How Values Affect Decisions in Personal and Professional Life Essay Example for Free

How Values Affect Decisions in Personal and Professional Life Essay Abstract Many people have a set of core values, either personal, organizational, or cultural, that help guide his or her life, and that assist him or her in making decisions in their everyday existence. Most of my decisions are based on how they will affect my family, me, and my career. My family is the key factor in any decision I make. I have to consider what influence my choices will have on my family before I act on them. My success in my career choice of Information Systems is also an important value to me. I strive to improve my knowledge of information systems to the best of ability in order to further my career. This value has brought me to be results oriented, a hard worker, and a team player. Companies are now doing business with other companies in different countries. Organizations are now set up to where employees have to interact with different people to get the job done. If someone desires a long, prosperous career, they have to learn to work with diverse people of different cultures. Everyone has a set of core values that assist him or her in making decisions in their daily existence, and many people expect these values to lead them to live a wonderful life. Many people have a set of core values, either personal, organizational, or cultural, that help guide his or her life, and that assist him or her in making decisions in their everyday existence Values such as my family, friendships, and personal growth contribute to the choices that I make in my personal life. Values such as being results-oriented, a hard worker, a team player, and the desire to be successful guide me in making decisions in an organizational environment. I evaluate my core values before making any decisions that will influence them in anyway. According to author David Peters (2003): Personal ethics have been defined as principles of good behavior, a moral code of conduct, or a system to decide between competing options. But simply stated, personal ethics are nothing more than the rules impose on ourselves that govern our daily actions. (p. 30) For many people different factors and beliefs shape their values but, I believe that everyone shares one goal of living the best life possible not just physically but spiritually and mentally. Many of my decisions are based on how they will affect my family, me, and my career. My family is the key factor in any decision I make. I have to consider what influence my choices will have on my family before I follow through with them. For example, my returning to school keeps me from spending as much time as I would like with my loved ones. I thought about returning back to school long and hard and came to the conclusion that I need to return to school now before I have more children, my daughter gets to an age were I have to run her all over town for things that she wants to participate in, or any other life-changing event takes place. I came to the conclusion that I need to go now because it will only take between a year and half or two years to complete. By the time I am done with school, my daughter will be four and starting kindergarten, and that is a good time to also think about having another child. So I decided to go ahead and return to school and get my masters degree in information systems. If I know that a decision will drastically affect my family, I will go to them to get their input on the situation. My success in my career choice of Information Systems is also an important value to me. Roy Posner states, One of the interesting values in life is ones innate desire for continuous improvement. (Roy Posner 2006). I strive to improve my knowledge of information systems to the best of my ability in order to further my career. This value has brought me to be results oriented, a hard worker, and a team player. In the environment of information technology, everyone has to be team player because most of the positions require people to interact with each other. Whether the person is a systems analyst or a mail clerk, he or she will be part of a diverse group of people who have to work together effectively and efficiently to meet the goals of the organization as a whole. Culture is the key to peoples way of living, accepting changes and doing business is rapidly loosing geographical borders. (Kanungo, 2006, p. 23). Companies are now doing business with other companies in different countries. Organizations are now set up to where employees have to interact with different people to fulfill his or her job duties. If someone desires a long, prosperous career, they have to learn to work with diverse people of different cultures. At one time or another, everyone has had life experiences that help guide his or her decision making process. Nancy Haught (2006) states the following: For many people, from many different belief systems, their faith is the only factor that they see shaping their personal ethics. But most Americans would admit that other factors do play a part: parents or other relatives;? experiences such as a stint in the Peace Corps or a brush with the law. The factors that shape our ethics are varied, but it religion that often gets the credit, or the blame (p.C1) Many people have come to the realization that they dont have to have the world to live a good life. Although, someone may want a successful career, they shouldnt have to sacrifice other aspects of their life to obtain it. Other aspects of life are more fulfilling, such as a wonderful relationship with God, family, and friends. Many people have a set of core values that assist him or her in making decisions in their daily existence, and many people expect these values to lead them to live a wonderful life References Haught, N. (2006, March 11). Ethics values | definitions ethics, morals, values. The Oregonian, C1. Kanungo, R. P. (2006). Cross culture and business practice: are they coterminous or cross-verging? Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), 23. Peters, David. (2003) Your Personal Ethics ? is it time for a check up? National Jeweler, 97 (7), 30. Posner, Roy. (2006). The Power of Personal Values. Retrieved July 05, 2007 from http://www. gurusoftware. com/GuruNet/Personal/Topics/Values. htm.

