Causal Rewrite- NYAJ32

Posted on April 30, 2019 by nyaj32

Players Using PED’s in the 60’s and 70’s are Why Players in the Modern Era Who Use Steroids are Banned from Baseball

Many players used some type of PEDs in the 60s and 70s. It was a very common thing that more than half the players were using it. Have any of them ever been suspended or banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame? The answer is no. Much less players have used PEDs in the modern Era (Last 25 years). Some still do, but almost nothing compared to the 60s and 70s. Have any of the modern players been suspended or banned from the Baseball Hall of Fame? The answer is almost all of them. It is clear that there is something that caused the MLB to take a stand and start disciplining their players for using PEDs. What could have been the trigger? Why did Major League Baseball ignore it for so long and then all of a sudden start taking charge and giving players consequences?

It is believed by some that they did not ignore it at all. It is very possible that the MLB had no idea it was going on. There would have definitely been suspicions in the 60s and 70s, but nobody really knew what PEDs were so they did not investigate. As time went on, and more players were inducted into the hall of fame, guys like Hank Aaron and Tom House admitted to using “Greenies,” a form of PEDs that made a player more focused. They were amphetamines. Tom House said, “If other guys were beating you with what they were using, then you moved up and found something better.” It is known that more than half of the Braves team and most likely most of many other teams were all utilizing some form of PEDs at the time. With this information, it is prevalent that many guys that are in the Baseball Hall of Fame have used things like “Greenies” or other forms of PEDs. Yet there has never been any kind of sanction for them. They are allowed to be in the Hall of Fame, yet guys from the Modern Era who have used PEDs are not allowed into the Hall of Fame. It does not make much sense to allow the older guys, but not the newer ones who all cheated. Why is it like this? Why are the newer guys no longer allowed in?

Some people may say that the older guys that used PEDs ruined it for the new Guys. The baseball hall of fame is chock full of guys who cheated their way along, but not a lot of that is known by the general public. That is because media was not as big and easy to access back then as it is now. The media make the newer guys who used PEDs look much worse than the older guys. The MLB does not want a bad rep on themselves or the Hall of Fame so the baseball writers do not want the newer guys who used PEds to be in the Hall of Fame. A lot of people believe that it should be as clean as possible so the known PED users should not be in the Hall. It is sad that he older guys ruined it for the new ones. Guys like Jim Thome and and Trevor Hoffman are in, “But the two guys who combined for 15 MVP and Cy Young awards – 13 more than the combined total of the six previous inductees 2 years back  – will be sitting home for the sixth and seventh consecutive years,” said Bob Nightengale in a USA Today Article.

It is a common conception that if someone completed an accomplishment are achieved a milestone than it should be recognized. The MLB is in a weird spot where they are counting records like Bond’s home run record, yet they will not allow him to be in the Hall of Fame. Many people believe that Hank Aaron’s home run record should be the real record, buy he used PEDs as well as Bonds did. People just do not know very much about Hank Aaron’s because he is a beloved player so the media decides to rip on Bonds and ARod and Clemens instead of admit the truth that so many players that are already in the Baseball Hall of Fame are known cheaters just like guys like Bonds, ARod, and Clemens. It is evident that the media plays a factor and that the guys who used PEDs in the 60s and 70s may very well have ruined it for the newer guys because Major League Baseball does not want anymore known users in the Hall of Fame. They want to keep it as clean as they possibly can. And at this point, it is just wrong to segregate them from other players who have also used PEDs.

Something else that many people do not realize is that around the time that Mark McGwire used steroids, is the same time baseball got popular again. Even though the players were not supposed to take them, they brought in many more fans because it was so much more fun to watch the game. In “Yearning for a Past that Never Was,” and article by Ron Von Burg, Burg discusses the benefits of steroids in baseball. He writes how steroids saved the game. Baseball was losing a lot of interest from fans and when players used steroids they started breaking records. Fans wanted to come out and see these records being broken. Steroids added to the game. Fans were electrified.

References

Nightengale, B. (2018, January 22). Nightengale: It’s past time for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens to earn Hall of Fame induction. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/01/22/barry-bonds-roger-clemens-hall-fame-steroids/1053787001/

Burg, R. V. (n.d.). Yearning for a Past that Never Was: Baseball, Steroids, and the Anxiety of the American Dream. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15295030903176641

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Definition Rewrite- NYAJ32

Posted on April 30, 2019 by nyaj32

What Classifies Someone as Being Hall of Fame Worthy?

Many people believe that the Hall of fame is only for people who did not use Performance enhancing drugs and people that were all natural all the way throughout their career. These people may not realize that they are mistaken. It is not their fault, but it is a common misconception. They believe that the Hall of Fame is exclusively for clean players and that it will stay that way forever. And part of players who used PEDs not being in the hall of fame is focused on the criticism they they get for doing it and the hatred they have acquired by many others. The Baseball Hall of Fame is not what many people think it is. Yes, it is mostly full of great accomplishments and legendary players and performances and it is something every baseball fan should see at least once in their life, but there is more underlying all of it than most people may believe.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is not totally clean like many people believe it currently is. It actually has multiple players who are known to have used substances to improve their performance on the field. One great example is in the article, “How Should the Baseball Hall of Fame be dealing with PED users,” by Cathal Kelly. He writes, “Guys like Whitey Ford, Don Sutton, and even Gaylord Perry all fiddled with the rules a little during their playing time. Ford once said, “I didn’t cheat in 1964 when I won 24 games….. Well, maybe a little,” The article also states, “Sutton joked that he’d used so much sandpaper in his career that he “ought to get a Black & Decker commercial out of it.” Sandpaper was not allowed to be used to increase the grip on the ball for a pitcher. The only thing you were, and still are, allowed to use is rosin. Sandpaper was a huge advantage that made those pitchers so great. It is probably able to give you even better grip than pine tar which is how some pitchers try and cheat now. Those players that cheat with pine tar are suspended for a big portion of the season, yet some legends who have done worse are beloved and praised and put into the Hall of Fame and they have done even worse than some of these other guys. The reason these other guys are in is because of their accomplishments.

