The Peyote Plant Essays - Native American Religion,

The Peyote Plant Drug use has always been a topic of controversy, especially when it pertains to religion. One particular drug that has been brought to the attention of the federal government is Peyote. Peyote is a drug that has been used by the Native Americans for thousands of years. This drug, Peyote which has caused much controversy over the years has recently been reconsidered for legal use. ?Probably the most famous New World hallucinogenic plant is Peyote, (Lophoproria willamsii), a small spineless cactus, native to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Also in the northern and central parts of the Mexican Plateau Region. Another species (Lidiffuss) is native to the Mexican State of Quertono. The rounded, gray-green stem crown (top) is radially divided into sections, each offering a small meristematic region (called an areole) from which arises a tuft of hairs. The crown tapers into a thick carrot-like root that extends into the ground (?Mescal Bean? N. Pag.). There are many different chemicals in the Peyote cactus, the main one being mescaline. ?Mescaline, which can be made in a lab, was isolated in 1919, resembling epinephrine, the adrenal hormone? (?Peyote 1? Pag). The Peyote cactus contains more than 50 different alkaloids, but the most active hallucinogen is mescaline. ?Mescaline has a chemical structure similar to the brain neurotransmitter dopamine? (?MescalBean? N. Pag.). It is also structurally similar to the neurohormone norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and to the stimulant amphetamine. In the Peyote cactus, mescaline is formed in a complex path way from the Amino Acid tyrosine. Mescaline provides psychologic disorientation with brilliant, ever changing colors. Mescaline hallucinations produce audio visual affects, double personality, derealization (loss of sense of reality of environment) and depersonalization (shattered personality). ?Peyote was dried and eaten by Southwest Indians at religious services for sense of well being, hallucinations (visions) and trances? (?Peyote N. Pag.). Native Americans use this drug as part of their religious ceremonies. The users slice off and eat peyote crowns fresh or dried. Peyote buttons last years, swallowed whole or drunk in tea. According to Clairdone, large amounts of peyote can induce hallucinations, adherents say the quantities normally taken in religious rites bring on only an introspective mood that gives the user insight to the spiritual world. This is not something American Indians have made up in the past hundred years. ?Mescal Beans have been discovered in Indian sites dating before A.D. 1000, and from one site dating back to 1500 B.C. (?Mescal Bean? N. Pag.). ?Ever since the arrival of the first Europeans in the New World, Peyote has provoked controversy. Supression and persecution? (Scnultes N. Pag.). Peyote, in its natural state is not a dangerous drug, however, synthetic peyote causes harmful side effects. According to the article ?Peyote 1 and magic Mushrooms?, ?Synthetic peyote lowers blood pressure, depresses the central Nervous system and kills by respiratory failure.? Since Peyote is a drug that produces hallucinogenic affects, the military reached an agreement with the Native American church to honor the use of peyote for Native Americans in the Military, except for those who operate nuclear weapons. Other restrictions were said to include a prohibition against the use of peyote on military vehicles, aircraft, or ships; a requirement to stop using the drug 24 hours before returning to active duty. According to Clairdone, Church sources said fears of hallucinogenic ?flashbacks? that were raised by officials of the Strategic Air Co mmand delayed formal implementation of the draft rules and raised bitter resentment among devout native Americans who use peyote as a sacrament. Individual states had made laws that honored the peyote ritual, but peyote was still considered an illegal drug. According to Guy Mount, in his article, ?Peyote and the Law?, Three states have exempted peyote from controlled substance prohibitions, and do permit the ?Bona-Fide? sacramental use of peyote by non-Indians who are members of an established church: these are New York, Arizona, and New Mexico. A recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (1990) makes it clear that we do not have a Constitutional right to use any controlled substance as a religious sacrament. Instead, each state has the right to pass laws which honor the peyote religion, or continue to suppress it. Peyote is significant to Native American religious rituals and

