70s cult classic Dirty Harry, is portrayed as a ruthless but ultimately effective cop whose willingness to bend – or break – the rules guarantees fast results. What makes the film particularly noteworthy is its scathing criticism of the perceived hurdles beset upon law enforcement via the enactment of the Miranda warning in 1966, in addition to would-be obstacles such as the Exclusionary Rule. Whether or not the film's legal research is rooted in accuracy is, again, beside the point: its true premise is to question whether a system that gives precedence to the rights of offenders over victims is even worth upholding. In the film's closing scene, Harry, having broken the law by shooting the rampaging sniper, Scorpio, tosses his police badge into the water – an act as politically charged as it is defiant. Through Harry, not only is the upheaval of the period's political climate reflected, but the passions of the viewers enacted (Leitch, 2007). Indeed, the Dirty Harry Syndrome – also known as Noble Cause Corruption – is a term coined by the film, although the phenomenon understandably predates it. Jack R. Greene describes it as when "police are tempted to use illegal means to obtain justice... [even though] police ethicists and lawmakers hold that any gains that might be achieved by illegal means are not worth the miscarriages of justice and negative precedents that might result" (2006, p. 601). However, the film's enduring popularity is testament as much to its directorial finesse as to the resonance of its underlying message: that in order for justice to prevail, pragmatic vigilantism is preferable to the impractical hurdle of upholding civil rights. Like his modern predecessor, Jack Bauer, Harry Callahan's actions serve to anchor him within a timeless cultural bricolage: the everyman's avenger who occupies the liminal space between saint and rebel for his steadfast pursuit of justice.

In his work Encoding & Decoding in the Television Discourse, renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall coined the term 'Circuit of Communication' to argue that, despite the assumption of meaning as a static agent, it is in fact a socially structured process that can either edify or delimit us through its visual language and representation (1973). Indeed, the meaning of any medium can be considered a sociopolitical and cultural discourse with its own style, syntax, structure and vocabulary – all of it pivoting on the audience as both the 'receiver of the message, and the 'source.' With that in mind, police films and dramas do not exist in a vacuum, but are in fact embedded in contingent social realities, many of which serve largely to either reflect or perpetuate specific modes of thought and conduct. One need only trace the complex evolution of law enforcement on-screen to observe how they establish specific notions of law vs. justice, good vs. evil, order vs. disorder, within a specific sociopolitical milieu.

For instance, the earliest film noir classics such as Double Indemnity (1936) were pivotal in bringing to life the postwar disenchantment and murky morality of the era, while touching upon gender politics, social mores, and their shocking subversions. Similarly, the besieged and troubled characters of Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) served almost as widgets fulfilling a critique on sexual politics and mass surveillance. The late 1960s relaunch of the genre-defining radio and television series Dragnet (1949-70) was designed to tout the impressive intricacies of LAPD procedurals, in an age characterized by anti-police sentiment and the infamous Watts Riots.

Later, the Nixonian legacy of the War on Drugs, and its subsequent Reaganite expansion, saw the rise of such Cop Booster classics as 48 Hours (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1989). More recent films such as Crash (2005), while attempting to touch thoughtfully upon racial tensions in the melting pot of LA, quickly became entangled in undercurrents of misogynoir and color-blindness by suggesting that the officer who committed digital rape on a black woman was redeemed by later saving her from a car crash, and by asserting superficial equality with the idealistic message that everyone across the racial spectrum has problems, while conveniently denying the reality of systemic racism in a white power structure (Hobson, 2008; Lott, 2006). Even the latest blockbuster, The Heat (2013), which aimed to subvert gender roles in law enforcement, unfortunately tripped over its own message by becoming not a paean to feminism but a stale, formulaic buddy-cop cliché that equated female empowerment with the same reckless disregard and gross misconduct vis-à-vis its male-centric counterparts.

At nearly every point, cop films and dramas appear to be a means to either challenge or embellish institutional authority. Yet no matter their superficial advancements, very few focus on the realities of police-work, such as preventive and proactive strategies, much less on efforts at rapport-building – or lack thereof – within the community they protect. Fewer still address blatant acts of police violence and misconduct not as effective tools, but as risky perpetuations of Hobbesian logic where good must vanquish evil by any means necessary.

However, it is imperative to understand how this rigid binarization circumvents meaningful and nuanced dialogue. By resorting to cursory labels that pit one 'side' against the other – and, indeed, create sides at all – it is dangerously easy to frame entire groups of people, policies, and phenomenon as irrational threats that can only be eradicated by extralegal and increasingly ruthless means (Parenti, 2003). Certainly, recent history has seen the expansion of law enforcement as justification to eradicate a 'newer, deadlier' breed of enemies beyond the scope of conventional legality. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, for instance, former President George W Bush denounced the tragedy as "a new kind of evil" that had to be fought "in the shadows." Constitutional safeguards therefore had to be set aside out of necessity, in order to protect the greater good. The outcome would lead to two wars, increasing governmental opacity, the establishment of the Patriot Act, mass domestic surveillance, and the unspoken sanctioning of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on terror suspects (Graham, 2004; Nakashima, 2007; Purdum, 2001, p. 1).

While national security – internal and external – is certainly of prime importance, it is necessary to understand the risks of being engulfed and acclimatized to an atmosphere of terror, through which the media derive profit, politicians push insidious agendas, and financial systems subjugate and surveil public activities. Furthermore, into this commodification and mass consumption of terror, recent trends towards more egregiously aggressive cop shows, and the expansion of police power they reflect, deserve critical focus. In his book, The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, Radley Balko remarks that, "No one made a decision to militarize the police in America. The change has come slowly, the result of a generation of politicians and public officials fanning and exploiting public fears by declaring war on abstractions like crime, drug use, and terrorism. The resulting policies have made those war metaphors increasingly real" (2014, p. 42).

To decry the media as the sole instigator of fear-mongering would, of course, be unfair. But nor can it be denied that the media in all its forms plays a pivotal role in reinforcing the black-and-white paradigm of law vs. justice, with the heroes willing to achieve their goals at any cost, be it torture or deception (Rafter, 2006). While such narrative designs can be compellingly escapist and entertaining, they run the risk of becoming so entrenched into the social fabric and psyche as to seem factual. A no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement would seem ideal for convicting the indisputably guilty – but the fact of the matter is that the deliberate disregard of procedural law will only undermine the liberty interests of the innocent. Films and television shows that continue to push this agenda merely misrepresent police misconduct as a legitimate validator of heroism, and therefore of goodness. The protagonist is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. Yet regarding the two as mutually exclusive is not only pandering to teleological delusion, but masking the reality of a deeply flawed justice system by redefining criminality as the darkest shade of evil, and police misconduct as the only means to take it down.

References

Balko, R. (2014). Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. Perseus Books Group.

Barille, L. (1984). “Television and Attitudes About Crime: Do Heavy Views Distort Criminality and Support Retributive Justice?” In Ray Surette (ed.) Justice and the Media: Issues and Research. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.

Deflem, M. (2010). Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control. Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Iii. doi:10.1108/s1521-6136(2010)0000014019

Dowler, K., & Zawilski, V. (2007). Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(2), 193-203. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006

Geller, W. A., & Toch, H. (1997). Police violence: understanding and controlling police abuse of force. Choice Reviews Online, 34(08). doi:10.5860/choice.34-4799

Grahan, B (2004). As an issue, war is risky for both sides. Washington Post. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1575-2004Oct1.html. Accessed on September 21.

Greene, J. R. (2006). Encyclopedia of Police Science. doi:10.4324/9780203943175

Hall, S. (1973). Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Hobson, J. (2008) Digital Whiteness, Primitive Blackness. Feminist Media Studies, 2 (8), 111-126. doi: 10.1080/00220380801980467

Huang, Wilson W.S. & Michael S. Vaughn. (1996). “Support and Confidence: Favorable Attitudes Toward the Police Correlates of Attitudes Toward the Police.” In T.J. Flanagan and D.R. Longmire (eds) Americans View Crime and Justice: A National Public OpinionSurvey. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Hutchinson, A. C. (2005). Evolution and the common law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Jewkes, Y., & Linnemann, T. (2017). Media and crime in the U.S. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

King, N., Picart, C. S., Jacobsen, M. H., & Greek, C. (2017). Framing Law and Crime: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 46(5), 586-587. doi:10.1177/0094306117725085ff

Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse: media influence and public understanding of sexual violence against children. London: Pluto Pr.

Lattman, P. (2007). Justice Scalia hearts Jack Bauer. Wall Street Journal. Available at http://blogs/wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-jack-bauer/. Accessed on September 21, 2017.

Leitch, T. (2007). Crime films. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lott, M. R. (2006). Police on screen: Hollywood cops, detectives, marshals, and rangers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

Mason, P. (2013). Captured by the media: prison discourse in popular culture. London ; New York: Routledge.

Mawby, R.I. (2003) 'Evaluating Justice Practices', in A. Von Hirsch et al (eds) Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice: Competing or Reconcilable Programs? Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Nakashima, E. (2007) A story of surveillance: Former technician 'turning in' AT&T over NSA program. The Washington Post. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html. Accessed on September 25, 2017.

Parenti, C. (2003). The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror (Reprint Edition). New York, NY: Perseus Books.

Potter, G. & Kappeler, V. (Eds). (2006). Constructing Crime: Perspective on Making News and Social Problems. Chicago: Waveland Press.

Purdum, T. S. (2001, September 16). Bush Warns of a Wrathful, Shadowy and Inventive War. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/us/after-attacks-white-house-bush-warns-wrathful-shadowy-inventive-war.html

Rafter, N. (2006) Shots in the mirror: Crime films and society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Roberts, J. & A. Doob. (1986). “Public Estimates of Recidivism Rates: Consequences of a Criminal Stereotype.” Canadian Journal of Criminology 28:229-241. gy 28:229-241.

Skogan, W. & M. Maxfield. (1981). Coping With Crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Surette, R. (1998). Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities 2nd Edition. New York: Wadsworth Publishing.