Nicholas Lezards Quote on Atonement Essay Example for Free

Nicholas Lezards Quote on Atonement Essay â€Å"†¦the novel is itself the act of atonement that Briony Tallis needs to perform; yet we are very much in the land of the unreliable narrator, where evasion and mendacity both shadow and undermine the story that is told† (Nicholas Lezard). Discuss this criticism of Atonement. When one reaches atonement, it means that they feel forgiven, regardless whether they are actually absolved for an offence or not. In Atonement, a novel of drama, war and romance, the author Ian McEwan characterizes the main character, Briony, as a very self-centered person. McEwan’s novel is self-referential when it is implied that the novel is one Briony wrote in order to reach atonement. Nicholas Lezard, critic for the Guardian, says that Briony’s atonement and ‘the truth’ of her story is weakened by Ian McEwan’s characterization of her as an unreliable person. However, some may argue that the novel Briony wrote was a good way to atone for her crime. In the end of the McEwan’s novel, Briony shows that she believes she had done the best she could have to reach atonement. When talking about the final draft of her novel she says â€Å"I’ve regarded it as my duty to disguise nothing – the names, the places, the exact circumstances – I put it all there as a matter of a historical record† (McEwan 349). This makes the reader believe she is being entirely honest. In addition to this, Briony, being a well-known published writer at the age of 77, decides to use her passion, her talent, to become part of her atonement. Although Briony can’t publish her novel until after the death of Lola and Paul Marshall because of her fear of litigation as well as the power and wealth the couple have and will use to protect their names. â€Å"The Marshalls have been active about the courts since the late forties, defending their good names with a most expensive ferocity† (McEwan 349). Her inability to do anything more at this stage of her life makes readers feel sympathy for Briony and want to believe everything that she claims to be true. For these reasons many readers may well believe that Briony had done respectably the best she could have to reach atonement. On the other hand many may agree with Lezard and feel that Briony’s fictional happy ending to her story is a final attempt to evade the guilt she feels. Briony’s medical condition and the fact that she is dying, as a result draws attention away from her desperation to relieve her guilt. â€Å"It is only in this last version that my lovers end well, standing side by side on a South London pavement as I walk away. All the preceding drafts were pitiless† (McEwan 350). This makes the reader question how much more of what actually happened was changed in Briony’s story. Briony even calls herself an â€Å"unreliable witness† (McEwan 338) of the events that occurred which she then wrote about. This also puts the reader in a position to not want to trust anything Briony says. She also says that she likes to think that Robbie and Cecilia’s happy ending wasn’t â€Å"weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness† (McEwan 351), which contradicts to her claim of having the novel published as a historical record, enforcing to the reader her untrustworthiness. These are a few of the reasons for which Briony can be seen as an unreliable person. Aside from her desperation and lies as a result of her coming closer to death, there are other ways in which McEwan characterizes Briony to be unreliable and wanting to partially avoid blame for her committed crime. Briony, the protagonist, wrote her entire novel with an omniscient 3rd person narrator, which as a result distances Briony from the reader and draws some attention away from her offence. Another effect that this has is that it suggests to the reader that the events that occurred happened exactly as they are described, when that is not the case. Should the novel have been written in 1st person from Briony’s point of view, the reader would have seen Briony as an arrogant and not believed her story so easily. Briony on page 350 then clearly states that she made of part of her story when she says When I am dead, and the Marshalls are dead, and the novel is finally published, we will only exist through my inventions (McEwan). McEwan’s characterization of her as a self-centered and unreliable person is consistent from when Briony is 13 years old up to when she is 77. On page 336, Briony says â€Å"However withered, I still feel myself to be exactly the same person I’ve always been† (McEwan), which to the reader signifies that Briony has not matured as a person and still may think like she did when she was a child, making the same mistakes without realizing them. A clear example of the same mistakes Briony makes as an adult, is how she is jealous of her older cousin at the age of 77, the same feeling she had as a child. On page 341, Briony also says, â€Å"I’ve always been good at not thinking about the things that are really troubling me† (McEwan), which has the same effect of characterizing her as unreliable. Briony tries to do good by trying to atone with the novel she wrote, although on page 340, she says, â€Å"If I really cared so much about the facts, I should have written a different kind of book. But my work was done. There would be no further drafts† (McEwan 340), which then makes it very clear to the reader that Briony’s story cannot be trusted. The entire novel is damaged and cannot be believed as a result of Briony’s unreliability. Although Briony’s attempt to atone may seem justifiable to some, it is more reasonable to say that McEwan’s novel of Atonement is reduced from the story of a girl committing a crime and separating two lovers, down to the fantasy world of Briony Tallis blended in with some facts of events she witnessed. The novel being self-referential when it is revealed that Briony wrote it in order to reach atonement, leaves the reader with a very strong impression of Briony as a very unreliable, self-centered person, which then undermines the entire story.

