An Analysis of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 Essay Example for Free

An Analysis of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 Essay As a response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States government established a separate agency within the federal system to prevent future terrorist activities. Hence, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created, along with the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (HSA). The HSA identified and explained the principle, jurisdiction and duties of the Department of Homeland Security. The HSA also reinforced sentences for transgressing national security laws and expanded federal control of local law enforcement agencies. However, critics argued that the HSA instead promoted American global dominance at the expense of civil liberties. For instance, Title II pushed for the establishment of a Directorate of Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, tasked with the creation and maintenance of a database containing public and private information on virtually any individual in the United States. Telephone records, banking transactions, school records, employment history – these can be gathered to piece together a profile that can be used against innocent people suspected as terrorists. In the HAS’ Title V: Emergency Preparedness and Response, there is no specific mandate of federal control over the â€Å"local first responders† – the police, the firemen and the emergency personnel. The provision simply called for â€Å"federal supervision, funding and cooperation. † (Van Bergen, 2002) Although centralization is perfect for emergency preparedness on a sufficiently large scale, it could also lead to the loss of local control and to potential federal militarization. (Van Bergen, 2002) According to the United States Northern Command (USNC), â€Å"Prohibiting direct military involvement in law enforcement is in keeping with long-standing U. S. law and policy limiting the militarys role in domestic affairs. † (Van Bergen, 2002) In addition, the Posse Comitatus Act (18 USC 1385) â€Å"generally prohibits U. S. military personnel from interdicting vehicles, vessels and aircraft; conducting surveillance, searches, pursuit and seizures; or making arrests on behalf of civilian law enforcement authorities. † (Van Bergen, 2002) The four statutory exceptions to this prohibition are the following: counter-drug assistance (10 USC 371-81); Insurrection Act (10 USC 331-34); crimes using nuclear materials (18 USC 831); and chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction (10 USC 382). (Van Bergen, 2002) One of the most serious consequences of the HAS is the Critical Infrastructure Information Act of 2002 (CIIA). The CIIA offered corporations confidentiality and immunity from civil liability with respect to the â€Å"critical infrastructure information† (CII) that they submitted â€Å"voluntarily† to the DHS. CII may include virtually any information about physical or cyber infrastructure that can be useful to terrorists or other parties that intend to cause damage to the facility. (Steinzor, 2003) No one may use it in any civil action arising under federal or state law without obtaining the written consent of the company. Government officials who will violate the CIIA will face up to a year in prison. The CIIA is very dangerous, as it would immunize corporations and their employees from malfeasance in their operations, from racial discrimination to embezzlement, violations of environmental regulations and negligence that will harm the public physically and or financially. Hence, the CIIA might also end up granting immunity to enterprises that were guilty of negligence in the face of terrorist attacks, allowing them to escape accountability for putting other people’s lives in danger. Terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda might use the CIIA to their advantage, because their operatives assume quiet and unobtrusive Western lifestyles and identities to avoid capture and to successfully carry out missions. But with the misleading nature of the HSA, the question ordinary Americans should be asking is: Who should they be afraid of, the terrorists or their own government? References Van Bergen, Jennifer. (2002, December 2-4). Homeland Security Act: The Rise of the American Police State. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://www. ratical. org/ratville/CAH/HSA_RoAPS. html. Steinzor, Rena. (2003, March 12). ‘Democracy Dies Behind Closed Doors:’ The Homeland Security Act and Corporate Accountability. PDF File. Retrieved January 2, 2008 from http://www. progressiveregulation. org/perspectives/secrecy_white_paper. pdf.

