Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer When I was a little kid I was just like anybody else. I was born in Milwaukee in May 21, 1960, the son of Lionel and Joyce Dahmer. At the age of six after some minor surgery, which coincided with the birth of my brother, there seemed to be a change in me. At the time a career opportunity for my father resulted in my family moving from Iowa to Ohio. I don’t know why it started. I don’t have any definite answers on that myself. If I knew the true, real reasons why all this started, before it ever did, I wouldn’t probably have done any of it.Though the thoughts were like arrows, shooting through my mind from out of the blue. By the time I was fourteen the compulsions to murder and necrophilia began to occur. I’d rather be talking about anything else in the world right now, but just after I graduated from high school, in June 1978, I picked up a hitchhiker named Steven Hicks, I took him home to my parents' house, where we drank beer and had sex. When he tried to leave, I killed him with a barbell by hitting his head. That night in Ohio, that was one impulsive night. Nothing’s been normal since then. It tainted my whole life.After it happened I thought I’d just try to live as normally as possible and bury it, but things like that don’t stay buried. I didn’t think it would, but it does, it tainted my whole life. I wish I hadn’t done it. At the same time of my first killing, my alcohol consumption became uncontrollable and in January 1979, I dropped out of Ohio State University after only one term due to my drunkenness. Thus, my recently remarried father insisted that I enlist in the Army, and I was sent to Germany. Though my drinking problem persisted and two years later the Army discharged me for alcoholism.Following my discharge I returned home to Ohio where I went through Hicks' decomposing remains, pulverized them with a hammer, and scattered the pieces even more widely in the woods. La ter in October 1981 I was arrested for disorderly conduct and my father sent me to live with my grandmother in Wisconsin, but my alcohol problems persisted. My next arrest occurred some years later, in September 1986, for masturbating in front of two young boys, for which I received a one-year probationary sentence. In September 1987 I took my second victim, Steven Toumi, whom I met in a gay bar.We checked into a hotel room and drank a lot. I had no intention of doing it. However, the next morning, I found Toumi dead beside me. I was in complete shock. I just couldn’t believe I had done it again after those years when I’d done nothing like that. I don’t know what was going through my mind. I have no memory of it. I tried to dredge it up but I have no memory whatsoever. I bought a large suitcase to transport Toumi's corpse to my grandmother's basement, where I had sex with, and masturbated on it, before dismembering it and disposing of the remains in the rubbish. I developed a pattern of murder that persisted for the duration of my thirteen year killing spree: I sought out mostly African-American men at gay meeting places, lured them home to his grandmother's basement with promises of money or sex, where I would ply them with alcohol laced with drugs, strangle them, have sex with the corpse or masturbate on it, then dismember the corpses and dispose of them, usually keeping their genitals or skulls as souvenirs.I often took photos of each victim at various stages of my murder process, so I could recollect each act afterwards and relive the experience. This re-enactment included assembling the skulls and masturbating in front of them, to achieve gratification. My grandmother eventually tired of the late nights and drunkenness, although she had no knowledge of the other activities, forced me to move out in September 1988, but before that I killed another two people at her house.At this point I had an extreme close call with authorities: I had an encounter with a thirteen-year-old Laotian boy which resulted in charges of sexual exploitation, and second-degree sexual assault, being laid against me. I pleaded guilty, claiming that the boy had appeared much older and, while I awaited sentencing, I moved back in temporarily with my grandmother, where I once again put her basement to gruesome use; in February 1989 I lured an aspiring African-American model, named Anthony Sears, and I drugged, strangled, sodomized, photographed, dismembered and disposed of his body.In May 1989, at my trial for child molestation, to my defense the counsel argued that I needed treatment, not incarceration and the judge agreed, handing down a five year probationary sentence, with one year prison sentence on â€Å"day release†, under which I continued to work at my job, but returned to the prison at night. I was released after ten months, despite my father writing to the judge urging him that I be held until I had received appropriate treatm ent. Then I spent three months with my grandmother on my release before moving into my own partment in May 1990. During the next fifteen months before the time of my capture, my victim count accelerated; and I killed 12 more young men. I developed rituals as I progressed, experimenting with chemical means of disposal, and I also consumed the flesh of my victims. I drilled into my victim's skulls while they were still alive, injecting them with Muriatic acid to see whether I could extend my control to the living. Most of my victims died instantly, but one man survived for a number of days in a zombie-like state, with limited motor function.I was always careful to select my victims on the fringes of society, so that it was less likely for the police to search for them. In the case of my thirteenth victim I had yet another close call; it was a 14-year-old Laotian boy who was, coincidentally, the younger brother of the boy I had been convicted of molesting three years earlier. To my dis may on May 26, 1991, my neighbor, Sandra Smith, called the police to report that a young Asian boy was running naked in the street. When the police arrived, he was incoherent, and the police believed me when I told them that the boy was my 19-year-old lover who had just had too much to drink.The police escorted me and my victim home at which point I strangled the boy and continued with my usual rituals. My luck finally ran out on July 22, 1991, when two Milwaukee police officers picked up Tracy Edwards, a young African-American, who was wandering in the streets with a handcuff dangling from one of his wrists. They decided to follow up his claims that a â€Å"weird dude† had drugged and restrained him, and they coincidently arrived at my apartment, where I calmly offered to get the keys for the handcuffs.Edwards claimed that the knife I had threatened him with was in the bedroom and when the officer went in to corroborate the story he noticed photographs of dismembered bodies lying around. He shouted to his colleague to restrain me so I fought back but I was eventually subdued. A subsequent search revealed the head in the fridge, as well as three more in the freezer, and preserved skulls, jars containing genitalia, and an extensive gallery of macabre photographs. I think in some way I wanted it to end, even if it meant my own destruction. Yes, I do have remorse, but I’m not even sure myself whether it is as profound as it should be.I’ve always wondered myself why I don’t feel more remorse. I was completely swept away with my own compulsion. I don’t know how else to put it. It didn’t satisfy me completely so I was thinking another one will. Maybe this one will, and the numbers started growing and just got out of control, as you can see. When you’ve done the type of things I’ve done, it’s easier not to reflect on yourself. When I start thinking about how it’s affecting the families of people, a nd my family and everything, it doesn’t do me any good. It just gets me very upset.Despite having confessed to the killings during police interrogation, I initially pleaded not guilty to all charges. However, against the advice of my legal counsel, I changed my plea to guilty by virtue of insanity. My defense then offered every gruesome detail of my behavior, as proof that only someone insane could commit such terrible acts, but the jury chose to believe the prosecutor's assertion that I was fully aware that my acts were evil, but that I chose to commit them anyway, which resulted after only five hours deliberation in the finding of me being guilty, but sane, on all counts, on February 17, 1992.I was sentenced to fifteen consecutive life terms, a total of 957 years in prison. I adjusted well to prison life, although I was initially kept apart from the general population. I convinced authorities to allow me to incorporate more with other inmate. On November 28, 1994, in accord ance with my inclusion in regular work details, I was assigned to work with two other prisoners, one of whom was a white supremacist murderer, Jesse Anderson, and the other a delusional, schizophrenic African-American murderer, Christopher Scarver.Twenty minutes after we had been left alone to complete their tasks the guards returned to find that Scarver had crushed my skull, and fatally beaten Anderson with an object. Following my death, the city of Milwaukee was keen to distance itself from the horrors of my actions, and the ensuing media circus surrounding my trial.In 1996, fearing that someone else might purchase my fridge, photographs and killing tools collection and start a museum, they raised more than $400,000 to buy his effects, which they promptly incinerated. This is the grand finale of a life poorly spent and the end result is just overwhelmingly depressing, it’s just a sick, pathetic, wretched, miserable life story, that’s all it is. I should have gone to college and gone into real estate and got myself an aquarium, that’s what I should have done.

