SOLO Report Essays - Crime, Murder, Psychopathy, Serial Killer

SOLO Report This book, in my opinion, is a very good example of a serial killer, and his ironic demise. The book begins with an example of serial killing, where a powerful, influential man is killed by an assassin. The book, after the killing, follows the killer to an unusual place-a concert hall. There it is found that the killer is internationally famous concert pianist John Mikali. This man, Mikali, has been tormented by death and pain all of his life. His family has been based through a stout naval history, as his father, and relatives past have all been commanders and captains of great naval ships. The one break in the chain was his Grandfather and him, John, who is a concert pianist. John is clever but physcotic, because his hobby, as gruesome as it may seem, is killing. It began one day when his nanny was killed. It seemed she was killed by a hit and run driver. John, who loved his nanny so much, decided to get revenge, and revenge he did. He killed the man who had been driving the car. The book starts out, as said, with a killing and then by revealing the killer. Then the book goes into a story of the life of the man Mikali. His mother and father had been killed at sea, and the only people he had left were his nanny and his aunt. The book gives an accurate description of his life and times before his incredible hobby. After the book describes Mikali's background, which itself is filled with death, the book goes into the current life of Mikali and how he got to where he is. Mikali discovered his great talent in music at a very early age. His grand-father, who is the only blood relative he has left, is committed to his grand-son. He gives his son the best schooling in the form of music he loves the most: the Piano. The book after it has dealt with the past then goes into the present. Using this method, it resembles a time line: MIKALI'S DEEP PAST--------RECENT PAST---------PRESENT TIME After the recent past, in which Mikali has killed over 30 well known and influential people all around the globe. He uses his influential piano connections to travel all around the globe. He then makes the fatal mistake someone else did to him by doing it to someone else, with even more power than him. Mikali's most loved relative was killed by a hit and run driver-and then one day Mikali kills the daughter of a retired SAS Soldier, Asa Morgan. Morgan is a trained and skilled killer himself. It is ironic in the fact that after Morgan's daughter is killed, he goes on a rampage, like Mikali after his aunt is killed. Mikali took out his rage on the entire globe-and Morgan took UT out on Mikali and everyone associated with him. Morgan, after learning his daughter is dead, throws all rules of the military system out the window and goes after Mikali. Although Morgan doesn't know who killed his daughter, he does know that the initial murder at the beginning of the book is related to his own daughter's murder. Mikali has gained a world- wide reputation as a brilliant pianist-and his alter ego as a fearless and skilled killer. Revenge plays its part in this book, after Mikali having taken his out on the whole world, and Morgan wanting to get his daughter back. Morgan, after tracking down Mikali through skillful deduction, (he examines all the murders and pieces together that Mikali was in the city giving some kind of musical performance) kills Mikali in the only place that can be deemed fit to kill Mikali in-A music hall. The book is very real in the aspect of serial killers. It portrays an excellent example of a person who kills in succession with an intricate plan. The killer, Mikali, kills all of his victims simply and with a plan. Also, Mikali kills many people. That's a common trait with serial killers. As with Charles Manson, Mikali killed his victims without remorse or pity. He wiped them clear off the face of the earth without a second thought because he thought it would have an affect on the earth. Mikali's plan was that if someone did something bad to him, then they should be dead. Mikali killed a man who had been leading the group who financed a political uprising in his native Greece. And he also

