Phone Hacking : Does a Pursuit of the Truth Give Journalists the Right?
Phone Hacking : Does a Pursuit of the Truth Give Journalists the Right?
Clearwater, FL (PRWEB) August 01, 2011
Events are finally unfolding to the fullest extent with the English based newspaper, “News of the World”, a company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. After 168 years, the company has ceased publications on July 10th, 2011 due to a scandal involving the practice of hacking into phones to read voice messages and overhear private conversations. Two sources from the law firm of Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett explain how this incident may amend state laws regarding modern technology.
According to a New York Times article by Robert Mackey on September 7, 2010, Sean Hoare claimed that former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson encouraged the practice of phone hackings. Hoare went on to explain “that he had played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson and that his former boss “actively encouraged him” to break into the voice-mail accounts of public figures.”
Sparking further outrage came reports that journalists were even hacking into the phones of surviving family members of victims involved in the September 11 attacks on the world trade center and the July 7th suicide bombings in London. William K. Rashbaum of the New York Times, writes that the FBI has officially launched an “inquiry into allegations that News Corp sought to gain access to the phone records of victims in the Sept 11 attacks.”
On the matter of legal statutes, Attorney Robert Vessel with the law firm of Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett went on to say, “Civil damages for invasion of privacy by phone hacking would have to be determined under the law of the state where the hacking occurred.” Vessel goes on further to say, “As phone hacking is a modern phenomenon, most states have no laws governing this act and traditional tort laws would have to be used. No doubt if phone hacking is proved in the case of the 9/11 victims, many states would pass laws providing a civil remedy for the victims of phone hacking.”
One the most controversial allegations to come forth, is the story of Milly Dowler. Dowler was a thirteen-year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002. As stated in a Guardian article written by Nick Davies and Amelia Hill on July 4th 2011, “phone messages were intercepted and deleted by News of the World journalists in the first few days after Dowler’s disappearance.”
Brandon Cohen at Stetson University College of Law in Tampa Florida stressed the point that the issue of consequences isn’t a constitutional matter, but a matter of civil rights. Cohen goes on to explain, “the only thing an individual can do in regards to a crime committed against them is to sue in the civil court system. For the family members related to the 9/11 victims, they can probably sue for some kind of tortuous violation. But they have to show that there was some kind of damage caused against them. In the case against Milly Dowler however, there I can see an intention of emotional harm with a strong case of receiving a substantial amount of money, due to the fact of deleting messages that could of led to her being saved and may have resulted in her death.”
In a BBC interview held on July 8th, former News of the World editor, Paul McMullan tried to justify his actions stating, “I’ve always tried to write articles in a truthful way, and in what better source of getting the truth, is to listen to someone’s messages.” In the same interview, comedian Steve Coogan attacked McMullan, stating, “You’re not uncovering corruption and bringing down institutions that are inherently corrupt, you’re just trying to find out who’s sleeping with who. It’s about selling papers!”
However, even if phone hacking was used to uncover inherently corrupt institutions, would that still make it all right? Would the ends justify the means, or are even criminals allowed their right to privacy? While it’s questions like these that explain why such a storm won’t dissipate for some time, there is no question about the blatant intrusions committed against the families suffering from tragedies.
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MSP extracting your cell phone data?
MSP extracting your cell phone data?
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is worried that Michigan State Police may be extracting personal data from cell phones illegally, a concern state police say is unfounded.
Read more on WOOD TV 8 Grand Rapids
Team O answers the wrong questions
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon this week published an opinion piece on the administra tion’s efforts toward global nuclear disarmament — a presidential priority. OK, nuclear non-proliferation is important, and I imagine some of the Financial Times’ (mainly European) readers liked Donilon’s piece, “Iran will not hinder plans…
Read more on New York Post
LIFE IS A VLOGWAY! Day 1-5
My First Vlog: Day 1-5
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Duration : 0:9:39
How to Win Your Man Back in Order to Have a Making Up Relationship With You?
How to Win Your Man Back in order to have a making up relationship with you?
Did something go wrong between you and your man? If you were well on your way to being a happy couple and then fell off track somehow, don’t give up. You can win your man back.
Steps
Ask yourself these 4 questions: Is the matter important enough to warrant an argument? Is it appropriate to argue about the matter, or at this time? Can anything be changed, made different by prevailing in the argument? Is the issue worth arguing about? If you get a NO answer to any of these questions, there is no point in arguing. Sometimes realizing there is no benefit to arguing is enough to eliminate the temptation to argue. (A mnemonic for this is “not even worth talking to.”) No Use to Me.
Stop caring about how people perceive you. The fact is, it really doesn’t matter. It’s impossible to be yourself when you’re caught up in wondering “Do they think I’m funny? Does she think I’m fat? Do they think I’m stupid?” To be yourself, you’ve got to let go of these concerns and just let your behaviour flow, with only your consideration of others as a filter—not their consideration of you. Act like there is something more important you could be doing at the moment. Find something else to do or to care about: We care about things not by their absolute importance, but by their relative importance in our lives. If you find something else to take front stage in your life, then other things will naturally take the backstage.
Develop and express your individuality. Whether it’s your sense of style, or even your manner of speaking, if your preferred way of doing something strays from the mainstream, then be proud of it. Keep an emotional distance, too. Mentally take yourself out of the situation. Let it be somebody else’s problem. “That’s not my problem” I don’t know that’s not my problem?
Word Power: What you say and how you say it are two very important factors in exuding class. Always speak at a soft to moderate tone. A loud talker can seem too forceful and may make others feel intimidated. If you have nothing good to say then don’t say anything at all – take that to heart! Cursing is also inappropriate and is very unprofessional in a business setting. Speak calmly. This shows politeness. If you talk very loudly, it will seem that you’re desperate for attention.
Act as if the person bothering you was Non-Existent.
Never smile or laugh, this shows that you hear what the person is saying!!!
Behave. It’s fun to be in a party and dance a lot, but that’s not always classy behaviour. If you’re at a party, the classy behaviour is to socialize, but speak calmly, not monopolizing all the attention.
Smile. Classy people must always seem to be in a good mood. Show life goes on to different shit. Smiling. Learn to recognize when a discussion is no longer a discussion, but is escalating to an argument: Raised voices, flushed face or neck, hairs on the back of your neck stand up, feeling defensive. A good mutual discussion involves both sides listening and attempting to understand each other. Walk away from it not worth the arguing energy, it becomes irrelevant.
Analyse what happened and think about the reasons you still care, then think about the reasons why you shouldn’t care!!!! Avoid desperate behaviour like the plague. This is the kiss of death for the classy person. Only desperate times call for desperate measures. Take a deep breath, be strong, and move through the situation with elegance and grace. You will be the victor for it, no matter the outcome. Try not to listen too much to the content of what they’re saying back to you. Remember, they’re TRYING to push your buttons. Show them your better than them and you really cud care less about it! Say “that’s the thing” I don’t Feel anything it doesn’t have a significant purpose, reason or effect, well to me at least. Your loud, unimportant and your sweating me, like your on my heels.
Take some time to reflect on your own life. What improvements can be made? Be honest with yourself. Have you been selfish? Demanding? Argumentative? Angry? Jealous? Change your ways. Once you’ve figured out what you may have done wrong in the relationship, resist the urge to call the ex and show off your newfound self-realization. Actions speak louder than words. Just BE the new improved self, and word will spread.
Look and feel your best. Get your nails and hair done. Take a nice warm bubble bath, and pick out a nice outfit. Be sure of yourself. Assertiveness and self-confidence are naturally attractive to most people. Showing your guy you’re capable of being happy is appealing and brings a natural desire.
Anger, hurt and insecurity are the root of most insults. If you hurt someone, even unintentionally, they may respond with angry insults. Also, insecure people tend to call attention to the shortcomings of others (even if untrue) in order to cover up for their own perceived inadequacies. Don’t retaliate.
Walk away. If you’ve tried to figure out why this person is targeting you, and can find no reason, tried to joke with them to no avail, and they’re still bent on humiliating and insulting you, just leave. And until they pick a new target (and they will), avoid them. Laugh while you walk away showing that it’s not important to you at all.
Tips
Don’t keep coming back and don’t wait by making yourself available to him. You have a life, so live it! Some one else is out there right now waiting for a person like you. Don’t let your emotions get to you, because then he’ll win. Any performance that he gives is to catch your attention. So just smile and act like it doesn’t bother you if you see him making out with another girl. If your best efforts to take the wind out of their sails fail, warn others to expect random insults from that person.