The Secret River Essay

Belonging occurs when individuals understand the people and the world around them. How is this evident in two of the texts you have studied? Belonging, that is, the connection an individual feels to the world he or she inhabits often comes down to the specific factors and forces that shape their experience. In the text The Secret River, author Kate Grenville illuminates a number of key issues in regard to belonging, none of these more poignant that place, location and locus often functions as a key determinant of belonging. This concept of belonging is also highlighted in Shaun Tan’s pictorial narrative, The Arrival, in which the importance of home and family and the sense of harmony and happiness that comes with understanding relationships with the people we love. The determinants of belonging vary depending on an individual and their views and experiences; ones sense of belonging may come down to who they are with without the location being a factor, where they are located and the physical environmental features and one’s culture and traditions. These varying determinants of ones belonging are represented in The Secret River and The Arrival in which each protagonist has different approaches to their ideal conclusion of belonging. Australian author Kate Grenville’s 2005 novel, The Secret River, explores the concept that place and geographical context and circumstance will often play a key role in determining one’s belonging. The opening pages of the novel introduce William Thornhill, a convict, transported to New South Wales in the year 1806. Thornhill’s journey tells of the great physical distance that now separates Thornhill from the warm familiarity of life at home in London; Thornhill’s new world is foreign, inhospitable place, disorientating in its otherness, and becomes a metonym for the great yearning Thornhill now has for his erstwhile life in England. To express this idea of one’s understanding and connectedness with their world being a determinant to their sense of belonging, Grenville uses a number of techniques such as hyperbole and simile. Grenville’s third person narrator describes the Alexander, Thornhill’s ship, as having â€Å"fetched up at the end of the Earth. This hyperbole creates an image unassailable distance, of diametric extremity and in so doing dramatizes the concept of distance which, in turn, comes to represent Thornhill’s alienation from the world he knows and loves. Grenville uses figurative language to bring into focus her main character William Thornhill’s attachment t, and ultimate dislocation from the two places he calls home: A New South Wales penal colony, and London. London and the themes are represented in the simile, â€Å"as intimate to him as breathing. In this case, the simile takes the idea of breathing which is both natural to us and essential to our being. This idea of intimacy then extends to Thornhill’s essential attachment to home and his understanding and recognition of its world. Like breathing itself, Thornhill’s London life is a giving force. When it comes to describing Thornhill’s antipathy to his new life in New South Wales, Grenville’s simile describes a disconnect, a non-relationship. Whereas Thornhill is closely familiar with the London night sky in his new life the stars are â€Å"meaningless as spilt rice†. This simile neatly captures Thornhill’s disorientation. The image of â€Å"split rice† suggests something both random and accidental. This reflects his emotive alienation of moving and not belonging in his new world. The idea that one must understand and be familiar with their environment and its individual traits that are only recognisable and known if you have a personal sense of belonging to our world. One of the main ideas that emerges In Shaun Tan’s, The Arrival is that belonging is often influenced and shaped by family and the personal intimacies family offers. Tan develops this theme through the use of a number of specific visual devices. In chapter one of the narrative Tan describes a situation where the husband of the family unit must leave his family for another, distant nation. Tan stresses the significance of family through the use of vectoring and shot size. Tan presents a close up shot of the father-daughter hand clasp emphasising not only the physical bond that unites the family but the emotional connectedness they share. The hand clasp is effectively a metaphor for connectedness and the close up emphasises the significance of family. In addition to this Tan uses vectoring. Strong vectors direct the reader to the hand clasp which is positioned precisely at the centre of the page; this central placement of the image then becomes a metonym for the central significance and place of family in the fathers life: To further accentuate the significance of family in determining belonging, Tan again employs shot size in a subsequent image, the hand clasp is replaced by a broken hand-clasp, the close up and the tiny interstice that now separates the hands becomes a key signifier of the separation the ather must now endure. The belonging once evident in the intimacy of the hand clasp is replaced with the separation and the emptiness of the broken embrace. As a final and consolidating reminder of the fathers separation from family, Tan uses and extreme close long shot of the father’s departing train. the train is a remote presence on the horizon, the horizon itself a symbol of distance. The warmer physicality of earlier imagery is now replaced with the distant train, visible more as a puff of soon to be extinct smoke on the horizon- thus the once tangible presence of the family is replaced with the immaterial image of a train quickly travelling past the sight of the eye. The contrast demonstrates the obvious way in which the understanding family members have with each other results in a strong sense of belonging. Once separation takes place- belonging itself starts to fade, and an individual must than consider the effects of alienation and unfamiliarity. Belonging, that is, the connection an individual feels to the world he or she inhabits often comes down to the specific factors that shape their experience. One’s world is made up of their individual cultures, location, experiences, familiarity, relationships and environments. This idea is represented in The Arrival and The Secret River, in which each protagonist’s sense of belonging comes down to several of these factors of belonging. For some, time will result in a once unknown and alienated sense or place, to a comfortable and evolving feeling inhabited by an individual, and for others, belonging is concrete mindset in which they need to experience the sense of belonging.

Lockheed management Essay

We examined the decision to invest in the Tri-Star project by forecasting the cash flow associated with the project for a volume of 210 planes. We also asked what a valid estimate of the NPV of the Tri-Star project at a volume of 210 planes as of 1967 would be. We found this to be -$584 M. This was clearly an unacceptable NPV for capital budgeting on the project. A break-even analysis revealed that the project reached economic break-even with the production of 275 planes at $12.5 M per unit but did not reach value break-even at that level of production. Despite industry analysts predicting 300 units as Lockheed’s break-even sales point, at this level, net present value remained insufficient to cover costs at negative $274 million. If the company had performed a true value break-even analysis, management would have realized that roughly 400 Tri Star aircraft (about 67 per year for six years) costing somewhere between $11.75 million and $12 million per unit would have to be sold in order to break even. The investment decision made by Lockheed to pursue the Tri Star program was not a reasonable one. A true value analysis shows that at the production level of 210 units, the project would result in an economic loss of $584.05 million and a profit loss of $480 million. In addition to miscalculating the break-even level of production, Lockheed management overestimated the growth rate of air travel industry.

Marketing Plan for RedBull Chewing Gum Research Proposal

Marketing Plan for RedBull Chewing Gum - Research Proposal Example So the company will follow a strategic marketing plan for advertisement and to reach to the target audience. They will show the products in print and television advertisement. The detailed plan has covered everything like POS to competitive environment. If we talk about the brand awareness of Red Bull, then it is interesting to know that it is a very lucrative energy drink which is very famous all around the world. Red Bull is at number 2 in the market of energy drinks and is continuously trying to become the leader, that's the major reason behind introducing the Red Bull Chewing gum. As its really important to reach the target markets with appropriate levels of frequency and credibility. We will use both push or pull strategy or exclusive distribution in some conditions. Usually the well known brands are successful of developing a pull strategy with their loyal customers. So if we face any sort of constraint then we will ask our distributors to use exclusive distribution strategy to sell the chewing gum; so that the consumer might want to break the suspense, 'why is it only available in few outlets'. The product is placed in the outlet and the shop is using the brand equityto develop his reliability of the shop name and is also associating with an existing brand name to introduce a new product orproduct line will also attract the target audience. Red-Bull... Situation Analysis If we talk about the brand awareness of Red Bull, then it is interesting to know that it is a very lucrative energy drink which is very famous all around the world. Red Bull is at number 2 in the market of energy drinks and is continuously trying to become the leader, that's the major reason behind introducing the Red Bull Chewing gum. As its really important to reach the target markets with appropriate levels of frequency and credibility. We will use both push or pull strategy or exclusive distribution in some conditions. Usually the well known brands are successful of developing a pull strategy with their loyal customers. So if we face any sort of constraint then we will ask our distributors to use exclusive distribution strategy to sell the chewing gum; so that the consumer might want to break the suspense, 'why is it only available in few outlets'. The market of Red Bull drink is already has good stead so the chewing gum with the same effect will be a total suspense in the consumers of the drink, leaving no doubt that they will buy it. The product is placed in the outlet and the shop is using the brand equityto develop his reliability of the shop name and is also associating with an existing brand name to introduce a new product orproduct line will also attract the target audience. PESTLE Analysis Political: Red-Bull is a well known product in UK. There will be no political restriction against a really similar product. This product will be a really innovative product as there is no chewing gum with the energy boost. Economics: Red Bull chewing gum is a extension of lucrative red bull energy drink. There are no particular expends that will make this extensive project.New employees will be hiring for this product

444 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

444 - Assignment Example In fact, even from the heading of the poem itself, I could guess that there was some Translocation or migration taking place. The poem consolidates the theme of the present and past in her demonstration of the movement of slaves in a precise manner that interests her ultimate audience. Contra wise, comprehending the novel chapters in a bid to extract the main idea was hectic. I had to read many lines and chapters to realize the perception of Africans as held by the Europeans. Indeed, the analysis of the two readings differed significantly from the analysis of Orientalism. It is because Orientalism of Edward is written based on facts and reality that should not be overemphasized or undermined. As opposed to two literary pieces that contain literary devices that the audience can make assumption about while interpreting, Orientalism is a unique literary piece that restricts the reader in accepting a central opinion based on the existing facts it presents. The opening of the reading, â€Å"Things Fall Apart† is of specific interest and needs consideration. The opening pattern of a novel or narrative should be effective to attract the audiences of the text to the body of the novel. Indeed, a book that presents a narrative about the life of a character or characters in the opening section of the story is significant in introducing the situations and themes in the text. Specifically, Chinua Achebe’s â€Å"Things Fall Apart† begins with the story of Okonkwo and his late father, Unoka. It presents the situation of Okonkwo as a respected leader of the Igbo community located in Eastern Nigeria. The story covered the life of the character in the past when he brought glory to the village through wrestling Amalinze the Cat to the ground. From that instance, his reputation grew significantly across the Umuofia’s nine villages. Besides, the story exposes his character, for example, his nature of getting angered quickly . When

Muhammad Yunus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Muhammad Yunus - Essay Example Micro finance is a term given for the practice of providing financial services, usually very small loans, to developing economies. As the name itself suggests, most transactions in micro finance involve small amounts of money, frequently less than 100 USD. This paper will review an article about Microfinance titled, The Microfinance Promise written by Jonathan Murduch with special focus on Economist, Muhammad Yunus. The main thesis of this article is about the role of Microfinance in the development of individuals and how Muhammad Yunus’s role is very crucial in that development. Microfinance is the ray of hope for many people the world over, who were living a life of struggle due to the lack of basic needs caused by deficient economic resources. This economic deficiency is actually due their inability to find a livelihood and this is further accentuated by the apathy shown by the Government and its institutions. â€Å"About one billion people globally live in households with per capita incomes of under one dollar day. The policymakers and practitioners †¦face an uphill battle. Reports of bureaucratic sprawl and unchecked corruption abound† (Murduch 1569) The author focusses on Muhammad Yunus and Grameen bank after discussing about the utility of Microfinance and the latest approaches. According to the author, it is due to the personal initiative of Muhammad Yunus that Microfinance had its roots in Bangladesh, which in turn ‘rooted’ and ‘routed’ many lives in their path to success. Before Yunus’s initiative, many people had no idea of about the concept of Microfinance and lived their lives with lot of discomfort. And, this term entered common parlance due to the work of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, who was aptly awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 2006. Muhammad Yunus is only credited with disbursing the first microloan in Bangladesh in 1974 using his own money. The author of the article, Murduch focusses on Yunus