#essay #law #police brutality #police violence #mass surveillance

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clairebacon37-blog · 7 years ago

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Gender and Sexuality Portfolio Post One: Introduction to Special Interest Topic

The prison system within the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world, and the reach of the system touches many people's lives even after they have been released from prison. As a country we pride ourselves as being champions of "freedom", yet can we truly make these claims to freedom with a clean conscious when we lock millions of people away in cages? Not only is the U.S prison industrial complex the largest prison system, it is also incredibly inhumane. Recently the punitive ways of our criminal justice system have received more attention thanks to the work of fierce activists, yet within these conversations about the injustices of the justice system women are often left out. Women who are incarcerated have to deal with the stresses of an inhumane system, as well as other challenges that are unique due to their position as women within the system. In today's society, women are being incarcerated at increasingly higher rates, and many women are incarcerated for minor drug crimes. A vast majority of women who are incarcerated have been sexually or physically abused prior to their incarceration, and have to work through the symptoms of trauma in their lives while locked away. The experiences of women who are incarcerated are also unique in terms of reproductive health, mental health needs due to previous gendered experiences, and barriers to employment and success existing specifically for women outside of prison upon release. Due to the fact that we live in a patriarchal society, the prison system is also based off of patriarchal practices, and it is irresponsible to leave the voices of incarcerated women out of conversations surrounding justice.

For my special topic, I have chosen to focus on the experiences of women who are incarcerated. I picked this topic for a few reasons, but one reason is that as a career path I would like to advocate for the rights of people who are incarcerated. The more I learn about the criminal justice system, the angrier I get. I thought that this project would be a really good opportunity to look at incarceration specifically through a lens of how women experience it. Incarceration is already such a dehumanizing experience, and then going a step further, when a woman is incarcerated it seems as though we snatch away her claims to womanhood. Public discourse demonizes women in prison as being bad mothers, paints them as being deviant and too sexual, and not worthy of respect or empathy. Another driving factor behind why I chose this topic was that women who are incarcerated are so often forgotten about. I've done research about the prison system for some of my sociology classes, but most of the literature which I found focused mainly on men. I wanted to find out, if we listen to the voices of women who have been in prison, what would they have to say? What does justice look like to them? And in what ways do their experiences differ from those of men? Also, since experiences within prison are definitely not one size fits all experiences, I thought that this topic would have huge connections to concepts in this class, especially from an intersectional standpoint. I think an overall reason why I chose this as my topic is because the experiences of incarcerated women matter, and even if it's just through a term project I wanted to give their stories more space.

I searched the term "women's incarceration", and received 37 results for the past 5 years. The topics covered a wide range within this area of study, but some common areas a majority of the results focused on were mental health, trauma, sexual assault, reproductive health, experiences after prison, and ways in which gendered disparities exist within the system. I chose ten articles overall: two of which looked at disparities within the commutation process for women, one which focused on barriers that exist within society for women who have just been released from prison, one which focused on how women who have just been released conceptualize success, three articles which focus on topics of mental health, trauma, and histories of sexual assault for women who are incarcerated, two articles that focus on lack of access to adequate reproductive health services, and the last article looked at social relationships women maintain through foodways in prison. Every single one of these articles was written by women, with the exception of two male authors who co-wrote one article, and two articles which were put out by law reviews. This is interesting to note in terms of thinking about who is interested in researching this topic, as well as who's hands are these women's stories in. There were two common themes in methodology that I found within these articles. One form of methodology was interviewing women who were either currently or previously incarcerated. This method proved to be especially impactful, and the voices of the women themselves really shone through in articles that used this form of research. Another methodology that was present was exploring the issues at a broader level, and then providing specific statistics. This was helpful because it provided useful background information on some of the common issues faced by incarcerated women, and also had the specific statistics to bring home the point of how prevalent the problem is. Thinking about the general information of these studies such as the topics, methodology, and authors is useful before moving forward and summarizing the literature because it gives us a backdrop to situate the results within.

The literature provided a window into many of the issues that women who are incarcerated face, and one of these areas was the issue of trauma and mental health. An article by Carol Jacobson took a unique approach to this issue by exploring the commutation process as women experience it. In Jacobson's study she sought to find out disparities for women within this specific process. Jacobson's research found that women are less likely to be up for commutation, and that when they do go through this process they are subject to bullying from the AAG in which they have to relive their past traumas and histories of abuse, and most likely will have their character discredited by an AAG who will most likely be a white male. Three of the other pieces of literature that I found also highlighted topics of trauma, abuse, and mental health, and extended the research of Jacobson's article even further and in new directions. These articles first aimed to explore incarcerated women's experiences with interpersonal violence more in depth in an attempt to better understand the different nuances and forces at work in survivors' lives. Two of these three studies pointed out that anywhere from 70-98% of incarcerated women have been exposed to some type of interpersonal violence, whether it be physical abuse, sexual assault, partner violence, etc. This area of the literature also aimed to explore ways in which these traumas affect the women's mental health, and what their needs were within prison. Women who were interviewed suggested that they need more adequate treatment that addresses childhood abuse and/or domestic violence, and also mentioned that receiving care that was more personalized to their own specific needs would be helpful. Another area that the literature on women's incarceration covered, was the topic of reproductive health needs. Two of the articles I looked at examined the inadequate reproductive health services within prisons, and brought up the fact that since many correctional policies were created at a time when women's incarceration was rare, these policies fail to address reproductive needs that are unique to women. These pieces of literature examined detrimental practices such as strapping down pregnant women in restraints, and also highlighted other disparities of reproductive justice such as a lack of postpartum services within prisons, lack of access to adequate birth control, inadequate abortion services, and the list goes on. The articles also pointed out the practices of separating new mothers from their children, and limiting contact with outside family. Both of these articles highlighted the harmful effects of the neglect of women's reproductive health, and serve as a call for more specific policies that address women's needs within prison. One article that was unique to the literature I found in my research, was a study done by Amy Smoyer, which focused on social relationships of women in prison. Smoyer was interested in women's social relationships within prison since positive and meaningful connections can positively impact one's mental well-being. Smoyer explored women's social networks by examining foodways such as cooking and commissary, and found that foodways can serve as sites of connection and bonding, but can also be a solitary act if preferred. The last two articles I looked at explored women's experiences after being released from prison. One of the articles by Gretchen Heidemann, Julie Cederbaum, and Sidney Martinez looked at the ways in which women think of success after being released from prison. The authors found that the women they interviewed defined success in five ways: having their own place, being able to help family and others, living free from criminal justice surveillance, persevering through hardship, and being able to live a "normal life". The other study on life outside of prison was done by Susila Gurusami, and focused on barriers to black women who were previously incarcerated in the labor market. Gurusami's findings touched on the fact that the system of capitalism is racialized and gendered, as well as unkind to people with a felony on their record, making it three times as hard for formerly incarcerated black women to get a job upon release. Gurusami also found that many of the jobs that were willing to hire someone with a history of incarceration also tended to be very labor intensive, and these jobs were simply not an option for some women. While there is not much literature done on this topic of women's incarceration yet, the research that exists is strong and covers a range of topics. Overall, every single study had a common call for future studies in this area, and this call was to simply do more research on the specific needs of women who have been incarcerated; whether it be on mental health, reproductive health, past abuse, life after prison, just put the time and effort into researching the stories of these women.

The issue of mass incarceration is a very pressing one, and it is crucial that we don't leave women out of the conversation. The prison system was created using men as the default model of people being incarcerated, therefore needs that are specific to women are not addressed through policy or practice. As the literature points out, a majority of incarcerated women have been subject to various forms of trauma in their lives, and most prisons do not have adequate mental health services to assist these women in their healing process. There are also disparities within reproductive health services provided to women in prison, adding on just another stressor into their lives. The literature also informs us of how women who have been incarcerated are also subject to unique barriers in society once they are released from prison. The voices of women are often overlooked in many spaces within our society, and this holds true for the voices of incarcerated women. The stakes are high and people's lives are on the line, it is essential that we start listening. Moving forward, I would like to learn more about the ways in which intersectionality plays a role in these women's experiences, as well as explore how respectability politics plays into the treatment they receive and how they are perceived.

References

Asberg, K., & Renk, K. (2015). Safer in jail? A comparison of victimization history and psychological adjustment between previously homeless and non-homeless incarcerated women. Feminist Criminology, 10(2), 165-187. doi:10.1177/1557085114537870

Correctional facilities. (2013). Georgetown Journal of Gender & the Law, 14(2), 339-361.

Gurusami, S. (2017). Working for redemption: Formerly incarcerated black women and punishment in the labor market. Gender & Society, 31(4), 433-456. doi:10.1177/0891243217716114

Heidemann, G., Cederbaum, J. A., & Martinez, S. (2016). Beyond recidivism: How formerly incarcerated women define success. Affilia: Journal of Women & Social Work, 31(1), 24-40. doi:10.1177/0886109915581702

Jacobsen, C., & Lempert, L. B. (2013). Institutional disparities: Considerations of gender in the commutation process for incarcerated women.Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society, 39(1), 265-289.

Kotlar, B., Kornrich, R., Deneen, M., Kenner, C., Theis, L., von Esenwein, S., & Webb-Girard, A. (2015). Meeting incarcerated women's needs for pregnancy-related and postpartum services: Challenges and opportunities. Perspectives on Sexual & Reproductive Health, 47(4), 221-225. doi:10.1363/47e3315

Lynch, S. M., Fritch, A., & Heath, N. M. (2012). Looking beneath the surface: The nature of incarcerated women’s experiences of interpersonal violence, treatment needs, and mental health. Feminist Criminology, 7(4), 381-400. doi:10.1177/1557085112439224

Smoyer, A. B. (2015). Feeding relationships: Foodways and social networks in a women’s prison. Affilia: Journal of Women & Social Work, 30(1), 26-39. doi:10.1177/0886109914537490

Sufrin, C., Kolbi-Molinas, A., & Roth, R. (2015). Reproductive justice, health disparities and incarcerated women in the united states.Perspectives on Sexual & Reproductive Health, 47(4), 213-219. doi:10.1363/47e3115

Walsh, K., Gonsalves, V. M., Scalora, M. J., King, S., & Hardyman, P. L. (2012). Child maltreatment histories among female inmates reporting inmate on inmate sexual victimization in prison: The mediating role of emotion dysregulation. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27(3), 492-512. doi:10.1177/0886260511421670

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rightsinexile · 5 years ago

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Announcements

Conferences and workshops

Rosa Strippe Symposium: Challenges faced by LGBTI refugees, 24 October 2019, Bochum, Germany

Rosa Strippe is holding a symposium in Bochum, Germany, looking at the particular challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) refugees in the asylum process and during accommodation in the country’s housing and communities. For information, please see link (in German).