Don’t take it personally. Some people are just mean. Mean people suck and have no true motives that concern me and everyone knows it. It’s them its not you.
Don’t insult them back. It just adds fuel to the fire. Keep a too positive attitude through everything; it looks like you don’t care about the whole situation. Don’t pass negative comments about what the person is saying, because that shows that you do, indeed, care?
If you’re asked why the guy/girl is acting like that toward you, say honestly that you don’t know. Doesn’t trash talk them to anyone? In that way, they look like (what they probably are) a loony freak, and you look like an innocent, injured person. If you have trouble ignoring drama, imagine you’re sitting in an airplane taking off, watching the cars and buildings get smaller and smaller. You are that small. You’re actually smaller. Your problem is only in your head. Imagine how small your head is compared to one of those cars.
Think about why others might be judging you. What must their lives be like? Are they envious of you, or even attracted to you? They might just hate you. Never mind these people; get them completely out of your life. Smirking, acting superior or completely ignoring them is probably not a good idea. Again, react with humour, it usually works best. If the insulter is just being nasty, then you can ignore them. Whatever you do, don’t act like it matters. This will make others think that you are willing to work with them, destroying any chance of being able to not care. It takes two or more to argue. By politely refusing to argue, you stay out of it. Don’t give a damn. Occupy yourself with something you enjoy; if you have a phone or Nintendo DS, play a game or write a message to someone. If you like to do crossword puzzles, do some. Go ahead!
Jealous people will try to bring you down to their level. Don’t let them. Remember you’ve got a lot going for you Period! In order for this to work, you MUST remain calm, cool and collected. Determine some activities you’ll do to help you to remain calm: my music and things that matter like my purposes. Smile! Frowning or looking timid will only draw more “non confidence” towards you. Smile at everyone you know or other friendly looking people. Remember you have just as much right to walk around as any other person. If you want them to know you are relaxed and carefree, glance every now and then at their eyes. Remember that happiness is the key to value. Enjoy your life as much as you can and make the best out of every situation. If you are truly happy, then other people won’t be able to bring you down with their judgements.
Finding happiness is the definition of success in life. Remember that the whole point of this article is to show others you are proud of yourself, and you don’t care what people perceive you as. You will gain high respect for being yourself and not trying to attach yourself to a group. People want a reaction. If you ignore them, they will realize it’s no fun to taunt and make fun of you. Show them you don’t care, and they’ll get the message. There is a difference between maintaining your inner-self and making a “reputation” for yourself. You don’t want be tacky and loud, argrumentative and miserable “SHOW PEOPLE WHO YOU ARE”, if they don’t like it, then who cares. Don’t go try to change yourself because a few people disapprove. Just smile as you walk by and just think if they are mean to me maybe they do it to make themselves feel better which means they’re pretty unhappy and of poor character.
Make fun of yourself in a humble and witty way to acknowledge that you’re not perfect and you don’t care. Replace your worries about what other people think about you with a preoccupation over your own goals, achievements, and progress!!! You mean more to yourself than you mean to others, it doesn’t matter to you. Don’t speak or act submissively – show to others that you are a wild spirit and you roam this good old world with pride, and will do what you want whether they like it or not. Don’t respect someone’s OPINION if that person is unkind and doesn’t treat you with respect – they don’t deserve it. Don’t try to get back at people, which just sink you down to their level. Ignore people who THINK they know more than you. DONT LAUGH, practice not thinking about the thing that bothers you, and take the criticism and humiliation in that’s the key point, DONT OPPOSE AND DONT GET EVEN, THATS THE KEY TO NOT CARING.
Warnings
Don’t get revenge by cheating yourself. Never tell your friends that you are having problems with your man because they’ll just end up interfering! Don’t respond to the content of their remarks. The less you say, the less likely you are to get drawn into an argument. Is it important? Ummm am Still Pretty, I Got Bigger and Better and not even worth talking to. Beneath me, not even onnnnn my level to begin with.
If you become angry, know that you won’t be able to think calmly, and you’ll probably say or do something you might regret. Words, once spoken, can never be taken back. The point is to show that I really don’t care about you, your nothing to me and your unimportant!!!! It not logic. Won’t even give you the time of day shorty, you’re a Nobody and I don’t care!!! Make sure you stress that you don’t care…..
DON’T laugh. When you see this working, you may be tempted to smile or laugh at the excitement of finally finding something that works. Don’t do it. This’ll just irritate the person and make it worse. Wait until you’re alone, and then enjoy the moment. “Have a pleasant look and be like, it doesn’t matter, and that’s it don’t keep going on and on say it and mean it by looking oh so happy and pleasant about it. A classy person is simply one who consistently exhibits classy behaviour. Focus on your behaviour and attitude rather than your feelings.
Don’t lose yourself when you’re with other friends. Be yourself. Don’t be someone else so other people will like you because, in the end, you end up hurting other people and “losing yourself”.
Indeed, life is short. Don’t let another day go by without taking a chance on happiness. You will never know until you try, so remember to make a move today. It can change or affect the rest of your life, therefore, at the very least, you can try to come out something for your ex love partner during your weekend plans. With a little practice, perseverance and patience, I believe that your relationship could be enhanced with the tips that I have shared earlier. If you have faced any problems with your loved ones, do not hesitate to visit this piece of article again.
I really have a strong belief that if you can understand what I have explained and applied what you have learnt from this piece of article, your problems can be eventually solved and your making up relationship can become more stable and stronger. I wish all the best for your making up relationship with your partner. Do always remember to spread word of mouth to your fellow friends for supporting the decision of having making up than breaking up.
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Alternatively, you can visit this website Win Your Ex Boyfriend Back Website.
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“Unquenchable Russia”, or Forbidden Themes in Nabokov’s Prose
“…What I feel to be the real modern world is the world the artist creates, his own mirage, which becomes a new mir (“world” in Russian) by the very act of his shedding, as it were, the age he lives in” . Such an answer Nabokov once gave to an interviewer who was interested in his opinion regarding the modern world and contemporary politics. The book which contains this interview as well as many others, is entitled Strong Opinions, and, indeed, Nabokov is well-known not only for his brilliant fiction but for his original, independent and uncompromising views on creativity, art and the place of artist in the world. Whenever interviewed, he avoided discussion of “general ideas” such as social, political and moral issues and asserted that such global concerns lay outside the realm of art: “A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. I don’t give a damn for the group, the community, the masses, and so forth… There can be no question that what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art . A work of art, for Nabokov, is a world in itself, brought to life by one’s creative imagination. It leads its own independent existence, unrelated to its historical surroundings and realities. In the introduction to his Lectures on Literature Nabokov explains once again: “…The real writer, the fellow who sends planets spinning and models a man asleep and eagerly tampers with the sleeper’s rib, that kind of author has no given values at his disposal: he must create them himself. The art of writing is a futile business if it does not imply first of all the art of seeing the world as the potentiality of fiction” . In this statement, visions of cosmic grandeur and an obvious reference to the story of Adam and Eve reflect a parallel between creator-artist and creator-God. In one of his interviews Nabokov explicitly brings out this comparison: “A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world” .
Nabokov’s position is, to a degree, a reaction to the situation in Soviet Russia, where demands of the state dominated the needs of a human being, where the individual was suppressed by the collective and details by generalities. He asserts once again the power and independence of personal creativity, the ability of one’s imagination to build worlds of its own, and makes a sharp distinction between a work of fiction and everything outside of it, including the personality of its creator. “Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both truth and art” .
Nabokov insisted on a specific approach to literature from the readers as well. He renounced the usual tendencies of identifying oneself with a book’s characters, searching for clues to the social and political realities of the time the work was written, or trying to form “general ideas” about a book without absorbing all its specific details. Emotional involvement, he pointed out, could also prevent the reader from objective appreciation of the work “…A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle even though we must keep a little aloof, a little detached when reading” .
Nabokov avoided formulating his ideas under the famous slogan “art for art’s sake” just as he avoided labels of all kinds, but this well-known phrase can undoubtedly be used to describe his views and attitudes towards literature. In this hierarchy of values, aesthetic concerns dominate all others, and the influence of a great work of art on its reader is limited to a “tingle in the spine”. However, it remains to be seen, to what extent Nabokov’s ideas penetrate his own fiction; whether his novels are entirely a product of his creative imagination or a result of the deep personal experience that saturates them with great intensity.