Stop YELLING AT YOUR KIDS. It's Bad for Them Essay

Stop YELLING AT YOUR KIDS. It's Bad for Them - Essay Example There is a lot of research that supports the usefulness of this system. Unless, an individual is rewarded for showing good discipline and punished for showing bad discipline, the individual cannot learn, actively or passively, which behaviors are socially acceptable and which are not. The author has based her results on a study that found out that yelling has bad effects on the psychology of the children which can be biased. Furthermore, the study is based on middle-class families in which the children require least disciplining anyway. Even if the results of the study are believed, they cannot be applied on poor and elite Americans that make a larger part of the American society combined, alike. The author has made a good analysis of the possible outcomes of yelling i.e. either the child gets embarrassed and becomes quiet or the child yells back. While these are rightly the two possible outcomes of yelling, it is wrong to say that parental yelling instills embarrassment or anger in the children. Yes, it does induce these feelings in the children for a while, but this is healthy. If a child is raised without letting him/her experience these feelings at all, he would not know when to use these feelings in his/her dealing with others in the society. ... Not only those children never shout back at their parents themselves, they cannot take it when somebody else even talks bad about their parents. Their behavior toward their parents is so nice because their parents have used right combination of spanking and yelling to raise their children in such a way. Their technique works more often than not. The west should take lessons from those societies. On the contrary, what happens in our society where the law has placed so many restrictions over what a parent can and cannot do to the children is completely devastating. Let’s take the Maury Show for example. It is a very popular show in which Maury, the host introduces the problems faced by average Americans in their personal lives. This includes all classes of Americans, including the rich, the middle-class, and the poor. One can frequently find such episodes in the Maury Show where a parent is abused verbally, physically, or both by his/her children. This is a really upsetting situ ation and parents in such a situation feel awkward and unsafe in their own home. This is definitely the result of such a legal framework in which parents’ hands are tied whereas the children are given the leverage to do whatever they want to do. Children in such a society as ours know the legal limitations imposed on the parents and tend to blackmail the parents for that. Concluding, in a society in which beating, spanking, and so many other kinds of behaviors that a parent can execute to discipline a child are forbidden, yelling is the one and only weapon in the hands of the parents. If the weapon of yelling is taken away from the parents, they practically get into an inferior position to their children because while

This is a group work. The part which I am doing is about HP.com. Look Essay

This is a group work. The part which I am doing is about HP.com. Look at Assignment criteria, and write in the form of 12 sub - Essay Example The company’s global operations have been said to e directed from California’s Palo Alto in the US, which is its headquarters. On the other hand, its US operations have often been directed from special facility within Texas’ unincorporated Harris County near Houston. The Latin American offices to this company are situated within Florida’s unincorporated Miami-Dade County, in Medellin Columbia near Miami (Hennessey and Jeannette, 2004). In Europe, its offices are in Switzerland’s Meyrin close to Geneva. In Asia-Pacific, its offices are located in Singapore. Moreover, it possesses large operations within Plano, Texas, San Diego, Colorado, Fort Collins, California, Roseville, Idaho and Boise. Within the United Kingdom, HP bases itself on a considerably large site within Bracknell, Berkshire with the offices having been located within several locations including a landmark tower office within London’s 88 Wood Street. The company’s websites is created to be accessed by every individual within the globe without any issues, with the delivery services being executed upon order from consumers. Overall Strategy HP’s recent strategic move might be referred to have been out rightly outstanding. Its decision to do away with the hardware systems and lay focus upon enterprise software, appropriately waved the white flag, as well as ceded the dramatically changing personal computing business into Apple when it made public its intentions of jettisoning its customer hardware division together with scrapping its poorly selling mobile product line so as to concentrate on business services (Dorfler & Heuveline, 2007). According to a variety of analysts, HP’s move seems to have been an original idea of an outsourcing powerhouse IBM, having continuously bundled the hardware that it no longer owns to its outsourcing deals. This has been considered HP’s ‘appropriate correction’ within the industry, exiti ng the markets where it could be attaining a hiding and concentrating on the enterprise clients that desire for alternatives to the giant powerhouse, IBM. In case it technically rids itself off the computer business, it might offer the customers who might be wary of outsourcer, thus pushing its own hardware an impression that it is vendor-agnostic (2007). Marketing Strategy The company seems to be taking transformative, bold steps in order to drive the creation of long term value of shareholders through a concentration of fewer fronts, thus improving its capability of executing, investing in innovation and driving a higher margin business mix. However, it is clear that actual transformation within the outsourcing industry calls for more than just shifting the dollars from hardware devices to software devices. Although laying focus on software and other services might not necessarily enhance those sectors in the future, but it enables the company to concentrate on a particular consum er base and fully satisfy their desires within an industry that is less saturated and less competitive; the outsourcing industry (Burkett, 2002). However, the move to outsource its business cannot guarantee that the company would not be faced any competition. In fact, stiff competition might be posed by the Indian based companies like Cognizant, Infosys and may others. In order to fight back, the company possesses a majority stake within Mphasis, the Indian IT service provider and could

Concert review of the Train and Mat Kearney Show at Ravinia Festival Essay

Concert review of the Train and Mat Kearney Show at Ravinia Festival in Chicago Illinois - Essay Example A unique feature of this venue is that the pavilion itself is already elevated on a natural terrain so that the viewers do not have to crane their necks or push towards the front of the concert in order to have a good look at their performing band. This ease of viewing added greatly to the overall experience as from the concert experiences I have had, it can often be frustrating to attempt to maintain a comfortable distance from the performance while still being able to have good visibility and not being crushed by the crowd. With respect to the concert lighting, the concert fell short. This was not necessarily due to a lack of proper planning but due to the fact that the performance took place outdoors. As such, most lighting displays need adequate indoor facilities in order to project the lights onto the stage instead of from the stage to the stage. Therefore, by nature of the venue, the lighting left something to be desired as the performers were illuminated in what only seemed li ke a two dimensional way. To be fair, in order to achieve proper lighting, it would have been necessary to anchor multiple high powered lights in and around the area that the concert goers were viewing the show. This would have caused further inconvenience due to the hassle of draped power cords and the non visibility that would have been a problem to those seated or standing behind such anchored lights. With rock concerts, the venue has a heavy bearing as to the overall ability of the lighting and sound to mirror the same type of experience that might be available to the concertgoer in an indoor setting. As such, with respect to the overall sound level and equipment used, the organizers were limited with what they could do; instead having to sacrifice by setting up a barrage of speakers on the front lines of the pavilion in order to ensure that the sound was loud enough to reach those at the very back of the concert area. Such a technique is effective, however; it can make the nois e level somewhat unbearable for those that wish to be in the front rows of the concert. This was very much the case as I attempted to get a closer view of the performance I was appalled at the overall noise level that was coming from the very front of the concert. It was uncomfortable in the extreme to spend more than a very few moments in such a setting. This fact helped to somewhat reduce the overall effectiveness of the concert; however, it must be noted that as described earlier, such techniques are just part and parcel of what having an outdoor concert necessarily entails and could not have likely been improved by another band performing under the same conditions. With respect to overall accessibility, the concert also scored well in my perspective. Due to the fact that there was plenty of room to move around, high stage visibility even from areas far removed from the performance and an outdoor setting, individuals, even with disabilities, could easily gain entry, have room to move around, and enjoy the concert without being impeded by the setting. With respect to the actual fashion and style that the performer’s exhibited, it could be described as a very folksy representation of pan-America. Flannel, leather, boots, and cowboy hats

Psycholosy (Counterconditioning theory) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psycholosy (Counterconditioning theory) - Essay Example For example, a psychologist named Ivan Pavolov conducted a famous psychological experiment on dogs. He conditioned dogs to understand that when a bell was rang (the stimulus), the dogs began to salivate in reaction to learning that the bell meant food. This was an extremely important part of understanding classical conditioning. Phobias are an irrational fear of an object or setting. Often, this will cause shock with a person in that they are completely unable to function with the phobia present. One of the ways in which therapists work to help clients overcome their phobia is using behavioral therapy. One of the techniques, which are used, is the exposure technique. The basis behind exposure technique is for the therapist to expose the client to the phobia in which they are experienced in a controlled setting. This is often done in a systematic routine starting with a low threat stimulus working up to complete exposure. For example, if a therapist was working with a client who had a fear of flying in airplanes, they might start by showing a video of an airplane flying. Next, they would try a flight simulator. These cognitive restructuring steps would build upon one another resulting in the final step of actually riding on an airplane. While this is similar to flooding technique that starts at the extreme of the phobia where exposure technique is done in increments. ... de Jong, Jasper A.J. Smits Affiliation Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University Source Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, Vol 42(1), Mar, 2011. pp. 117-121. ISSN 0005-7916 Descriptors *Disgust; *Exposure Therapy; *Fear; *Phobias; Arachnida Abstract The present study examines the relative contributions of changes in state fear and disgust emotions to improvements in spider phobia observed with exposure-based treatment. Sixty-one treatment-seeking spider fearful individuals underwent a one-session exposure in vivo treatment. Growth curve analyses indicated that treatment was associated with significant improvements in state fear and disgust reactions to a live spider and self-reported trait spider phobia symptoms. Mediation analyses demonstrated that changes over time in state fear and disgust each explained unique variance in improvements in phobic symptoms over time. Examination of the effect size of the mediated pathways suggests that changes in fear and changes in disgust are important to reductions in the severity of spider phobia symptoms during exposure-based treatment. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of fear and disgust emotions in the maintenance and treatment of spider phobia are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) Methodology Empirical Study; Interview; Quantitative Study Electronic; Print Electronic Journal; Peer Reviewed Journal Journal Article Accepted Date: Jul 29, 2010; Revised Date: Jul 27, 2010; First Submitted Date: Apr 20, 2010 20110117All rights reserved.. Elsevier Ltd.. 2010. 10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.07.007 In this study, there was an experiment run in order to see whether exposure therapy worked on treating arachnophobia. They had a sample size of