Neuropsychologist Essay -- Neurology Psychology Medicine Papers

Neuropsychologist A neuropsychologist is a professional in the field of psychology that focuses on the interrelationships between neurological processes and behavior. They work as a team with neurologists, neurosurgeons, and primary care physicians. Neuropsychologists extensively study the anatomy, pathology, and physiology of the nervous system (http://www.tbidoc.com/Appel2.html). Clinical neuropsychologists then apply this knowledge to the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and/or rehabilitation of patients across the lifespan with medical, neurodevelopmental, neurological and psychiatric conditions, as well as other cognitive and learning disorders (http://nanonline.org/content/text/paio/defneuropsych.shtm). A clinical neuropsychologist uses behavioral, cognitive, neurological, physiological, and psychological principles to test and evaluate the patient’s behavioral, neurocognitive, and emotional strengths and weaknesses (http://nanonline.org/content/text/paio/defneuropsych.shtm). The neuropsychologist also compares the patient’s relationship to normal and abnormal central nervous system functioning. Then the clinical neuropsychologist uses this information along with information provided from other healthcare and/or medical providers to identify and diagnose neurobehavioral disorders. After identifying and diagnosing the patient, the clinical neuropsychologist will plan and implement intervention strategies. Patient Himself or Herself Just ventral to the thalamus, near the base of the brain is where the hypothalamus is located. The hypothalamus is relatively small (peanut-sized) but extremely complex structure. It is intimately involved in the control of... .... Definition of a Neuropsychologist. Retrieved April 29, 2005, from http://nanonline.org/content/text/paio/defneuropsych.shtm. Carlson, Neil R. (1994). Physiology of Behavior 5th Edition. Massachusetts: Paramount Publishing. Gordon, Christopher J. (1993). Temperature Regulation in Laboratory Rodents. New York: Cambridge University Press. Kalat, James W. (2004). Biological Psychology 8th Edition. Canada: Thomson Learning, Inc., Wadsworth. Morgane, Peter J., & Panksepp, Jaak (1980). Handbook of the Hypothalamus Volume 2: Physiology of the Hypothalamus. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc. Reber, Arthur S., & Reber, Emily (2001). The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc. Wiederholt, Wigbert C. (2000). Neurology for Non-Neurologists 4th Edition. Pennsylvania: W.B. Sauders Company.