Nabokov changed countries and languages during his creative life, and it is interesting to analyze whether these changes affected his books. Comparing two of Nabokov’s novels, The Gift, written in Russian mostly in Berlin of the 1930s, and Pale Fire, written in English at a much later date, can provide an insight into these questions.
As Nabokov mentioned in the foreword to The Gift, “the main heroine” of the novel is Russian literature, and the main character is a writer, an emigre author Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, who shares many autobiographical details with Nabokov. Like Nabokov during his post-Cambridge years, Fyodor lives in Berlin of the 1920s, writes poetry and makes a living by giving lessons in English and French. He leads, for the most part, a solitary existence, devoting his time first and foremost to literature. Happy childhood in St. Petersburg, love of butterflies and chess problems, synesthesia, – all this Fyodor has in common with Nabokov. Description of certain episodes mirrors incidents from Nabokov’s own life, depicted much later in his autobiographical book Speak, Memory, – for example, the story of a childhood illness: high fever, obsession with numbers and a huge Faber pencil, given as a gift by the mother.
Perhaps, the most significant trait that Fyodor shares with Nabokov is passionate love of literary language, faith in the power of the written word: “Since there were things he (Fyodor) wanted to express just as naturally as unrestrainedly as the lungs want to expand, hence words suitable for breathing ought to exist” . Fyodor reflects on his youthful interest in rhyme and meter, analyzing the very mechanisms by which words interact and fit together like pieces of a puzzle to form the harmonious whole of a poem. Fyodor shares Nabokov’s dislike of generalities such as social issues or psychiatry. When he briefly considers the possibility of fulfilling his acquaintance, Mme. Chernyshevski’s yet unvoiced request to write about her son, he explains his aversion to the idea as follows: “I would have become enmired involuntarily in a “deep” social-interest novel with a disgusting Freudian reek” .
Most clearly, Fyodor’s (and Nabokov’s) views on literature are expressed in Fyodor’s (imaginary) conversations with Koncheyev – a fellow emigre poet, the only one whose work he admires and whose opinions he considers valuable. When Fyodor and Koncheyev leave a literary gathering and walk together down the street, a unique, brilliant dialogue, filled with allusions to various works of Russian literature, takes place between them. “…There are only two kinds of books: bedside and wastebasket. Either I love a writer fervently, or throw him away entirely” , – declares Fyodor, and the two proceed to discuss what, in their opinion, is the best and the worst in the works by famous Russian writers. Both are utterly uninterested in “general ideas” or the moral significance of the writings they talk about (aspects which always attracted Russian critics and gained new importance in the Soviet period), and all they do is lovingly point out purely artistic findings of this or that writer. They praise Leskov’s Jesus – “the ghostly Galilean, cool and gentle, in a robe the color of ripening plum” or “the gray sheen of Mme. Odintsev’s black silks” in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Speaking of dismissed Dostoyevski, Fyodor notes: “In the Karamazovs, there is somewhere a circular mark left by a wet wine glass on an outdoor table”, – and that, for him, is the only thing “worth saving” . As for several writers known for their beautiful depictions of nature, Fyodor ruthlessly criticizes them for mistakes in their descriptions of natural phenomena: “My father used to find all kinds of howlers in Turgenev’s and Tolstoy’s hunting scenes and descriptions of nature, and as for the wretched Aksakov, let’s not even discuss his disgraceful blunders in this field” . All these statements obviously echo Nabokov’s own approach to literature, with his love of detail, his insistence on accurate knowledge of the natural world and dismissal of any other criteria in judging works of literature.
Nabokov’s belief in the power of deception and invention in creating fiction frequently finds expression in his attempts to mislead the reader, to establish this or that false move in the development of the plot, which, after a few pages, turns out to be an illusion, a figment of the character’s imagination. The whole exchange between Fyodor and Koncheyev proves to be such an illusion: “Whose business is it that actually we parted at the very first corner, and that I have been reciting a fictitious dialogue with myself as supplied by a self-teaching handbook of literary inspiration?” However, the significance of this non-existent conversation in the novel is not limited to expression of opinions on art and display of Nabokov’s mystification devices. It shows the extent of Fyodor’s loneliness, the absence of interlocutors with whom he could share his extensive knowledge of literature and love of language: the degree of detachment from the surrounding world. In his book Speak, Memory Nabokov describes the way native Europeans were perceived by Russian immigrants in Germany or France: “These aborigines were to the mind’s eye as flat and transparent as figures cut out of cellophane, and although we used their gadgets, applauded their clowns, picked their roadside plums and apples, no real communication, of the rich human sort so widespread in our own midst, existed between us and them” . The Gift recreates that atmosphere of cultural and human isolation in which Fyodor has to dwell. Deprived of his own cultural environment, Fyodor feels nothing but resentment towards the German-speaking world he is trapped in. “The Russian conviction that the German is in small numbers vulgar and in large numbers – unbearably vulgar was, he knew, a conviction unworthy of an artist” , – and still he cannot help it, as he directs all his irrational hatred at a German who pushes him in a bus (and who, ironically, turns out to be a Russian).
Like Nabokov, Fyodor is trilingual, but his French and English in his current situation serve a purely utilitarian purpose, whereas Russian remains the language of his soul and his art. Riding a bus to one of his tedious teaching jobs, Fyodor thinks of himself: “…there he is, a special, rare and as yet undescribed and unnamed variant of man, and he is occupied with God knows what, rushing from lesson to lesson, wasting his youth on a boring and empty task, on the mediocre teaching of foreign languages – when he has his own language, out of which he can make anything he likes – a midge, a mammoth, a thousand different clouds” . This is why there are hardly any examples of word play and language switch in The Gift.
On the way to yet another hateful lesson Fyodor becomes completely immersed in the memories of Russia and his past life there, – memories ”swift and senseless, visiting him like an attack of a fatal illness at any hour, in any place” . The warm, sunny vision of the Russian countryside after a short summer rain stands out in such a sharp contrast with the surrounding colorless reality and the upcoming encounter with a hopeless pupil, that Fyodor ends up skipping the lesson and going home to his writings. This is another theme expressed in The Gift with great emotional power – the theme of nostalgia, longing for the lost homeland. Whenever faced with the question about Russia during his interviews, Nabokov gave replies such as “all the Russia I need is always with me” or “exile means to an artist only one thing – the banning of his books” . Sometimes, however, he speaks of Russia quite differently: “In the first decade of our dwindling century, during trips with my family to Western Europe, I imagined, in bedtime reveries, what it would be like to become an exile who longed for a remote, sad and (right epithet coming) unquenchable Russia, under the eucalypti of exotic resorts. Lenin and his police nicely arranged the realization of that fantasy” .
References to Russia in Nabokov’s novels, particularly The Gift, bear a trace of an overwhelming and bitter sense of loss, coming, undoubtedly, from personal experience. Like Nabokov, Fyodor transforms his inner world into art, and his poetry, born out of childhood memories, justifies, as he says, the years spent in exile. But even creative fulfillment in literature cannot fully relieve Fyodor of his nostalgia, which sometimes becomes almost a physical sensation: “For a long time he had wanted to express somehow that it was in his feet that he had the feeling of Russia, that he could touch and recognize all of her with his soles, as a blind man feels with his palms” . Again and again, he imagines an impossible return to his familiar and changed country: “And when will we return to Russia? What idiotic sentimentality, what a rapacious groan must our innocent hope convey to people in Russia. But our nostalgia is not historical – only human- how can one explain this to them?” Immediately following these lines is one of Nabokov’s central thoughts expressed through the words of his character and given a somewhat ironic ending: “It is easier for me, of course, than for another to live outside Russia, because I know for certain that I shall return – first because I took away the keys to her, and secondly because, no matter when, in a hundred, two hundred years, I shall live there in my books – or at least in some researcher’s footnote. There; now you have a historical hope, a literary-historical one…”
In this passage, there are two distinct perspectives on Russia, two different ways of perception – that of an artist and that of a simple human being, and it is the more independent, proud and detached position of an artist that Nabokov prefers to present to the world. He always vigorously protested against being identified with his characters, and, perhaps, it was his way of concealing that part of himself, which contained his own human feelings and dreams, often painful, often helplessly irresolvable. Nevertheless, just like in one of Fyodor’s childhood memories colors leak into his vision of letters and irrevocably affect his perception of language, this private and forbidden world of Nabokov inevitably enters his fiction in various guises and through different characters. Besides the theme of nostalgia, there is another highly personal development of the plot in The Gift, and it is Fyodor’s relationship with his father. Konstantin Godunov-Cherdyntsev is an explorer who is also very absorbed in his occupation and uninterested in the major upheavals that occur in Russia. In 1917, despite the troubled situation in Russia, he departs on one of his expeditions and never returns. It is another loss that haunts Fyodor: even though there is hardly any hope of seeing his father again, he keeps dreaming of his return, imagining that one day he would meet his father on the street, or hear a phone call… In one of the most poignant episodes in the novel, the phone rings, after all, in the middle of the night, and Fyodor rushes to the house of his former landlady along the streets of Berlin which suddenly become transformed into a beautiful, mysterious world somewhat reminiscent of St. Petersburg in a white night. Fyodor enters the room and sees his father. “With a moan and a sob Fyodor stepped toward him, and in the collective sensation of woolen jacket, big hands and the tender prickle of trimmed mustaches there swelled an ecstatically happy, living, enormous, paradisal warmth in which his icy heart melted and dissolved” . And again, almost unbearably this time, the whole scene turns out to be one of Nabokov’s false twists, and Fyodor wakes up from yet another dream to a cold and empty morning.