Summarization for saven chapters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Summarization for saven chapters - Essay Example This reduction led to a hold being formed in the earth’s ozone layer in an area that has less than 220 Dobson units of ozone. In 1995 a second hole formed over the Arctic. Ozone is basically an oxygen atom that has been multiplied by three and is created by the suns rays high up in the atmosphere and is capable of blocking most of the UV light rays that range between 0.28 and 0.32 microns (Flannery 213-221). Chapter 24: The Road to Kyoto The Kyoto protocol faced a myriad of problems before it was eventually passed. Initially it was thought to be dead until when Russia ratified it on February 16, 2005 which was ninety days after its passing. The road to the formulation of the Kyoto protocol was seen to begin in 1985 at a scientific conference that was held in Australia. Five years after this conference methods that could be used to effectively reduce these emissions were discovered. The major hindrances that have faced the Kyoto protocol have been mainly economically and politi cally based. This has especially been so with Australia which currently has the highest per capita levels of greenhouse emissions as compared to all the other industrialized countries. The growth of emission levels in Australia over the past decade has also been considerably higher as compared to other OECD countries. Currently, the Kyoto Protocol is the only agreed upon treaty that aims to fight climate change (Flannery 222-231). Chapter 25: Cost, Cost, Cost Global warming is continuously increasing the amount of money that is spent around the world in efforts aimed at reducing its effects. Countries such as Australia and the United States wrongly perceive the Kyoto protocol as aiming to increase these costs for its member countries as opposed to reducing them. An example of the overall effectiveness of this protocol is that if Britain were to switch to using 100% renewable energy, this would have the effect of reducing the annual growth of its spending on global warming at an annu al rate of 1% until 2050. If everyone takes the time to do their job, saving the earth does not come at a huge price. The warmer the planets temperature the higher the likelihood that nations will face increased costs as they attempt to offer the necessary required relief to their citizenry. Flannery is seen to successfully prove his point that is time for all the nations to step up and ensure that they work together so as to try and reverse the catastrophic effects of climate change because enough is not being done at the current slow rate (Flannery 232-238). Chapter 26: People in Green Houses Shouldn’t Tell Lies There has been a lot of corruption in government and private organizations in regards to matters pertaining to the effects of climate change. Several groups have formed erroneous theories that water down the effects of climate change. The Global Climate Coalition that was founded by fifty companies in the coal, oil, chemical, gas and auto industries is one such grou p that claims addressing the effects of climate change could potentially add approximately fifty cents to the price of a gallon of gas in the United States. Other examples of this rampant widespread corruption include the case of Philip A. Clooney who happened to serve in