Symposium on Forced Migration, Protection, and Border Control, 17 October 2019, New York

The Centre for Migration Studies (CMS) will hold its annual academic and policy symposium on 17 October 2019, from 8:30AM to 5:00PM, at the law offices of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (One New York Plaza / 1 FDR Drive, New York, NY). Leading scholars, policy experts, and practitioners will examine the interplay between border externalization and enforcement policies and refugee protection in the United States and throughout the world. For more information, please see here. To attend the gala celebrating the CMS 55th anniversary on the same day, click here. Registration for both the conference and the gala is open until 16 October 2019.

International Protection in Europe: Persistent Challenges and Litigation Opportunities, 8-9 November 2019, Seville, Spain

The 2019 Advanced ELENA Course on “International protection in Europe: Persistent challenges and litigation opportunities” will take place on Friday, 8 November and Saturday, 9 November 2019 in Seville, Spain. It will cover recent ECtHR jurisprudence on the principle of non-refoulement; immigration detention and alternatives; and other emerging issues. To register, by no later than 26 September 2019, please click here

Queer Displacements: Sexuality, Migration & Exile, 14-15 November 2019, Canberra, Australia

The Australian National University Canberra Australia is to hold a conference aimed at bringing together academics, practitioners and LGBTIQ+ people seeking asylum, and refugees to discuss pertinent issues of queer forced displacement. For more information, please click here.

Good decisions: Achieving fairness in refugee law, policy and practice, 26 November 2019, Sydney, Australia

The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law will hold its annual conference to bring top Australian and global thinkers together to explore aspects of refugee decision-making from the micro to the macro level – from individual cases through to wider public policy. It will ask how we can ensure that refugee decision-making is fair, transparent and protection-sensitive, with outcomes that are consistent with international law. The programme can be found here, and all questions can be addressed here.

Calls for papers

The Fourth International Sociological Association (FISA) is seeking abstracts for a 2020 forum session titled: The Meaning of Flight in Biographies

The FISA is to hold a conference entitled, “The Meaning of Flight in Biographies”, 15-21 July 2020, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and is seeking papers for its session on the meaning of flight. The situations which forced refugees to flee may be violence, economic insecurity, climate change, sexual abuse or harassment, ethnic persecution or many others. A particular interest is in an individual's capacity to redefine and transform. What strategies do people use in talking about their experiences and constructing their biographies? What kind of approaches do we have for understanding experiences and biographies of refugees, such as face-to-face interviews, film, images? If you are interested, please see here to submit an abstract by 30 September 2019. Further information can be found here.

North American Society for Exile Studies seeks papers for biennial conference

On 18-20 September 2020 the North American Society for Exile Studies will hold their Biennial Conference at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. NASES is now calling for papers that concern forced migration and nature, for example, when people hide in forests, flee across unguarded “green” borders, or cannot reach safety beyond oceans or mountains. For more information and how to submit, by 30 September 2019, please see here.

Forced Migration Review seeks submissions for 2020 publication

Forced Migration Review (FMR) has put out a call for papers for inclusion in its February 2020 issue on Cities and Towns, to be submitted by 4 November 2019. Cities and towns can be welcoming spaces of sanctuary, solidarity, integration and opportunity, but many who are displaced from their homes by conflict, persecution and other drivers encounter a very different kind of space. FMR’s February 2020 issue will provide a forum for practitioners, advocates, policymakers and researchers to share experience and good practices, debate perspectives and offer recommendations around these challenges and developments. Those wishing to contribute, please email the Editors ahead of sending in an article.

University of Ghana and the IASFM calling for contributions

The International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) and the University of Ghana, Accra, have put out a call for contributions to a conference to be held 27-30 July 2020 that will look at how the current migration research landscape is heavily skewed towards the Global North, where governments and international organisations increasingly fund research to inform policy development. The title of the conference represents an attempt to engage forced migration scholars and others in transforming this landscape. Submissions can be made here no later than 4 November 2019.

Grants and awards

PhD scholarship from the University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is offering a PhD scholarship opportunity, in partnership with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, which will investigate empowerment approaches for people seeking asylum and refugees. For more information, please click here. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 27 September 2019.

Human Rights Activism Fellowship

The Oak Institute for Human Rights at Colby College in Waterville, Maine offers a fellowship to provide a one-semester activist-in-residence opportunity in 2020 for a human rights activist operating in difficult or dangerous circumstances. The research will focus on human rights at the border; related information can be found here. The deadline for nominations is 30 November 2019, and for completed applications the deadline is 30 December 2019.

2020-21 Mahindra Humanities Center Postdoctoral Fellow

The Mahindra Humanities Center invites applications for one-year postdoctoral fellowships in connection with the Center’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seminar on the topic of migration and the humanities. If interested, please apply before 15 November 2019.

Vacancies

Fortify Rights seeks applicants for human rights positions based in Southeast Asia

Fortify Rights, a non-profit human rights organisation based in Southeast Asia, has three new job opportunities - for Regional Director; Malaysia Human Rights Specialist; and Thailand Human Rights Specialist. For more information, and to apply, please click here. Applications open until positions are filled.

York University accepting applications for tenure-track positions

York University, Canada: The Department of Equity Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies invites applications for a professorial stream tenure-track appointment in Interdisciplinary Refugee and Diaspora Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor, to commence July 1, 2020. For details and how to apply, by no later than 15 November 2019, please click here.

Professor seeks academic experts for research collaboration on accession to the Refugee Convention by Cambodia and Timor-Leste

Dr. Naoko Hashimoto is urgently looking for academic experts who could investigate in an international collaborative research project why Cambodia in 1992 and Timor-Leste in 2003 acceded to the Refugee Convention. The experts must satisfy the following conditions:

already familiar with the refugee law in Cambodia or Timor-Leste

interested in investigating the decision-making process that led to the accession to the Refugee Convention by either of the two countries

currently affiliated with a research institute such as universities (wherever that is)

preferably a native-speaker or extremely fluent in the local language and culture in either of the countries

able to make herself/himself available for an international collaborative research project from October 2019 through March 2022

preferably with a background in politics and/or law

The professor will be the principal investigator and secure the necessary funding for all researchers. While the country research should be conducted independently by each researcher during the life of the research project, there will be two or three workshops for all the researchers to meet up and harmonise their research approaches, theoretical frameworks, methodology, and findings. The end result shall be published in an edited volume in English.

Please email name, affiliations and contact details as soon as possible to Naoko Hashimoto, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo and Research Associate / Dissertation Supervisor, Refugee Law Initiative, University of London.

#refugee #asylum #asylum seeker

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stephenmccull · 5 years ago

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Democrats Sharpen Health Care Attacks As Primaries Heat Up

The ideal began to get real on Tuesday, as seven of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination sparred over the price tag on health care reform and even revealed similarities on issues like marijuana legalization.

With Democrats in 15 states and American Samoa set to cast their primary votes in the next week, the candidates eagerly seized their chances on the debate stage in Charleston, S.C., to jab Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the current frontrunner, during the party’s tenth debate.

For all of their interruptions and talking over each other, though, the candidates offered a few thoughtful answers and, seemingly in spite of themselves, agreed on at least decriminalizing marijuana and expunging past, small-scale marijuana possession charges from Americans’ criminal records.

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Sanders said he would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances on the first day of his presidency and added that he would empower black, Latino, and Native American communities to start businesses selling the drug legally, rather than leave corporations to fill what is already a lucrative market.

Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, expressed the most skepticism of full legalization because of his concerns about the drug’s effect on the brains of young people. “Until we know the science, it’s just nonsensical to push ahead,” he said.

Rural health was also a topic, giving Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota the opportunity to tout her leadership on bipartisan legislation that would help rural hospitals as well as an immigration bill that would encourage foreign-born doctors trained in the United States to practice in rural areas.

And though the candidates were not asked about abortion rights, the subject came up, briefly and jarringly. Describing how she lost her job as a young teacher when she became pregnant and had no union or legal support to fight back, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts abruptly turned to the allegations of sexual harassment against Bloomberg.

“At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,” Warren said, eliciting gasps.

“I never said that,” Bloomberg said.

Let’s look at what else the candidates claimed.

‘The Incredible Shrinking Price Tag’

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., took issue with Sanders’ changing cost estimates for his “Medicare for All” plan.

“Senator Sanders at one point said it was going to be $40 trillion, then 30, then 17. It’s an incredible shrinking price tag,” Buttigieg said. “At some point he said it is unknowable to see what the price tag will be.”

Sanders has indeed cited differing estimates of what Medicare for All would cost.

The $30 to $40 trillion figure alludes to work done by the Urban Institute, a Washington think-tank. It is the only analysis to factor in the price of long-term care — one of the most expensive components of Medicare for All — and finds the program would cost $34 trillion in new federal spending over 10 years. (In terms of national health spending — both public and private dollars, that is — it would result in an increase of just $7 trillion over a decade.) The research makes assumptions that Sanders’ bill leaves open-ended, for instance, estimating what Medicare for All would ultimately pay hospitals and health professionals. Experts note that this is a major hole in Sanders’ plan.

The $17 trillion comes from a paper released this month in the medical journal, The Lancet. The researchers say Medicare for All would save $450 billion annually. That would drop the cost significantly, to just about $17 trillion over 10 years.