Nabokov denied a work of art any kind of “truth” aside from artistic one, but the episode with Fyodor’s father radiates with human truth: warmth, longing, vulnerability, the void of shattered hopes… One just has to remember the tragic death of Nabokov’s own father, to understand where all this is coming from.
In The Gift, covers are often transparent, and its hero is presented from multiple angles. He is not just a writer who “treats life as a possibility of fiction”, he is a human being who sees the world through the prism of his own experience, his own joys and sorrows.
The Gift was the last novel Nabokov wrote in Russian. In 1940, he immigrated to the United States and, since then, wrote his major works only in English. The change, as he said, was not easy: “My complete switch from Russian prose to English prose was exceedingly painful – like learning anew to handle things after losing seven or eight fingers in an explosion” . Pale Fire, one of Nabokov’s English novels, was written partially at the end of his stay in America, partially in Switzerland, where Nabokov spent his later years. The novel has important structural and thematic similarities to The Gift. Like The Gift, where a whole separate chapter is devoted to Fyodor’s biography of Chernyshevsky, a book on its own, Pale Fire contains a work of literature within it – a long poem written by an American poet John Shade. The rest of the novel is a commentary, which for the most part has nothing to do with the poem itself. It is an elaborate story of remote Zembla, whose king has been swept off the throne by the revolution and fled the country. Gradually, it becomes clear that Charles Kinbote, Shade’s neighbor and the author of the commentary, is himself the fugitive king. Therefore, as in The Gift, there is a theme of exile and a theme of creativity, though in Pale Fire they take quite a different development.
As Kinbote explains, “the name Zembla is a corruption not of the Russian zemlya, but of Semblerland, a land of reflections, of “resemblers” . Zemblan language resembles several European languages at the same time. There are obvious traces of Russian in it, and some words are borrowed almost unchanged: for example, there is a picture of bogtyr (bogatyr’ in Russian) in a Zemblan history book, and there are “stone-faced, square-shouldered komizars” (Russian: commissar) maintaining order on Zemblan streets after the revolution. Besides, French and German can be vaguely discerned in other phrases. “Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty)” , – a Zemblan nurse says to Kinbote, and one hears, besides the Russian “alkat’” and, possibly, the English “pernicious”, “mon amie”, “Gott”, and the first person of the German “mochten”.
Nabokov in his interviews stressed that Zembla is not Russia, and, indeed, there is another Russia in the novel, a totalitarian state that contributes to the Zemblan revolution. Kinbote talks about “the tainted gold and the robot troops that a powerful police state from its vantage ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution” . Kinbote’s constantly talks about Zembla, but his memories of it lack that depth of human feeling, which marks Fyodor’s nostalgia. Even though Kinbote repeats again and again “my Zembla”, “dazzling Zembla” , tenderness that shines through the best pages of The Gift, is missing from his story. It is essentially a story of himself and his escape from the country. For a king, Kinbote shows a remarkable lack of interest in the revolution that struck his country and the possible causes which led to it. He is more preoccupied with aesthetic and literary pleasures and calls the whole business of politics “a tiresome subject” . As for the revolution, all he can say about it is that it was “tedious and unnecessary” . In Kinbote’s attitude, there is some of Nabokov’s own indifference towards social and political issues. On the whole, the theme of exile is treated in the novel with certain coldness and detachment, but there are passages, which by their warmth and profound lyricism can be compared to The Gift. For example, Kinbote comments on his roommate who gets up early in morning and plants flowers with a very curious name: Heliotropium turgenevi. “This is the flower whose odor evokes with timeless intensity the dusk, and the garden bench, and a house of painted wood in a distant northern land” . Even aside from the reference to Turgenev, it is clear that this land, for Nabokov, is no other than Russia, – not the monstrous police state in the vicinity of Zembla, but the real, immortal, beloved Russia of Nabokov’s memory. And this short passage retains more emotional freshness and power than colorful descriptions of Zemblan mountains that have no counterpart in the author’s childhood recollections.
It seems that, to Kinbote, being in exile means not so much the loss of the homeland as the loss of his name and title (which he now has to hide), and thus partially the loss of his identity, and in this way his isolation and detachment is more complete than that of Fyodor in The Gift. One of the critics of Pale Fire interprets his behavior as follows: “…he is trying to get the poet John Shade to confirm his identity, to validate the Zemblan reality which is his hope of salvation by turning it into a poem” . With maniacal persistence Kinbote keeps talking with Shade about Zembla: “I mesmerized him with it, I saturated him with my vision, I pressed upon him, with a drunkard’s wild generosity, all that I was helpless myself to put into verse” . Kinbote calls his relationship with the poet “friendship”, but, in fact, he cannot care less about Shade as a human being with his own hopes and sorrows. While commenting on the poem, he utterly neglects the parts about Shade’s wife and daughter. Sybil Shade, who protects her husband from his neighbor’s intrusions, for Kinbote, is just as annoying obstacle in the way, and to him, the tender lines that Shade devotes to his wife are nothing but “embarrassing intimacies” . Kinbote haughtily deals with the theme of Shade’s daughter, Hazel’s, suicide, obviously a very painful and personal subject for the poet, as if it was merely a stylistic device: “The whole thing strikes me as too labored and long, especially since the synchronization device has been already worked to death by Flaubert and Joyce” . When Kinbote feels lonely and afraid in his empty house, he wishes that Shade had a heart attack, – just to have an excuse to come over and escape loneliness and fear. At the end of the novel, when Shade has been mistakenly shot by the assassin, his “friend” is in no hurry to call for help: instead, he rushes to hide the poem, which, he thinks, contains the story of his own life.
In comparison to Kinbote, John Shade appears to be a much more appealing character, and he possesses some traits that bring more human warmth into his image: he can be lazy, he likes hearty meals, brandy and wine; he loves his wife and daughter and is generally more tolerant towards people who are not as bright and talented as he is. Nabokov gives his character some of his most cherished thoughts. For example, Shade, who is also a teacher of literature, expresses his views on teaching: “First of all, dismiss ideas, and social background, and get the freshman to shiver, to get drunk on the poetry of Hamlet or Lear, to read with his spine and not with his skull” . However, since Shade’s personality is seen in the novel only through Kinbote’s uncaring eyes, his inner world is more or less concealed from the reader. It is only through Shade’s poem that one can glimpse into the questions, which preoccupy the poet. The poem, on the whole, is a painful, difficult search for meaning, an attempt to make sense of the whole puzzle of human life and death, to find a way of transcending one’s mortality. No human thought or emotion can relieve one from being trapped in one’s own finite world. Everything fails except art: art for its own sake, art that contains a unique, perfectly harmonized inner reality, which can be perceived as a reflection of a greater pattern:
I feel I understand
Existence, or at least a minute part,
Of my existence, only through my art,
In terms of combinational delight…
“Combinational delight”, indeed, is important not only in Shade’s poem but in the whole novel. As in The Gift, artistic detail is a focus of concentration in Pale Fire, but here attention is focused on an even subtler level where language itself is analyzed. Pale Fire is an example of extremely dense prose where individual words are more than just carriers of meaning: they become, in a way, themselves a subject of the novel. One of Shade’s warmest images of his family together is a memory of the evenings when both he and Sybil helped their daughter to understand really obscure words from her English textbook. A difference of one letter in the words “mountain” and “fountain” becomes crucial in the story of Shade’s attempt to penetrate the mystery of the hereafter. The book is filled with examples of word play, often involving several languages, and references to numerous works of literature (some of which are likely to be Nabokov’s own inventions). In Shade’s poem, there are such peculiar combinations as: “Fra Karamazov, mumbling his inept all is allowed” , which is a mixture of Alyosha Karamazov, Raskol’nikov, and, perhaps, Italian painter Fra Angelico with his intensely spiritual religious art. But nobody in the novel is more involved in digging into words than Kinbote. He is constantly preoccupied with deciphering literary allusions, musing over interplay of words, meanings, rhymes and sounds. Nabokov mentioned in his lectures that a dictionary should be a necessary attribute of a good reader, and, ironically, Kinbote, who can hardly be called a good reader, dutifully follows the lines of Shade’s masterpiece with his dictionary. For the most part, he is obsessively searching references to Zembla and his own life story in the poem, but sometimes he simply takes aesthetic pleasure in certain lines of it:
“Lines 131-132: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain by feigned remoteness in the windowpane.