About power supply

About power supply Type of Power Supply and their applications Power supply is a device used to provide the electric energy to operate the devices running by electric power. It has many special way to provide electric energy to a specific system â€Å" it is mother of the system â€Å" ( Brown, 2001, p.1 ). The basic function of power supply is to convert Alternative Current voltage to regulated   Direct Current voltage that required by electronic devices. A typical power supply has four different modules each of them has a specific function. Transformer is the first module and its function is to convert high voltage Alternative Current   to low voltage Direct Current. The second module is Rectifier and its main function is to convert low voltage Alternative Current to Direct Current. The third module is smoothing, the Direct Current produced by the rectifier is varying, so smoothing reduce this varying to small rippling. Last module is regulator, it set the Direct Current voltage to constant value by remove the ripples. This is a basic design of power supply. The design can be huge and complicated based on the requirements. This essay will present the four major types of power supply which are Linear Regulators and Switching Mode Power Supply, Programmable Power Supply, Uninterruptible Power Supply. The first type of power supply is Linear regulated power supply. It is the basic type of power supply. It produce the regulated output voltage by drop the input voltage. â€Å"it is though, a very electrically quiet power supply† (Brown, 2001, p.11). they are often used in ground based equipments and distributed power system. Linear regulated power supply function is to convert varying Alternative Current input to regulated Direct Current output. The typical circuit use in this type has tow range. One allow more voltage at low current and the other allow more current at low voltage. Linear regulated power supplies come in tow basic forms called series regulators and shunt regulators. Series regulated power supplies are most common form of linear regulated power supply. The power dissipated in series regulated device is the product of power supply output current and the voltage drop. Shunt regulated power supplies are simpler form of Linear Regulated power supply, but they are less efficient.   Simplicity is the main advantage of linear regulated power supplies. It is used in systems that require extremely low noise. They are more suitable and cost effective for low power applications. It is used in ground based applications and distributed power systems. Since the linear regulated power supply has very low power output voltage ripple, it is used in low noise / low ripple applications such as communication and radio device where noise is very sensitive. It is more efficient in the application which output voltage is nearly equal to input voltage. Second type of power supply is Switching Mode. It operates in ON-OFF mode. It uses switching circuits and energy storage elements such as capacitors and inductors to get the regulated output voltage. â€Å"These circuits are ideally lossless with 100% energy transfer† (Johnny, 2006, p.1). The main advantage of Switching Mode Power Supply is the higher efficiency because of low power dissipation. Switching Mode Power Supply is used in domestic products which often have universal inputs. Mobile phones have changed their power supply technology from linear regulated to Switching Mode Technology. It is widely used in aircraft electric power such as airplane ground support. Third type of power supply is Programmable Power Supply. It provide the power through a computer interface. It generally depends on both Linear regulated and Switched Mode technologies to produce accurate output power. Programmable power supplies are mainly used in automated equipment testing. They are also used in ultrasonic vibration measurement tools. Last type of power supply is Uninterruptible power supply. It is widely known as UPS or power back up. It is widely used as backup power to protect the devices from crashing due to sudden power loss. There are three major categories of Uninterruptible power supply, offline -standby, online and line-interactive. Offline /standby Uninterruptible power supply provides surge protection and battery back-up up to 20 minutes. When the input power supply falls below the starting level, then Uninterruptible power supply turns on its power circuit providing power backup to the device up in certain time (In this type 20   minutes). Line-Interactive Uninterruptible power supply generally uses only one main power convertor to generate the