Someone else who who cheated their way is Tom House. This one is a little worse than the other pitchers because House used something more similar to PEDs than sandpaper. He used something called greenies. Greenies are amphetamines. Players utilize them to be more alert and aware of what is going on. It makes players be more focused in on the game. The article from USA Today titled, “Former major league pitcher Tom House used steroids during his career and said performance-enhancing drugs were widespread in baseball in the 1960s and 1970s,” states, “House, 58, estimated that six or seven pitchers per team were at least experimenting with steroids or human growth hormone. He said players talked about losing to opponents using more effective drugs. “We didn’t get beat, we got out-milligrammed,” he said. “And when you found out what they were taking, you started taking them.” This proves that many players were taking some type of PEDs  at that time and many of those players are now in the hall of fame.

It is so hard to exclude other players with similar accomplishments like Barry Bonds. In a Heinonline.com journal titled “Barry Bonds and the Baseball Hall of Fame” the author writes, “Bonds has a record setting seven Most Valuable Player awards and also a record setting four Most Valuable Player award in a row.” This is not to mention he is the all time single season and career total home run champion. He has a solid case to be argued as the greatest baseball player who ever lived; Yet because he did steroids he is not acknowledged as so. Meanwhile other players who fiddled with the rules and accomplished less than Barry Bonds are sitting in the hall of fame while Bonds is still excluded to this day.

It almost seems like the only thing that proves whether some players are Hall of Fame worthy is if they are frowned upon by the general public. Hank Aaron is someone that is beloved by almost everyone, yet he almost certainly used PEDs. He once come out saying that he did in fact use greenies, but he said it once he was already in the hall of fame and it did not matter anymore. So many people believe that the baseball hall of fame is a totally clean environment and that is why they do not think that guys like Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens should be inducted. Meanwhile, It is a known fact that it is not a clean environment and there are many, many player in the Hall of Fame who used PEDs and cheated in other ways such as pitchers using sandpaper to get a better grip on the ball when pitching. The Hall of Fame is not all rainbows and unicorns like people think it is. It is easy to see the conclusion that it is not the fact that they used PEDs that keeps them out, but instead it is the fact that they have acquired so much public hatred that they are not in the Hall of Fame. They have done no worse than so many other players in the Hall of Fame, but because the general public knows about their actions causing hatred, which is generated by the media, they are not in the Hall of Fame while others who have used PED’s and were either never caught or admitted after they were already in are sitting above the others who did the same thing.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2005-05-03-steroids-house_x.htm

Kelly, C. (2017, November 21). How should the Baseball Hall of Fame be dealing with PED users? Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/how-should-baseballs-hall-of-fame-be-dealing-with-ped-users/article37043700/

Hart, A. (n.d.). Barry Bonds and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/swulr40&id=178&men_tab=srchresults

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Reflective Statement – pomegranate

Posted on April 30, 2019 by pomegranate4800

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I practiced this core value while constructing my research essay. I feel as though this would be a good example for this core value because of the fact that I had to think of an out of the ordinary idea. With this idea, I had to explore the internet and find people and findings that too thought my idea was legit, and things that supported the notion. That steep notion being, mattress stores could be the home of money laundering scams. I never was really able to write about absolutely anything I wanted and I really enjoyed having that freedom while writing this essay throughout the semester. That is why I feel as though the research essay and this core value really relate because I felt comfortable exploring, discovering, conceptualizing, and developing knowledge that had to do with my idea. I feel as though me writing something in which I enjoyed helped me grow as a writer.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

I practiced this core value when making my annotated bibliography. This assignment proves that I really looked into what my sources had to say. I picked out important information that could benefit me getting information and my point across within my research essay. I picked things that would clearly support my side in which mattress stores are the homes for money laundering scams. However, the annotated bibliography shows that I was able to see further into my sources and find useful information that would help me fully construct my paper with points that truly portray the message I am trying to get across. The background portion of the annotated bibliography was essentially a purposeful summary, in which it gives all the important details of the source. The how I used it portion explains what I did to use these sources and how they tied into my paper. This helped me grow as a writer because I am now able to find good, valuable information rather than just throw things into a paper, even though these assignments may look like it.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