This figure is what Sanders relies on in calculating his own plan to finance the single-payer plan. His proposed set of revenues would raise about $17.14 trillion in a decade. (For more information on the Lancet study — whose methodology prompted skepticism from many policy analysts — see our full fact-check.)

Sanders has also said in at least one interview that the price of Medicare for All is “impossible to predict.” This is perhaps the most correct. As analysts repeatedly have told us, the switch to single-payer would represent a shift of unprecedented magnitude in American history. And before you can predict what it would cost, you need to decide what you would pay hospitals and doctors.

Pandemic Specialists: Where Are You Now’?

When the debate turned to the global threat of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, Bloomberg, Klobuchar, and former Vice President Joe Biden used similar talking points: that President Donald Trump cut global health experts from his national security team, leaving the U.S. unprepared to face the virus outbreak either globally or domestically.

“The president fired the pandemic specialists in this country two years ago,” Bloomberg said.

It’s true that, in May 2018, the top White House official who was in charge of the U.S. response to pandemics left the administration. Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer was the senior director of global health and biodefense on the National Security Council and oversaw global health security issues. That global health team was disbanded after Ziemer’s departure and reorganized as part of a streamlining effort headed by then-National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Ziemer’s position on the NSC has not been filled in the last two years. Tom Bossert, a homeland security adviser who recommended strong defenses against disease and biological warfare, also departed in 2018.

Last month, Trump announced that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar would be the chair of the coronavirus task force that’s in charge of the U.S. response to the disease. But many are still urging that this position be filled to coordinate the federal response.

Last week a group of 27 senators sent a letter to current National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to ask him to appoint a new global health security expert to the NSC.

Preparedness Funding For Global Infections

Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump “cut the funding for CDC.”

Trump has consistently proposed funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Congress has consistently overruled him.

Because the comment came during a discussion of the United States’ preparedness for emerging global infections like the coronavirus, we looked at the budgets for emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases at CDC, rather than for the CDC as a whole.

The Trump administration’s initial budget proposal has consistently been lower than what was spent the previous year. The administration proposed $61.7 million less in 2018 than 2017; $96.4 million less in 2019 than in 2018; $114.4 million less in 2020 than in 2019; and $85.3 million less in 2021 than 2020.

However, Congress usually treats any president’s budget proposal as an opening volley, with lawmakers reshaping the federal budget as they see fit when they craft final spending bills.

Every year since Trump has been president, lawmakers have passed bills — bills that were eventually signed by the president — that not only exceeded what Trump had asked for on emerging infections but also exceeded what had been spent the previous year.

The next debate, the eleventh of what the Democratic National Committee has said will be 12 presidential primary debates, is scheduled for Sunday, March 15.

PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson contributed to this story.`

Democrats Sharpen Health Care Attacks As Primaries Heat Up published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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dinafbrownil · 5 years ago

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Democrats Sharpen Health Care Attacks As Primaries Heat Up

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Subscribe to KHN’s free Weekly Edition newsletter.

Please confirm your email address below:

“At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,” Warren said, eliciting gasps.

“I never said that,” Bloomberg said.

Let’s look at what else the candidates claimed.

‘The Incredible Shrinking Price Tag’

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., took issue with Sanders’ changing cost estimates for his “Medicare for All” plan.

Sanders has indeed cited differing estimates of what Medicare for All would cost.

Pandemic Specialists: Where Are You Now’?

“The president fired the pandemic specialists in this country two years ago,” Bloomberg said.

Last week a group of 27 senators sent a letter to current National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to ask him to appoint a new global health security expert to the NSC.

Preparedness Funding For Global Infections

Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump “cut the funding for CDC.”

Trump has consistently proposed funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Congress has consistently overruled him.

However, Congress usually treats any president’s budget proposal as an opening volley, with lawmakers reshaping the federal budget as they see fit when they craft final spending bills.

The next debate, the eleventh of what the Democratic National Committee has said will be 12 presidential primary debates, is scheduled for Sunday, March 15.

PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson contributed to this story.`

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/democrats-sharpen-health-care-attacks-as-primaries-heat-up/

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gordonwilliamsweb · 5 years ago

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Democrats Sharpen Health Care Attacks As Primaries Heat Up

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“At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,” Warren said, eliciting gasps.

“I never said that,” Bloomberg said.

Let’s look at what else the candidates claimed.

‘The Incredible Shrinking Price Tag’

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., took issue with Sanders’ changing cost estimates for his “Medicare for All” plan.

Sanders has indeed cited differing estimates of what Medicare for All would cost.

Pandemic Specialists: Where Are You Now’?

“The president fired the pandemic specialists in this country two years ago,” Bloomberg said.

Last week a group of 27 senators sent a letter to current National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien to ask him to appoint a new global health security expert to the NSC.

Preparedness Funding For Global Infections

Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump “cut the funding for CDC.”

Trump has consistently proposed funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Congress has consistently overruled him.

However, Congress usually treats any president’s budget proposal as an opening volley, with lawmakers reshaping the federal budget as they see fit when they craft final spending bills.

The next debate, the eleventh of what the Democratic National Committee has said will be 12 presidential primary debates, is scheduled for Sunday, March 15.

PolitiFact’s Louis Jacobson contributed to this story.`

Democrats Sharpen Health Care Attacks As Primaries Heat Up published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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hamadaamhamada · 5 years ago

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Annotated Bibliography

Hamada A Hamada

MA Games Art

Annotated Bibliography

J Steed et al, 2016, Constructing Augmented Reality Environment with Pre-computed Lighting

In the article that I will be exploring further in the critical analysis, the author describes various embodiments that are disclosed that relate to constructing improved reality environment efficiently with GI (global illumination) effects. The author gives an example of one disclosed embodiment that offers a procedure of presenting an improved reality image through a display viewport. The procedure includes in receiving an image data capturing an image of a local physical environment and detecting physical normalized features of the local environment through the image data. Additionally the procedure further includes designing an augmented reality image of a computer-generated structure for viewing over the physical feature in registration with the physical and spatial feature.

J Busby et al, 2010, Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design

Jason Busby and the other authors explain that Unreal engine is the main gaming platform amongst other engines such as Crytek, and Unity. However, generally UE4 is the primary platform for development for all the latest playing platforms such as PS4, Xbox, and of course the most powerful platform the PC. The authors provide the fundamental that game artists need to build their games and mods. As this book serves as not only the introductory guide for Unreal Engine however the book has been expressed to be the only one of its kind that was written at the specific request and as well as in close cooperation with – Unreal Engine’s creators. The book starts with the absolute basics, as it takes game design beginner artists through the entire process of level building.

M Lewis, J Jacobson, 2002, Game Engines in Scientific Research

Michael Lewis and Jeffrey Jacobson elaborate that the cost of developing more realistic simulations has expanded and advanced so immensely that game developers can no longer rely on recovering their entire investment from a single game. Which has led to the emergence of game engines such as modular simulation code that is written for a particular game but common enough for all platforms to use as a ‘family’ of similar games. The authors continue to explain the function from content is what permits the game to be repurposed for scientific research. The authors continue to explain that early computer games consisted of a minimal amount but subject to the event – loop, graphic routines, and state table needed by simple 2D games such as Galaxians or Raptor.

D Trenholme, S P. Smith, 2008, Computer game engines for developing ﬁrst-person virtual environments

David Trenholme, Shamus P Smith denote that designing realistic virtual environments is an expensive, complex and time consuming process. However, the authors mention that virtual environment development toolkits are available, although many solely provide a subset of tools that is needed to construct complete virtual worlds. An alternative being the reuse of pc gaming technology. Elaborating on the current generation of computer games, the games present realistic virtual worlds featuring user friendly interaction including the simulation of the real world. The authors then continue to express that using computer games as the foundation for virtual environment expansion has several advantages; being that computer games have high performance and are extensively tested both for usability and performance, additionally the content can be worked on or off the shelf systems and could easily be distributed, example being via online communities.

M S. El-Nasr et al, 2006, Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games

Seif El- Nasr and et al have expressed that video and computer games are among the most complex systems of interactive media. The authors continue to expand that games simulate many elements of traditional media, such as characters, plot, animations, sound and music, as well as mise-én-scene and lighting. As games provide interactive experiences, ultimately the authors mention that games are a host of player challenges from one decision making problem to the next and each decision gets difficult the further you excel through the level/game. The authors also remark their aim and focus on the impact of simulated illumination on emotions and tensions and what the role of lighting is used for during gameplay and the different temperatures utilized within the game that revealing the mood and setting of the game lore.

M S. El-Nasr, I Horswill, 2005, Intelligent Lighting for Games Environments

El-Nasr and Horswill have surmised that lighting design have a vital role in game development as it sets many functions including directing the attention, establishing robust action visibility, evoking emotions, providing depth and setting the atmosphere. The authors continue to elaborate on lighting techniques on static designed lighting known as dynamic lighting where artists set up the p[positions, and, angles and temperature for each light. Lighting in games are unpredictable as they provide both physical and a narrative scene to the content. The incorporation with dynamic real-time lighting and demonstrated many advantages to using RT dynamic lighting, including heightening the emotional engagement and enhancing the overall interactive experience.

P Petridis et al, 2010, An Engine Selection Methodology for High Fidelity Serious Games

The authors convey that serious games for entertainment game engines are often transparent, reason being the range of available platforms and engines offer a choice of platform serious games, whose selection of ten has different objectives and technical requirements depending upon usage and context. Furthermore, the training simulations with gaming, have been made possible due to the rendering capacity constantly improving and enabling the creation of high-fidelity which challenge the existing designs as well as the instructional approaches in the method of developing serious games.

V Cristie, M Berger, 2017, Game Engines for Urban Exploration: Bridging Science Narrative for Broader Participants

The authors in this publication expand on the aspect of game exploration and they emphasize that a playable city could therefore be deemed as an explorable city. Recent years show a growing number of urban exploration tools being developed and empowered by game engines. By tradition, game engines have been known to create virtual environments and permitting the use to explore the game provided. The authors seek to apply game engines in urban blueprints beyond the visualization of buildings, traffic, trees and people. This could become a tool for a multidisciplinary approach that involves scientists, engineer’s architects, planners and possibly the citizens as the authors have mentioned.