Molly Ivins, Sharp-Tongued Political Commentator

Molly Ivins, Sharp-Tongued Political Commentator Molly Ivins (Aug. 30, 1944–Jan. 31, 2007) was a political commentator with a sharp wit- a take-no-prisoners critic of what she considered silly, outrageous, or unfair. Ivins was based in Texas, and both loved and made fun of her state and its culture and politicians. President George W. Bush, a frequent target of Ivins writings, nevertheless praised her after she died, saying he â€Å"respected her convictions, her passionate belief in the power of words, and her ability to turn a phrase.† Bush added: â€Å"Her quick wit and commitment to her beliefs will be missed.† Fast Facts: Molly Ivins Known For: Political commentator with biting witAlso Known As: Mary Tyler IvinsBorn: Aug. 30, 1944 in Monterey, CaliforniaParents: James Elbert Ivins and Margaret Milne IvinsDied: Jan. 31, 2007 in Austin, TexasEducation: Smith College (BA in History, 1966), Columbia School of Journalism (MA, 1967)Published Works: Molly Ivins: She Cant Say That Can She? (1992), Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bushs America (2003), Who Let the Dogs In? Incredible Political Animals I Have Known (2004)Awards and Honors: Three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Womens Media FoundationSpouse: NoneChildren: NoneNotable Quote: There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule- thats what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aime d at the powerless, it is not only cruel- its vulgar. Early Life Ivins was born in Monterey, California.  Most of her childhood was in Houston, Texas, where her father was a business executive in the oil and gas industry. She went north for her education, getting her bachelors degree from Smith College, after a brief time at Scripps College, and then earned her masters degree from Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism. While at Smith, she interned at the  Houston Chronicle. Career Ivins first job was with the Minneapolis Tribune, where she covered the police beat, the first woman to do so. In the 1970s, she worked for the Texas Observer.  She often published op-eds in The New York Times and The Washington Post.  The  New York Times, wanting a livelier columnist, hired her away from Texas in 1976.  She served as the bureau chief for the Rocky Mountain states.  Her style was, however, apparently was more lively than the Times  expected, and she rebelled against what she saw as authoritarian control.   She returned to Texas in the 1980s to write for the Dallas Times Herald,  given freedom to write a column as she wished. She sparked controversy when she said of a local congressman, â€Å"If his I.Q. slips any lower, we’ll have to water him twice a day.† Many readers expressed outrage and said they were appalled, and several advertisers boycotted the paper. Nevertheless, the paper rose to her defense and rented billboards that read: â€Å"Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?† The slogan became the title of the first of her six books. Ivins was also a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and briefly served on the board of the Pulitzer committee.  When the Dallas Times Herald, closed, Ivins went to work for the  Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Her twice-weekly column went into syndication and appeared in hundreds of papers. Later Years and Death Ivins was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. She underwent a radical mastectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy. The cancer went into remission briefly, but it returned in 2003 and again in 2006. Ivins waged a very public battle against cancer. In 2002, she wrote about the disease:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.† Ivins worked nearly up to the time of her death, but she suspended her column a few weeks before she passed away. Ivins died on Jan. 31, 2007, in Austin, Texas. Legacy At its height, Ivins column appeared in about 350 newspapers. Upon her death, The New York Times noted that Ivins cultivated the voice of a folksy populist who derided those who she thought acted too big for their britches. She was rowdy and profane, but she could filet her opponents with droll precision. After her death, Time magazine called Ivins a major figure in Texas journalism. In some respects, Ivins and President George W. Bush came to national prominence at the same time, but while Bush came to embrace his political heritage, Molly veered from her own, Time noted in its obituary, adding: Her family was Republican, but she was caught up in the turmoil of the 60s and became an ardent liberal, or populist as Texas liberals like to call themselves. One of the first newspapers Ivins worked for, the Texas Observer, had a simpler take on her legacy: Molly was a hero. She was a mentor. She was a liberal. She was a patriot. And as recently as April 2018, journalists and writers were still mourning her passing and praising her influence. Columnist and author John Warner  wrote in the Chicago Tribune that Ivins work clarifies that the forces that roil our democracy are nothing new. She just saw things more clearly and sooner than many of us. I wish she were here, but I’m thankful her spirit lives on in her work. Sources Seelye, Katharine Q. â€Å"Molly Ivins, Columnist, Dies at 62.†Ã‚  The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2007.â€Å"About Molly Ivins.†Ã‚  By Carey Kinsolving | Creators Syndicate.Warner, John. â€Å"If Only Molly Ivins Could Say Something Now.†Ã‚  Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 25 Apr. 2018.Hylton, Hilary. â€Å"Remembering Molly Ivins, 1944-2007.†Ã‚  Time, Time Inc., 31 Jan. 2007,.PBS, Interview: Molly Ivins. Public Broadcasting Service.

Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Macroeconomics - Essay Example US$1000 per month. Zan gained the required documents and was all set to leave for UAE in a month when his seniors’ opinion on going to UAE for job changed. That was December, 2008 and the global financial crisis had almost just started. His seniors told tragic tales. Many of them had themselves come back to Pakistan. Zan heard from his seniors that the construction companies in UAE were downsizing. Many employees were being fired without prior notification; companies were not following the legal procedure to downsize. The pressure on the regulatory authorities was so tremendous that the fired employees were not getting healthy response from them. The employees who were fortunate enough to survive were to take much greater load than before. As the companies had downsized, the survivors had also been assigned the responsibilities of the fired employees. To make it worse, they had their salaries reduced by a substantial percentage rather than getting them increased in compensation for more work. T he employers obliged them to work at lower salaries; else, they had the option to resign. Zan was very disappointed. He had spent months preparing for going to UAE but all had gone in vain. He decided to continue his job in Pakistan. He had thought before of leaving his company as it had been paying him very less, but now, that the rate of unemployment had gone very high because of the global financial crisis, leaving the company seemed a bad idea. One thing Zan knew for sure was that he needed to continue professional development. Pursing further studies seemed like a good way to achieve that. Therefore, he got admission in Masters course of Construction Management at a local engineering university in Pakistan. A major motivation behind getting admission in this course was to secure a scholarship for higher studies abroad. Since Pakistan is a developing country, where the opportunities of development