Beyond Good and Evil Essay Example for Free

Beyond Good and Evil Essay UPPOSING that Truth is a woman—what then? Is there not ground for suspecting that all philosophers, in so far as they have been dogmatists, have failed to understand women—that the terrible seriousness and clumsy importunity with which they have usually paid their addresses to Truth, have been unskilled and unseemly methods for winning a woman? Certainly she has never allowed herself to be won; and at present every kind of dogma stands with sad and discouraged mien—IF, indeed, it stands at all! For there are scoffers who maintain that it has fallen, that all dogma lies on the ground—nay more, that it is at its last gasp. But to speak seriously, there are good grounds for hoping that all dogmatizing in philosophy, whatever solemn, whatever conclusive and decided airs it has assumed, may have been only a noble puerilism and tyronism; and probably the time is at hand when it will be once and again understood WHAT has actually sufficed for the basis of such imposing and absolute philosophical edifices as the dogmatists have hitherto reared: perhaps some popular superstition of immemorial time (such as the soul-superstition, which, in the form of subject- and ego-superstition, has not yet ceased doing mischief): perhaps some play upon words, a deception on the part of grammar, or an audacious generalization of very restricted, very personal, very human—all-too-human facts. Beyond Good and Evil S The philosophy of the dogmatists, it is to be hoped, was only a promise for thousands of years afterwards, as was astrology in still earlier times, in the service of which probably more labour, gold, acuteness, and patience have been spent than on any actual science hitherto: we owe to it, and to its ‘super- terrestrial’ pretensions in Asia and Egypt, the grand style of architecture. It seems that in order to inscribe themselves upon the heart of humanity with everlasting claims, all great things have first to wander about the earth as enormous and awe- inspiring caricatures: dogmatic philosophy has been a caricature of this kind—for instance, the Vedanta doctrine in Asia, and Platonism in Europe. Let us not be ungrateful to it, although it must certainly be confessed that the worst, the most tiresome, and the most dangerous of errors hitherto has been a dogmatist error—namely, Plato’s invention of Pure Spirit and the Good in Itself. But now when it has been surmounted, when Europe, rid of this nightmare, can again draw breath freely and at least enjoy a healthier—sleep, we, WHOSE DUTY IS WAKEFULNESS ITSELF, are the heirs of all the strength which the struggle against this error has fostered. It amounted to the very inversion of truth, and the denial of the PERSPECTIVE— the fundamental condition—of life, to speak of Spirit and the Good as Plato spoke of them; indeed one might ask, as a physician: ‘How did such a malady attack that finest product of antiquity, Plato? Had the wicked Socrates really corrupted him? Was Socrates after all a corrupter of youths, and deserved his hemlock? ’ But the struggle against Plato, or—to speak plainer, and for the ‘people’—the strugFree eBooks at Planet eBook. com gle against the ecclesiastical oppression of millenniums of Christianity (FOR CHRISITIANITY IS PLATONISM FOR THE ‘PEOPLE’), produced in Europe a magnificent tension of soul, such as had not existed anywhere previously; with such a tensely strained bow one can now aim at the furthest goals. As a matter of fact, the European feels this tension as a state of distress, and twice attempts have been made in grand style to unbend the bow: once by means of Jesuitism, and the second time by means of democratic enlightenment—which, with the aid of liberty of the press and newspaper-reading, might, in fact, bring it about that the spirit would not so easily find itself in ‘distress’! (The Germans invented gunpowder-all credit to them! but they again made things square—they invented printing. ) But we, who are neither Jesuits, nor democrats, nor even sufficiently Germans, we GOOD EUROPEANS, and free, VERY free spirits—we have it still, all the distress of spirit and all the tension of its bow! And perhaps also the arrow, the duty, and, who knows? THE GOAL TO AIM AT†¦. Sils Maria Upper Engadine, JUNE, 1885. Beyond Good and Evil CHAPTER I: PREJUDICES OF PHILOSOPHERS 1. The Will to Truth, which is to tempt us to many a hazardous enterprise, the famous Truthfulness of which all philosophers have hitherto spoken with respect, what questions has this Will to Truth not laid before us! What strange, perplexing, questionable questions! It is already a long story; yet it seems as if it were hardly commenced. Is it any wonder if we at last grow distrustful, lose patience, and turn impatiently away? That this Sphinx teaches us at last to ask questions ourselves? WHO is it really that puts questions to us here? WHAT really is this ‘Will to Truth’ in us? In fact we made a long halt at the question as to the origin of this Will—until at last we came to an absolute standstill before a yet more fundamental question. We inquired about the VALUE of this Will. Granted that we want the truth: WHY NOT RATHER untruth? And uncertainty? Even ignorance? The problem of the value of truth presented itself before us—or was it we who presented ourselves before the problem? Which of us is the Oedipus here? Which the Sphinx? It would seem to be a rendezvous of questions and notes of interrogation. And could it be believed that it at last seems to us as if the problem had never been propounded before, as if we were the first to discern it, get a sight of it, Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com .and RISK RAISING it? For there is risk in raising it, perhaps there is no greater risk. 2. ‘HOW COULD anything originate out of its opposite? For example, truth out of error? or the Will to Truth out of the will to deception? or the generous deed out of selfishness? or the pure sun-bright vision of the wise man out of covetousness? Such genesis is impossible; whoever dreams of it is a fool, nay, worse than a fool; things of the highest value must have a different origin, an origin of THEIR own—in this transitory, seductive, illusory, paltry world, in this turmoil of delusion and cupidity, they cannot have their source. But rather in the lap of Being, in the intransitory, in the concealed God, in the ‘Thing-in-itself— THERE must be their source, and nowhere else! ’ —This mode of reasoning discloses the typical prejudice by which metaphysicians of all times can be recognized, this mode of valuation is at the back of all their logical procedure; through this ‘belief’ of theirs, they exert themselves for their ‘knowledge,’ for something that is in the end solemnly christened ‘the Truth. ’ The fundamental belief of metaphysicians is THE BELIEF IN ANTITHESES OF VALUES. It never occurred even to the wariest of them to doubt here on the very threshold (where doubt, however, was most necessary); though they had made a solemn vow, ‘DE OMNIBUS DUBITANDUM. ’ For it may be doubted, firstly, whether antitheses exist at all; and secondly, whether the popular valuations and antitheses of value upon which metaphysicians have set their seal, are not perhaps merely superficial estimates, merely provi Beyond Good and Evil sional perspectives, besides being probably made from some corner, perhaps from below—‘frog perspectives,’ as it were, to borrow an expression current among painters. In spite of all the value which may belong to the true, the positive, and the unselfish, it might be possible that a higher and more fundamental value for life generally should be assigned to pretence, to the will to delusion, to selfishness, and cupidity. It might even be possible that WHAT constitutes the value of those good and respected things, consists precisely in their being insidiously related, knotted, and crocheted to these evil and apparently opposed things—perhaps even in being essentially identical with them. Perhaps! But who wishes to concern himself with such dangerous ‘Perhapses’! For that investigation one must await the advent of a new order of philosophers, such as will have other tastes and inclinations, the reverse of those hitherto prevalent—philosophers of the dangerous ‘Perhaps’ in every sense of the term. And to speak in all seriousness, I see such new philosophers beginning to appear. 3. Having kept a sharp eye on philosophers, and having read between their lines long enough, I now say to myself that the greater part of conscious thinking must be counted among the instinctive functions, and it is so even in the case of philosophical thinking; one has here to learn anew, as one learned anew about heredity and ‘innateness. ’ As little as the act of birth comes into consideration in the whole process and procedure of heredity, just as little is ‘being-conscious’ OPPOSED to the instinctive in any decisive Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com sense; the greater part of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly influenced by his instincts, and forced into definite channels. And behind all logic and its seeming sovereignty of movement, there are valuations, or to speak more plainly, physiological demands, for the maintenance of a definite mode of life For example, that the certain is worth more than the uncertain, that illusion is less valuable than ‘truth’ such valuations, in spite of their regulative importance for US, might notwithstanding be only superficial valuations, special kinds of maiserie, such as may be necessary for the maintenance of beings such as ourselves. Supposing, in effect, that man is not just the ‘measure of things. ’ 4. The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The question is, how far an opinion is lifefurthering, life- preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions (to which the synthetic judgments a priori belong), are the most indispensable to us, that without a recognition of logical fictions, without a comparison of reality with the purely IMAGINED world of the absolute and immutable, without a constant counterfeiting of the world by means of numbers, man could not live—that the renunciation of false opinions would be a renunciation of life, a negation of life. TO RECOGNISE UNTRUTH AS A CONDITION OF LIFE; that is certainly to impugn the traditional ideas of value in a dangerous manner, and a phi Beyond Good and Evil losophy which ventures to do so, has thereby alone placed itself beyond good and evil. 5. That which causes philosophers to be regarded halfdistrustfully and half-mockingly, is not the oft-repeated discovery how innocent they are—how often and easily they make mistakes and lose their way, in short, how childish and childlike they are,—but that there is not enough honest dealing with them, whereas they all raise a loud and virtuous outcry when the problem of truthfulness is even hinted at in the remotest manner. They all pose as though their real opinions had been discovered and attained through the self-evolving of a cold, pure, divinely indifferent dialectic (in contrast to all sorts of mystics, who, fairer and foolisher, talk of ‘inspiration’), whereas, in fact, a prejudiced proposition, idea, or ‘suggestion,’ which is generally their heart’s desire abstracted and refined, is defended by them with arguments sought out after the event. They are all advocates who do not wish to be regarded as such, generally astute defenders, also, of their prejudices, which they dub ‘truths,’— and VERY far from having the conscience which bravely admits this to itself, very far from having the good taste of the courage which goes so far as to let this be understood, perhaps to warn friend or foe, or in cheerful confidence and self-ridicule. The spectacle of the Tartuffery of old Kant, equally stiff and decent, with which he entices us into the dialectic by-ways that lead (more correctly mislead) to his ‘categorical imperative’— makes us fastidious ones smile, we who find no small amusement in spying out Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com the subtle tricks of old moralists and ethical preachers. Or, still more so, the hocus-pocus in mathematical form, by means of which Spinoza has, as it were, clad his philosophy in mail and mask—in fact, the ‘love of HIS wisdom,’ to translate the term fairly and squarely—in order thereby to strike terror at once into the heart of the assailant who should dare to cast a glance on that invincible maiden, that Pallas Athene:—how much of personal timidity and vulnerability does this masquerade of a sickly recluse betray! 6. It has gradually become clear to me what every great philosophy up till now has consisted of—namely, the confession of its originator, and a species of involuntary and unconscious auto-biography; and moreover that the moral (or immoral) purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown. Indeed, to understand how the abstrusest metaphysical assertions of a philosopher have been arrived at, it is always well (and wise) to first ask oneself: ‘What morality do they (or does he) aim at? ’ Accordingly, I do not believe that an ‘impulse to knowledge’ is the father of philosophy; but that another impulse, here as elsewhere, has only made use of knowledge (and mistaken knowledge! ) as an instrument. But whoever considers the fundamental impulses of man with a view to determining how far they may have here acted as INSPIRING GENII (or as demons and cobolds), will find that they have all practiced philosophy at one time or another, and that each one of them would have been only too glad to look upon itself as the ultimate end of existence 10 Beyond Good and Evil and the legitimate LORD over all the other impulses. For every impulse is imperious, and as SUCH, attempts to philosophize. To be sure, in the case of scholars, in the case of really scientific men, it may be otherwise—‘better,’ if you will; there there may really be such a thing as an ‘impulse to knowledge,’ some kind of small, independent clock-work, which, when well wound up, works away industriously to that end, WITHOUT the rest of the scholarly impulses taking any material part therein. The actual ‘interests’ of the scholar, therefore, are generally in quite another direction— in the family, perhaps, or in money-making, or in politics; it is, in fact, almost indifferent at what point of research his little machine is placed, and whether the hopeful young worker becomes a good philologist, a mushroom specialist, or a chemist; he is not CHARACTERISED by becoming this or that. In the philosopher, on the contrary, there is absolutely nothing impersonal; and above all, his morality furnishes a decided and decisive testimony as to WHO HE IS,—that is to say, in what order the deepest impulses of his nature stand to each other. 