Sample Reflection Essay For Teachers At Torrey Academy

Sample Reflection Essay For Teachers At Torrey AcademyThe reading assignments for the teaching staff at Torrey Academy have a new section that was recently added. The information in this section is for students only and has a specific purpose. This section asks students to submit a reflection essay to the staff on a specific occasion. Students can select one of many examples to meet the purpose of this section.One example of this is when the staff will be away for a week. The assignment is to write a reflection essay about the teacher that they have lost the ability to provide, or their performance during this week. They should also share an opinion as to why it was such a great loss to them.Another is when the staff is not able to use some programs. The teachers at Torrey Academy will be visiting other schools for a month. They need to write a reflection essay for students who are not able to attend.Finally, there is a new area that is written by the teaching staff themselves. The f eedback they receive through this section is used to decide how to improve their own teaching techniques. One example of this is if there is something that is causing problems, and they do not know what to do about it.These days, teachers seem to take whatever they can get, as long as it helps to provide a quality education. However, with the changing world of technology, how can you go on with your job and still provide a good quality education to your students?There are times when there is no one else to send out a reflection essay to. Therefore, students are having a difficult time finding the time to write a reflection essay to their teachers.This is whereTorrey Academy's teaching staff comes in handy. The TeachingStaff.com provides student and teacher resources, and the TeachingStaff.com takes full advantage of this by allowing students to receive online help with projects, test prep, reading, writing, and more!

Islamic Women essays

Islamic Women essays Many times when feminists looked at Islamic women they criticized the man for not treating women properly. However, as Jane I. Smith states, women of Islam are not really offended by that fact, on the contrary, they believe that it is better for them. The Holy Koran is the basis for the Islamic believers. It has many interpretations, however there are certain facts that are sure to be clear as to the position of women in an Islamic society. Koran did introduce very significant changes as to treatment of women. Certain women did play powerful roles in societies. However, whatever the earlier realities for women in terms of marriage, divorce, and inheritance of property, it is clear that Islamic men believe that they are above woman. However, they are supposed to support them and make sure that they have everything that they need to help raise their children and praise the god. In Islam, marriage is not a sacrament, as it is in other religions. It is a contract that man and woman sign and in which the woman can clearly includes her own clauses and negotiate terms. It is rare however possible for a man to have more the one wife. However, when that happens the man is responsible for caring and supporting both of them. In order to marry another woman however, the man must have the permission of his first wife. Although Muslim women have had been married at extremely young age, this practice is related to the fact that father and other male relatives generally have chosen the grooms themselves. There are however some discrepancies. Islamic women are not treated equally in the face of the law. Ones women statement in the court is equal to half of one man. The same principle also applies to inheritance and other issues. The Koran states that the man, since he is supporting the woman, should receive twice as much of everything. Until recently education for women in the Muslim world has been minimal. ...

Maam and Regional Colonialism

Maam and Regional Colonialism Maam and Regional Colonialism Maam and Regional Colonialism By Maeve Maddox Where I come from, children are taught that responding to grownups with a mere yes or no is impolite. Yeah is unforgivably rude. As a child I was taught to say yes, sir, no, maam and when I grew up, I continued to say it. When I lived in England, women whom Id addressed as maam would sometimes smile and tell me that over there maam was reserved for the queen. A recent segment on National Public Radio (Sept. 8, 2010) has alerted me to the fact that in some regions of the U.S., women perceive maamas a put-down. NY Times reporter Natalie Angier apparently wants the honorific wiped out of American speech altogether. This attack on the use of maam is an example of what I call regional colonialism. In every country, the people who live in the major population centers ridicule the speech and manners of those who live in other parts of the same country. Parisians laugh at French southern accents just as much as New Yorkers make fun of southern American speakers. Now that everyone in the country consumes the same news and entertainment media, the continued existence of regional vocabulary and pronunciation is at the mercy of the speakers and writers who control the media. An example of the media driving out previous southern terminology is that of the word soda to meansoft drink. When I was young, a soda was an ice cream treat. The first time I heard the word soda used to mean cold drink from the vending machine was in the mouth of a character on Law Order. Now all grocery stores, North and South, have soda aisles where one finds Coke, Dr. Pepper, RC, and other carbonated beverages. (I did notice a fairly recent sign in a local supermarket that listed soft drinks on the same sign as sodas.) Angier wrote an article, The Politics of Polite, in which she lambastes the use of maam. She acknowledges that maam usage varies by region. She even quotes a Georgetown professor: Southerners and Midwesterners will maam with greater frequency than do the residents on the East and West Coasts but having made this obligatory nod to regional usage, she goes full steam ahead to argue that nobody should maam anybody. In theory, ma’am is a courtesy term, meant to convey respect and graciousness lightly salted with deference. Yet much evidence suggests that when it comes to fomenting a sense of good will ma’am fails even more spectacularly than â€Å"Have a nice day.† The evidence Angier presents consists of the results of a completely unscientific poll of her own, and the following examples from the media: Barbara Boxer to Brigadier General Michael Walsh of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who addressed her as maam. She told the general that she preferred to be called senator: â€Å"I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it, Helen Mirren, playing Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison on the crime series Prime Suspect: â€Å"Listen, I like to be called governor or the boss. I don’t like ma’am. I’m not the bloody queen, so take your pick.† Kate Mulgrew as Capt. Kathryn Janeway to a young male ensign: â€Å"ma’am is acceptable in a crunch, but I prefer captain.† In each of these examples, the context is a that of a woman asserting her right to a title previously reserved for men. If I were in a gathering in which all the male academics were being called Dr. and someone addressed me as Ms., Id be annoyed too. Angiers fourth example from the media of a character who rejects the use of maam is from a television series called Nurse Jackie: when a policeman struggling to help subdue a disturbed patient [makes] the mistake of referring to Edie Falco’s eponymous character as â€Å"ma’am,† Nurse Jackie [shoots] back, â€Å"So help me God, do not call me ma’am - uncuff him!† According to reviews, Nurse Jackie is an irascible drug-addicted curmudgeon who uses language as a cudgel. I wouldnt read too much into her objection to maam. I have no illusions as to what the outcome of the assault on maam will be if the East Coast and West Coast media take it up as a cause. A pleasant and civilized idiom native to my region will give way to a more abrupt manner of address that is preferred by those who control the national media. Meanwhile, Ill just continue to say Yes maam to my four-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter so that shell acquire the habit. She can deal with regional colonialism when the time comes. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating Conjunctions50 Diminutive Suffixes (and a Cute Little Prefix)Confusion of Subjective and Objective Pronouns

Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation Essay

Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation - Essay Example The desire to maximize on self-interest provides aspiring leaders the unique chances to assume leadership roles by simultaneously meeting the demands of the subjects and those of the organization.   For Gordon, in his pursuit of exceptional leadership attributes, among the things he ought to understand is that his interaction with his subordinates should permit the building of an explicitly motivational work environment. Doing so implies that the individual acquires the means of transcending their typical roles as followers or leaders. Google’s organizational culture presents the best example of how leaders relate to their supporters. In their culture, the making of company decisions is a role of company employees, irrespective of rank. Any organization needs a workforce made up of leaders and subordinates (Barbuto, 2010, p. 30). The expectancy theory described above relies upon the extrinsic motivators in the description of behaviors demonstrated in the working environment (Barbuto, 2010, p. 28). For instance, external rewards have been known to have inducing effects of fueling practices relative to nitrite motivators (Hitt, Porter & Black, 2011, p. 87). The intrinsi c theory argues that traits are a consequence of internal forces in the form of job satisfaction. Scholarships claim that motivational thoughts hedged on the concept of motivation are of the assumption that subordinates make conscious choices as a way of maximizing self-interests (Paarlberg, & Lavigna, 2010, p. 710).   The above-argued concept makes this paper suggest that the expectancy school of thought provides a vehicle for Gordon to realize his leadership ambitions. The paper argues so because the likelihood model tends to equip leaders with the necessary tools to affect the psychological processes within their followers (Humphreys, & Einstein, 2014, p. 60).  

Ronald Dworkins Legal Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ronald Dworkins Legal Theory - Essay Example Decisions that are regulated by legal standards put in force the existing rights of individuals, and therefore judges do not, in reality, establish the law but rather ascertain it. Judges should not resolve difficult cases based on considerations which persuade legislators when they take up policies advancing collective goals. The rights of individuals are to be put into effect against considerations of the general good. Judicial discretion is flawed as a descriptive notion regarding how judges actually act in difficult cases, and as a dogmatic account of how they should behave. These premises are pursued by Dworkin over a number of years and articulating them in successive papers. In Taking Rights Seriously (1977), Dworkin has endeavored to improve and expand on his disagreement to legal positivism and also his personal concept of the law. Modern Anglo-American legal concept has put little consideration to studies in legal theory that were undertaken during the first half of the 20th century. Before H.L.A. Hart's The Concept of Law (1961), legal theory is commonly regarded as an antiquated philosophy. Modern-day authors consider it needless to come to grips with out-of-date theories, as it is broadly regarded that such concepts have been transcended and probed by Hart's work and those who subsequently took up his philosophies. This attitude concerning legal theories is more evident in the modern-day consideration of American legal pragmatism. Interest attending the realist movement, however, is sparse. In Taking Rights Seriously, Dworkin confers just about a page to the movement. Theodore Benditt (1978) is more considerate in his discourse of realism in his Law as Rule and Principle. However, Benditt considers legal realism as no more than an outdated philosophy. Certainly, legal realism is viewed as containing insights. Realism, however, is regarded as having been acknowledged in the past and integrated into conventional legal concept, while the flaws have been supposedly identified and rejected. Such is the prevailing message regarding realism conveyed by contemporary work in legal theory (Summers 1982). In The Concept of Law, Hart convincingly criticises realism and his theory took up a number of the assertions connected with the realist movement, while he rejected the superfluity of realism by raising a skillfully presented notion of law as a system of rules. One of those considered excesses of realism were the theory that the law was formed with ambiguity wherein almost any litigated issues the law is ineffective to prescribe a specific result. The conceptual approach taken by Hart was to recognise that law has an essential substance of indeterminacy but contends that such ambiguity necessarily took up a marginal area in the legal system. With Dworkin's influence, conventional legal concept subsequently became engrossed with the question of whether Hart overstated the area of legal indeterminacy. It was presently acknowledged and rejected that the realists' concept of radical indeterminacy was relegated to the class of realist excesses. The realists focused upon the preference of competing legal rules which common-law case judges must formulate. This could appear to