I practiced this core value when writing my visual rhetoric assignment. During the rhetoric assignment, I very thoroughly analyzed a 30- second video. I have never done something like this before and it was actually kind of surprising how much info I could get from a short clip. Every second, we learned, has something different that the viewer should notice so that they can get a clear idea of what is actually going on in the video. This, to my surprise, actually helped me pick out different things I didn’t know I could while watching a video. The video had to do with bullying, but still I could get so much more out of the video. There are certain things I didn’t know mattered, but the author really puts things into the ad that do matter and I was, for once, able to pick out almost every detail and explain how it ties to the ad. I feel as though that is a good enough reason as to why the visual rhetoric ties to core value three. The visual rhetoric helped me grow as a writer because I am now able to go deeper into an authors work and find things that truly matter and identify them.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

I also practiced this core value while writing my research essay.  I feel as though this essay ties to this core value because I had to do a lot of interpreting and explaining when it come to expressing my idea of my opinion of how my idea of mattress stores tying into money laundering scams could be true. I had to find different sources and backgrounds for my idea and incorporate them into my paper making something so big and so full of information. It may have not been my best work, but it definitely was an improved paper from past years. I feel as though this paper taught me how to grow as a writer because I know what readers do and don’t want to read. This core value explains that I have to pick out certain things from information I find to make a well-written paper, and I feel as though the research essay was a good example of that. I feel as though this helped me grow because now I have the ability of being able to incorporate ideas and put them into a paper.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation. 

I feel as though I practiced this pretty well in my causal rewrite. I feel as though I was able to do a good job taking my sources and spreading them out throughout the paper while producing valuable information. I also feel as though this particular writing piece helped me really use my sources and mesh them in, and hopefully well, to really get my point across to the reader. In my rewrite I could see a few things that I did wrong and I was able to change them to get the best stance possible when it comes to money laundering scams playing a huge roll within mattress stores. Using sources have never really been my favorite thing because when I write I simply just write and I just keep bouncing off of my own ideas, and I think it sounds good, and logical, but it is not reliable information, obviously. However, like I said, my causal rewrite really helps explain my information and where I got it from. I believe this helped me grow as a writer because I now am able to spread my sources over a variety of different essays and also make good use of them.

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Rebuttal Rewrite- HazelnutLatte

Posted on April 30, 2019 by hazelnutlatte123

In the case of Andrea Yates, the crimes that she has been convicted of have been determined to have been caused by her diagnoses of mental illness, which includes the diagnoses of schizophrenia. Many people tend to ask the question, is this really the case? Schizophrenia has been diagnosed in hundreds of thousands of people across the country, but the amount of people who commit crimes with this disease is much less than people would think. Schizophrenia leads those who suffer from it to have trouble easily processing the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior which can lead to inappropriate actions and feelings, and can lead to a complete withdrawal from reality and the person’s entire life and family. It’s main distraction from life is caused by the excessive hallucinations and delusions that take over the sufferer’s cognitive functioning. It may also cause them to do things they usually wouldn’t if they feel they are being threatened or endangered. However, the chance of someone turning to a violet crime or action is much more prevalent in people who abuse drugs while they are suffering from this mental disorder.

The risk of attack by someone with schizophrenia is much less in those who do not abuse drugs. When a person with this mental disorder uses drugs, the drugs stimulate the brain and heighten the effects that the schizophrenia has on a person. The study described by Rebecca Syed, in “Are You Really at Risk of Attack by Someone With Schizophrenia,” has shown that those who do not abuse drugs alongside the disease are only “…1.2 times more likely…” to commit a violet act than those who do not have a mental disorder. Although the chances for someone who does misuse drugs alongside having this disease doesn’t show a major increase in risk of violent crimes, “…the studies don’t tell us how much violent offending is actually caused by the mental disorder itself.” Those who are convicted of being not guilty by reason of insanity have been questioned to actually have been insane. This concept seems insane in itself. It is extremely difficult to determine the real impacts of mental illness on a crime. There is always room for dramatic emphasis on the effects that a criminal could try to use, just to help get a shorter sentence for the conviction they are facing. How can you tell who is actually mentally ill, and who is trying to emphasize an illness for their own benefit? Or even if the person is mentally ill, how can a jury decide if it was the mental illness that caused a person to commit a crime?

In the case of Andrea Yates, she was originally found to be guilty of the murder of her five children. Later on, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. This case had many controversial conversations about whether she committed the crime due to this mental illness, or due to other factors. As explained by Gary Kesling, in “Andre Yates: Ask the Expert,” there could be explanations that “may come from clusters of factors, such as family/social and psychiatric history, perpetrator characteristics such prior family history of conflict and an ongoing history of contact with social services and health and mental health providers.” This raised many questions about whether Yates actually believed the devil was telling her to murder her five children, causing her to think that this would be the only way to save them from herself. There is no way to tell if Yates truly thought she was saving her children, or if she is using this mental illness as an escape. Not only is this a major debate in the Andre Yates case, but it becomes a problem in thousands of cases each year in the justice system.

Homicide involving mental health raises many questions and involves complex maneuvers when determining the actual cause or reason for the homicide. Schizophrenia is just one of the many mental illnesses that continue to be questioned when brought into play in the court room. Mental health must be thoroughly researched and diagnosed to fully determine if someone is actually as mentally ill as they claim to be. When the perpetrator pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, it turns the case around and brings up many issues within the jury. This continues to be a major debate, as some people believe the mentally ill still deserve jail time, but others believe they need the help required to get them better instead.

References

Kesling, G. (2006, September 1). Ask the expert: The Case of Andrea Yates. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=fe9d653a-63d8-4d3b-b270-20f26b85b43b%40sessionmgr102

“Schizophrenia.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml.