The Quality Gurus

The Quality Gurus The six Quality Gurus I have chosen to write about are Dr. Joseph Juran, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Philip Crosby, Dr. Shigeo Shingo, Dr. Genichi Taguchi and Dr. Kaora Ishikawa. All of these people have made significant contributions to improving businesses, healthcare organizations, governments and countless other organizations. A guru is a good, wise person and a teacher above all else. This is coupled with these people with an approach to quality in business and life that has made a major and lasting effect on the way people of all types of businesses run their organizations. Dr. Joseph Juran Joseph Juran was born in Romania in 1904 but he moved to America when he was 8 years old. From the beginning of his career Juran worked in the quality profession. In 1951 he published his most recognised book â€Å"Juran’s Quality Control Handbook†. In 1952 he was invited to Japan to give some top level executive seminars which had a powerful and long lasting effect on Japanese businesses. Juran specialised in managing for quality. One of Juran’s main philosophies was his famous â€Å"Quality Trilogy†. This trilogy is composed of three managerial processes; planning, control and improvement. Quality planning is composed of establishing quality goals, identifying the customer, determining the customer’s needs, developing processes that are able to produce products that respond to customer’s needs, establishing process controls and transferring them to the operating forces. Quality control consists of evaluating actual quality performance, comparing this to performance goals, and trying to resolve the differences. Quality improvement encompasses establishing the infrastructure needed quality improvement, identifying the improvement projects, establishing a project team and providing the team with the resources training and motivation needed to implement the improvements. Joseph Juran came up with the ten steps to quality improvement 1)Build awareness of the need to improve 2)Set goals for that improvement 3)Create plans to reach the goals 4)Provide training 5)Conduct projects to solve problems )Report on progress 7)Give recognition for success 8)Communicate results 9)Keep score 10)Maintain momentum Juran has a practical approach to quality. His goal is to reduce the cost of quality. He identifies four costs associated with quality. These are internal costs (defects found before shipping), external costs (defects found after shipping), appraisal costs (inspection, compliance auditing and investigations) and prevention costs (stopping defects occurring in the first place). Juran believes that management should reduce these internal and external defect costs to the point where costs incurred from extra appraisal and prevention measurses would not be covered by the savings from reduced defects. Juran believes that this will reduce the cost of quality to the minimum without imposing unrealistic goals of zero defects. Dr. W. Edwards Deming W. Edwards Deming was born in America in 1900. He is best remembered for his work in Japan where he taught statistical methods to Japanese management to help them to improve the quality of their products. He is widely regarded as the person who played a major part in revolutionising Japanese quality systems. Deming worked closely with Ford in Japan and his systematic approach to quality brought such huge improvements in quality that soon Fords that were produced in Japan were in much higher demand than US built Fords, even though they were producing identical products. Deming later went on to be an industry consult throughout the word until his death at the age of 93. Deming believed that management were responsible for over 90% of quality problems and so he placed great importance on management. He came up with the 7 deadly diseases which he believed significantly contributed to a lack of quality. These â€Å"diseases† were short term planning promoting fear in the workplace, overly focusing on profits and figures, and excessive costs. To counter act these 7 diseases Deming developed the 14 points for managing which has since been studied and followed the world over. 1)To create a consistency of purpose towards improvement. 2)Learn and adopt the new philosophy. 3)Design and build in quality so as to cease dependence on inspection. 4)Minimise costs through better quality. )Continuously improve production systems through management. 6)More on the training for employees will decrease defects. 7)Show management and supervisors to be leaders. 8)Reduce levels of fear amongst employees so that everyone can contribute effectively. 9)Encourage cooperation and communication between different ares. 10)Eliminate slogans that are based solely at the workforce and targets that ask for unrealistic levels of defects and productivity. 11)Increase supervisors focus to quality rather than quantity. Foster greater employee pride in their work. 2)Get rid of barriers that don’t foster management pride in the workplace. 13)Bring in programmes for self improvement. 14)Get everybody in the organisation to work from top to bottom to accomplish the transformation. Deming developed the Deming Cycle or the PDCA(plan, do, check, act,) cycle. This is a systematic approach to problem solving with the idea being to constantly improve. The cycle is about learning what works and what doesn’t work and then repeating the cycle all over again. This also encourages improvements in small increments which gives employees time in accept it and support it. Demings approach to quality was very customer focused. Anything that does not add value for the customer is not a quality feature. Deming sees everyone involved in building the product as a supplier, a process and a customer. Perhaps his greatest contribution was to show the importance of culture and employee attitudes when trying to create a quality based organisation. Dr. Shigeo Shingo Shigeo Shingo was born in Japan in 1909. He qualified as an industrial engineer and went on to become one the leading experts on improving manufacturing processes. He is best known for his work with Toyota where he developed his just- in- time (JIT) manufacturing methods. He was the inventor of the single minute exchange of die (SMED) system which drastically reduced set up times. He is perhaps best known for inventing the Poka-Yoke system (Mistake proofing system). In poka-yoke Shingo makes the distinction between errors and defects. Poka-yoke tries to stop errors becoming defects. In poka-yoke process are stopped as soon as errors occur. The source of the error is then identified and steps are put in place so that the error does not happen again. With this mistake proofing system Shingo strives to reach zero quality control where mistakes are eliminated completely. Poka-yoke also introduces check lists as Shingo believes that it is inevitable that humans will forget things and make mistakes. Shingo’s single minute exchange of die is a process that allows quick changeover between products. This allows a huge reduction in set up times which allows for production of small batches of products with very little disruption. Shingo’s JIT production keeps companies inventory levels low by only producing what the customer wants when they want it. This greatly helped companies to reduce costs associated with inventories. In my workplace in a medical device company there are signs of Shigeo Shingo’s influence everywhere. Shingo’s poka-yoke system is used on the manufacturing line to prevent errors from reoccurring. Defects are examined at the point of the defect and the source of the defect is determined. Preventative action is then put in place if possible to prevent this same defect occurring again. Check lists are put in place at every point of work to prevent mistakes from occurring. SMED systems are also used widely in my work. Materials, machines and process are kept as similar as possible so as to reduce set up times so that we can produce big or small batches with minimal disruption. Philip Crosby Philip Crosby was born in Florida in 1926. He was the quality control manager at the Martin Company, Florida which is where he initiated his zero defects program. Crosby had an aim to change the attitude of top level management about quality. He made quality more measurable as a cost and in doing so he could show the true expense of doing things wrong. Crosby’s most famous concepts were his â€Å"zero defects† and â€Å"quality is free† concepts. These theories were backed up by Crosby’s Four Absolutes of Quality Management. 1)Quality means conformance to requirements 2)Prevention, rather than appraisal should be the system for achieving quality 3)Zero defects should be the standard of conformance 4)Quality should be measured by the cost of non conformance. These Four Absolutes of Quality Management are supported by Crosby’s 14 steps of quality improvement. These steps are there to show that management is committed to quality. There should be quality improvement teams put in place to determine where problems lie. The cost of quality should be evaluated and awareness of quality should be heightened. Corrective action should be put in place and the situation should be monitored. Encourage individual improvement and get employees more involved in quality feedback. People who actively participate in quality improvement should be recognised. These steps should be continuously enforced to show that quality is never ending. Crosby introduced the â€Å"Crosby Vaccine † as a preventative measure for poor quality for management. It is split into 5 sections which covers TQM. These sections are Integrity, Systems, Communication, Operations and Pride. In my work in the medical device industry I can see the influence of Philip Crosby. The four absolutes of quality management are enforced every day. Conformance to requirements is of the foremost importance on the production line. Steps are enforced to prevent mistakes from happening reather than dealing with them when they happen. There is a policy of zero defects which the company tries to communicate to the employees. As we as all this I can see that the company makes huge efforts to get all employees involved in making suggestions to improve quality throughout the company by introducing schemes such as the â€Å"My Ideas† scheme. Here, employees can submit ideas on how to improve quality and they can be rewarded and acknowledged for their efforts. Dr. Genichi Taguchi Genichi Taguchi was born in Japan in 1924. Taguchi used statistics to improve the quality of manufactured goods. Taguchi emphasises putting the quality back into the design of products before they are manufactured. He believes that products should be robust. Taguchi breaks down design into three phases, system design, parameter design and tolerance design. This allows designers to find the optimum settings to produce a product that can survive manufacturing every time and produce products that always conform to specification. The system design is basically the idea of the design, deciding what you want it to be able to do. The parameter design is where nominal values are defined for parameters so as to minimise variation in manufacturing. The tolerance design shows the effect that the parameters have on the products performance. Taguchi also introduced many different methods for analysing results of experiments such as â€Å"analyses of variance† and â€Å"minute analyses†. Although some of Taguchi’s statistical methods are disputed, he has been very influential in improving manufacturing quality worldwide. Dr. Kaora Ishikawa Kaoru Ishikawa was born in Japan in 1915. He is best known for the cause and effect diagram that is used in the analyses of industrial processes. Ishikawa believes that all employees have a greater role to play and without this we are limiting the potential for improvement. Ishikawa introduced â€Å"quality circles† and had a big emphasis on the †internal customer. † References: http://0-web. ebscohost. com. library. itsligo. ie – A Framework for Comparison, Ghobadian, Abby, Speller, Simon http://www. businessballs. com/dtiresources/quality_management_gurus_theories. pdf -The Original Quality Gurus, DTI. gov. uk http://www. enotes. com/management-encyclopedia/quality-gurus -Encyclopedia of Management, Mildred Golden Pryor http://www. qualitygurus. com http://www. skymark. com -W. Edwards Deming – The Father of Quality Evolution

