Civil War Position Paper Essay Example for Free

Civil War Position Paper Essay The American Civil War almost tore early America and its population apart. Still today people debate weather slavery was the primary cause for the war. In this paper I will explain why I believe slavery was not the primary cause of the American Civil War. Also I will point out many other factors that may have played a bigger role in the cause of the Civil War. Southern states believed STRONGLY in states’ rights. States’ rights are the belief that one should be loyal to their state instead of the country as a whole, also they believed that states should be able to make their own laws to their liking without having to answer to the country. This alone created tension between the southern states and the northern states for northern states felt that the constitution clearly stated that states can create laws as long as they do not conflict with the laws of the country. In addition to the tension between the north and south congress placed a tax on goods bought outside of the country otherwise known as tariffs. In 1828 and 1832, congress raised tariffs higher and higher. These taxes were hated by the southern states for they did not have many factories unlike they’re northern counterparts, and thus they paid tariffs more often. In one instance a southern state refused to pay the tariff nullifying the tax congress had placed this event known as the nullification crisis drove the wedge between the north and south further The bloody fighting between northern and southern voters in Kansas was another step in the path of the civil war. Due to the popular sovereignty act suggested by Senator Stephen Douglas the people where able to vote on whether that territory would’ve been a free state or a slave state, this caused voters from both the north and the south to pour into these states hoping to tip the scale in their favor in doing this conflict between the two erupted as homes were burned and people were murdered. In conclusion I do not believe that slavery was the primary cause of the civil war. My reason for thinking this is because of all the events that the country had to push though on top of slavery. For starters states rights, tariffs, nullification crisis, the Kansas Nebraska act, and the bleeding Kansas scare all played a bigger part in the cause of the civil war rather then slavery.

Lord of the Rings :: essays research papers

It is easy for the reader who enters the enchanted realm of Tolkien's own work to be lost in the magic of the Middle-Earth and to forbear to ask questions. Surrounded by elves, hobbits, dragons and orcs, wandering the pristine fields and woods, described with such loving care they seem almost real, it is easy to forget there is another world outside, the world in which John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, an Oxford don, lived and wrote his monumental series of fantasy novels. It is, after all, natural to want to escape humdrum reality. Literature that offers a simple pleasure of a different time, a different place has nothing to be ashamed of. Tolkien in the same essay describes "escape and consolation" as one of the chief functions of the fairy-tale by which term he understands also what we would call "literary fantasy" today. "Escape and consolation" seem to be self-evident terms. What is there to discuss? Perhaps all that I have to do today is to praise Tolkie n's fertile imagination and to step modestly aside. But the sentence I just quoted suggests that asking questions about the fairy-tale realm is not so much unnecessary as dangerous. You risk not merely boredom and disenchantment but the actual expulsion from the Fairyland. Why? Is there, perhaps, more to the magic land than meets the eye? What if the "escape" it offers is fake; what if Middle-Earth lies not "in a galaxy long ago and far away", as Star Wars put it, but much closer to home, right on the border with Tolkien's war-stricken England of the 1940s and perhaps even not so far from our own turbulent Middle East. What if the further away we travel, the more inevitably we come home? These are the questions I want to discuss today.And if the result of this inquiry will be the loss of the key to the gates of Paradise, I'm willing to take this risk. Therefore the focus of this talk will be the question that Tolkien himself emphasized as central to our perception of works of fantasy: what is "the effect produced now by these old things in the stories as they are" (32); in other words, how are the elves, orcs, the Dark Lord and the magic ring relevant to the here and now? However, I do not believe that the answer to this question should be sought in the circumstances of the author's own life.