M S. El-Nasr, B K. Smith, 2006, Learning through Game Modding

The authors mention that there has been increase in the number of game environments or engines that permit the users to customize their own models in other own gaming experiences by creating and adding into the scene. The article describes the utilization of modifying existing games for aesthetic principles, physics and code. The article also illustrates the skills learned by students as a result of modifying existing games. The use of multiple game modding environments within this article is described on how different engines can be used to narrow artists on the acquisition of a distinctive set of concepts and skills.

R D. Chiara et al, 2006, Real Positioning in Virtual Environments Using Game Engines

In this article, immersive virtual environments provide a natural setting for instructive and educational user experience and the game engine offers an intriguing, effiction and cost effective solution in building the. The article describes about an ongoing project whose main objective is to offer a virtual environment where the actual location of the user is used to position the player’s avatar into the virtual environment.

Work Cited

Steed, J. (2016). CONSTRUCTING AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENT WITH PRE-COMPUTED LIGHTING.

Chiara, R., Santo, V., Scarano, V. and Erra, U. (2006). Real Positioning in Virtual Environments Using Game Engines.

El-Nasr, M. and Smith, B. (2006). Learning through game modding.

Cristie, V. and Berger, M. (2019). Game Engines for Urban Exploration: Bridging Science Narrative for Broader Participants.

Petridis et al, P. (2010). An Engine Selection Methodology for High Fidelity Serious Games.

El-Nasr et al, M. (2006). Intelligent Lighting for Games Environments.

El-Nasr, M. (2006). Game Studies - Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games.

Trenholme, D. and Smith, S. (2008). Computer game engines for developing ﬁrst-person virtual environments.

Lewis, M. and Jacobson, J. (2002). Game Engines in Scientific Research.

Busby, J., Parrish, Z. and Wilson, J. (2010). Mastering unreal technology.

Steed, J. (2016). Constructing augmented reality environment with pre-computed lighting.

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insession-io · 6 years ago

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The Psychophysiology of Action

What is action? What processes are involved in initiating, guiding, and evaluating the outcomes of action? Different research disciplines have dealt with these questions, and a huge amount of empirical and theoretical work has been conducted so far. However, only a few attempts have been made to integrate the different perspectives. We think it is time to bring together the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and movement/performance science, to stimulate the in-depth exchange of ideas and advance the “psychophysiology of action” as a topic of interest, since psychophysiology and its methods provide a bridge to connect these areas. Further, we assume that to investigate actions in dynamical environments, corresponding measures are necessary that reflect the dynamics of movements; also, multivariate measures should be considered and the dynamics should be reflected in corresponding statistical parameters. Thus, the goal is to bring together theoretical and empirical research from several disciplines to foster the exchange of ideas and methods in an effort to investigate the dynamical role of movement in cognition. Therefore, we invited authors to submit research articles targeting the understanding of action across theories and disciplines.

Hoffmann et al. suggest that to study the psychophysiology of action, it is necessary to consider multiple methodological challenges. The authors describe selected theoretical accounts of how internal and external information processes interact. They suggest that research on the dynamics of action should (a) consider the dynamics of movement, (b) make use of multivariate measures, and (c) employ dynamic statistical parameters accounting. The articles presented within this research topic are diverse with respect to these three dimensions and show that each research area or research discipline touches on at least one dimension.

Indeed, if considering a multidimensional account of action, one has to think about biological motion and how this affects the perception of emotional states. Bachmann et al. show in their review that most brain regions display increased reactivity to emotional body movements in general and that some structures are related selectively to negative valence.

In addition, emotions and the perception thereof play a crucial role in the psychophysiology of action. Masaki et al. show that anxiety in sports situations where participants are evaluated is connected to feedback processing, as measured by oscillations in electroencephalograms (EEGs). They found that theta was increased for high-anxiety groups compared to low-anxiety groups, and delta was higher for a high-anxiety group, but only in an evaluation condition. In everyday life, people find that music affects their emotions, and thus action. Kuan et al. utilized several measures (e.g., galvanic skin response and heart rate) to investigate the effect of relaxing and arousing music during imagery on dart-throwing performance. Overall, they found positive effects of relaxing music on several parameters.

The study by Cartaud et al. shows that measures of peripheral physiology might be useful for investigating social interactions: They found that interpersonal distances are relevant for effective social interactions. They utilized electrodermal activity as an indicator of emotional responses in a paradigm manipulating facial expressions (via point-light displays) and their respective peri-/extrapersonal positions. Their findings suggest that peripersonal action space and interpersonal social space are sensitive to the emotional valence of a confederate such that the personal comfort distance is affected.

Munzert and Krüger remind us of a crucial historical contribution to action research in their review: Already in the 1930s Edmund Jacobson demonstrated, as a precursor of motor imagery, that peripheral physiological effects rely on task-specific instructions. This historical perspective highlights the relevance of integrating peripheral and central mechanisms related to actions. Performance is not modulated only by relaxation techniques or music. A recent neuroscience technique, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), might have an effect on core mechanisms of action control. This points to a close connection between peripheral and the central nervous system. Jongkees et al. investigate whether key transmitter systems related to action control—gamma-aminobutyric acid and noradrenaline—are linked to tVNS. In a serial reaction time task, they found that tVNS enhanced response selection processes.

Vidal et al. outline that the activity of motor areas seems to depend on the nature of the executed movement as well as on the cognitive context of these movements. In their review, they describe how different classes of reaction time tasks allow specifying the nature and the dynamics of motor areas’ activation in different cognitive contexts. Further, the authors describe experimental results obtained from high temporal resolution methods such as EEG during voluntary action.

With respect to voluntary action, the question is how such actions are controlled. In this context, errors are of particular interest since error processing is crucial for motor learning. Joch et al. investigate how this error monitoring is involved in motor control. In a complex motor task, they show that the error negativity (Ne), a key correlate of action control, is modulated by the availability of different sensory signals in a semi-virtual throwing task. Their study suggests that in tasks where visual targets indicate motor performance, visual signals might be weighted more strongly than proprioceptive signals.

Maruo et al. demonstrate that in addition to the Ne, another correlate of action control, the error positivity (Pe), is a key correlate of error evaluation. The Pe is linked to monitoring one’s own emotional state, such as anxiety. They show that these correlates differentiate between different types of sports; specifically, long-distance runners and sprinters differed with respect to the Ne in an inverse manner: With increasing levels of competitive anxiety, the sprinters’ Ne amplitude decreased, whereas the long-distance runners’ Ne increased. This finding suggests that the two groups utilize their internal error-monitoring function differently.

Going back to the base of motor control, the study by Rönnquist et al. targets the questions “if” and “how” timing training might influence movement performance in athletes. They test the effect of synchronized metronome training on sensorimotor timing ability and whether that timing is related to lower limb movement planning, precision performance, and kinematics. The study by di Fronso et al. puts endurance into the context of action control and reveals that focusing attention on core components of actions improves functional connectivity among specific brain areas and leads to enhanced performance.

The study by Betti et al. deals with a more basic question related to reach-to-grasp movements: Are corticospinal activity, kinematics, and electromyography associated with the planning and execution of prehensile actions toward either a small or a large object? By inducing motor-evoked potentials with transcranial magnetic stimulation and using several other measures, they found evidence that the index finger is involved in differential motor preparation for different types of grasps and whole-hand prehensile actions.

Fritz et al. contribute an interesting study on endurance. They show that combined musical agency experience and physical exercise can reduce pain perception, hypothetically via some endogenous opioid mechanism. This suggests that the combination of musical agency experience and physical exercise could be utilized in rehabilitation therapies where sometimes the physical treatment may be painful.

The research presented here reflects the diversity of disciplines involved in the psychophysiology of action, as well as their theories and empirical findings. Yet this impressive collection is but a stepping stone on the path to a full understanding of the topic. We hope that this multidisciplinary approach will motivate interested readers to go beyond their own discipline, that is, to go beyond their own theoretical and methodological borders: Together, we may arrive at a “psychophysiology of action”.

Keywords: performance, action, Movement Science, Sports, Neuroscience, perspective, Emotions, Psychophysiology, motor performance, voluntary action

Sven Hoffmann 1*, Christian Beste 2, 3, Markus Raab 4, 5

1 Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Germany 2 Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Germany 3 Dresden University of Technology, Germany 4 Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, Germany 5 London South Bank University, United Kingdom

Edited by: Cristina M. Capparelli Gerling, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Copyright: © 2019 Hoffmann, Beste and Raab. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dr. Sven Hoffmann, German Sport University Cologne, Institute of Psychology, Cologne, 50933, Germany, [email protected]

Dr. Jeffrey Levine, Counseling Hartford, is a Licensed Psychologist with over 40 years of clinical experience. He specializes in treating adults in individual psychotherapy, with expertise in trauma focused hypnosis, energy transformational healing and Internal Family Systems. Therapist serving Hartford - Mansfield - Glastonbury.

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chestnutpost · 6 years ago

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Democrats Look West For 2020 Presidential Field

This post was originally published on this site

DENVER – The first thing former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper mentioned when he launched his presidential bid in a 20-minute speech at Civic Center Park wasn’t a policy idea he was proposing or a person he had helped, but a location.

Hickenlooper, who parlayed his ownership of a popular brewery into becoming mayor of the Mile High City and then governor of the state, boasted he was delivering the speech “against the backdrop of the American Rockies,” he said, “in the heart of the American West.”

There are plenty of reasons Hickenlooper is an unlikely candidate – he’s perhaps too moderate for the modern Democratic Party, he’s little known outside of Colorado, and he’s a white man when the party’s primary electorates are increasingly picking women and people of color as their nominees.

But the way Hickenlooper would most stand out from past Democratic presidential contenders? Simple geography. As a Coloradan, Hickenlooper hails from the West. No politician representing the region has ever become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. (President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, but represented Illinois in the Senate.)