The rules on the deduction of expenses for employed and self-employed Essay

The rules on the deduction of expenses for employed and self-employed persons are different and create inequity in the tax syste - Essay Example Then, on the behalf of the employees, the employers are required to pay the deducted amount to the treasury. ITEPA 2003 provides for the taxation of employees who are resident and ordinarily resident in the UK. According to Section 18, all general earnings are subjected to tax that are received in the form of money. Section 19 deals with the general earnings received in non-monetary forms. The self-employed are those taxpayers who have their own businesses and act as sole traders. They are required to pay their taxes through self-assessment. The extent to which deductions are allowed for the self-employed tends to be more than they are for the employed taxpayers. As a general rule, all amounts that are given to the employees are taxable regardless of the fact whether the taxpayers hold the employment or not. This rule has a few exceptions though. For instance, Section 85 and 93 provide that provision of a non-cash voucher or a credit token --which is of a kind made available to the p ublic generally-- to an employee, or a member of his family, is not taxable if it is provided on no more favorable terms than to the public generally. There is a reduction in meal vouchers u/s 89. ... The income of a self-employed taxpayer is regarded as income from trade and is taxed under ITTOIA 2005. All the profits from trade are taxed after deducting all the deductible allowances. The deductible expenses include all those expenses that are incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade and all those losses are allowed to be deducted that are connected out of the trade. Section 34b provides that for any expense that is incurred for more than one purpose, only that part or portion shall be deductible that can be identified as incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade. In the same way, expenses that are incurred by the employees wholly and exclusively for the purposes of employment are also allowed as deductions. For instance, s 390 of Income Tax Act 2007 grants relief for loans that are sanctioned for buying plant or machinery for employment use. There are certain expenses which are of such a nature that it becomes very difficult to ascertain whether they should be allowed as deductions or not. This difficulty not only arises in the cases of employees but also extends to the self-employed. In this regard, case law is very helpful. For instance, s.337(1) of ITEPA 2003 provides that for a travelling expense to be regarded as an allowable deduction: i. â€Å"The employee is obliged to incur and pay them as holder of the employment†; and ii. It must be an expense â€Å"necessarily incurred on travelling in the performance of the duties of the office or employment†. This section was created after the judgements in three landmark cases of Ricketts v Colquhoun (1925) 10 TC 118, Owen v Pook (1969) 45 TC 571 and Taylor v Proven (1974) 49 TC 579.