Syed, R. (2013, June 19). Are You Really at Risk of Attack by Someone With Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/are-you-really-at-risk-of-attack-by-someone-with-schizophrenia-14656

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Causal Rewrite- pomegranate

Posted on April 30, 2019 by pomegranate4800

Money Laundering and Mattress Stores Go Hand in Hand

Typically, the terms, “money laundering” and “mattress stores” don’t necessarily spark an interest for readers. However, once the meanings are explained and it is clear how they go hand in hand, it then leaves readers with a jaw dropping type of realization. When driving past a mattress store, it is easy to notice the big signs covering the windows promoting a sale. Behind those signs, it is rare that there is anyone inside. People are left to question why there are so many stores if there is rarely anyone in there. This leaves many to wonder, how is there such high demand on mattress if it’s a purchase made, say, once every decade. Many people know that if a person has a lot of cash and they don’t want to put it in the bank, usually, they’d put it under a mattress for hiding or safe keepings. There have been many people who have explained why exactly they leave their money under a mattress. However, it’s easy to assume why mattress store owners do it. The assumption includes, they have been laundering money for years but they would not like to get caught doing it so the one place many people look, but is so obvious not to see, would be in the mattresses of a mattress store. It is steep, but it makes sense. The cause of these mattress stores having no one in them, but they continue to stay open, would be simply because they take part in money laundering scams.

A recent article by Trent Hamm explains why he, Hamm himself, hides money underneath his own mattress at home. “I keep a small amount of twenties in my home as my ultimate emergency fund.” See, most people do hide their money in case of emergencies. However, then it is also easy to believe that if there is money in a mattress it is most likely just for emergencies and not money that is being laundered. Many examples in the article such as hurricane Katrina and many other storms which had wiped homes and towns away, along with power and heat and many other living necessities, were reasons to why keeping emergency money within the house would be found as unbeneficial, because it is ruined. However, some could find this as beneficial because they can use this money to leave and go find other shelter for these storms. The point here is that most people wouldn’t suggest that the mattresses in stores were not being used to hold money for emergencies, for they are being sold. In the back of laundry stores, there are empty rooms, with limited mattresses. This is why most times it takes a few days for your mattress to come to the customer. However, the ones they have the back are the ones easiest to assume that they have money being hidden in them. Once again, a stretch but it makes sense. They want to be as slick as possible so there is no way they can be caught doing this federal crime.

Criminals launder money because, well, they can’t spend huge wads of cash at legitimate businesses, or deposit them in banks, without raising a lot of suspicion. Flashing a big roll or spending lavishly without a legitimate source of income is a good way to land in jail. Instead, by operating legitimate businesses that could reasonably receive large amounts of cash (laundromats, car washes, small retail stores, for example), criminals create the appearance of having legal access to the funds they deposit into bank accounts. According to Julia Layton and Oisin Curran, the global effects of this shadow economy are “staggering in social, economic, and security terms.” As the authors make clear, law enforcement, “stretched beyond their means,” are unable to keep up with the illegal activities of criminals who successfully conceal the source of their profits. And the consequence of being able to avoid detection is “more fraud, more corporate embezzling, more drugs on the streets, more drug related crimes.”  It’s no surprise, say Layton and Curran, that “legitimate business people who don’t break the law and don’t make nearly the profits that the criminals do,” avoid detection discouraged to see the criminals prosper, apparently without consequence.

The economic effects are a little more confusing to understand. Countries that are in the process of being built often “bear the brunt of modern money laundering” due to the fact that the governments are still in process of “establishing regulations for their newly privatized financial sectors.” An example of this would be in the 90s, when banks from the developing Baltic states had gotten many deposits of “dirty money.” People continued to withdraw their own “clean” money with the fear of maybe losing it if the bank were to go under investigation. This would result in insurance being lost. As a result, the banks did end up collapsing. “Massive influxes of dirty cash into particular areas of the economy that are desirable to money launderers create false demand, and officials act on this new demand by adjusting economic policy.” This is jaw dropping. The words, “create false demand,” make so much sense when talking about mattress stores. The owners have enough money to keep the stores open, but end up having no customers because there shouldn’t be such high demand on mattresses, and there isn’t. It is a false demand, and it is easy to believe this, along with the fact that the owners are money launderers.

The local problems are easier to understand, and can affect people personally. Problems like this can relate to an include taxation, and “small- business competition.” When money is laundered, it is usually not taxed. This ultimately means that people who do not launder money, have to make up for the taxes that are not written off, make up the loss in tax revenue. Real, legit small business do not have the ability to compete with money laundering front businesses who can afford to sell a product for cheaper because they do not have the purpose to make a profit, their purpose is to simply clean the money. The amount of cash they have in these businesses is more than most so they might even have the ability to be able to sell a product below cost.

There are many consequences to money laundering, some in which cam affect people that have no business in money laundering. It is unfair to the people that don’t. However, this can open our eyes to the fact that many businesses can in fact be money laundering and we, as people who do not launder money, have to make up for it. Many of these reasons and consequences can all route back to mattress stores. They could just be one of the guiltiest businesses for a crime like this. The way they tie hand in hand, mattress stores and money laundering, is jaw dropping and eye opening.