Love Is Incompatible With Religion Essay - 1998 Words

February the 14th was once celebrated as a pagan fertility festival (Galician Merskin 2007, p. 318) rather than the commercialisation of love in the form of exorbitant chocolates and flowers that contribute to a billion-dollar industry. In light of this prevalence, few would have discovered the historical association like Galician and Merskin. Yet for such scholars, it is hard to escape this notion regarding Valentine’s Day, especially when it has come to adorn a seemingly warped definition that leads one to wonder if romantic love is indeed a modern-day concept. Hence, this paper attempt to delineate the historical origins of romantic love in religion, which it opines useful in supporting the stance that romantic love is incompatible with religion. Specifically, it will draw on the monotheistic faith of Christianity as well as polytheistic religions of Buddhism and Hinduism. More focus would be dedicated to exploring Christianity based on the premise that this realm is the b elief and thus the forte of the author. In addition, it will endeavour to establish that religion and romantic love are two mutually exclusive entities, underscoring that denominations within Christianity have tried to coexist with romantic love by setting up new branches out of the formal authority of the religion. Finally, it will conclude that despite the retractions provided, religion is incompatible with romantic love. The contemporary concept of romantic love rests on the premise that romanticShow MoreRelatedTranscendentalist1105 Words   |  5 PagesTranscendentalism and Christianity Have Incompatible Beliefs Transcendentalism is â€Å"a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in the early to middle 19th century† (Wikipedia). 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