The exquisite melody of the two lines opening the poem is picked up here. The repetition of that long-drawn note is saved from monotony by the subtle variation in line 132 where the assonance between its second word and the rhyme gives the ear a kind of languorous pleasure as would the echo of some half-remembered sorrowful song…” Shade’s commentator genuinely enjoys the magic of words, and so does Nabokov, whose multilingualism, artistic sense and incomparable mastery of language found full expression in the creation of the truly marvelous poem, as well as other parts of the novel.
Perhaps, the refined world of literature allows Kinbote a way of escape from his troubled personal reality, and so it does for Shade, and, to a degree, for Fyodor in The Gift, and, ultimately, for Nabokov. In his commentary, Kinbote recounts an episode when someone in the presence of Shade tells a story of a mad railroad worker, who “thought he was God and began redirecting the trains”. “That (“mad”) is the wrong word”, – he (Shade) said. – “One should not apply it to a person who deliberately peels off a drab and unhappy past and replaces it with a brilliant invention” . Still, comparison of Nabokov’s novels shows that the most “brilliant invention” becomes truly alive only if the light of one’s own human experience, however “drab and unhappy”, illuminates it from within. In Pale Fire the walls sheltering Nabokov’s private world of memory and feeling are thicker than in The Gift, and the novel follows more closely Nabokov’s ideas of art as elegant deception, an entirely invented world which should be approached on aesthetic rather than emotional grounds. This is the major difference between Pale Fire and The Gift.
Time is likely to be one of the factors behind this change: Pale Fire was written almost twenty years later than The Gift, as greater and greater distance separated Nabokov from his Russian past with which he had stronger emotional bond than with the years spent abroad. Another important factor is, probably, language. Nabokov was very proud of his English works and repeatedly called himself an American writer, but sometimes he provided his readers with unexpected revelations such as: “My private tragedy, which cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural language, my natural idiom, my rich, infinitely rich and docile Russian tongue, for a second-rate brand of English” . In another interview, when asked which language he considered the most beautiful, Nabokov replied: “My head says English, my heart, Russian, my ear, French” . It is possible to say that for him Russian conveyed emotional power, while English had more of an intellectual appeal, and this is one of the reasons why Pale Fire, written in English, appeals to the brain more than it does to feelings.
One of the most striking confessions that bridges Nabokov’s inner world with his public self exists in a poem. An Evening of Russian Poetry, written in English in 1945, is a rhymed presentation of a public lecture which Nabokov gives to an audience of American students, predominantly female. Russian poetry is the theme of the lecture, but Nabokov approaches it in the way typical for him: he does not talk about schools, trends and periods. Again, he speaks of letters, shapes, individual intricate details, and hidden tenderness shines through his words, staying invisible for his listeners. They ask him questions about his favorite trees and stones, echoing that insensitive critic from The Gift, whose “discussion of Koncheyev’s book boiled down to his answering for the author a kind of implied questionnaire (Your favorite flower? Favorite hero? Which virtue do you prize most?)” In Nabokov’s discussion of Pushkin and Nekrasov everything merges and melts together: the sky and the grass, the beauty of verse and human feeling, – and inevitable theme of exile. Nabokov speaks of memories, saying openly: “I must remind you in conclusion that I am followed everywhere and that space is collapsible” . His private tragedy is lost on his young listeners, whose innocent inquiry prompts what becomes the most remarkable ending of a poem:
How would you say “delightful talk” in Russian?
How would you say “good night”?
Oh, that would be:
Bessonnitza, tvoy vzor oonyl i strashen;
lubov moya, otstoopnika prostee.
(Insomnia, your stare is dull and ashen,
my love, forgive me this apostasy.)
All of Nabokov’s carefully hidden private world that, he insists, “cannot, indeed should not, be anybody’s concern”, is suddenly revealed in these poignant lines: long nights, loneliness, the feeling of guilt over abandoning one’s language and nostalgia for inaccessible, unforgettable, “unquenchable Russia”.
Bibliography
1). Kernan, Alvin B. “Reading Zemblan: The Audience Disappears in Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. Vladimir Nabokov (Modern Critical Views). Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 101-125.
2). ???????, ????????. ???. ??????: ??????, 1990.
3). Nabokov, Vladimir. The Gift. New York: Capricorn Books, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
4). —. Lectures on Literature. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1982.
5). —. Pale Fire. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.
6). —. Poems and Problems. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1970.
7). —. Speak, Memory. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club, 1993.
8). —. Strong Opinions. McGraw-Hill International, Inc. 1973.
Elena Koutcherova
http://www.articlesbase.com/fiction-articles/unquenchable-russia-or-forbidden-themes-in-nabokovs-prose-204030.html
Job Search Turned TOXIC? Time For An Alternative Job Campaign!
Let’s see if you’re ready for an alternative job campaign.
Have you ever had this experience? . . . You go through a series of job search bad news events. They just seem to pile up, don’t they? The French say there are never two without three.
It’s time for the amazing alternative job campaign!
Why? Because, if you’ve been having negative experiences in the job market, your campaign has turned toxic! And the worst thing you can do is “stay the course.” It won’t get any better.
For example, here’s how these bad news events can accumulate:
1. Your resumes don’t get answered . . . even when you send out hundreds.
2. You can’t get any quality interviews.
3. The couple interviews you went on . . . you never heard from them again.
4. You never did get to meet a decision-maker.
5. They asked you questions that seemed totally irrelevant.
6. You’re just plain tired of all the rejection.
OK. Time to shift gears. Time to change course.
Fortunately there is a better alternative. You don’t have to sit by the phone waiting for someone to invite you in for an interview. Or chew your fingernails because your resumes received little or no response. Or, worst of all, wonder how you’re going to make ends meet.
Welcome to the amazing world of the alternative job campaign!
You’ll put together a blockbuster alternative resume and a way to use it that’s guaranteed to grab attention without mailing hundreds. And you’ll get directly in front of decision-makers . . . you know, the one’s who could be your next boss.
Best of all, if you follow the alternative job campaign plan, you could be entertaining a quality job offer in as little as two weeks.
Now, let me be honest. This two-week plan is not a lay down. It employs unique alternative strategies and tactics that require you to throw out everything you thought you knew about the job market and how hiring decisions are made.
The alternative job campaign works because it based on a common sense approach to job market dynamics based on bottom up analysis of what really goes on in today’s complex marketplace. It understands that the job marketplace follows the same rules as the business marketplace.
So, take a long, hard look at your situation. If it’s toxic, get out now! But shift into an approach that going to give you the best chance to succeed . . . one with a track record of many years with thousands of successful job-seekers. It’s time to explore an alternative job campaign.
Paul Megan
http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/job-search-turned-toxic-time-for-an-alternative-job-campaign-79087.html
Putting Civility Back Into Litigation
PUTTING CIVILITY BACK INTO LITIGATION
Our system of civil justice is an excellent one. However, as is often the case, the system is no better than those who run it. A well-designed automobile will not run very well if shoddy parts are used.