power. The typical protection time varies from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. The operation of Online Uninterruptible power supply is very similar to Standby or Line-Interactive type. The typical protection time varies between 5 minutes to 30 minutes. But, it provides electrical firewall between incoming utility power and sensitive electronic equipment. They are mainly used for surge protection and back power for computers, data centers and telecommunication equipment. They are used to provide the electric isolation for the equipments which are sensitive to power fluctuations. In conclusion, there are different sources of power being used to provide the power to the systems effectively and efficiently. For example, solar energy and wind power are being converting to electric energy to provide the power to large industrial applications. Power supplies are the heart of any system which requires electrical energy. They not only provide power but also provide the protection to the system against outside disturbances. Therefore, design and development considerations of a power supply are more important. As technology is growing, more advanced power supplies are being invented to provide best protection and efficient power to the devices. References: Brown, M. (2001), Power Supply Cook Book, MA, U.S.A, Butterworth- Heinemann. Bennet, C, Johnny (2006), Practical Computer Analysis of switched mode power supplies, FL, U.S.A, CRC Press. Hoff, Michael. and Samstad, Jeffrey, Technical Comparison of On-Line VS. Line-Interactive UPS [online]. Available: http:\www.apcmedia.com/salestools/JSII-5YQSBR_R0_EN.pdf [accessed February 18, 2010] Unknown. http://www.circuit-projects.com/power-supply/uninterruptible-power-supply-ups-basic-circuit-diagram.html, [accessed February 18, 2010] Understanding Linear Power Supply Operation, Application Note 1554 [online]. Available: http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-2291EN.pdf, [accessed February 16, 2010] Unknown. http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/powersup.htm, [accessed February 17, 2010] Zhang, J, Henry. Linear Regulating and Switching Mode Power Supply Basics[online]. Available: http://www.techonline.com/article/pdf/showPDF.jhtml?id=1931034931[accessed February 15, 2010]

OConnors Everything That Rises Must Converge :: Everything That Rises Must Converge

O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge "Everything That Rises Must Converge," in a sense sums up O'Connor's overall philosophy or theology: that is, that everything which rises above the petty concerns of earth, above materialism, must converge somewhere in an ideal realm, that is, Heaven. The story concerns Julian and his mother and a series of misunderstandings between them. We find that Julian's mother is overweight, rude to other people, particularly to Black people, and very judgmental. Julian in turn spends a lot of his time judging his mother. The story focuses on a bus trip that Julian and his mother are taking to the Y's reducing class, and what happens in the course of that trip. During the bus trip, Julian's mother openly sympathises with some other white women who don't like "Negroes" on the bus. When a Black man gets on the bus, Julian attempts to be friendly with him and in so doing sees himself as morally superior to his mother. We see here that Julian is being very judgmental. For instance, we find Julian entertaining these thoughts after the man has got off the bus: He imagined his mother lying desperately ill and his being able to secure only a Negro doctor for her. He toyed with that idea for a few minutes and then dropped it for a momentary vision of himself participating as a sympathiser in a sit-in demonstration. This was possible but he did not linger with it. Instead, he approached the ultimate horror. He brought home a beautiful suspiciously Negroid woman. Prepare yourself, he said. There is nothing you can do about it. This is the woman I have chosen. (15) It is just shortly after this fantasy that a very large Black woman and her little boy get on and Julian is somewhat delighted because the Negro woman is actually wearing the same hat as his mother, a hat that he has made fun of earlier in the story. Julian reacts as follows: His eyes widened. The vision of the two hats, identical, broke upon him with the radiance of a brilliant sunrise. His face was suddenly lit with joy. He could not believe that Fate had thrust upon his mother such a lesson. He gave a loud chuckle so she would look at him and see that he saw. She turned her eyes on him slowly. The blue in them seemed to have turned a bruised purple.