Compare and contrast Blake and Wordsworths view of London Essay Example for Free

Compare and contrast Blake and Wordsworths view of London Essay The poets Blake and Wordsworth both wrote poems about Englands capital city, London. The poets themselves each came from different backgrounds which may have influenced their view of London. Wordsworth was born and brought up in the Lake District and spent the majority of his life there, which may have led him to concentrate on the natural features of London. In contrast Blake was more aware of the industry and poverty of the capital City. He had lived all his life in London, receiving little formal schooling and even witnessing the death of his brother from consumption. Wordsworths poem Composed upon Westminster Bridge presents a calm and relaxed view looking across the water and the city. He writes about what he sees and views London as a majestic royal palace. Wordsworth reflects upon his subject with deep felt emotion, seeing it as a spiritual place of peace. Dull would be the soul who could pass by, a sight so touching in its majesty. He describes a special morning when the city seems to be asleep and is in awe of the tranquillity never saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!. Wordsworth is therefore commenting on the natural beauty that he sees rather than the daily life behind this scene. In contrast Blakes poem is entitled London. Talking directly about the city itself it is the account of a person walking down the street saying what he sees. He is more concerned with the people who make up the City. Instead of seeing beauty he sees pain in the emotions of the people he meets. In every cry of every man. Blake concentrates on the oppression and poverty of the city. He blames the Church and authorities for their lack of attention and care for the people of London. Every blackening Church appals. The tone of the poem shows a lack of awareness; some safe inside while pain goes on outside, and the hapless soldiers sigh runs in blood down Palace walls. In keeping with this pessimistic view, Blakes poem is structured in a methodical and measured tone. It is written to a steady beat in four stanzas. This has the feel of a walking pace as he wanders around the city viewing its misery. Blake uses repetition to emphasise his point in every cry, in every voice. It is a formal bleak approach giving the bare facts as he sees them. Wordsworths poem is altogether more flamboyant. As a romantic poet he writes this poem in the form of a sonnet. This style is mainly used in love poetry. This structure emphasises the way Wordsworth concentrates on the physical aspects Wordsworth views around him. One line flows into another in an informal way. It is descriptive and reflective but does not attempt to look beyond the outward appearance all bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Wordsworth as a rich man, the son of a lawyer, views London on face value. He looks down upon the city from his lofty position unaware of the poverty below. His tone is full of grandeur earth has not anything to show more fair. He feels moved in his spirit and in harmony with his environment. Wordsworths tone is full of wonder, focusing on the magnificent buildings and seeing the city itself as a living being full of emotion. Blake expresses his feelings of frustration and sadness. He describes chartered streets and chartered Thames, which emphasises how everything has been taken over and oppressed. He comes from a lower middle class background; the son of a hosier and the tone of this poem expresses his awareness of the poverty around him marks of weakness, marks of woes. This sadness turns to aggression as the poem proceeds, criticising the Church and even the corruption of marriage. And blights with plagues the marriage hearse. There is a hopelessness and desperation expressed within this poem. Blake refers to mind-forged manacles, the metaphorical chains in which the peoples minds are held. This is typical of the negative images used throughout. The one beat rhythm and child-like tone emphasises the steady march towards an inescapable fate. This language underlines the lack of control which people have, their lives grinding out a pre-set pattern. Everything is owned each chartered street. Even the Church is blackening, sinful, cruel, with a lack of purity and care. The oxymoron marriage hearse shows the conflict within society the hypocrisy of marriage whilst poverty encourages prostitution to flourish the youthful harlots curse. The words are stark and shocking, exaggerating the problem to gain our attention blasts the new-born infants tear. The language used by Wordsworth is full of splendour never did the sun more beautifully steep. He paints pictures with his words, using the images of the shining sun, the gliding river the beauty of the morning. He extends a simile of the city by personifying it as clothed in sleep. The city now doth like a garment where the beauty of the morning, silent, bare. Wordsworth creates a feeling of awe and wonder at the beauty of creation. He uses the metaphor of the city like a mighty heart lying still. The sounds evoked by Wordsworth poem are very peaceful and calm the river glideth, the morning silent. In contrast Blake uses sharp sounds which are onomatopoeic in nature blasts, curse, cry. He uses a strong heavy rhythm emotive of the oppression felt with repetitive force and mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe. The tone of Wordsworths poem is soft and lilting a sight so touching, a calm so deep. This is set against the harsh cry of Blakes London. The approach used by these two writers promotes a different response from the reader. Wordsworths flowery imagery encourages a warm view of London. He is optimistic in his approach, concentrating as he does upon the immediate sights and sounds of a peaceful morning scene. Blake however conjures up a feeling of misery for the plight of the people of London locked in a prison of poverty which he blames on the establishment who have no care for their situation. Blake concentrates on social injustice, perhaps borne out of his own upbringing, whilst Wordsworth seems unaware of anything but the natural beauty of the environment and not its inhabitants. Two seemingly different views of one city seen from varying perspectives.

Slaughterhouse-Five Essay: Three Themes of Slaughterhouse-Five

The Three Themes of Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut did a great job in writing an irresistible reading novel in which one is not permitted to laugh, and yet still be a sad book without tears. Slaughterhouse-five was copyrighted in 1969 and is a book about the 1945 firebombing in Dresden which had killed 135,000 people. The main character is Billy Pilgrim, a very young infantry scout who is captured in the Battle of the Bulge and quartered to a slaughterhouse where he and other soldiers are held. The rest of the novel is about Billy and his encounters with the war, his wife, his life on earth, and on the planet Tralfamador. There are 3 themes in the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, that stick in the readers mind as they read through this novel. Perhaps the most obvious theme in Slaughterhouse-Five, is the war and its contrast with love, beauty, humanity, innocence, etc. Vonnegut manages to tell the reader in Slaughterhouse-Five, that war is bad for human kind and that it would be better for people to love one another. To find the war's contrast with love is quite difficult, because the book doesn't talk about any couple that was cruelly torn apart by the war. For example, Billy didn't seem to love his wife very much. Vonnegut expresses it very lightly and uses the word "love" very rarely. Yet when he does, he uses it effectively. He tries to look for love and beauty in things that seemingly are neither lovely nor beautiful. For example, when Billy was captured by the group of Germans, he didn't see them as a cruel enemy, but as normal, innocent people: "Billy looked up at the face that went with the clogs. It was the face of a blond angel, of a fifteen-year-old boy. The boy was as beautiful as Eve" (... ...e eyes of Tralfamadorians: "When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes,'" (Vonnegut, p.27). Even with the contrast and the differences between these three themes, Vonnegut makes them all mesh in this novel. If Slaughterhouse- Five was the first novel the reader has ever read, they would appreciate this style of writing and black humor that Vonnegut portrays throughout Slaughterhouse- Five. It would make the reader wish that they would have discovered him earlier and read his books long before now. Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-five. NewYork: Dell Publishing Co. 1969.