Even candidates from the western part of the country have been rare. In the four open Democratic presidential primaries this century – in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2016 – just two candidates from the West have run: former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel. The last western candidate to receive delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention? Former California Gov. Jerry Brown back in 1992.

In 2020, thanks to a more wide-open field than the party has seen in decades, that’s changing. The party’s center of power is beginning to shift from New York and New England into the rapidly growing Mountain West states and ultra-populous, uber-diverse California. Four Democrats from the West have already entered the race, and three more are considering it.

The Democratic Party’s center of power is beginning to shift from New York and New England into the rapidly growing Mountain West states and ultra-populous, uber-diverse California.

There’s a pair of Californians: Sen. Kamala Harris — one of the top contenders for the nomination — and Rep. Eric Swalwell. There are two Mountain West governors: Hickenlooper and Steve Bullock of Montana. In the Pacific Northwest, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee has launched a climate-focused bid.

Another Coloradan, Sen. Michael Bennet, has been touring the early primary voting states. And America’s westernmost state, Hawaii, is contributing a candidate in Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. (Other potential candidates from the West, including megadonor Tom Steyer of California and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, have decided against running.)

“I think for too long, the party has ignored the West,” Richardson told HuffPost in a phone interview. “We’ve been a bicoastal or even northeastern party. That hasn’t worked well; we’ve lost.”

(A brief methodological aside: HuffPost is using the U.S. Census Bureau’s 11-state definition of the West, which does not include Texas. But much of the analysis here could also apply to two Texans: former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who has not declared if he’s running, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who has.)

So many candidates from west of the Rocky Mountains are running thanks to a host of factors this cycle, including a wide-open field and the belief that the general election may be ready for something different than the 2016 race, which gave the country a choice of two candidates from the New York City area.

Here’s why we’re seeing so many Democratic presidential candidates from the West:

1) No clear front-runner. Unlike in 2016, there’s no clear person with the edge, which has led to more candidates of all stripes.

“Last cycle, we saw a coronation,” said Dave Jacobson, a Democratic consultant in California, referring to Hillary Clinton’s relatively easy primary win. “Now, people want the complete opposite of that.”

2) Change in the primary schedule. The second major change contributing to more western candidates was California’s decision to move its primary from June to early March, making it one of the first states to vote after the big four early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

“In the past, the presidential calendar has favored candidates with financial strength, with population strength, because of the early primaries,” said Richardson, whose campaign fizzled after the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. “Now that the calendar has shifted, western candidates have a shot.”

imageSPACE/MediaPunch/IPx Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is the western candidate seen as most likely to capture the nomination.

3) Democratization of fundraising. It used to help candidates to have strong ties to the traditional Democratic fundraising bases in Washington, D.C., New York, Boston and Chicago. But with the rise of small-dollar online donations, candidates with geographic bases far from the East Coast can raise the money necessary to compete.

4) A growing, diverse electorate in the West. The party is gaining strength in the West, fueled by booming populations of young, college-educated and Hispanic residents – the population of the region is now just two-thirds non-Hispanic white. More than one-quarter of the House seats that Democrats took from Republican control in 2018 were from the West, as were both the Senate seats Democrats won from the GOP.

In the past two years, Democrats picked up total control of four state governments in the region: Washington state, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. The latter three states were swing states not long ago, but all three have a deep blue tint today, and Democrats view Arizona’s desert as fertile ground in which to grow the party.

And that means Democrats coming from the region ― especially Harris, who came through the progressive crucible of Bay Area politics before winning three statewide elections in California ― are practiced at appealing both to diverse electorates and the party’s left wing.

“They had to climb the ranks in a very tough system within their own party,” Law said. “Once you make it through that crucible, you’re very formidable.”

I think for too long, the party has ignored the West. We’ve been a bicoastal or even northeastern party. That hasn’t worked well; we’ve lost. Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson

Harris is seen as one of the front-runners in large part because of her success in appealing to African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and progressives. All of these groups will be key voting blocs in both California and the early caucus state of Nevada. And Harris’ time in Sacramento and San Francisco has given her plenty of experience navigating intraparty battles between progressives and moderates.

“You have a state on the cutting edge of innovation, in both technology and in policy-making. And it’s been that way for a very long time. California’s always pushing the envelope,” Law said. “The debate going on within the Democratic Party now is what happens in California all the time.”

But the other western candidates also believe they have something they can teach their counterparts on the East Coast, often citing the region as more optimistic and independent than the rest of the country. “There’s a lot Washington can learn from Colorado,” former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said while introducing Hickenlooper to the 4,000-strong crowd in Denver.

In Hickenlooper’s telling, he fostered a spirit of bipartisanship in the state while also improving Denver’s mass transit, expanding Medicaid, passing universal background checks for gun purchases and implementing new environmental regulations.

“I think the West has always had a special place in the soul of America. People talk about the frontiersman, the fur trappers. What they forget about is that the fur-trappers rarely went out on their own, they went out in teams,” Hickenlooper said in an interview when he was still considering a bid late last year. “There’s a history of collaboration out here. There were a heck of a lot more barn-raisings than there ever were shootouts.”

Hickenlooper’s launch event was seemingly designed to show off his ability to appeal to every corner of the West: The speakers before him included Webb, who is black, along with Keith Bath, a white self-described “dirt farmer” from rural Colorado, and the Rev. Lucía Guzmán, a Latina who led Colorado’s Senate Democrats when Hickenlooper was in office.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is still considering a presidential bid.

There are some potential drawbacks to coming from the West. Progressive voters increasingly view big tech, one of the region’s highest-profile industries, as monopolistic actors with little respect for consumer protections or privacy. But Inslee wasn’t willing to join the wave of criticism against two of Washington state’s biggest private employers.

“I think the tech industry, in terms of what it’s done for lives, has been spectacular,” he told HuffPost in an interview, citing the jobs Amazon and Microsoft have created in his home state. He added later that Facebook and other social media companies need to be “reined in” on the privacy front and said it should be harder for giant corporations like Amazon to “extort” local governments for tax breaks.

One thing Inslee was adamant about? It’s time for a Democrat to join two famous Republicans as the only presidents to have represented the West.

“We just simply cannot allow the only presidents from the West Coast to be [Ronald] Reagan and [Richard] Nixon,” he said.

The post Democrats Look West For 2020 Presidential Field appeared first on The Chestnut Post.

from The Chestnut Post https://thechestnutpost.com/news/democrats-look-west-for-2020-presidential-field/

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blockheadbrands · 7 years ago

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It’s Time to Treat Medical Cannabis Like Medicine

Catherine Jacobson of Leafly Reports:

In fall 2013, when other parents were trading stories about the difficulties of balancing homework with little league practice and swimming lessons, I was in my garage, painstakingly measuring amounts of a Schedule 1 narcotic to extract medication for my son. Tinkering with lab equipment and solvents usually only found in chemistry labs, I was trying to purify compounds from cannabis — not to get high, but to save my son’s life.

My son Ben has suffered thousands of seizures in his short, six-year life. Treatment-resistant epilepsy in children is a cruel disease that can lead to significant cognitive, motor, and behavioral delays and, not surprisingly, death. More than one third of all childhood deaths are due to epilepsy. After exhausting FDA-approved treatment options, including a dozen different anti-seizure drugs, surgical implantation of a nerve stimulator, injections of high doses of steroids and even brain surgery removing half of his parietal lobe, he is finally experiencing some relief thanks to a drug regimen that includes a component in cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD).

My son has suffered severe brain damage as a result of years of seizures. It is excruciating to ask what Ben would be like today had he experienced relief earlier in life. We will never know the answer, and not because science has failed him; policies dictated by an inexplicable social phobia of cannabis have.

Blockbuster Report Backs U.N. Cannabis Regulation, End to Prohibition

Last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a research summit on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain. This meeting was the first open acknowledgement by a federal agency that there may be medical value to marijuana. Unfortunately, this “historic” meeting was a huge disappointment to those of us interested in improving the quality of life of patients suffering now. Instead of discussing how to advance our clinical understanding of the therapeutic value of cannabis in specific diseases, much of the conference focused on animal models, which are far too removed from human disease to inform clinical treatment. Much time was also given to the potential public health harm that cannabis poses. Where is the methodologically sound clinical data we need to treat people living with diseases right now? Doctors and policymakers alike have been calling for more research on cannabis for decades — why do we still not have it?

The snail’s pace at which clinical research on cannabis is proceeding is not meaningful for patients in distress right now. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that components found in marijuana can provide significant relief from disease-related symptoms, such as nausea caused by chemotherapy, in addition to changing the course of life-threatening diseases, such as some specific cancers like glioblastoma.

As a mother, I am furious that the federal government has discouraged research into these potentially life-saving therapies for years by restricting clinical research. As a scientist, I decry the federal government for interfering with scientific freedom.

CBD is only one of many cannabinoids that we are just beginning to understand. Cannabis contains more than 80 cannabinoids and more than 400 other compounds. It’s highly likely the therapeutic potential of medical cannabis is greater than one single cannabinoid. But in order to find out, we need the ability to conduct research. Research must be permitted to progress unfettered, not just on a single cannabinoid, but on all the components of the entire plant.

Which Cannabis Strains Are High in CBD?

While research gets off the ground, patients like Ben also need to have the ability to access regulated, standardized cannabis-derived preparations that meet the same manufacturing safety guidelines required of any other medication. I am not comfortable ordering an unregulated preparation of CBD from the internet to treat my child’s severe brain disease, but that’s the situation parents like me find ourselves in today.

To be absolutely clear, the debate can no longer be about whether to provide access. The majority of Americans already live in states where medical cannabis is legal. We must now focus on enacting thoughtful policies that will ensure access to safe preparations, allow for research and collect information to inform treatment. The U.S. government must do more than acknowledge the medical legitimacy of CBD and other cannabis compounds. It must make room for full scientific inquiry into standardization of the life-saving treatments many Americans already know exist and remove itself from the doctor-patient relationships it so often obstructs.