McMurphy is Not a Christ Figure in Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoo

McMurphy is Not a Christ Figure in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest      Ã‚  Ã‚   Literary fiction is littered with references to Christianity. It is very obviously a large and influential force in the western world so it is hardly surprising that a novel such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is so questioning of our society and moral values, should be so full of references to what is arguably the basis of these values. What the question asks, however, is if the character of McMurphy is portrayed as a Christ figure. A Christ figure being a reflection of the New Testament messiah within the characters actions, beliefs and effect on those around him. The figure will then redeem his followers, lead them to salvation, be martyred and resurrected.    The similarities are prolific in their presence in certain parts of the novel, the very context of both stories shows similarities, both are dealing with an oppressed factor that is set free by an outsider who teaches and challenges the system in which the oppressed are caught.    The first allusion to the New Testament comes when the chief introduces the reader to the patient Ellis. Ellis' arms our outspread in the pose of crucifixion, an affectation caused by many treatments on the Electro-Shock Therapy(EST) table, a pose that McMurphy later adopts when he receives the treatment. Ellis also tells Billy Bibbitt before the fishing trip to be ` a fisher of men' one of Christ's instructions to his disciples. The purpose of the character seems to be an introduction for the reader to this theme and to have it introduced so early on both highlights the universal nature of the struggle that McMurphy and the patients face and also allows the reader to be ... ...erely alludes to Christ.    Works Cited Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Toronto, Ontario Canada: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1962. Kunz, Don. Symbolization in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A Casebook on Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. George J. Searles. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1989. Pratt, John Clark. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: The Viking Press. 1973. Semino, Elena, and Swindlehurst, Kate. Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Northern Light (online posting) Spring 1996. Unknown Author. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (online posting)   

Education Amendment Essay -- Education

Over the years, the federal government has steadily been increasing its control of public education in the United States. The most notable developments of the last decade include the No Child Left Behind Act off 2001 and the ED Recovery Act, part of President Obama’s comprehensive recovery plan. As of September 30, 2010, $97.4 billion dollars was allocated under the ED Recovery Act (Department of Education). With the significant increase in federal interference, the American public should expect positive results. Instead, schools are faced with the same problems they had before the increase in federal interest and, in addition, even more problems arise. Federal involvement in education wastes billions of dollars every year while creating an education system that exists to promote politics, not education. It is time for the federal government to permanently cease its involvement in education. The federal government has been pouring money into the education system for decades. With the additional support the states have been receiving, student achievement and opportunities should be increasing. Instead, school districts are cutting all but the basic programs and achievement remains stagnant. Federal spending per student has tripled since 1970, even when adjusted for inflation (Coulson), but test scores haven’t changed (McCluskey). The only change that was more than 1% was in science, and those scores indicated a drop in scores, not the expected increase (Coulson). Federal money is going down the drain, and the states seem content to keep it that way because it lifts the burden of improving their own schools. This waste of money should not continue. The fundamental premise behind federal control of education is that every child... ...tion. Now it is weak, but it can again be the best in the world. The federal government must cease to involve itself in the field of education. Only then will American students begin to receive the education they deserve. Works Cited Coulson, Andrew J. â€Å"Has Federal Involvement Improved America’s Schools?†. Cato Institute, 2009. Web. 30 November 2010. Department of Education. â€Å"Recovery Act Highlights†. U.S. Department of Education, no date. Web. 30 November 2010. McCluskey, Neal. â€Å"No Federal Failure Left Behind†. Cato Institute, 2004. Web. 30 November 2010. McCluskey, Neal. â€Å"Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict†. Policy Analysis No. 587. Cato Institute, 2007. Web. 30 November 2010. Romanowski, Michael H. â€Å"What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt You: Textbook Omissions and 9/11†. The Clearing House; 82:6 (August 2009). Web. 30 November 2010.