System Abuses
In our civil justice system, regrettably, many attorneys choose to abuse the system by filing frivolous motions and objections, being uncooperative, and requiring things to be done the hard way, rather than the easy way. Most attorneys are not seeking justice, they are seeking victory. Sanctions are difficult to obtain and thus, those who adhere to these “delay and abuse” tactics can benefit and prosper. Similarly, a gruff offensive attorney (close your eyes and see if you can imagine such) invites a lack of courtesy in return, which then creates a rapid downward spiral of behavior. Often times this anger and bitterness can cause a litigator to lose sight of the task at hand.
A potential solution to the problem of having to deal with our obnoxious “hide and seek” colleagues is alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures. Unfortunately, unless ordered by the court, many of these “delay and abuse” individuals do not desire to participate in ADR because it is contrary to their philosophical approach to litigation. However, for those who prefer a more civil approach to civil litigation, and those who follow court orders to participate in such, ADR can be extremely beneficial for the lawyers, clients, and judges.
Mediation
There are two types of ADR: mediation and arbitration. Mediation is simply a meeting in which both parties and counsel appear before a mediator who serves as a facilitator to try to resolve the dispute. Typically, at a mediation, there is a meeting between all the parties and counsel during which a brief overview of the case is presented and where some mediators will request the parties to state the strengths and weaknesses of their case. The group then breaks into separate groups, each consisting of party and counsel. The mediator then goes back and forth between the groups with dollar figures he has extracted from the various sides. Typically, the parties agree that the negotiations are confidential and that nothing said can be used as an admission in the litigation. The advantages of such a forum are significant.
In a smaller case, it is frequently not cost effective for either side to proceed with protracted litigation. Thus, a settlement will be a “win-win” situation in which both sides benefit, as much of the costs and delays of litigation are significantly reduced. Another significant advantage is that it gives the parties (or the insurance adjustor) and their attorneys to meet. Thus, the individuals involved become people and not simply claim numbers and files. Both sides have an opportunity to size up the credibility and presentation of the parties (and counsel) and an informal exchange of some information is usually obtained. This informal discovery can be extremely beneficial to both sides in evaluating the case. It also can reduce the cost of pre-trial discovery (exchange of information). Additionally, it is harder for some attorneys (and their clients) to pull off their offensive tactics in person. Many of us who would hang up on a phone solicitor would be less reluctant to slam our front door in the solicitor’s face.
Even if the case does not settle, the monetary gap usually narrows and the mediation may have been a catalyst to a resolution down the road. Also, learning that a case cannot be settled will save time during the litigation as the parties will focus on preparing for trial and not conducting settlement negotiations.
Binding Arbitration
Another type of ADR is binding arbitration. In Missouri, in a contract setting, it is important to remember that a “consent to arbitration” provision in a contract is not binding unless it is in 10-point capital letters, and contains the following language: THIS CONTRACT CONTAINS A BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION WHICH MAY BE ENFORCED BY THE PARTIES. See Section 435.460 RSMo. within the Missouri Uniformed Arbitration Act.
Again, binding arbitration can be an expeditious way to resolve a dispute. In a personal injury setting, it can be extremely beneficial on smaller cases. It also is appropriate in a complex case that a jury might struggle with understanding, or in a contract case in which “jury appeal” will not affect the amount of the judgment. Obviously, it is helpful for those who are petrified to be in front of a jury, but if one is of that bent, they probably should not be handling litigation.
Obviously, the arbitrator(s) wields tremendous power as his or her decision is binding and can only be set aside by the courts in extreme circumstances such as: 1) the award was procured by corruption, fraud, or other undue means; 2) there was evident partiality by an appointed arbitrator or corruption or misconduct which prejudiced the rights of any party; 3) the arbitrators exceeded their powers; or 4) the arbitrator refused to postpone the hearing upon sufficient cause being shown therefore, or refused to hear evidence material to the controversy. See Section 435.405 RSMo. for a listing of reasons for which an arbitration award can be vacated.
Selection or Mediator or Arbitrator
In both types of ADR, the selection of the mediator or arbitrator (a “neutral”) is critically important. It is advisable to check out the arbitrator’s background, track record, and connections with the other side. If the other side has used this individual repeatedly as an arbitrator they probably have been happy with his or her decisions and that may be cause for concern. A mediator should be someone who will carry weight with the clients and other side and will not simply be a messenger or number carrier. A retired judge or a highly respected litigator can be an excellent choice when someone involved needs some sense talked into them. Someone who is persuasive is usually more effective, in my view. Typically, the fees are shared equally but obviously this needs to be addressed at the outset and confirmed in writing.
ADR, just as the name implies, is an alternative way to resolve a dispute. In appropriate circumstances and with the appropriate parties, it can be an excellent and civil way to resolve a civil dispute and avoid some of the pitfalls of a system that is run by people.
December 18, 2008
James Adler
http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-injury-articles/putting-civility-back-into-litigation-694015.html
Obedience to Authority
Many people wonder why these informants go along with this? Why would anyone go along with causing the suicide of their fellow citizens, or enacting cruelty on someones cats, dogs, kids, family, property etc? Why would you knowingly go along with a practice that many would consider to be evil?
The answer is obedience to authority. As long as an authority figure is giving the orders, experiments have shown that most people will go along with whatever is being ordered, even if those orders are to inflict pain on another human being.
Let’s start with the Milgram experiments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mst1h31daV4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
[quote]Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.[4]
[/quote]
As part of the experiment a stranger off the street is asked to shock an individual as part of a learning or behaviour modification experiment. The person doing the shocking is told that this will help the person to learn the answers to the question. The person being shocked has agreed to the experiment.
The person giving the shocks is giving a test shock of the lowest voltage to see what the pain is like. It’s not pleasant. They are told that if the person fails to answer the question, they are to increase the voltage and to keep shocking the person till they get the answer correct.
The person giving the answers starts to get the questions wrong, they are asked to keep going by the person in authority. The person answering the questions, starts to scream out in pain, sometimes even screaming, my heart, my heart.
Many times the person giving the shock wants to stop what they are doing, but they are told don’t pay it any mind we have to keep going, and so they are goaded on by the experimenter to the end of the experiment. 65% of those in the studied continued to the very end of the voltage metre.
Now imagine you are an average citizen, you are asked to become an Informant by the state, country that you love. At some point you realise that what you are doing is wrong and that people are being harmed. Let’s say you come across a Gang Stalking website, and realise what you are taking part in. How can you stop?
First you are bound by a gag order, so you can’t say anything. Second if you go to the police, local authorities, they are taking part, so you can’t go there, human rights organizations, the same thing. Since becoming an Informant you realise that this is systemic and that the majority of your community is in some way taking part. What do you do where do you turn?
You can ask to not take part, but many people are afraid of being targeted themselves the same way, experiencing the same sort of harassment. There is a real cult like mentality about what is happening, even if most people do not identify it as such, so how would you get out, much less help the target?
In many cases they can’t, and some of them are as trapped as we are. Either get the punishment or give the punishment. Not a great choice. This is not true for all of them, some are just really lowlifes and happy to go along with this, and would report anyone not following suit.
Within the system you can try to hint to the target about what is happening, try to help expose what is happening. Don’t allow yourself to feel or become powerless, keep thinking, keep finding ways, try to keep feeling. Remain hopeful. If you let the stress of the situation overwhelm you, a part of you disassociates emotionally, and you became biddable, capable of not much but following orders.
How quickly can this shift come about, in a really short space of time. The Milgram experiment happened within an hour or two.
The next experiment happened over a few days.
The Stanford Prison Experiment.
http://www.prisonexp.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
The scary part about this, is that thy knew in advance that they were part of an experiment, they were paid for it and everything. Which should indicate that they would be able to leave if they wanted to, but that did not happen.
The experiment was suppose to last 2 weeks, but had to be ended after six days. One group of students were assigned to the role of prisoners, another to the role of guards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jYx8nwjFQ
[quote]
As the experiment proceeded, several guards became progressively sadistic. Experimenters said that approximately one-third of the guards exhibited genuine sadistic tendencies. Interestingly, most of the guards were upset when the experiment concluded early.
Zimbardo argued that the prisoner participants had internalized their roles, based on the fact that some had stated that they would accept parole even with the attached condition of forfeiting all of their experiment-participation pay. Yet, when their parole applications were all denied, none of the prisoner participants quit the experiment. Zimbardo argued they had no reason for continued participation in the experiment after having lost all monetary compensation, yet they did, because they had internalised the prisoner identity, they thought themselves prisoners, hence, they stayed.