References:

Layton, Julia, and Oisin Curran. “How Money Laundering Works.” HowStuffWorks, 1 June 2006, https://money.howstuffworks.com/money-laundering5.htm

Hamm, Trent. “Why I Keep Cash Under My Mattress.” The Simple Dollar, 1 Nov. 2018, http://www.thesimpledollar.com/why-i-keep-cash-under-my-mattress/.

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Definition Rewrite- pomegranate

Posted on April 29, 2019 by pomegranate4800

The Presence of Money Laundering in Mattress Stores

            The term money laundering is often unheard of and for most, hard to understand. Money laundering, in short terms is when someone takes large amounts of money and little by little puts the money through legitimate businesses to make the money “clean.” The reason why these people cannot just put through banks right away is because large amounts of money deposited in the bank can be deemed as suspicious. Therefore, putting the money through businesses makes the money seem legit. The reason money can be looked at as “dirty” is when it is accumulated through illegal activity. However, when put in small amounts, the person who is in charge of this money will be able to make different transactions without question. In past times, people did not have banks to hold their money like we do today. When people wanted to hide mass amounts of money, the place to really do that would be under a mattress. Therefore, it would be smart for someone who wants to hide mass amounts of money to hide it in their mattress. What better way to do this than to spread it out over different areas? The best way to do this, one must be wondering, is opening a mattress store. There are so many mattresses for one to spread their mass amounts of money over. It would be almost impossible for someone to pick out that there is money being laundered through a mattress store. It would also make the money that is illegally accumulated seem legit because it is going through a literal business, a mattress store. In other words, it is not proven, but easily convincing that mattress stores have a huge part in money laundering activities.

               About once every decade, a person usually decides that it is about time for a new mattress. It is not a daily, weekly, or monthly occurrence that someone needs to buy a mattress. However, there are so many stores wherever a customer goes, but for what reason? It is not a purchase in which it is made weekly or daily, like said before. Whenever someone looks inside of a mattress store, it is noticeable that there is never anyone inside. What is also noticeable is the signs on the front windows showing there’s a percentage off or deals to help the customer pay it off. It is almost impossible for there to be this much demand on mattresses. It is not like a chain restaurant, or clothing store. People are left to ask the question, why? What is the reason for all of these stores? There is no real solution to why there are a number of mattress stores within hundreds of feet of each other. However, mattress stores could fall into this category of money laundering for various reasons. Whoever opened a mattress store is smart however, because the following information is in fact information that will change the way people look at mattress stores, and will increase the chances in which they will turn to department stores rather than general mattress stores when they are looking to make a purchase.

               A study done in Houston, Texas showed that there were 133 Starbucks stores. This does not include the number of Starbucks’ in the suburbs. Yet, the number of mattress stores seems to outnumber the amount of Starbucks’ in Houston. Starbucks, which has over hundreds of customers every day, has less stores than, say, a Mattress Firm, which maybe one hundred people go in within a month. No one can say that it is money laundering causing the number of mattress stores to increase. It is an arguable fact that the owners of most mattress stores are guilty of money laundering. The only reason no one would first guess this is because people are getting something out of it, a mattress. Owners, and this is going out on a limb, have to make themselves look innocent and actually give you what you’re there to get. They won’t see you in the next 10 years so they’re going to make sure the customer gets what they want so, so they will get a mattress.

               The CEO of Mattress Firm, when he was asked the question of, “why are there so many stores?” was stuck on trying to find an answer too. He explained that for every 50,000 people, there is one store. In the Chicago area alone, there are about 235 mattress stores. In other areas, like Houston, there are more than 235 mattress stores alone. It leaves people stumped as they think about the possible reasons as to why on earth there would be this many mattress stores. However, when the idea of money laundering is brought up, people are left to question any other thought they had before. All of the pieces seem to fit right in when thinking about the relationship between mattress stores and money laundering. To reiterate, it is eye opening when people think about the number one hiding spot for money that is not in a bank. Someone who is very familiar with this idea thought they should and did take it to the next level. This means country- wide money hiding in mattress stores here, and maybe there. It will never be traced because it is, well, not easily traced. There are hundreds of thousands of mattress stores and not that many people who believe the number one reason for all of them has to do with money laundering.

                To make a long, complicated argument short, mattress stores are an example of a pretty well thought out idea to hide the fact that the owners are money launderers. It may sound steep, and it might be a stretch, but it is convincing. There are tons of loose ends that tie together and it only seems logical when all of the loose ends are tied. The fact that there are over 235 mattress stores in the Chicago area alone, makes us wonder how many other stores there could be in bigger cities, or more populated areas. It only makes sense for one who is afraid to get caught for money laundering to try and spread out as much of the money they are trying to hide as wide as possible. Like said before, there is no way there is this high of a demand on mattresses, for they are a once in a decade type of purchase. Studies show that there are in fact too many mattress stores, and the CEO of mattress firm cannot express or explain himself why there are so many mattress stores. The question caused him to become baffled as well. The fact that there are so many mattress stores being built, yet no one inside of them makes people feel skeptical about what really goes on inside. It helps the case that money laundering and  mattress stores go nearly hand in hand.

References

Team, Content. “Money Laundering – Definition, Examples, Meaning, and Cases.” Legal Dictionary, 15 Feb. 2019, legaldictionary.net/money-laundering/.