Gun control and the Constitution

The history of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, which guarantees the right of US citizens to â€Å"bear arms† is one of the most complex and controversial of all the developments within constitutional law that have occurred in the last 230 years. In this book Cottrol attempts to bring together most of the major cases on the Second Amendment from the Supreme Court, and also includes various articles on their meaning.One of the most valuable aspects of this book is the fact that Cottrol tackles his subject neither from the perspective of a supporter of the Amendment nor from a gun control advocate. This balance is a rare achievement in a treatment of an aspect of the law that often inspires resonantly partisan scholarship that fails to offer the true complexity and difficulties involved with balancing the various parties involved with the Second Amendment. The book is divided into two main sections. The first gives copies of the two leading Supreme Court c ases, Presser v. Illinois and United States v.Miller, as well as a state case that is now more than a century old but still provides precedence: Aymette v. State of Tennessee. Unlike many other books, Cottrol also provides the full texts of leading laws regarding gun control, such as the Brady Act and the 1986 Farm Owners Protection Act. These enable the reader to compare court cases, with the points of law that are raised within them, as well as the constitutional issues, with the actual laws that are now in place. Over all of them is the simple but actually over-riding language of the Second Amendment.In the second part of the book, Cottrol provides ten law and history scholarly articles which offer a strictly balanced view of the spectrum of views on the Second Amendment. Four out of the ten articles are actually challenging to the idea that the Second Amendment is sacrosanct, while the rest are either historical or pro-Second Amendment in nature. Perhaps the best section of the book is actually the Introduction, an extended contemplation of the various issues involved with gun control from the Revolutionary War on.Cottrol argues that the founding fathers saw that an armed citizenry was a necessity for the defence of political liberty that had only recently been won. However, the idea that America was (and still is) somehow intrinsically different from other countries in its attitude towards gun is merely stated rather than proven. Thus Cottrol argues that â€Å"from the beginning, conditions in colonial America created a very different attitude towards arms and the people† (p. 13).But most European countries had a heavily armed populace in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries compared to today, but have succeeded in developing into modern countries that do not have a generally armed citizenry, with associated much lower crime/murder rates. Cottrol offers an interesting view on a part of the gun control debate that rarely received much attention f rom either side. That is the fact that during the Nineteenth Century fears of insurrection from slaves (and then freed blacks) and Indians meant that there were outright bans on these groups possessing arms.So the Second Amendment has already been suspended in the past for what are now regarded as spurious reasons: should not similar suspensions be considered in the present day? Cottrol does not explicitly state this, but it is implicit within his own scholarship that he briefly outlines within the Introduction to his book. In one of the most important aspects of the book, Cottrol argues that the â€Å"collective rights† argument over whether the Second Amendment merely guarantees the right to bear arms for a small, trained militia (i. e. an army? ) is moot.He says that if both pro and anti- gun control proponents accepted that there is a right to bear arms guaranteed in the Constitution then a genuinely productive conversation and dialogue could occur within society as to se nsible limits to access to that right. Arguing theoretically over whether the â€Å"right† exists or not is a rather futile exercise in sophistry. The more important argument is how the right should be instituted within society: what type of arms should be allowed under the constitution, what limits as to age, criminal history etc, should be placed?The right to bear arms, Cottrol suggests correctly, does not imply the right to bear all arms. For example, fully automatic machine guns have been illegal for ordinary citizens in the United States since the 1930’s. A person cannot but a bazooka, tank or fighter plane and claim that the Second Amendment protects his right to purchase and use it. So the argument, Cottrol suggests, should be on the types of arms that are allowed, not whether they are to be allowed at all. Here Cottrol’s