[/quote]
The prisoners (students pretending to be prisoners) started to riot, the cops (students pretending to be cops) started to get brutal with them. Made them do all sorts of sick and sadistic things. Tried to get some to turn into snitches, one prisoner faked being crazy to get out, they turned on each other in some cases, and just fell in line with obeying authority, in most cases. The person conducting the experiment actually thought he was a warden, he got so caught up in the role.
[quote]In psychology, the results of the experiment are said to support situational attributions of behavior rather than dispositional attribution. In other words, it seemed the situation caused the participants’ behavior, rather than anything inherent in their individual personalities. In this way, it is compatible with the results of the also-famous Milgram experiment, in which ordinary people fulfilled orders to administer what appeared to be damaging electric shocks to a confederate of the experimenter.[/quote]
The experiment at the time was used to help better understand the psychological changes that prisoners and their jailers go through. Later it was used to help explain the situation at Abu Ghraib with the prisoner abuses.
The Strip Search Prank Call
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam
This experiment was anything but. Because a crank caller pretended to be an authority figure. Police officer. Average sheeple were willing to carry out horrible actions on innocent people.
[quote]The strip search prank call scam was a series of incidents occurring for roughly a decade before 2004. These incidents involved a man calling a restaurant, claiming to be a police detective, and convincing managers to conduct strip-searches of female employees. Reports of over 70 such occurrences in 30 U.S. states finally led to the arrest and charging of David R. Stewart, a 37-year-old Florida corrections officer.[/quote]
These are a few of the incidents that occurred in the wake of these phone calls.
[quote]
A call to a McDonald’s restaurant in Hinesville, Georgia resulted in a janitor performing a body cavity search on a 19-year old cashier.[5]
A 17-year-old customer at a Taco Bell in Phoenix, Arizona was strip-searched by a manager receiving this kind of prank call.[6]
On Nov. 30, 2000, the caller persuaded the manager at a McDonald’s in Leitchfield, Kentucky, to remove her own clothes in front of a customer whom the caller said was suspected of sex offenses. The caller promised that undercover officers would burst in and arrest the customer the moment he attempted to molest her, said Detective Lt. Gary Troutman of the Leitchfield Police Department.[7]
On May 29, 2002, a girl celebrating her 18th birthday — in her first hour of her first day on the job at the McDonald’s in Roosevelt, Iowa — was forced to strip, jog naked and assume a series of embarrassing poses, all at the direction of a caller on the phone, according to court and news accounts.[8]
On Jan. 26, 2003, according a police report in Davenport, Iowa, an assistant manager at an Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar conducted a degrading 90-minute search of a waitress at the behest of a caller who said he was a regional manager — even though the man had called collect, and despite the fact the assistant manager had read a company memo warning about hoax calls just a month earlier. He later told police he’d forgotten about the memo.[9] [/quote]
His downfall came when he was able to get one of these sheeple to sexually assault a teenage girl over the phone. All the while giving the instructions. She complied, because an authority figure was on the phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFXeXK3szOk
http://www.mahalo.com/Louise_Ogborn_Video
[quote]
The final prank call in this scheme was made to a McDonald’s restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky on April 9, 2004. According to assistant manager Donna Summers, the caller identified himself as a policeman, ‘Officer Scott’, he described an employee whom he said was suspected of stealing a customer’s purse. Summers called 18-year-old employee Louise Ogborn to her office and told her of the suspicion. Following the instructions of the caller, Summers ordered Ogborn first to empty her pockets, and finally to remove all her clothing except for an apron, in an effort to find the stolen items. Again following the caller’s instructions, Summers had another employee watch Ogborn when she had to leave the office to check the restaurant. The first employee, 27 year old Jason Bradley, whom she asked to stay there refused to after he was on the phone with the caller, so she phoned her fiance Walter Nix, asking him to come in to ‘help’ with the situation. [10]
According to Ogborn, after Summers passed off the phone to Nix, he continued to do as the caller told, even as the caller’s requests became progressively more bizarre. A security camera recorded Nix forcing Ogborn to remove her apron, the only article of clothing she was still wearing, and to assume degrading positions, such as standing on a chair and getting on all fours. When Ogborn refused to obey the caller’s instructions, Nix hits the 90 lb Ogborn on the buttocks several times creating painful red welts, and at one point he does this for 10 minutes. At the caller’s request, Nix then threatens to beat Ogborn again and forces Ogborn to kiss him and then perform oral sex on him. Ogborn says at the point of sexual assault she was scarred for life.[11] The tape showed that Summers re-entered the office several times and dismissed Ogborn’s pleas for help, a statement which Summers denies.
When another employee was asked to take part and objected, Summers decided to call the store manager, whom the caller claimed to have on another phone line. She then discovered that the store manager had not spoken to any police officers, and that the call had been a hoax. A quick-thinking employee dialed *69 to determine that the caller had called from a supermarket pay phone in Panama City, Florida. Summers then called police, who arrested Nix and began an investigation to find the caller. [/quote]
The above scenario is really sick and hard to believe that something like that could happen, mush less that similar circumstances happened at least 70 times prior to this incident, but it’s true.
Other events show us that people are willing to kill upon request, even innocent woman, children and the elderly, while others are not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHk4TGWx0ZM
[quote]
the My Lai massacre where the US army in Vietnam slaughtered 500 unarmed civilians, many women and children.
Some victims were sexually abused, beaten, tortured, maimed and mutilated.
Three U.S. servicemen who made an effort to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were sharply criticized by US Congressmen, received hate mail, death threats and mutilated animals on their doorsteps. Only 30 years after the event were their efforts honored.
American media first claimed 100 had been killed in a fierce fire fight.
[/quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre
[quote]
Charlie Company landed following a short artillery and helicopter gunship preparation. The soldiers found no enemy fighters in the village on the morning of March 16. Many suspected there were NLF troops in the village, hiding underground in the homes of their elderly parents or their wives. The U.S. soldiers, one platoon of which was led by Second Lieutenant William Calley, went in shooting at “suspected enemy position”. After the first civilians were killed and wounded by the indiscriminate fire, the soldiers soon began attacking anything that moved, humans and animals alike, with firearms, grenades and bayonets. The scale of the massacre only spiraled as it progressed, the brutality increasing with each killing. BBC News described the scene:
“ Soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. … Elsewhere in the village, other atrocities were in progress. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. Some victims were mutilated with the signature “C Company” carved into the chest. By late morning word had got back to higher authorities and a cease-fire was ordered. My Lai was in a state of carnage. Bodies were strewn through the village.[12] ”
More victims at My Lai. Photo by Ronald L. HaeberleDozens of people were herded into an irrigation ditch and other locations and killed with automatic weapons[13]. A large group of about 70 to 80 villagers, rounded up by the 1st Platoon in the center of the village, were killed personally by Calley and by soldiers he had ordered to fire. Calley also shot two other large groups of civilians with a weapon taken from a soldier who had refused to do any further killing.
Members of the 2nd Platoon killed at least 60-70 Vietnamese men, women, and children, as they swept through the northern half of My Lai 4 and through Binh Tay, a small subhamlet about 400 meters north of My Lai 4.[1]
After the initial “sweeps” by the 1st and the 2nd Platoons, the 3rd Platoon was dispatched to deal with any “remaining resistance”. They immediately began killing every still-living human and animal they could find, including shooting the Vietnamese who emerged from their hiding places, and finishing off the wounded found moaning in the heaps of bodies. The 3rd Platoon also rounded up and killed a group of 7 to 12 women and children.[1]
Since Charlie Company had encountered no enemy opposition, 4th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, was moved into its landing zone between and attacked the subhamlet of My Khe 4, killing as many as 90 people. U.S. forces lost one man killed and seven wounded from mines and booby traps.[1] During the next two days, both battalions were involved in additional burning and destruction of dwellings, and in the mistreatment of Vietnamese detainees.
Most of the soldiers had not participated in the crimes, but neither did they protest or complain to their superiors.[14]
[/quote]
At the end of the day what can really be said about these incidents are occurrences? Why are some people driven by a higher authority, a greater code of conduct than others? Why are some not willing to go along with this, when others just fall in line, or stand helplessly by and let these atrocities happen? Why do some decline to become Informants for the system while others just accept? Why do some just go along with injustice and corruption, while others turn away from all appearances of evil?
Why do some question, while others don’t?