A Soft Drink Tax According to John Stuart Mill Essay

The Coca-Cola brand has built itself into a staple of American culture. This is a terrifying thought for public health advocates who see Coke and other soft drinks as being major culprits behind a growing national health crisis. Empirical evidence shows that over-consumption of soft drinks clearly causes harm to the individuals who consume them, however, the waging battle over soda legislation will not be won on the grounds of health alone. The argument that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other soft drink firms present is deeply rooted in American values and cannot easily be trumped. What they argue for is freedom of choice. In his book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill states, â€Å"over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign† (9). If an individual chooses that he wants to drink soda pop, he should be allowed a high degree of liberty to make that decision. Such is the foundation of a soft drink firm’s purported right to exist. If consumers demand it, Coca-Cola executives will get as red in the face as their soda cans stating that they play an innocent and vital role in fulfilling that demand. One method through which public health advocates wish to regulate soft drinks is in the implementation of a soda tax. Advocates for such a tax may argue that individuals who harm themselves by overindulging in soda should be limited in their consumption. Since supply and demand are sensitive to market conditions, a tax would undoubtedly lower the quantity of soda demanded, particularly in low-income families where obesity and diabetes are most common. Mill claims that â€Å"to tax stimulants for the sole purpose of making them more difficult to be obtained is a measure differing only in degree from their entire prohibition, and would be justifiable only if that were justifiable. Every increase of cost is a prohibition to those whose means do not come up to the augmented price; and to those who do, it is a penalty laid on them for gratifying a particular taste† (99). Soft drink firms would cite Mill here in their argument that individuals’ â€Å"choice of pleasures and their mode of expending their income, after satisfying their legal and moral obligations to the State and to the individuals, are their own concern and must rest with their own judgment† (99). While Mill’s line of reasoning would appear to speak against a soft drink tax, he goes on to remind us that â€Å"taxation for fiscal purposes is absolutely inevitable†¦ It is hence the duty of the State to consider, in the imposition of taxes, what commodities the consumers can best spare†¦ [and] to select in preference those of which it deems the use, beyond a very moderate quantity, to be positively injurious† (100). Being that over-consumption of soda pop is certainly injurious to the consumer, and especially in light of the current economic downturn in this country, Mill would approve of a soft drink tax as an effective means through which to produce revenue for the State. While a tax on soft drinks would be permissible by Mill’s standards, some proponents of soft drink legislation would go so far as to ban their sale altogether. However, even if the vast majority of the public were motivated to impose such a ban, Mill would hesitate to condone such a severe form of coercion. The basis for Mill’s harm principle is that â€Å"the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any members of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others† (9). Although soft drink firms have a clear interest in â€Å"promoting intemperance† (99) in order to generate profit, those firms will argue fervently that the consumption of soda is not such a great evil that the State would be justified in â€Å"imposing restrictions and requiring guarantees which†¦ would be infringements of legitimate liberty† (99). Therefore, in order to present a stronger argument for a ban on soft drinks, advocates would do well to prove that in drinking soda pop, individuals cause harm not only to themselves, but also to others. To consume soft drinks to the point of excess can lead to the deterioration of an individual’s health. This may appear to be a self-regarding action until one considers the cost such individuals impose on taxpayers. Citizens whose unhealthy lifestyles regularly land them in the hospital eat up government health care, at which point their actions cease to be self-regarding and become harmful to society at large. With this in mind, are we still to protect individuals’ liberty to drink soda pop? Soft drink firms may point to Mill in arguing that the accountability for such harm lies not with soda, but with the society that raises gluttonous individuals. If grown people are incapable of properly taking care of themselves, society must consider that it â€Å"has had absolute power over them during all the early portion of their existence; it has had the whole period of childhood and nonage in which to try whether it could make them capable of rational conduct in life† (80). It is on this point that we must consider the role that mass media plays in the world today. The pervasiveness of corporate advertising in the U. S. manipulates children’s impressionable faculties of reason, subverting the ability of even responsible parents and educators to impart rational consumption habits on their young ones. Mill writes that he could not see how people could witness an act of self-harm and think it â€Å"more salutary than hurtful, since, if it displays the misconduct, it displays also the painful or degrading consequences which, if the conduct is justly censured, must be supposed to be in all or most cases attendant on it† (81). This argument is undermined by the fallacy of soft drink advertising, which positively portrays the act of drinking soda without showing the adverse long-term effects of its consumption. When a world-class athlete endorses soda pop, susceptible consumers, particularly children, are inclined to associate soft drinks with scoring goals and dunking basketballs rather than with cancer and heart disease. In arguing against the proliferation of soft drinks, one should appeal to a fundamental component of Mill’s doctrine, which states that his harm principle does not apply to â€Å"children or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury† (9). In other words; children do not have the maturity to make rational, informed decisions that lead to actions that could potentially cause them harm, for instance, the act of guzzling down a 99 cent Coke. The American Beverage Association would echo John Stuart Mill in saying that â€Å"human beings owe to each other help to distinguish the better from the worse, and encouragement to choose the former and avoid the latter† (74). It is their argument that parents and educators, not government, are responsible for dissuading children to consume soft drinks. Indeed, parents and educators can form a partnership in banning the sale of soft drinks in schools, but it is beyond their power to prevent a non-responsible child from seeing a deviously enticing soda ad on TV and irrationally choosing to spend his or her allowance on soda pop. Therefore, the State would be justified in regulating children’s access to soft drinks by legally coercing soft drink firms to discontinue their advertisements geared toward children, as well as by imposing a minimum age requirement for the purchasing of soft drinks.

Regression analysis of oil price return - 3199 Words

Contents 1.0 Introduction and Motivation 2 2.0 Methodology 5 2.1. Descriptive Statistics 5 2.2 Matrix of pairwise correlation. 6 3.0 Model Specification 6 3.1 Linear Regression Model. 6 3.2 The Regression Specification Error Test 8 3.3 Non-linear models 9 3.4 Autocorrelation. 10 3.5 Heteroskedasticity Test 10 4.0 Hypothesis Testing 11 5.0 Binary (Dummy) Variables 11 6.0 Conclusion 13 Reference List 13 1.0 Introduction and Motivation Crude oil is one of the world’s most important natural resources. Over the past six decades or so, crude oil – because of the products derived from it, has become highly indispensable in our everyday lives. Despite being a non-renewable resource, it is still used extensively in power generation.†¦show more content†¦Through group brainstorming, we came up with a number of variables that theoretically should affect the price of crude oil, and we used Bloomberg to find data on the same. Our two main criteria for a â€Å"good† variable were statistical significance and R2. We conducted a regression analysis as well as multiple regression analysis to double check the variables we selected on the Bloomberg terminal. Moreover, so as to not omit any good variables, we broadened our search to the Oil commodity section to find relevant industry reports and prospective variables. Through a process of rough trial and error, and after eliminating several variables d ue to problems such as multicollinearity and heteroskedasticity, we finalized the three variables that are mentioned below. As crude oil is invoiced in USD, it is of interest to note how fluctuations in the value of the USD affect oil prices. Another of our factors is the price of natural gas, the closest substitute as a source of energy to oil. Lastly, we seek to establish a relationship between returns in the SP500 and oil prices. We used monthly time-series data over a period of ten years beginning from 2005 for the purpose of this study. To avoid issues of non-stationary data, we used oil price returns and SP500 returns. 2.0 Methodology Our y variable is the percentage monthly return on WTI oil spot prices. West Texas Intermediate Cushing crude oil price is typically used as the reference spot price in theShow MoreRelatedAccounting Information and Predicting Financial Performance1049 Words   |  5 Pagesaccounting information includes regression analysis. Regression analysis is viewed by many to be more useful that financial data or ratios alone. 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