Free Native Son Essays: Naturalism and Determinism :: Native Son Essays

Naturalism and Determinism in Native Son "Today Bigger Thomas and that mob are strangers, yet they hate. They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces."   This passage epitomizes for Richard Wright, the most radical effects of criminal racial situation in America. However, perhaps the most important role of this passage is the way in which it embodies Wright's overall philosophy of Naturalism or Social Realism. The naturalist perspective in the passage is evident through the use of the most crucial features of Naturalism. The passage also echoes the most crucial features of Determinism. namely fear, hate and mob mentality. In a critical analysis of this passage there are many single phrases to dissect. One such phrase is, "They hate...." The hatred that is felt by the white mob is a product of their guilt. It is the guilt like that of Mr. Dalton that is so strong that he tries to "undo it in a manner as naà ¯ve as dropping a penny in a blind man's cup."   Wright further speaks of this guilt when Max states, "The Thomas family got poor and the Dalton family got rich. And Mr. Dalton, a decent man, tried to salve his feelings by giving money. But, my friend, gold was not enough! Corpses cannot be bribed! Say to yourself Mr. Dalton, 'I offered my daughter as a burnt sacrifice and it was not enough to push back into it's grave this thing that haunts me.'" This s tatement embodies the very core of social reality of the time, and in essence, Social Realism. "They fear...." What fear is Wright speaking of? Wright speaks of the fear that both the blacks and the whites feel. Bigger's fear and hate is a direct result of the way he sees society. Bigger sees in a garish light the failure of his society. He sees it's cultural and political ideals and promises, and he refuses to accept the compromises that most individuals make for simple self-preservation (as was in Bessie's case.) The white's fear is different. They fear loosing the power and control that they have over the blacks. The whites believe that if they correct the socioeconomic state of the black they will, in essence, be compromising their seat of power. Free Native Son Essays: Naturalism and Determinism :: Native Son Essays Naturalism and Determinism in Native Son "Today Bigger Thomas and that mob are strangers, yet they hate. They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces."   This passage epitomizes for Richard Wright, the most radical effects of criminal racial situation in America. However, perhaps the most important role of this passage is the way in which it embodies Wright's overall philosophy of Naturalism or Social Realism. The naturalist perspective in the passage is evident through the use of the most crucial features of Naturalism. The passage also echoes the most crucial features of Determinism. namely fear, hate and mob mentality. In a critical analysis of this passage there are many single phrases to dissect. One such phrase is, "They hate...." The hatred that is felt by the white mob is a product of their guilt. It is the guilt like that of Mr. Dalton that is so strong that he tries to "undo it in a manner as naà ¯ve as dropping a penny in a blind man's cup."   Wright further speaks of this guilt when Max states, "The Thomas family got poor and the Dalton family got rich. And Mr. Dalton, a decent man, tried to salve his feelings by giving money. But, my friend, gold was not enough! Corpses cannot be bribed! Say to yourself Mr. Dalton, 'I offered my daughter as a burnt sacrifice and it was not enough to push back into it's grave this thing that haunts me.'" This s tatement embodies the very core of social reality of the time, and in essence, Social Realism. "They fear...." What fear is Wright speaking of? Wright speaks of the fear that both the blacks and the whites feel. Bigger's fear and hate is a direct result of the way he sees society. Bigger sees in a garish light the failure of his society. He sees it's cultural and political ideals and promises, and he refuses to accept the compromises that most individuals make for simple self-preservation (as was in Bessie's case.) The white's fear is different. They fear loosing the power and control that they have over the blacks. The whites believe that if they correct the socioeconomic state of the black they will, in essence, be compromising their seat of power.