7. How malicious philosophers can be! I know of nothing more stinging than the joke Epicurus took the liberty of making on Plato and the Platonists; he called them Dionysiokolakes. In its original sense, and on the face of it, the word signifies ‘Flatterers of Dionysius’—consequently, tyrants’ accessories and lick-spittles; besides this, however, it is as much as to say, ‘They are all ACTORS, there is nothing genuine about them’ (for Dionysiokolax was a popular Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com 11 name for an actor). And the latter is really the malignant reproach that Epicurus cast upon Plato: he was annoyed by the grandiose manner, the mise en scene style of which Plato and his scholars were masters—of which Epicurus was not a master! He, the old school-teacher of Samos, who sat concealed in his little garden at Athens, and wrote three hundred books, perhaps out of rage and ambitious envy of Plato, who knows! Greece took a hundred years to find out who the garden-god Epicurus really was. Did she ever find out? 8. There is a point in every philosophy at which the ‘conviction’ of the philosopher appears on the scene; or, to put it in the words of an ancient mystery: Adventavit asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus. 9. You desire to LIVE ‘according to Nature’? Oh, you noble Stoics, what fraud of words! Imagine to yourselves a being like Nature, boundlessly extravagant, boundlessly indifferent, without purpose or consideration, without pity or justice, at once fruitful and barren and uncertain: imagine to yourselves INDIFFERENCE as a power—how COULD you live in accordance with such indifference? To live—is not that just endeavouring to be otherwise than this Nature? Is not living valuing, preferring, being unjust, being limited, endeavouring to be different? And granted that your imperative, ‘living according to Nature,’ means actu1 Beyond Good and Evil ally the same as ‘living according to life’—how could you do DIFFERENTLY? Why should you make a principle out of what you yourselves are, and must be? In reality, however, it is quite otherwise with you: while you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature, you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein; you insist that it shall be Nature ‘according to the Stoa,’ and would like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal glorification and generalism of Stoicism! With all your love for truth, you have forced yourselves so long, so persistently, and with such hypnotic rigidity to see Nature FALSELY, that is to say, Stoically, that you are no longer able to see it otherwise— and to crown all, some unfathomable superciliousness gives you the Bedlamite hope that BECAUSE you are able to tyrannize over yourselves—Stoicism is self-tyranny—Nature will also allow herself to be tyrannized over: is not the Stoic a PART of Nature? †¦ But this is an old and everlasting story: what happened in old times with the Stoics still happens today, as soon as ever a philosophy begins to believe in itself. It always creates the world in its own image; it cannot do otherwise; philosophy is this tyrannical impulse itself, the most spiritual Will to Power, the will to ‘creation of the world,’ the will to the causa prima. 10. The eagerness and subtlety, I should even say craftiness, with which the problem of ‘the real and the apparent world’ Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com 1 is dealt with at present throughout Europe, furnishes food for thought and attention; and he who hears only a ‘Will to Truth’ in the background, and nothing else, cannot certainly boast of the sharpest ears. In rare and isolated cases, it may really have happened that such a Will to Truth—a certain extravagant and adventurous pluck, a metaphysician’s ambition of the forlorn hope—has participated therein: that which in the end always prefers a handful of ‘certainty’ to a whole cartload of beautiful possibilities; there may even be puritanical fanatics of conscience, who prefer to put their last trust in a sure nothing, rather than in an uncertain something. But that is Nihilism, and the sign of a despairing, mortally wearied soul, notwithstanding the courageous bearing such a virtue may display. It seems, however, to be otherwise with stronger and livelier thinkers who are still eager for life. In that they side AGAINST appearance, and speak superciliously of ‘perspective,’ in that they rank the credibility of their own bodies about as low as the credibility of the ocular evidence that ‘the earth stands still,’ and thus, apparently, allowing with complacency their securest possession to escape (for what does one at present believe in more firmly than in one’s body? ),—who knows if they are not really trying to win back something which was formerly an even securer possession, something of the old domain of the faith of former times, perhaps the ‘immortal soul,’ perhaps ‘the old God,’ in short, ideas by which they could live better, that is to say, more vigorously and more joyously, than by ‘modern ideas’? There is DISTRUST of these modern ideas in this mode of looking at things, a 1 Beyond Good and Evil disbelief in all that has been constructed yesterday and today; there is perhaps some slight admixture of satiety and scorn, which can no longer endure the BRIC-A-BRAC of ideas of the most varied origin, such as so-called Positivism at present throws on the market; a disgust of the more refined taste at the village-fair motleyness and patchiness of all these reality-philosophasters, in whom there is nothing either new or true, except this motleyness. Therein it seems to me that we should agree with those skeptical anti-realists and knowledge-microscopists of the present day; their instinct, which repels them from MODERN reality, is unrefuted †¦ what do their retrograde by-paths concern us! The main thing about them is NOT that they wish to go ‘back,’ but that they wish to get AWAY therefrom. A little MORE strength, swing, courage, and artistic power, and they would be OFF—and not back! 11. It seems to me that there is everywhere an attempt at present to divert attention from the actual influence which Kant exercised on German philosophy, and especially to ignore prudently the value which he set upon himself. Kant was first and foremost proud of his Table of Categories; with it in his hand he said: ‘This is the most difficult thing that could ever be undertaken on behalf of metaphysics. ’ Let us only understand this ‘could be’! He was proud of having DISCOVERED a new faculty in man, the faculty of synthetic judgment a priori. Granting that he deceived himself in this matter; the development and rapid flourishing of German philosophy depended nevertheless on his pride, and on the Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com 1 eager rivalry of the younger generation to discover if possible something—at all events ‘new faculties’—of which to be still prouder! —But let us reflect for a moment—it is high time to do so. ‘How are synthetic judgments a priori POSSIBLE? ’ Kant asks himself—and what is really his answer? ‘BY MEANS OF A MEANS (faculty)’—but unfortunately not in five words, but so circumstantially, imposingly, and with such display of German profundity and verbal flourishes, that one altogether loses sight of the comical niaiserie allemande involved in such an answer. People were beside themselves with delight over this new faculty, and the jubilation reached its climax when Kant further discovered a moral faculty in man—for at that time Germans were still moral, not yet dabbling in the ‘Politics of hard fact. ’ Then came the honeymoon of German philosophy. All the young theologians of the Tubingen institution went immediately into the groves—all seeking for ‘faculties. ’ And what did they not find—in that innocent, rich, and still youthful period of the German spirit, to which Romanticism, the malicious fairy, piped and sang, when one could not yet distinguish between ‘finding’ and ‘inventing’! Above all a faculty for the ‘transcendental†; Schelling christened it, intellectual intuition, and thereby gratified the most earnest longings of the naturally pious-inclined Germans. One can do no greater wrong to the whole of this exuberant and eccentric movement (which was really youthfulness, notwithstanding that it disguised itself so boldly, in hoary and senile conceptions), than to take it seriously, or even treat it with moral indignation. Enough, however—the world 1 Beyond Good and Evil grew older, and the dream vanished. A time came when people rubbed their foreheads, and they still rub them today. People had been dreaming, and first and foremost—old Kant. ‘By means of a means (faculty)’—he had said, or at least meant to say. But, is that—an answer? An explanation? Or is it not rather merely a repetition of the question? How does opium induce sleep? ‘By means of a means (faculty), ‘namely the virtus dormitiva, replies the doctor in Moliere, Quia est in eo virtus dormitiva, Cujus est natura sensus assoupire. But such replies belong to the realm of comedy, and it is high time to replace the Kantian question, ‘How are synthetic judgments a PRIORI possible? ’ by another question, ‘Why is belief in such judgments necessary? ’—in effect, it is high time that we should understand that such judgments must be believed to be true, for the sake of the preservation of creatures like ourselves; though they still might naturally be false judgments! Or, more plainly spoken, and roughly and readily—synthetic judgments a priori should not ‘be possible’ at all; we have no right to them; in our mouths they are nothing but false judgments. Only, of course, the belief in their truth is necessary, as plausible belief and ocular evidence belonging to the perspective view of life. And finally, to call to mind the enormous influence which ‘German philosophy’—I hope you understand its right to inverted commas (goosefeet)? —has Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com 1 exercised throughout the whole of Europe, there is no doubt that a certain VIRTUS DORMITIVA had a share in it; thanks to German philosophy, it was a delight to the noble idlers, the virtuous, the mystics, the artiste, the three-fourths Christians, and the political obscurantists of all nations, to find an antidote to the still overwhelming sensualism which overflowed from the last century into this, in short—‘sensus assoupire. ’ †¦ 12. As regards materialistic atomism, it is one of the best- refuted theories that have been advanced, and in Europe there is now perhaps no one in the learned world so unscholarly as to attach serious signification to it, except for convenient everyday use (as an abbreviation of the means of expression)— thanks chiefly to the Pole Boscovich: he and the Pole Copernicus have hitherto been the greatest and most successful opponents of ocular evidence. For while Copernicus has persuaded us to believe, contrary to all the senses, that the earth does NOT stand fast, Boscovich has taught us to abjure the belief in the last thing that ‘stood fast’ of the earth—the belief in ‘substance,’ in ‘matter,’ in the earth-residuum, and particle- atom: it is the greatest triumph over the senses that has hitherto been gained on earth. One must, however, go still further, and also declare war, relentless war to the knife, against the ‘atomistic requirements’ which still lead a dangerous after-life in places where no one suspects them, like the more celebrated ‘metaphysical requirements†: one must also above all give the finishing stroke to that other and more portentous atomism which Christianity has 1 Beyond Good and Evil taught best and longest, the SOUL- ATOMISM. Let it be permitted to designate by this expression the belief which regards the soul as something indestructible, eternal, indivisible, as a monad, as an atomon: this belief ought to be expelled from science! Between ourselves, it is not at all necessary to get rid of ‘the soul’ thereby, and thus renounce one of the oldest and most venerated hypotheses—as happens frequently to the clumsiness of naturalists, who can hardly touch on the soul without immediately losing it. But the way is open for new acceptations and refinements of the soul-hypothesis; and such conceptions as ‘mortal soul,’ and ‘soul of subjective multiplicity,’ and ‘soul as social structure of the instincts and passions,’ want henceforth to have legitimate rights in science. In that the NEW psychologist is about to put an end to the superstitions which have hitherto flourished with almost tropical luxuriance around the idea of the soul, he is really, as it were, thrusting himself into a new desert and a new distrust—it is possible that the older psychologists had a merrier and more comfortable time of it; eventually, however, he finds that precisely thereby he is also condemned to INVENT—and, who knows? perhaps to DISCOVER the new. 13. Psychologists should bethink themselves before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to DISCHARGE its strength—life itself is WILL TO POWER; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent RESULTS thereof. In short, here, as everywhere else, Free eBooks at Planet eBook. com 1 let us beware of SUPERFLUOUS teleological principles! — one of which is the instinct of self- preservation (we owe it to Spinoza’s inconsistency). It is thus, in effect, that method ordains, which must be essentially economy of principles. 14. It is perhaps just dawning on five or six minds that natural philosophy is only a world-exposition and worldarrangement (according to us, if I may say so! ) and NOT a world-explanation; but in so far as it is based on belief in the senses, it is regarded as more, and for a long time to come must be regarded as more—namely, as an explanation. It has eyes and fingers of its own, it has ocular evidence and palpableness of its own: this operates fascinatingly, persuasively, and CONVINCINGLY upon an age with fundamentally plebeian tastes—in fact, it follows instinctively the canon of truth of eternal popular sensualism. What is clear, what is ‘explained’? Only that which can be seen and felt—one must pursue every problem thus far. Obversely, however, the charm of the Platonic mode of thought, which was an ARISTOCRATIC mode, consisted precisely in RESISTANCE to obvious sense-evidence—perhaps among men who enjoyed even stronger and more fastidious senses than our contemporaries, but who knew how to find a higher triumph in remaining masters of them: and this by means of pale, cold, grey conceptional networks which they threw over the motley whirl of the senses—the mob of the senses, as Plato said. In this overcoming of the world, and interpreting of the world in the manner of Plato, there was an ENJOYMENT different from that which the physicists 0 Beyond Good and Evil of today offer us—and likewise the Darwinists and antiteleologists among the physiological workers, with their principle of the ‘smallest possible effort,’ and the greatest possible blunder. ‘Where there is nothing more to see or to grasp, there is also nothing more for men to do’—that is certainly an imperative different from the Platonic one, but it may notwithstanding be the right imperative for a hardy, laborious race of machinists and bridge- builders of the future, who have nothing but ROUGH work to perform. 15. To study physiology with a clear conscience, one must insist on the fact that the sense-organs are not phenomena in the sense of the idealistic philosophy; as such they certainly could not be causes! Sensualism, therefore, at least as regulative hypothesis, if not as heuristic principle. What? And others say even that the external world is the work of our organs? But then our body, as a part of this external world, would be the work of our organs! But then our organs themselves would be the work of our organs! It seems to me that this is a complete REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM, if the conception CAUSA SUI is something fundamentally absurd. Consequently, the external world is NOT the work of our organs—? 16. There are still harmless self-observers who believe that there are ‘immediate certainties†; for instance, ‘I think,’ or as the superstition of Schopenhauer puts it, ‘I will†; as though cognition here got hold of its object purely and simply as ‘the thing in itself,’ without any falsification taking place eiFree eBooks at Planet eBook. com 1 ther on the part of the subject or the object. I would repeat it, however, a hundred times, that ‘immediate certainty,’ as well as ‘absolute knowledge’ and the ‘thing in itself,’ involve a CONTRADICTIO IN ADJECTO; we really ought to free ourselves from the misleading significance of words! The people on their part may think that cognition is knowing all about things, but the philosopher must say to himself: ‘When I analyze the process that is expressed in the sentence, ‘I think,’ I find a whole series of daring assertions, the argumentative proof of which would be difficult, perhaps impossible: for instance, that it is I who think, that there must necessarily be something that thinks, that thinking is an activity and operation on the part of a being who is thought of as a cause, that there is an ‘ego,’ and finally, that it is already determined what is to be designated by thinking—that I KNOW what thinking is. For if I had not already decided within myself what it is, by what standard could I determine whether that which is just happening is not perhaps ‘willing’ or ‘feeling’?