Now is the time for momentous changes in federal cannabis policy. Discussions of cannabis legalization inevitably involve political, social, and public health concerns, but clinical research should not be mired in political agendas; it should be a matter of scientific investigation. Patients, like my son Ben, don’t have time to wait.

Dr. Catherine Jacobson is a neuroscientist and the clinical research director of Tilray, a medical cannabis company licensed by the federal government of Canada. Tilray and Leafly are both subsidiaries of Privateer Holdings.

CBD Holds Promise as Child Epilepsy Treatment, Studies Find

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/health/its-time-to-treat-medical-cannabis-like-medicine

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sociology-help · 7 years ago

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The strengths of qualitative research far outweigh the limitations. Explain and assess this view. [25 marks]

Every research requires a methodology to reach a conclusion. Methodology is concerned with both the detailed research methods through which data are collected and the more general philosophies upon which the collection and analysis of data are based. There are various methods researchers use are in the form of interviews, observations or questionnaires.

Two categories of data are quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data is data that can be expressed statistically and in number form; anything that can be measured in some way. Qualitative data is data concerned with peoples’ feelings and views about some issue and event, and tries to get at the way they really see things.

Different groups of sociologists tend to prefer different types of methods of research. Positivists prefer to use quantitative data. The logical, scientific analysis of numerical data gathered provides the raw material which can then be examined and explained by the scientific sociologist. The feelings, emotions and motives of individuals cannot be measured and should not be studied; Positivists do not rely on instinct. Interpretivists prefer to use qualitative data. Interactionists emphasised that people have consciousness involving personal beliefs, values and interpretations and these influence the way people act. Interpretivists argue that only through qualitative data, can the sociologist be able to interpret the meaning behind social action.

Qualitative data is usually seen as richer, more vital, as having greater depth and as more likely to present a true picture of a way of life, experiences attitudes and beliefs. Qualitative data is usually expressed in words and descriptions. The term ethnography is often used to refer to studies that generate an in depth understanding of the way of life of an individual or group.

One method of qualitative research is through observation. Observation can either be covert or overt. Covert observation occurs when the researcher observes the research group undercover. Overt observation occurs when the researcher does hide their identity throughout the research process. Both of these methods of observation can either be participant or non-participant. Participant observation involves a researcher actually joining the research group in its activities over a period of time. Non-participant observation is when the researcher observes the group without taking part in the activities.

Another method of qualitative research is through open-ended questionnaires and interviews. When questionnaires and interviews are open-ended, the respondents are allowed to give their statements without prompt or force about a topic. Some forms of secondary data can also be a method of qualitative research; letters, journals and diaries can be analysed.

J.D Douglas (19670, an interpretivist, criticises Emile Durkheim for his use of official statistics in the study of suicide, questioning their validity. Douglas saw the suicide statistics as a result of negotiations between different parties involved. Douglas also criticises Durkheim for treating all suicides as the same type of act without investigating the reason or meaning behind the act by those who took their own life; as Douglas also points out that there are different meanings behind suicide in different cultures. Each act has a different motive behind it and a social meaning that is related to the society and the context in which it took place. Another sociologist, J. Maxwell Atkinson (1978) believed that it is impossible for coroners or researchers to objectively classify suicides; the facts are

simply a social construction. To writers such as Cicourel (1976), all statistics involve classifying things and such decisions are subjective.

Max Weber (1948) sees sociology as the study of social action. Weber believed that an explanation for social action necessitated an understanding of meanings and motives that underlie human behaviour. Sociologists must interpret the meanings given to actions by the actors themselves. According to Weber, understanding motives could be achieved through Verstehen. Verstehen is the empathetic understanding of people gained by putting yourself in their place. Weber’s emphasis on meanings and motives is obvious in his work; in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1958), one of his main concerns was to interpret the beliefs and motives of the early Calvinists. However, Weber was not simply concerned with understanding meanings and motives for their own sake; Weber wanted to explain social action and social change.

Following in the concept of verstehen, various sociologists have conducted their research through participant observation. A sociologist who went by the alias James Patrick (1973) conducted a research through covert participant observation about violent teenagers in the Glasgow Gang, however he was forced to abandon his research after getting into conflict with the gang members.

When sociologists do carry out experiments they are normally outside a laboratory. Such experiments are known as field experiments, another form of qualitative research. They involve intervening in the social world in such a way that hypotheses that an be tested by isolating particular variables. Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) tested the hypotheses that self fulfilling prophecies could affect educational attainment by manipulating the independent variables of the pupils’ intelligence quotient (IQ). Brown and Gay (1958) also conducted field experiments in which they made bogus applications for jobs by letter and telephone, identifying themselves as being from different ethnic groups; and came to the conclusion that non-white candidates were less likely to be called in to a job interview compared to the white candidates.

Although field experiments overcome the problem of experiments taking place in an unnatural setting, these experiments also have their limitations. First, it is not possible to control variables as closely as it would be possible if the experiment was done in a laboratory. Second, in some field experiments, the fact that an experiment is taking place can affect the results.

Elton Mayo (1933) conducted a research at a company in Chicago to test various hypotheses about worker productivity. Variables such as room temperature and lighting were varied, but no matter what, productivity seemed to increase. It appeared that the knowledge that an experiment was taking place affected the workers’ productivity and performance; Mayo called this the Hawthorne effect.

In conclusion, qualitative data has its strengths and limitations. Methodological pluralism is an increasingly common feature of social research. Eileen Barker (1984) conducted a study of the Moonies using participant observation, questionnaires and in-depth interviewing. She claimed the combination of these methods allowed her to get an in depth understanding of the culture and lifestyle of the Moonies. Another sociologist, Simon Winlow (2001) used participant observation, informal interviews and secondary sources such as previous studies of working life in Sunderland. The secondary sources allowed

him to relate his findings on contemporary patterns of crime to historical changes in the working class. Bryman (1988) believes that both qualitative and quantitative research have their own advantages. Neither can produce totally valid and completely reliable data, but both can provide useful insights into social life.

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years ago

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Criminal or scapegoat, Shakespeare’s Shylock is a reputation to celebrate

In his contemporary change of The Merchant of Venice, Howard Jacobson set out to explore Shylocks tolerating plead , not make amends for his Jewishness

If Shakespeare is the most revelatory of columnists, it is because he has infinite symbolizes at his disposal, and can find the poem of grief or disappointment where the circumstances are least poetical. Take that stage in The Merchant of Venice in which Shylock presses his co-religionist Tubal for information of his daughter Jessicas elopement, counting the cost of her “goin ” ducats. Tubal intersperses what he knows of Jessica with what he has is aware of Antonios adversities. Carefully, he divulges out presupposition and hearsay, quantifying their effects. But eventually he must let Shylock know the worst. Jessica has been heard of in Genoa, going through the money she embezzled from her father, and exchanging a reverberate, likewise stolen from him, for a monkey.

Thou torturest me, Tubal, Shylock reacts. And genuinely we dont know whether Tubal intends torture or not. Does Shylock have to be given this agonising info at all? Is Tubal well informed the rings provenance? Whether he is or he isnt, Shylock exposes it to him now, although it was tones as much as though its to himself hes talking. It was my turquoise. I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor. I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.

Whatever we have been thinking of Shylock so far, the field seems to open beneath him here , not to withdraw him but to award us rare access into his history, his antecedent affections, the man he was before he became and maybe why he became the man he is now. Just the word bachelor is a shock, because although we have experienced him with his daughter we have not in so far put our thoughts to his married, let alone his widowed state.

A Jewish patriarch, yes, who realizes his home a inferno, as patriarch are inclined to do, for his restless daughter. But a patriarch brought forward by small children without a bride to help him have we thought that one through? There is no word to say his wife is dead, but we hear it unmistakably in that deceptively plain convict, I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor-at-arms. A happening indivisible from Leah, that endowment voices, an expression of simple-minded closeness that sees Portias and Bassanios ring joke later in the romp look like shallow trumpery. We sense the loss to Shylock, anyway, without his scratching the ache of it. Detecting is not, to him, that thought of elegantly wearisome flaunt it is to Antonio and Portia.

Phoebe and Jonathan Pryce as Jessica and Shylock in a 2015 make at the Globe theatre, London. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

For Jessica to have embezzled the ring her baby demonstrated her papa and she would surely are all aware of its significance is a most terrible betrayal. For her to have parted with it a more terrible sellout still. But to have parted with it for a ape! There have been periods when it was fashionable for a magnificent maiden to dandle a domesticated monkey on her lap or parade with it on a studded rein. Whether that was the case in Genoa the play doesnt tell. Whatever her motivating, the grossness of the transaction is of a style Jessica, the Jewish daughter of Jewish father, should have been alive to. I would not have given it for a wilderness of apes, Shylock adds. What a fine Hebraism is showed in this formulation! William Hazlitt memorandum. No doubt he sounded the Old Testament in that parole wilderness for behind the Mosaic project to civilise and codify, the wilderness was always waiting to seduce and reclaim the natural being. To a people who thoughts God as a philosophical sentiment, never to be identified or encountered, least of all to be confused with the animal deities worshipped abroad , nothing utters the antithesis to civilisation more competently than the unbridled stomach of an ape. A wilderness is a desolate target. A wilderness of apes is a flesh for the despair of the human rights mettle when faithfulness and reward have absconded it.

It is not, nonetheless, the last string of the scene. Tubal bars Shylocks sorrow with better information. But Antonio is certainly undone. And it does the maneuver. Nay, thats true-life, thats very true, Shylock refutes. Go, Tubal, fee me an officer …

So its back to the viciou business of manufacturing Antonio pay. The gambling will have its act and Shylock will have his pound of flesh.

To someone determined to read The Merchant of Venice as a Jew-hating play, this scotches any debate that Shakespeare is of Shylocks party. Yes, Shylock is awarded an illuminating instant of humanity that, after all, is what Shakespeare does: every scoundrel has his enunciate but thereafter, and by his own choose, the Jew quickly returns to the engrossing Jewish occupancy of requital.