Dholakia, Utpal. “Why Are There So Many Mattress Stores in America?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Sept. 2015, http://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-behind-behavior/201509/why-are-there-so-many-mattress-stores-in-america.

“The Top Money Laundering Cases in Recent Times.” Allsec, 16 Jan. 2019, http://www.allsectech.com/the-top-money-laundering-cases-in-recent-times/.

Zumbach, Lauren. “Why Are There so Many Mattress Stores?” Chicagotribune.com, 27 Aug. 2018, http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-chicago-mattress-stores-0717-biz-20160715-story.html.

Kenton, Will. “Anti Money Laundering (AML).” Investopedia, Investopedia, 10 Apr. 2019, http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/aml.asp.

Posted in Definition Rewrite, pomegranate, Portfolio Pomegranate | 1 Comment

Causal Argument Rewrite- HazelnutLatte

Posted on April 29, 2019 by hazelnutlatte123

From Mentally Ill to Mentally Insane

The term “mentally insane” usually sparks a common thought in everyone’s mind. We usually refer to the criminally insane as those who commit heinous crimes with the intent of hurting someone, but when referring to the mentally insane we think about illnesses that cause the criminal to have trouble understanding why what they did was wrong. These criminals could have an abundant amount of different illnesses, but each illness tells a different story for each criminal. The biggest question in our minds is why? Why do those who are convicted of crimes and are mentally insane commit the crimes that they do? There is a simple, yet extremely complex reason for this: mental illness has the ability to control a person’s entire mind, body, and life. The mental illnesses that many of the criminally insane suffer from causes various neurological effects within the person. Whether it is cognitive dysfunction, delusions, hallucinations, or feelings of being possessed by the devil, many of these convicted murders have a story of being compelled to commit the crime. It seems so simple to grasp the concept of mental illness when relating it to the criminally insane, but there is a much bigger idea that we do not quite fully understand.

Many victims of mental illness are drawn to darkness and evil due to the “voices” they hear in their heads. Many mental illness’ cause people to hallucinate or have delusions of things and voices that are not really there. This is most common in schizophrenic patients. As proven by Michael Brook, Robert E. Hanlon, and John Stratton, in “Murder and Psychosis: Neuropsychological Profiles of Homicide Offenders With Schizophrenia,” patients with this illness are “…2.5-7%” more “…at risk for violence perpetration…” This is due to the negative neurocognitive effects that this illness has including problems with attention, working memory, executive functions, and verbal memory. The study conducted by Brook, Hanlon, and Stratton supported the hypothesis that those with this disorder are more susceptible to falling to violent actions when they feel threatened, endangered, or as if it is the only way to fix the problem at hand. This could be whether a major problem in their mind, or a minor predicament that simply manifests and leads them to snap. Many of us cannot understand what it is like to have a constant voice in our minds telling us that something we were taught was wrong, is right in that moment. Having someone constantly repeating to you that murdering a loved one was the only way to save them, and save yourself, much like Andrea Yates had dealt with, is not a concept that is in the slightest bit considered by an ordinary person, but to some of the mentally insane, this concept is just an everyday occurrence.

The phrase “not guilty by reason of insanity” was put into place because of this concept that many people cannot understand because their mental health is not on the same wavelength as these criminals. Mental illness does not excuse the behavior of these criminals, but it gives us a closer look into the minds of the murderer. In the justice system we try so hard to figure out why the crime was committed. Many cases are not a case of who did it, but they are cases of why did this person do it? Often times, the justice system is presented with people who commit crimes with the intent of getting something out of it. A branch of criminals could be those who we see as mentally insane due to their pleasure of committing the crime, but that would not fall under the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity. Many cases involve murders resulting from revenge, crimes of passion, or someone who likes the thrill of committing the crime. In patients of schizophrenia and many other mental illnesses and disorders, they feel that the crime at hand must be committed in order to save themselves or someone close to them. Often times, they do not understand why they have done what they did, but they know that in their mind it was a necessary task.

Andrea Yates was on of these patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, who felt that the murder of her five children was necessary to save them from the devil. She was not only a patient with schizophrenia, but also multiple other mental illnesses. Through suffering with all the mental illnesses that she was diagnosed with, she felt that the devil would talk to her and tell her what a horrible job as a parents she was doing. This led to her to believe that her parenting would result in her children having issues when they get older, or it would result in childhood trauma, even though she was not a horrible, or abusive parent to her children. With her diagnosis of schizophrenia came the constant regret of having children, constant worry she was emotionally hurting them, and the constant fear that something bad would happen. Her reasoning, as Roche described in “Andrea Yates: More to the Story,” from “The New York Times,” was “[Her] children weren’t righteous. They stumbled because [she] was evil. The way [she] was raising them they could never be saved…” The reasoning behind the horrible crime committed was because her mental illness led her to believe that the only way to save them from “[perishing] in the fires of hell” was to kill them. In reality, we know that this idea is not plausible and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but to Andrea, this was the only escape from the voices and the only way to protect her children from herself and the devil.