Al Capone: The American Gangster

Al Capone: The American Gangster Al Capone was an American gangster who led a crime syndicate dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. Capone began his career in Brooklyn before moving to Chicago and becoming the boss of the criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit; although, his business card reportedly described him as a used furniture dealer. He was, and still is, the most recognized and influential Mafioso in American history. Both hated and loved by the public, he shared a common dislike with many people in American society at that time; a strong disdain for the temperance movement. Alphonse Gabriel Al Capone was born on January 17, 1899 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Italian immigrants Gabriele and Teresina Capone. They landed in New York just in time for the Panic of 1893, which would wrack the countrys economy for years. Gabriel who was a skilled barber and Teresina a seamstress, wisely chose Brooklyn as home in preference to the even greater squalor and density of Mulberry Bend, Manhattans Lower East Side Italian colony; not that the depression spared Brooklyn. Unemployment would soon idle one quarter of the boroughs workforce, making it no time for the unskilled.  [1]   The Capones lived better than most. Though Gabriel could not ply his trade at first, he avoided the drudgery and extreme low pay of manual labor because he boasted another skill that went with his trade; he could read and write. In Italy, as well as in America, the illiterate expected their barber to read them any letters that came their way. Gabriels learning earned him a job in a grocery store until he could gather enough of a stake to open his own barber shop; a storefront in a tenement at 69 Park Avenue.  [2]   Little Al, as he was called, had started school at John Jay, P.S. 7, at 141 York, near the Navy Yard. After the family had moved, he transferred to William A. Butler, P.S. 133, at 355 Butler Street; seven blocks away from Garfield. Until he reached sixth grade, he maintained a B average. He devoted much time and energy to his favorite extracurricular activity, playing hooky. He attended class only thirty-three days of the required ninety. A red-haze temper that would occasionally overmaster him all his life exploded one day, and he hit a teacher who was lecturing him. Sent to the principals office, he got a whipping and quit school in embarrassment. He was fourteen at the time, but he was ready to quit anyway as it was practically a family tradition.  [3]   Al made a stab at an assortment of honest jobs; clerk in a candy store and pin boy in a bowling alley. For a while he earned twenty-three dollars a week working in an ammunition factory. He also worked as cutter in a book bindery, following his older brother Ralph, who had worked in the print shop of a newspaper. Apprenticeship for Al Capones lifes work, though, arose on the streets. The streets Capone traveled as a young boy was ruled by gangs, or more precisely kid gangs. Members of these kid gangs could not be called gangsters; by todays standards they would barely qualify as delinquents. Excepting petty pilferage and occasional lunch-money extortion, few engaged in activity anyone would consider downright criminal.  [4]   Al was heavily influenced by gangster Johnny Torrio whom he considered to be his mentor. John Torrio was the thinking mans criminal. Torrio owned a bar on James Street at the corner of Water. He soon expanded, leasing a rooming house down the block which he filled with prostitutes and a nearby store he converted into a pool hall. Young Al could hardly have avoided absorbing the lesson of someone who had attained money and power without the drudgery that were typically weighed on others.  [5]   Al eventually joined the South Brooklyn Rippers, a junior gang that inducted kids as young as eleven. No reliably authentic details about Als activities in his late boyhood and early teens have survived, but he evidently did not stand out or apart. Not many years later, a former Brooklyn kid-gang member remembered him as something of a nonentity, affable, soft of speech and even mediocreà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.  [6]   Al had caught the eye of someone who could exert the most portentous influence possible at that stage. It was Frankie Yale, six years older, who had ushered Al into the Forty Thieves Juniors gang. When Al entered his mid-teens, Yale welcomed him exclusively into the adult gang Five Points headed by Johnny Torrio. Membership in this Manhattan gang showcased his tough scrappiness. Capone learned all there was to know about extortion and slugging and the rest on the banks of the Gowanus Canal, says William Balsamo, Brooklyn native and historian of New York crime. Yale was fashioning a complex of enterprises beyond the Harvard Inn: a mortuary; racehorses; prizefighters; another nightspot, the Sunrise Cafe; a line of cigars-all based finally on his main line, strong-arm terror.  [7]   Capones job as bartender and bouncer at Yales Harvard Inn demanded a certain finesse. The trick was to bounce without alienating, and only to do so after considered efforts to calm and subdue had failed. Ideally, the bounced would recognize themselves as out of line. Capone combined the mass to bounce authoritatively and the intelligence to do it with tact. Capone became Yales pupil, favored by invitations after a hard night at the Harvard Inn to sleep over at Yales house. That happened frequently enough that Yales daughters would show visitors Als room. Yale had the swagger of a young man, already boss yet still a comer. Inevitably, Capone viewed Yale as a model and a teacher.  [8]   One summer night in 1917 resulted in scarring consequences. Frank Galluccio Galluch, a merchant seaman, barbers assistant, and spear-carrier in the Genovese crime family strutted into the Harvard Inn with his date, Maria Tanzio, and his kid sister, Lena. The sight of Lena set Capones glands exploding. Every time his rounds took him past her table he would try to chat with her; Lena snubbed him. Her brother who was half drunk and did not know Capone assumed from his familiarity that Lena did. His kid sisters growing anger penetrated Galluccios alcoholic fog stating, You know that guy? Lena then responded: I never saw him before. Hes got a lotta nerve. He wont give up, Frank. He cant take a hint. But I dont like him; he is embarrassing me. Maybe you could ask him to please stop-in a nice way.  [9]   Capone headed their way again and Galluccio was ready to take him aside like a gentleman: Hey, mister, please do me favor, okay? Shes my kid sister, you knowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Before Galluccio could speak, Capone leaned over to Lena, and whispered-loud enough to startle the party at the next table with heads swiveled in amazement-You got a nice ass, honey, and I mean it as a compliment. Believe me. Her brother sprang to his feet. The insult was bad enough; the fact that strangers had plainly heard made it insupportable. I wont take that shit from nobody, Galluccio shouted. Apologize to my sister now, you hear? At a moment, Capones brain reasserted itself, perhaps kicked in by sister. Family meant everything, and its evocation put this customer unarguably in the right. With his most ingratiating and placating smile, Capone turned to Galluccio arms spread wide and palms up and open: Hey, whatsa matter, pal, a little misunderstanding, a joke, no offenseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ This is no fucking jo ke, mister, cried Galluccio.  [10]   Galluccio stood five-foot-six and weighed under 150. Capone looked like a mountain avalanching toward him. The Galluch knew he could be badly hurt unless he struck first and quickly, but his punch would never do the job. He clawed his knife from his pocket and lunged as the streets had taught him. One slash started two inches in front of mid-ear, curved four inches down the left cheek to just below the corner of Capones mouth; the other two each measured two and a half inches, one on the left jaw, and the other on the neck under the left ear. Galluccio grabbed his sister and date and ran out the door. Someone rushed Capone to the Coney Island Hospital where doctors applied thirty stitches to his face.  [11]   Soon Galluccio heard that Frankie Yale had been asking around for him. Galluccio appealed to Joseph Masseria, overlord of all New York for justice. Joe the Boss decreed a sit-down at the Harvard Inn where they agreed that Capone had indeed been wrong and would not be allowed to seek vengeance, while Galluccio had to apologize for his disproportionate reaction-which he readily did, contrite at sight of how he had disfigured Capone. Capone also recognized the justice of the settlement and the dishonor of his scars. He later put out the story that the scars had happened to him in service with the Lost Battalion of World War I. In fact, he had never been called up in the draft. This notable scarring had given him the infamous nickname Scarface.  [12]   In 1918 Capone met an Irish girl at a dance and fell in love. She was pretty, slim and tall with a round piquant face and large eyes framed by a helmet of blond hair. Baptized Mary, she would be known all her life as Mae, daughter of Michael Coughlin, a construction worker, and the former Bridget Gorman. On December 4, 1918, Mae gave birth. Eighteen days later, Maes sister, Kathleen, and James DeVico, an otherwise obscure friend of Capones, became godparents to Albert Francis Capone, also known as Sonny. Mae had almost two years on Capone, perhaps an embarrassment to them because each fudged a year of age on their marriage registration. Capone appears in the church records as Albert, maybe a mistake, or maybe a typical bit of criminal obfuscation.  [13]   Members of the Anti-Saloon League, founded 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio, sincerely believed everyone would be better off without alcohol. They looked forward, one historian has observed, to a world freeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦from want and crime and sin, a sort of millennial Kansasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Their campaign, which quickly enveloped the nation, combined such animating idealism with the most brutal brass-knuckles politics; the league terrorized Congress. In the words of a popular song of the era: What Have They Got on You, Mr. Congressman? Weve heard just how those drys, Keep cases on you Congress guys. One wrong vote and reports would wing back home broadcasted by the leagues fifty thousand field workers.  [14]   Americas April 6, 1917, entry into the war sanctified the dry cause as patriotism even for the doubting majority. The liquor trade gobbled up enough grain for eleven million loaves of bread a day. The league insisted drunken workers could not turn out war materiel any more than drunk soldiers could shoot straight. Caving in to these pressures, Congress passed a resolution calling for a prohibition amendment to the Constitution and sent it to the state legislatures for ratification in December 1917. On January 16, 1919, Nebraska provided the necessary three-fourths majority by becoming the thirty-sixth state to approve the resolution. The Eighteenth Amendment would become law in one year.  [15]   Meanwhile, the league rammed wartime Prohibition through Congress. Until the Eighteenth Amendment kicked in at midnight on Friday, January 16, 1920, the interim law forbade anyone in the United States to make, sell or transport-without a permit-any beverage containing more than one half of 1 percent alcohol. The ban-both permanent and interim-cunningly did not include owning, drinking or buying liquor. The league had been careful not to offend voters or members of Congress; many were notoriously wet in habits no matter how dry they voted.  [16]   Capone was a suspect for two murders in 1919 and was seeking a safe haven and a better job to provide for his new family. Capone relocated to Chicago to help out his Five Points gang mentor Johnny Torrio. Torrio had gone to Chicago to resolve some family problems his cousins husband was having with the Black Hand. Torrino had also been summoned there to help out his uncle, Big Jim Colosimo, the citys leading whoremaster to run his empire. By the time Capone arrived, Torrio was in dispute with Big Jim. Seeing the major financial opportunities that came with Prohibition, Torrio wanted Colosimo to shift his organizations main thrust to bootlegging; Big Jim was not interested. He had become rich and fat in the whoring trade and saw no need to expand. He forbade Torrio to get into the new racket. Torrio realized that Colosimo had to be eradicated so that he could use Big Jims organization for his criminal plans. Together he and Capone planned Colosimos murder and sent Frankie Yale and his men from New York to carry out the job. Capone and Torrio meantime would act out airtight alibis  [17]  . One of Capones duties was to buy trucks for Torrios operation-which those in it called the outfit-especially after Capone took over. Members used it casually when talking among themselves about their group-I joined the outfit two years ago-as they would say Im with Capone, when talking about their affiliation to an outsider. Many in the outfit were involved in transporting beer. For most of them, being part of a gang meant little more than being a truck driver; that was the entry-level job for most. Possible promotion led to muscle and racketeering work. But Torrio relied on few to buy new and used trucks; one was Capone. By mid-1922 Capone already ranked as Torrios number two.  [18]   The election of reform mayor William Emmet Dever led to Chicagos city government putting more strain on the gangster agenda within city limits. Devers biographer called him a dripping Wet who enforced Prohibition. He would tell a meeting of beer-guzzling Germans, I have never pretended to be, and am not now a Prohibitionist. But he would have law and order stating, He would enforce the law to the limit. Within a month, authorities were raiding places citywide with, wrote a reporter, unabated enthusiasm, arresting five hundred in one sweep, 450 in another. Within six months his men had closed over four thousand blatant saloons and some five hundred soda parlors-notoriously fronts for selling beers. A significant amount of license revocations were set forth.  [19]   To put its headquarters outside of city jurisdiction and create a safe zone for its operations, the Capone organization muscled its way into Cicero, Illinois. This led to one of Capones greatest triumphs; the takeover of Ciceros town government in 1924. Capone made it clear that he wanted an all-out conquest of the town. He installed his older brother Frank (Salvatore) as the front man with the Cicero city government. Ralph was tasked with opening up a working-class brothel called the Stockade for Ciceros heavily blue-collar population. Al focused on gambling and took an interest in a new gambling joint called the Ship. He also took control of the Hawthorne Race Track.  [20]   For the most part, the Capone conquest of Cicero was unopposed, with the exception of Robert St. John, the crusading young journalist at the Cicero Tribune. Every issue contained an expose on the Capone rackets in the city. The editorials were effective enough to threaten Capone-backed candidates in the 1924 primary election. On election day things got ugly as Capones forces kidnapped opponents election workers and threatened voters with violence. As reports of the violence spread, the Chicago chief of police rounded up seventy nine cops and provided them with shotguns. The cops, dressed in plain clothes, rode in unmarked cars to Cicero under the guise of protecting workers at the Western Electric plant there. Frank Capone, who had just finished negotiating a lease, was walking down the street when the convoy of Chicago policemen approached him. Someone recognized him and the cars emptied out in front of him. In seconds, Franks body was riddled with bullets. Technically, the police c alled it self defense, since Frank, seeing the police coming at him with guns drawn, had revealed his own revolver.  [21]   Al was enraged and escalated the violence by kidnapping officials and stealing ballot boxes. One official was murdered. When it was all over, Capone had won his victory for Cicero. Capones temper stayed under control for about five weeks. But then, Joe Howard, a small-time thug, assaulted Capones friend Jack Guzik when he turned him down for a loan. Guzik told Capone and tracked Howard down in a bar. Howard had the poor judgment to call Capone a dago pimp and Capone shot Howard dead.  [22]   While only twenty-five, Al Capone became a prominent figure in Chicagos organized crime. He wasnt the only one though. Dion OBanion owned a thriving florist shop, but was also one of the biggest names in the bootlegging business. Flamboyant but untrustworthy, OBanion became a thorn in Capones side. In one instance, OBanion killed a man outside of Capones Four Deuces gambling joint and the ensuing trial dragged Capone into unwanted attention. OBanion also set up Torrio to be arrested by the police. He had promised Torrio he would move to Colorado if Torrio agreed to buy OBanions Sieben Brewery. OBanion took the money and left while the police were waiting to raid the brewery. Torrio went to jail and OBanion kept the money. The Brewery was eventually shut down permanently.  [23]   OBanion met his end while preparing a floral arrangement in his shop on November 10, 1924. He was a consummate hand shaker and on that day three known gangsters came in the shop. Thinking they were there to pick up flowers for the funeral of another prominent gangster, he went to shake their hands. One of them pulled OBanion off balance and six shots rang out. While there was a great deal of speculation concerning the triggermen, no one ever went to trial over the murder. It did leave OBanions territory wide open for Capone to move in, but also made powerful enemies of OBanions friends. These friends included Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran.  [24]   Over the next two years, Moran and Weiss would fail in over a dozen assassination attempts against Capone. On January 24, 1925, Torrio was returning to his apartment at 7106 South Clyde Avenue from a shopping trip with his wife Anna. Walking from his car towards his apartment building, Weiss and Moran opened fire. They shot Torrio in the chest, neck, right arm and groin, but miraculously the elderly man survived. The true miracle came about when one of the men-reportedly Moran-held his gun to Torrios head and pulled the trigger only to hear the click of an empty firing chamber. This incident made Torrio consider quitting the game. After recovering, Torrio pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in jail for the Sieben Brewery raid. During his jail sentence Torrio informed Capone he was planning on leaving Chicago and turning his vast empire over to Al stating, Its all yours Al. Me? Im quittin. Its Europe for me. Torrio then moved to Italy with his mother and wife.  [25]   Shortly after he took over Johnny Torrios empire, it was clear that his new status had changed Al Capone. He was a major force now in the Chicago underworld. To underscore his rise in the world, he moved his headquarters to the Metropole Hotel. His luxurious suite of five rooms cost $1,500 per day. He went from near obscurity to cultivated visibility. Capone became visible at the opera, at sporting events and charitable functions. He was an important member of the community: friendly, generous, successful, supplying a throng of thirsty customers. In an era where most of the adult population drank bootleg alcohol, the bootlegger seemed almost respectable.  [26]   In the spring of 1926, Capones run of good luck hit a snag. On April 27, Billy McSwiggin, known as the young hanging prosecutor who had tried to pin the 1924 death of Joe Howard on Capone, met with an accident. A bootlegger named Jim Doherty picked McSwiggin up by car at his fathers house. Dohertys car broke down and they hitched a ride with bootlegger Klondike ODonnell, a bitter enemy of Capone. The four Irish lads went on a drinking binge in Cicero with ODonnell and his brother Myles and ended up at a bar close to the Hawthorne Inn where Capone was having dinner. ODonnells cruising around in Cicero was a territorial insult.  [27]   Capone and his henchmen, not realizing that McSwiggin was in the bar with Myles ODonnell, waited outside in a convoy of cars until the drunken men staggered out. Then out came the machine guns and McSwiggin and Doherty were dead; Capone was immediately blamed. Despite the blot on McSwiggins integrity for keeping company with bootleggers, sympathy was with the dead young prosecutor. There was a big outcry against gangster violence and public sentiment went against Capone. While everyone in Chicago knew that Al Capone was responsible, there was not a shred of proof and the failure of this high-profile investigation to return an indictment was an embarrassment to local officials. Police took out their frustrations on Capones whorehouses and speakeasies which endured a series of raids and fires.  [28]   Capone went into hiding for three months. Reputedly some 300 detectives looked for him all over the country; in Canada and even Italy. He initially found refuge in the home of a friend in Chicago Heights and then, for most of the time, with friends in Lansing, Michigan. Those three months in hiding made an indelible mark on Al. He began to see himself as much more than a successful racketeer. He believed he was a source of pride to the Italian immigrant community; a generous benefactor and important fixer who could help people. His bootlegging operations employed thousands of people, many of whom were poor Italian immigrants. While much of this was just his ego getting larger, Capone had real leadership abilities and was very capable of extending those talents into areas that were beneficial to the community. He seriously thought of retiring from his life of crime and violence.  [29]   On July 28, 1926, he returned to Chicago to face the accusations of murder. It turned out to be the right decision because the authorities did not have sufficient evidence to bring him to trial. For all the public uproar and efforts of the law enforcement groups, Al Capone was a free man. The people of Chicago were tired of reading about gang violence and the newspapers fanned their anger. Capone held a highly publicized peace conference in which he appealed to the other bootleggers assembled there to tone down the violence. He made his point stating, There is enough business for all of us without killing each other like animals in the streets. I dont want to die in the street punctured by machine-gun fire. At the end of the meeting, an amnesty had been negotiated which accomplished two key things; first, there would be no more murders or beatings and second, past murders would not be avenged. For more than two months thereafter, nobody connected with the bootlegging business was kil led.  [30]   In May of 1927, the Supreme Court made a decision that Manny Sullivan, a bootlegger, had to report and pay income tax on his illegal bootlegging business. Just because reporting and paying tax on illegally-derived revenues was self-incrimination, it was not unconstitutional. With the Sullivan ruling, the small Special Intelligence Unit of the IRS under Elmer Irey was able to go after Al Capone.  [31]   Unaware and uninterested in Manny Sullivan or Elmer Irey, Capone became more compulsively extroverted and expansive. He indulged heavily in his two big passions; music and boxing. He became close pals with boxermJack Dempsey, but given the concern over fixed fights, the friendship had to be very discreet. Always an opera lover, Capone expanded his patronage to the jazz world. With the opening of the Cotton Club in Cicero, Al became a jazz impresario, attracting and cultivating some of the best black jazz musicians of the day. Unlike so many other Italian gangsters, Al did not seem to have the deep-seated racial prejudice and he gained the trust and respect of many of his musicians. Al extended his generosity and personal concerns to everybody who worked for him, black or white. Al spoke to reporters: Public service is my motto. Ninety percent of the people in Chicago drink and gamble. Ive tried to serve them decent liquor and square games. But Im not appreciated. Im known all over the world as a millionaire gorilla.  [32]   Capone biographer Laurence Bergreen described the way Capone inserted himself into the lives of those he knew: He came to dominate them not by shouting, overwhelming, or bullying, although the threat of physical violence always loomed, but by appealing to the inner man, his wants, his aspirationsby making them feel valued, they gave unstintingly of their loyalty, and loyalty was what Capone needed and demanded; in the volatile circles through which he moved it was the only protection he had from sudden death. The highest compliment other men could pay Capone was to call him a friend, which meant they were willing to overlook his scandalous reputation, that he had never been a pimp or a murderer.  [33]   The exposure was becoming a real nuisance. When he left for a trip to the West Coast, he had police surrounding him at every station. Los Angeles toughest detective said We have no room here for Capone or any other visiting gangsters whether they are here on pleasure tours or not. When Capone came back from the West Coast he found himself surrounded by six Joliet policemen with their shotguns aimed at him. Capone stated, Well, Ill be damned. Youd think I was Jesse James. Whats the artillery for? In Chicago, the police made things as uncomfortable as possible by surrounding his house and arresting him at the slightest provocation.  [34]   Capone left for Miami where the weather was much better than the Chicago winter, but the reception by the local community was chilly. He, Mae, and Sonny rented a house for the season and started to look for a permanent residence. Over the coming months he would invest a small fortune in redecorating his new palace in Miami, securing it like a small fortress with concrete walls and heavy wooden doors.  [35]   The Palm Island estate came to the attention of IRS Intelligence Unit watchdog Elmer Irey. He chose Frank J. Wilson to head up the job of documenting Capones income and spending. The job was monumental; despite Capones lavish spending everything was transacted through third parties. Although Capone had incredible wealth, every transaction was on a cash basis. The major exception was the very tangible assets of the Palm Island estate, which was evidence of a major source of income.  [36]   George Emmerson Q. Johnson, a member of the Scandinavian old boys network in the Midwest, was appointed U.S. attorney for Chicago. Johnson targeted Capone with unbridled passion. In the spring of 1928, the violence preceding the April primary election began to escalate out of control. It was not clear who was orchestrating all of this violence, but this time the targets were not gangsters, but U.S. Senator Charles Deneen, a reformer and a judge. The unabashedly corrupt Mayor Bill Thompson was presumed responsible since the victims were people who opposed him, but Al Capone who was still in Florida, was the scapegoat. While Mae Capone spent the spring of 1928 on an extravagant decorating spree Al dedicated himself to establishing himself as a legitimate citizen of Miami. In spite of the outward show of respectability, Al quietly made plans to solve pressing problems caused by his old boss Frankie Yale. The liquor supply deal that Capone and Yale had negotiated was experiencing too many