Sunday, December 30, 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

Habeas Corpus: Cornerstone of Liberty - Ed-Op

Habeas Corpus: Cornerstone of Liberty - Ed-Op

NOTE: This is page 2 of article~gr8fuldaniel

Following the passing of the MCA the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that Congress and this president were "turning away from a centuries-old tradition that is a cornerstone of our Constitution, and our freedom."

This is no exaggeration. The MCA gives this government the ability to imprison "enemy combatants" indefinitely, deny detainees any court review, and to hand down convictions based on evidence extracted from torture. Even if you are comfortable with George Bush having this kind of power, can you honestly say you would entrust this level of power to Hillary Clinton? This kind of broad reaching, unregulated authority should not be entrusted to anyone.

Some of our leaders try to ease our worries by saying that abolishing The Great Writ only applied to a small part of the population, but we have to recognize that when habeas corpus is abolished for even a few, it is abolished for all of us. How would we prove we are not aiding terrorists if the government accused us? How could we prove our innocence when such a basic right has been eliminated?

This should scare us, and we should keep in mind that even during the war of 1812, while the city of New Orleans was under siege by British troops, a federal judge issued a writ of habeas corpus for prisoners taken by General Andrew Jackson.

We may face terrorism in this day, but we forget that this nation had many trials before, and this will not be our last. We cannot allow fear to manipulate us; when we do that, we let liberty slip away. Our freedoms are fragile, and in the words of Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

It is an absolute disgrace that we are now fighting to restore a right that has its roots in the 13th Century. We should be ashamed at how much we have let fear erode our liberty. Call your Congressman and demand they restore habeas corpus.

José Padilla (prisoner) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

José Padilla

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Academic Search

Here are some of the best research directories I learned about in my LIBR 325 class:
Librarians Internet Index (The best place to start)

BUBL Information Service

dmoz

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Carpeted: The therapist who branded his patient a waste of space | the Daily Mail

Carpeted: The therapist who branded his patient a waste of space | the Daily Mail: "A psychologist who specialises in stress counselling has been rebuked by his ruling body after telling a patient to 'pull yourself together' and branding another 'a waste of space'.
Dr John McCarron was found to have insulted his patients and behaved in a way that would be detrimental to their health.
The 44-year-old doctor works for the Lancashire Care NHS Trust in adult occupational therapy. But he has also been in private practice since 1997. "

>snip<

One 52-year-old man, a mechanic who had suffered from anxiety for nine years and was unable to work because of severe depression, had been referred to him by his GP.

He told the committee that Dr McCarron had called him, among other things, a 'w***er', a 'waste of space' and 'an idiot' during sessions, adding that he had felt bullied.

Another patient complained that the psychologist was judgmental and had said words to the effect of: "Pull yourself together, you're pathetic."

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Self-efficacy defined

Self-efficacy defined
Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes.

A strong sense of efficacy enhances human accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways. People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided. Such an efficacious outlook fosters intrinsic interest and deep engrossment in activities. They set themselves challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them.


{snip}

I. Sources of Self-Efficacy

People's beliefs about their efficacy can be developed by four main sources of influence. The most effective way of creating a strong sense of efficacy is through mastery experiences. Successes build a robust belief in one's personal efficacy. Failures undermine it, especially if failures occur before a sense of efficacy is firmly established.

If people experience only easy successes they come to expect quick results and are easily discouraged by failure. A resilient sense of efficacy requires experience in overcoming obstacles through perseverant effort. Some setbacks and difficulties in human pursuits serve a useful purpose in teaching that success usually requires sustained effort. After people become convinced they have what it takes to succeed, they persevere in the face of adversity and quickly rebound from setbacks. By sticking it out through tough times, they emerge stronger from adversity.

The second way of creating and strengthening self-beliefs of efficacy is through the vicarious experiences provided by social models. Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers' beliefs that they too possess the capabilities master comparable activities to succeed. By the same token, observing others' fail despite high effort lowers observers' judgments of their own efficacy and undermines their efforts. The impact of modeling on perceived self-efficacy is strongly influenced by perceived similarity to the models. The greater the assumed similarity the more persuasive are the models' successes and failures. If people see the models as very different from themselves their perceived self-efficacy is not much influenced by the models' behavior and the results its produces.


more.....

Book Companion Site

Psych 305 Book Companion Site