The biggest dilemma in these cases is trying to decipher who is mentally insane and who is the criminally insane. The intent to commit the crime at hand versus the compulsion that is forced upon the individual who does not know right from wrong is an issue that continues on today. Mental illness causes people to do many things, because of it affecting and deteriorating their cognitive abilities. Andrea Yates was one person that was affected by many mental illnesses that led her to commit a crime that we cannot even wrap our heads around doing. As diagnoses continued to pile up, she continued to get treatment, but never fully recovered. This is just one person in the mix of thousands of people convicted of homicide and put in prison. Many people are given the help required to make them better, but even more convicted criminals are put into prisons and neglected of the help that they need. Prisons could be much less populated if mental illness was found in many of the cases that have been overlooked. Many people are found guilty for their crime, but how many of those people are guilty by reason of insanity?

References

Kesling, G. (2006, September 1). Ask the expert: The Case of Andrea Yates. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=fe9d653a-63d8-4d3b-b270-20f26b85b43b%40sessionmgr102

Roche, T. (2002, March 18). Andrea Yates: More To The Story. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,218445,00.html

Stratton, J.; Brook, M.; Hanlon, R.E. (2016, February 10). Murder and Psychosis: Neuropsychological Profiles of Homicide Offenders with Schizophrenia. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&sid=b13e729e-d665-41b4-9734-94c9ecff5647%40pdc-v-sessmgr03

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Rebuttle rewrite– Wazoo

Posted on April 29, 2019 by wazoo1234

An honorable Reward

The highest honor any institution can reward a hardworking high school student are not cash grants or other stipends. It is a scholarship. One who receives a scholarship is very lucky and gets to become apart of a select few who do get a rare chance that not many are capable of doing, and that is going to college for free. Some people may think otherwise, but our scholarships change peoples lives, From giving a kids a new home and education, we build better communities and make the world a better place. People come to college to progress their lives into what they want and we make that possible. We were never meant to be a place where students could come and work and make a wage. That’s not what a school is and that is not what a school should be. The path that the NCAA follows is one of integrity and opportunity.

The NCAA dedicates their time to human development. We develop human beings into next generational talent and give hope to every little boy in girl who watches our players om TV. Without us there would never be an elite professional sport because everyone would just be under developed and average. We help millions of people and in a lot of cases get players from the inner cities and the projects. The NCAA takes good care of these kids and in return we ask nothing. The lucky ones who have exceptional talent even get to go make millions for them self in the Pros. We give individuals who come straight off the street and turn them into millionaires. How can you tell us we are bad people when we are helping all these underprivileged kids succeed. We build the people that will eventually run our world and that doesn’t come at a free price, but we try to help and give students scholarships.

The NCAA strives to make the world a better and safer place. We give people brand new lives. We take in thousands of underprivileged minorities into our sports programs and build them brand new lives and fulfill their dreams. Our scholarships give lives to athletes who have worked their butt off and over came tons of diversity. Our foundation was built on some of the NBA/NFL legends who came out of our programs. Although we are strict, our main goal is always whats best for the athletes. We are the reason why little kids dream big, the reason why people dedicate their lives to their sport, the reason why millions of people can enjoy T.V, the reason why the NFL has lower ratings than us, we are the reason!

It may seem extremely controversial that we do not pay our athletes, but they have a scholar ship, and besides they are working to hopefully go pro. The money there is worth the wait. The whole point of being an amateur is to not get paid. You must work up the ranks in the sport and make it to pay level, if not we still give free school to do something else with their lives. we are all about opportunity, but not about equality. One may disagree with our methods, but we don’t care because we will still make a couple billion dollars and there is nothing you can do about it.

The athlete is our main priority. From the trips around the world, to incentives, we may not pay our athletes physical cash but they do receive a fun time. We give them so much and change their lives forever. As long as we keep them entertained they don’t seem to ask for pay. Or most of them at least. Every time one of our team travels they fly first class and stay in 5 star hotels. Luxury breakfast lunch and dinner, for our athletes because we care about them. The best part about this, is that they all will get a diploma if they want to graduate, unless they leave early and move onto pro level. In our programs we value the sport over education, we hold our athletes to lower standards for their own betterment, so they do not have to take hard exams and be scholar. It is also easier to keep people in line if they are slightly uneducated. Some may disagree with this, but these young men come to play sports and not for education. Since we were founded on education, the sports teams do not receive pay.

Its easy for the NCAA to never be wrong when the constitution backs our argument. There have been laws passed that ban the pay of college athletes, so its not like we can pay them if we wanted to. The government and the people as a whole agree with that law, mostly because we do not tell them our profit margin on these athletes. Its a steal, we make millions and the public doesn’t make us pay our players. No school would have enough funds to pay for multi million dollar deals from each player. Players would be getting up to 50 million dollar contracts, and that might sound good for one guy but if there are multiple people asking for this, then we would go bankrupt. Basketball and Football are two of the highest grossing sports in this country and even still we wouldn’t have enough money to pay everyone. There are 125 schools in the FCS, with almost 70 people on some type of scholarship on every team. This would make a pay day take a heft toll on our bank accounts.

If athletes got paid, it would defeat the purpose of school. The price to attend these big schools will rise greatly. Students would also be asking for pay since the athletes get paid, and it would put colleges at a real disadvantage. Colleges’ infrastructure would start to crumble and all of these big schools would fall. In the end there wont be any schools for these athletes to play at, so there will be a ton of wasted talent all because athletes got greedy. College athletes are already on scholarship, so if we were to give them a pay day, we would take that away, and they would have to pay us, and for most of them, debt and they won’t even have the free education anymore. One could say that our scholarships are better then getting paid cash.