That, however, is to say no more than that The Merchant of Venice is a gambling not a exposition, and that we would not expect Shylock to be sentimentalised. He does not become, by virtue of what we have learned, a man forgiven and illustrated. But nor, in my view of the performance, is it possible to return unchanged to all we previously thought. Our feel of who he is should always have been evolving regardless, and we cannot escape our new knowledge of him as a husband who had and lost a wife, and can now be said to have had and lost a daughter. He has been cruelly burgled in a double sense, and the sneering offenders are all indulgent the group of friends of Antonio. This nothing extenuates, but once “weve heard” Shylock narrated his losings, ducats and all, we cannot forget them unless we have our own intellects to.

Two stages after the wilderness of apes, Shylock has animals on his head again. Thou calledst me bird-dog before thou had a crusade, he reminds Antonio, But since I am a pup, beware my fangs. So, yes, though all thats feral disheartens and demoralises him, he will put on a feral disposition in an act that is a sort of obstinacy against himself as well as Antonio. The wilful hardening of centres a reference establishing himself impervious to ground or affection, and so less human than he actually is interests Shakespeare. We see it in Coriolanus. We see it in Lady Macbeth. We even see it, although it was gloomed by clowning, in Hamlet. One human in his time gamblings numerous parts, and one of those components will be his own feeling of who he is or would like or has no choice but to be. The narration Shakespeare tells of Shylock is of a soul who diminishes into the extremely obduracy of irritation he is accused of by those who want him to be nothing else. It is a part that not every man could master, and Shylock notices the wherewithal within to participate it right enough, but being the Jew who must have his pound of flesh is still just as much a capitulation to an expected capacity as it is an expression of something invariable in his character.

I dont say this, as a fellow Jew, to save Shylock from his Jewishness. I simply recount the performance. When “its been” made publicly available by my publishers that I had hot-headedly taken up current challenges to write a contemporary romance in The Merchant of Venice, some cynics premised I would be embarking on a clean-up errand with the aim of reaching removing piquing fabric from Shakespeare, much as those who disapprove of Cecil Rhodes would eliminate his statue from wherever it stands. But I am not, as a Jew or as anything else, piqued by a word Shakespeare wrote.

Howard Jacobson at his home in Soho, London. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer

My Shylock, if I may employ it like that and he is the Shylock I see when I speak Shakespeares play is not intended as a post-Holocaust better on the original. Because I am deeply touched by his extending reference to his wife, I guess him in constant speech with her. The dead have much to say, just as the living have much they want to hear, and Shylock wont be the first person to have continued those discussions. Astonished by exhilaration impatient as the Wind/ I turned to share the transport Oh! with whom/ But Thee, long buried in the silent Tomb. If this is a freedom and does the participate a progressive disservice I apologise for it.( Though Wordsworth did say it was Shakespeare who opened his nature .) What I surely dont apologise for, nonetheless, is following the write when it comes to Shylocks spiritedness and wit.

So much of which is something we become of Shylock is determined by the age of the actor who draws him, the clothes he wears, the accent he is given, the inhumanity of his stare and the curvature of his nose, most of government decisions as to these being unnecessary by anything in the textbook. Last-place summertime, while making a television programme about Shylock in the Venice ghetto, I saw a relatively young actor play him. The result, in particular in the opening exchanges with Antonio and Basanio, was electrifying.

The bristling invasion with which Shylock entertains the first mention from Basanio that Antonio is looking for a loan was not softened.

Three thousand ducats, Shylock muses in that half public, half private method of his. I make I may take his bail. To which Basanio, who is never other than literal, responds Be assured you are able. Shylock deters up the maying and puns on the notion of statement. I will be assured I may. And that I may be assured, I will bethink me … If he already searches more verbally quick for Basanio on the sheet, his gratification of an encounter in which he is the lord looked inhuman, actor to actor. Is the methodology used to his assurance the pound of Antonios flesh already forming in his psyche as he jests?

With Antonios arrival, which he memo with a satirists contempt How like a fawning publican he seems! Shylocks flavours rise so far. Now he can remind, reprimand, retard, offering and disclaim and render again, while a blustering Antonio, standing on basic principles he has forefeited, can do no better than threaten to spew on Shylock again. If it is war now, it is both their doing but, when playing with youth zest, Shylock was having the better of it. When he described the proposed draft bond as a merry play he seemed joyous surely. Tell the relinquish/ Be nominated for an equal pound/ Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken/ In what part of your figure it pleaseth me.

Angus Wright( Shylock ), crest, and James Garnon( Antonio) in the RSCs 2008 production of The Merchant of Venice at the Courtyard theatre, Stratford on Avon. Image: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

These wires should never be delivered anything but flirtatiously. Your fair flesh is an friendship that Antonio, had he been smarter, or less hopeless to self-assured the loan, or less egotistical about his ability to repay it, or little accustomed to flattery, might have recoiled from. Alone moments before, they had been to talk of spew. It takes person very quick on his hoofs to change the colour with such agility. Perhaps most performers, weighed down by their Jewish gabardine and the guessed peculiarity of a Jew manufactured age-old by the relic of his religion, is very hard to applied the requisite verve into this. But the young Venetian Shylock I attended didnt shy from it. For the duration of their deal Antonios flesh was exhibition as fair to Shylock, and whatever of that was derision it was up to the devil himself to find out. As for where Shylock, should Antonio are inadequate to redeem his alliance, merrily proposed to move his cut in what part of your form it pleaseth me why that selfsame devil might have blushed to hear it.

To my ear, the allusion is sex or its good-for-nothing. Interred deep in the antiJewish lores that contacted Shakespeare was a fear of Jews as castrators, and all that medieval Christianity never understood about circumcision. Did Jews eunuch themselves? Did Jewish gentlemen bleed like women? Was that why they needed the blood of Christian children, to oust the blood theyd lost? I dont remark Shakespeare was consciously mentioning all this at the moment that Shylock proposes the bond. But dark as well as comic powers are in play here, the darker, perhaps, for being comic, because what Shylock is building merry with is inchoate Christian terror. To play him as a consummate comedic provocateur, then, as I received him played by a young and juiced-up actor in Venice, is not at all to rescue him from obloquy. But it is to give him the vitality that I feel Shakespeare intended for him. And it is to suggest that the jaunt from Antonios privy parts, which might just ought to have the website please select Shylock for relinquish, to Antonios heart, is not of Shylocks picking only.

Before the idea of deliberate redoubling Shylock making a Jew of Antonio in advance of Antonios making a Christian of him I pull up short. I am not convinced that Shakespeare was ever interested in such abstract, academic mapping. But it is part of his greatness to grant unworked its importance and unsorted old material to have their road without him in a gambling. DH Lawrence wrote astutely about “whats happening in” a living production when the creator throws his finger in the wash, obliging the outcome document. It ceases to be a living design. And Shakespeare was a writer in Lawrences sense, dogma free, permitting characters to find their genuine souls in interaction with one another, and giving language do its own remembering.

It has always seemed incorrect to me to talk of The Merchant of Venice as an anti- or a pro-semitic gambling. Were it either it would be less the play it is. Those who are distressed by what the hell is see as the plays anti-Jewishness find themselves, ironically it seems to me, on the side of the individuals who glory in any anti-Jewishness they find. In both cases, Shylock scandalizes them. The former are scandalized into embarrassment Is that us? the latter into confirmation of what theyve always concluded – Yes, that is you. But for me Shylock lives, with all his human insufficiencies on evidence. We know him by his speech, his repetitions as though no thing said only once can possibly be trusted those strange stutterings in which he addresses himself in a kind of surprise, his sudden absences when he is with others that causes them to wonder whether he is taking note of them at all, his sudden revertings to lyricism, his enraged volleys of speculation , no matter that no one will accept a word of what he supposes, that draw him a kind of fucking cousin to Hamlet. No, there is never any thinking of him as other than a Jew: the Venetians playboys who spit on him one minute and ask for money from him the next will not earmark the Jew in him to be forgotten and, whether as a consequence or by preference, he will not countenance the Jew in him to be forgotten either.

Its hard work. Would he have become life easier for himself had he relented? Perhaps. Its said that finally, as he readies himself to take out Antonios heart, he is the Jew of pitiless legality, the moral antonym of passion as represented by Christians. Were Shakespeare interested in pressing this opposition to the detriment of the Jews he wouldnt have allowed the Christians to substantiate as quite so squalid. They speak of enjoy and think of money. They speak of kindness and evidence nothing. They are merely not more dangerous because they are indolent and forget to be.

In my tale I move Portias world from Belmont to Cheshires Golden Triangle, home to footballers, heiresses and Manchesters most wealthy. I planned no ailment to Cheshire by doing that. But I appear Portias moral universe of childish choices and pettish subterfuges, where protestations of fine experiencing cannot disguise materialism and malice, licenses me to satire. Shylock and Portia now Plurabelle meet again up there. Once more she isnt sure who the Jew is and who the shopkeeper. I never ensure it as my function to give Shylock a second chance. Where thoughts objective for him, they aim forever. But he does have one thing he would like to say to Portia/ Plurabelle. And I allow him to say it.

Shylock Is My Name is publicized next week by Hogarth.

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hollyrosemassage · 8 years ago

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It’s the from side to side motions of the flute and the finger actions that induces the hypnotic-like state within the snake. Snakes are deaf. For those who place a rooster’s head on the bottom and draw a chalk line subsequent to the attention closest to the bottom the rooster will fixate on the road and turn out to be motionless. For those who put a rooster’s head underneath its wing the rooster’s limbs will instantly turn out to be inflexible. These are all examples of animal Hypnosis. HYPNOSIS THE KEY TO THE SUBCONSCIOUS What’s the secret of Hypnosis as a profitable device for change, for remedy and for unlocking ones true potential? Hypnosis is an easy means of bypassing the constraints of the acutely aware thoughts. Between the acutely aware and the unconscious there’s a barrier known as the important school of the acutely aware thoughts. Hypnosis bypasses this and permits direct communication on the unconscious and the unconscious ranges. 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