There are a variety of reasons, many people are culturally engineered or programed to obey authority, many have never been in a similar situation before and their survival instinct is to comply, because everyone else is going along with it. Humans for the most part are social creatures and very few have the capacity to stand on their own, or be excluded from society, friends, family, neighbours and if the corruption, or atrocity is systemic, most will just fall in line with what is happening, just like in Nazi Germany.
gangstalking
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/obedience-to-authority-704033.html
Paris Hilton Reveals NASA UFO Secrets (Sort Of)
Buzz Aldrin was scheduled for a phone interview on the Friday, June 8, 2007, edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto on the Fox News cable channel. Originally booked to talk about the latest space shuttle launch, he suddenly found himself being asked about Paris Hilton and had some very interesting things to say.
Friday, June 8, 2007, should have been a big news day. A former Preacher’s Wife was sentenced to three years in prison for shooting her husband in the back while he slept. A Tax Protestor couple in New Hampshire discovered what happens when you challenge the authority of people you elect to office: You get state police and an army of federal troops with tanks and federal agents with submachine guns at your door. The space shuttle took off on a mission to support the International Space Station. It was announced that the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was stepping down. East Coast air travel was practically brought to a stand still by a computer glitch.
None of those news pieces ended up being the biggest story of the day. Instead it was Paris (Hilton, not France). Yes, it apparently took Fox and other news gathering and reporting organizations eight hours to tell the tale of Naughty Paris and the Nasty Judge. It didn’t seem to bother the news pundits that Paris was ordered back to jail to serve a forty-five day sentence for a probation violation, when other celebs have spent as little as five hours in jail for the same thing. I mean, give a gal a break! Don’t billion dollar babies get an automatic pass? Regardless of how you feel about the Paris Affair, it may have paid off in an unusual way for UFO Researchers.
Buzz Aldrin was supposed to be talking about the latest Space Shuttle Mission. Imagine his surprise when the famous astronaut’s guest spot was jammed into the middle of the never-ending discussion about Paris. An experienced media guest, Buzz is never at a loss for prefabricated words. Years ago I appeared on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show with him and a few other UFO Researchers. As long as you didn’t ask him anything out of the ordinary, he had some terrific prepared responses. If you did, he stammered and stumbled. That’s what happened on Your World with Neil Cavuto today around 1:30pm Arizona Time.
Asked to comment on how he felt about living in a world where Paris dominates the news for hours on end, he began by stammering on about some science fiction book he once wrote. The story was about a civilization that was going to be destroyed in exactly 140 years by a terrible calamity. He point was that everyone knew about it and did nothing until the very last minute. Huh? Like I said, not good without the prefab responses.
Buzz continued and finally made a lucid point. He apparently feels that we have lost our focus. Instead of worrying about how the Russians, Chinese and Japanese are slowly overtaking us in space research and exploration, we sensationalize and promote non-events like today’s Paris debacle. Just as Your World was headed to a break, Aldrin reminisced about the days of the Apollo 11 Moon Mission and said, “Suppose Neal and I said, ‘Look at what’s outside of our window! It’s a UFO!’ Instead, we said, ‘It’s unusual to see a booster rocket outside of our window.’ Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That’s what it was.”
This was not Aldrin’s first statement about UFO encounters during the Apollo 11 Mission. He appeared on a Science Channel program entitled, “First on the Moon: The Untold Story” in 2005 and made this unusual observation: “There was something out there that, uh, was close enough to be observed and what could it be? Mike (Collins) decided he thought he could see it in the telescope and he was able to do that and when it was in one position, that had a series of ellipses, but when you made it real sharp it was sort of L shaped. That didn’t tell us very much.”
While interesting, it was carefully worded and left the door open to various interpretations. Compare that to the statement he made today, “Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That’s what it was.”
Throwing caution to the wind, Aldrin brings up two points that involve accusations UFO Researchers have made against NASA and the Government for years:
1. The U.S. Government is hiding information about UFOs for fear of public reaction to the affirmation that Aliens exist and are visiting our planet at will.
2. The U.S. Government knows all about UFOs and has the ability to identify them.
To my knowledge, Aldrin has hardly ever used the term, “UFO.” Astronauts have avoided that term like the plague. Deke Slayton, an Astronaut and Chief of the Astronaut Office made this statement in 1976: “I don’t recall any of our astronauts ever reporting UFOs.” Why would he say that when there were already so many Astronaut sightings and UFO photos on record by then? Simple. They were already IDENTIFIED, not UNIDENTIFIED. And as far as word games go, the use of the term UFO by government or military personnel officially ended with the close of Project Bluebook (the official U.S. Government investigation into UFOs) in 1969.
As indicated by Buzz Aldrin’s latest statement, NASA already knew how to recognize UFOs in 1969. Aldrin: “Think about what people would have said and what they would have done if we told them it was a UFO following us? That’s what it was.” However, Aldrin hasn’t always been so forthcoming. I recall Aldrin’s trademark Cheshire cat smile on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show anytime we asked about UFOs or Aliens. It was his preprogrammed defense mechanism. Anytime he’s asked about UFOs during a television, cable or film interview, the smile pops up. Other times he’ll substitute the smile with handy comments like, “It’s a big universe” or “I guess someone else has to be out there,” but it’s still more than we ever hear from Neil Armstrong.
The world is still waiting to hear what the first man to walk on the moon has to say about what happened during the Apollo 11 Mission. Described as a deeply private and honest man, Armstrong has been virtually silent since returning to Earth except for a few interviews almost immediately after the mission. The question that has always bothered me is why?
The only sensible answer is that things happened on the Apollo 11 Moon Mission that Neil Armstrong doesn’t want to talk about. It’s likely that he would rather say nothing then lie to people, mislead them or deliver a series of NASA approved responses. It’s impossible to say exactly what happened, but there is a decent body of evidence to indicate that it was anything but a routine flight.
During a time when the media was allowed to monitor most radio transmissions from the mission, odd noises and allegedly unknown languages were heard. Various statements regarding unknown objects and particular incidents were made by all three of the Apollo 11 Astronauts. Some photos taken during the mission appear to show a number of odd lights and strange objects in various positions near the moon.
Armstrong’s overall lack of enthusiasm for press events brings up another question. Why would NASA choose a quiet guy like Neil Armstrong to be the first man to walk on the Moon? They had to know that everyone in the world would want to interview him for years to come. That could have been a major publicity boom for NASA; instead it turned into a bust that probably contributed to the eventual gutting of the Space Program. That leaves the door open for all kinds of speculation.
Whenever he’s asked a question about something that Neil Armstrong said or did during the Apollo 11 Moon Mission, Buzz Aldrin always says, “You would have to ask Neil about that.” We would love to Buzz, but he ain’t talking! The best we can hope for is a final disclosure from Armstrong while he is alive or some kind of written or recorded statement left behind after he passes on. Now almost seventy-six years old, his last public appearance was at the White House in 2004 for the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the Moon Landing. As usual, he had little to say during that occasion.
On a day when all the news cameras were focused on a tearful Paris Hilton being dragged off to jail (again), Buzz Aldrin’s latest statement was the real bombshell. But those precious few and very important words from Aldrin came about all because of the Hilton court date coverage. So I say, Thanks, Paris! I’ll send a cake with a file in it and a Get out Of Jail Free Card from my children’s Spongebob version Monopoly game if that will help. Read more and view UFO photos taken during the Apollo 11 Mission at http://www.CanYouStandTheTruth.com
Bill Knell
Is a police state slowly creeping its way through the former Free World?
In Britain they have Antisocial Behavior Orders which are basically made to prevent citizens from doing legal stuff their neighbors and government don’t have.
Most of the EU is considering monitoring the Internet wholesale.
The United States has seen rampant erosions on the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment’s scope, and massive chunks of legislation have been drafted to expand the police power to frankly scary levels.
Now I ask the citizens of the free world, what can we do to reverse the anti-freedom, totalitarian bent politics are taking lately?
Yes it is but, the creeping got up to a out and out run after 9/11. Mailing packages, taking off shoes to fly, I.D. for everything, taped phone calls, spied on e-mails, etc. America gave up a lot after that dreadful day, and Bush said it wouldn’t change us. Maybe he meant it wouldn’t change him. "It’s for your own good" so big brother would have us believe.
If we are going to remain a free society we are going to have to assume some risk. Just as we do with the right to bare arms. We need to face facts that freedom is not payed for by just those in uniform, but by all.