suggestion that Federalist issues be more closely considered is very interesting.He correctly asserts that about 43 states already have laws and/or constitutions that touch in some way or another upon the unfettered right to bear arms. This area of law, full of often contradictory of at least contrasting law, has yet to receive much scholarly attention. Cottrol implies that far more gun control may actually be occurring than those on the national level, arguing over theoretical constitutional matters, seem to understand. State matters may at times conflict with Federal authority, especially considering the existence of state militias versus the federally controlled national guard.Who actually controls national guard units became of great importance during the civil rights movement, when Southern states started to deny the validity of federal laws regarding desegregation. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson all used federal troops in one way or another to help enforce federal court decisions. Cottrol’s book suggests that the strict constitutional arguments regarding the Second Amendment are in fact a f ulcrum for much larger political, social and cultural dilemmas within society.The scholarly articles which support the idea of gun control, and thus the diminishing of Second Amendment rights , often seem to rely upon essentially pragmatic arguments: gun control would lessen the amount and seriousness of violent crime. They imply that a tragic irony is now occurring in which the constitutional amendment designed to protect the country, and to make the citizens safer, have actually made the United States of America one of the most dangerous advanced industrialized countries in the world.The issue of guns and the Second Amendment seems to be rather tangential to the real problems according to Cottrol. He briefly mentions the country that is the most difficult for gun control advocates to explain: Switzerland. The Swiss keep about 650,000 assault weapons in their private homes, making them by far the most armed/per capita population in the world. Yet Switzerland has virtually no violen t crime. The country also has virtually no poor people and few if any of the social problems that seem to lead to much of the gun violence in the United States.While Cottrol’s one volume edition of what was previously a large three-volume work is by necessity limited in length, it is a pity that these wider issues surrounding the Second Amendment could not be considered. For example, the Brady Law, named after the Reagan official who was paralyzed by the man who nearly assassinated President Reagan, was designed to stop the type of attack which had occurred there, but in fact does not really begin to tackle the problem.A person who wants to assassinate a President (or to shoot his wife) will find access to deadly weapons in any country in the world, whether it has no gun laws or a plentitude of them. The psychological problems associated with spree killers such as the Columbine killers cannot be tackled by gun control laws, nor can the economic hardship and desperation that s eems to lead to much of the black-on-black violence that accounts for a majority of murders. If Cottrol were to write another book on the wider implications of gun control these kinds of matters could be considered.Yet the book might still have a constitutional basis as the US Constitution was not a theoretical document written as some kind of intellectual exercise but rather as a living framework on which a democratic country could grow. The argument over whether the US Constitution should be regarded as a â€Å"living document† that should be adapted to current circumstances and even changed if necessary, or whether its power lies within a strictly â€Å"originalist† interpretation is at the heart of political debate today.One of the reasons that many of the public have an opinion on the constitutional arguments surround the Second Amendment is that they are, supposedly, simple to explain. Either the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms or it does not. Cott rol suggests that this is in fact an irrelevant dichotomy: it is how that right is controlled that is at the heart of the matter. In conclusion, Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explanations of the Second Amendment is an excellent book that raises a number of different perspectives on this important part of the US Constitution.Cottrol’s compendium of cases, opinion and scholarship suggests that a balanced approach to the various arguments should be adopted so that both sides can speak to one another rather than at or passed one another. ____________________________________ Works Cited Cottrol, Robert. Gun Control and the Constitution: Sources and Explanations of the Second Amendment. Routledge, New York: 1994. .