Blankets and Security and Spirituality Essay

There are many themes explored in Craig Thompson’s award-winning graphic novel Blankets, but perhaps its chief theme is that of spirituality. Particularly, the text explores how spirituality can be distinct from religion: religion is illustrated as a blunt instrument with which individuals divide themselves, whereas the positive spirituality advocated by Thompson grows out of human experiences, such as his first love. In this sense, the modified view of spirituality overlays traditional religious thought: the titular quilt blanket takes on a totemic significance, like that of a saint’s body part. This is fitting enough, as Thompson presents the relationship with Raina as something sanctified and, not coincidentally, outside the realm of religion. Fittingly enough for a meta-narrative such as this, art forms the basis for Thompson to impose his own distinct narratives over the unfavorable narratives around him. This belief in transformative power becomes important when he discovers his blossoming sexuality: he must realize it is not embodied by the abusive babysitter of his past, but in the relationship he possesses in the here and now. Raina represents the clearest presentation of actual spirituality in the text: she presents the stability that Thompson craves so much, which is the only thing that really allows him to take solace. It is not coincidental that the two begin their relationship at Bible Camp: in a camp that is ostensibly devoted to finding spiritual fellowship, both Thompson and Raina feel like they do not fit in. Accordingly, they must develop their own fellowship with each other, substituting their unique friendship (and eventually erotic love) in place of the relationship with God that the camp is supposed to offer. This is one of the spiritual notions that Thompson hammers home quite effectively: the heart of a true spiritual relationship is one of interaction. Traditional spiritual models rely on following God’s will without having a real relationship with anything other than a personal interpretation of God as a social construct. Romantic love fills that need when spirituality falters. Raina’s place as a saint-like person seems quite intentional in the text. The work culminates, after all, with Thompson finally willing to forge his own path in life†¦but by naming the work after the blankets on which he laid beside Raina, he situates the work as a kind of return to the grace and serenity he discovered in his relationship with her. In this sense, the ending of the work represents a kind of spiritual pilgrimage that Thompson is undergoing, with a remnant of Raina to guide him. In the spiritual spectrum, she seems like a successor to the understanding of Mary offered by Thompson’s religious upbringing. In that conservative religious view, Mary represents the glory of women, but also their aloof subservience to the greater glory of men: Mary is great because she delivered Jesus, but because of that sanctified relationship, a relationship with her is denied to mortal men. Raina, then, represents the spirituality that Thompson is able to interact with. She also represents an opportunity to restore sexual equality to spirituality, as she is not aloof, nor is she playing second fiddle to men. This continues the theme of spirituality as a matter of unity, rather than divisiveness. The final confrontation with his parents represents the final necessary aspect of spirituality: a willingness to seek commonality in all living creatures. This is the nature of their dispute, after all: a difference in beliefs. However, by bringing this conflict out into the open, Thompson is asserting the sovereignty of his own beliefs. They do not fully define him, as religious beliefs define their followers, because the innate aspect of Thompson’s spirituality is that it is constantly evolving. Raina helped him discover it, but she does not represent the be-all, end-all of it. Similarly, Thompson’s pilgrimage at the end is not to literally find Raina, but to use his memento of the time they shared as a way of finding a new relationship that will further help challenge and evolve his notion of spirituality. Interestingly, Thompson does not decry all religion as the enemy of spirituality. However, he does emphasize that religious dogma is often used as an excuse to shut one’s self off from the world. In confronting his parents, Thompson is quite clear: his spiritual beliefs will not be quieted, nor will they be closeted, any longer. Blankets is a work that is certain to endure for many years to come. The reason for that is not lofty ambition to tell an epic story, but rather, a commitment to following the fault lines of human intimacy and romantic relationships all the way to their inevitable quakes. Unwilling to move the camera away (so to speak), Thompson does the audience one better by showing the slow process of picking up the pieces and trying to rearrange a Picasso-esque jumble into a self-constructed identity that he can actually recognize in the mirror. Raina helped him discover what spirituality really represented: not the missing piece, but the knowledge that pieces are missing. And all that is required of true spirituality is an ongoing commitment to never stop seeking completion.