Scholarships are the best thing that a young individual can accomplish. We reward people and help them progress their lives into hopefully a better life. We will continue our mission, we’ve been doing this for centuries and do not plan on changing our ways anytime. College athletes will not receive pay or any compensation. They have their scholarships so they should and will appreciate it. Scholarships save the NCAA and its Universities millions of dollars of cash. The Scholarship is a trade off that we use so we are not spending cash.

The case for paying college athletes: 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43194698?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Paying college athletes gaining bipartisan consensus as new report slams NCAA: 
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2199244462?pq-origsite=summon

The Shame of College Sports 
https://bit.ly/2DzfiEu

 Paying college athletes gaining a bipartisan consensus as new report slams NCAA. 
https://search.proquest.com/docview/2199244462?pq-origsite=summon

College athletes should not receive payment for playing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://archive.star.txstate.edu/node/660.html

 Should College Student-Athletes Be Paid? Both Sides of the Debate. Retrieved from https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/athletics/blog/should-college-student-athletes-be-paid-both-sides-debate/

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Causal Rewrite-rowanstudent

Posted on April 29, 2019 by rowanstudent2

Belief is different for everyone and each person has a belief that they feel strongly about. We can apply this to placebos. Whether one believes placebos work or not doesn’t matter. What matters is if the individual feels that it gives effective results. That can only remain true if the individual is susceptible to the idea that it will work. Open-mindedness to alternative medical therapies is the distinguishing characteristic shared by patients who report successful outcomes of placebo treatment.

Back in its earliest uses, placebos led to “the evolution of the physician from witch doctor and priest-physician” according the American Journal of Psychotherapy. Galen estimated that 60% of patients had symptoms that were emotionally based, rather than physical. The medical treatments were not trustworthy, in addition they were rarely scientifically proven to work. Patients would ingest anything given to them. Their only concern was to get better, as a result, patients gave into “therapeutic practices” such as puking, leeching, shocking to name a few. Some are still used today like heating in the sauna, freezing in an ice bath or cupping to relax muscles. As bizarre as they sound today, patients still believed that there were lasting effects. Dr. Arthur K. Shapiro, M.D. stated “medicine was closely related to the finest scientific, religious, cultural, and ethical traditions in most periods of history…” This still seems unreasonable how traditions could have an impact on their health but once again it was the psychological reaction of belief. It has been proven by history however, most of these drugs and procedures were helpful only to particular patients. If not for the temporary aid these practices provided, physicians would not be giving such prescriptions today. The only reason for patients to have believe in successful results was the fact that psychological factors forced them to. Depending on the diagnosis at hand, the effect may sometimes lead to failure. Not every disease or disorder may be cured by psychological change. When analyzing the origin of placebos, it further questions the ethics surrounding the prescription of placebos.

Open-mindedness to alternative medical therapies is the distinguishing characteristic shared by patients who report successful outcomes of placebo treatment. According to the Journal of Neuroscience, something as simple as having an expectancy can impact the neurobiological effects of a placebo. “The study of the placebo effect reflects a current neuroscientific thought that has as its central tenet the idea that ‘subjective’ constructs such as expectation and value have identifiable psychological bases, and that these bases are powerful modulators of basic perceptual, motor, and internal homeostatic processes.” This means that a placebo is just the factor that give the patients confidence in their ability to be healthy again.

Due to the physical and psychological differences, it is more reasonable to believe that minor health conditions are the only treatable cases of placebos; symptoms that can be cured through off-the-counter drugs. They may include pain or depression or other slight side effects of a disorder, but not the actual disease. Placebo effects are outcomes that positively affect the patient even when it is known they are taking a placebo in the form of an inert substance. Providers who are part of a journal company for research in dermatology and venereology investigated the effect of the simplicity of someone’s voice to get rid of itch. 92 randomized volunteers were split up to be put to the test on whether open-label suggestions had a more significant change than a control group that received no suggestions. The results barely showed a difference between the two, but the placebo group had a slightly greater reduction in itch. This revealed that verbal treatments and explanations of the effect of placebos may play a key role in clinical methods.

In a controlled trial of an open-label placebo, 46 randomized patients with allergic symptoms received placebos without deception or no pill at all. In the placebo group, positive recommendations about the placebo effect were given along with the treatment. A two week long trial showed that the open-label placebo group’s allergic symptoms had improved. According to the patients, the recommendation had no effects on their improvement. But it did help the overall well-being of the person and the “mental or emotional quality of life.”

Patients most of the time want to feel better, free of unnecessary stress and setbacks caused by the disorder they have. The solution to their ills is all about having the right mind-set. Having an optimistic personality would help as well. Only the patient can decide whether they feel better or not. Without the right attitude, it is very unlikely the patient will discover how to end their suffering. Since placebos are based solely on the psychological reaction based on belief, should doctors be involved in the belief-based system.

References

Benedetti, F., Mayberg, H. S., & Christian S. Stohler, J. Z. (2005, November 09). “Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Placebo Effect.” Retrieved from http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/45/10390.short

Meeuwis, S. H., Van Middendorp, H., VeldHuijzen, D. S., Van Laarhoven, A. I. M., De houwer, J., Lavrijsen, A. P. M., & Evers, A. W. M. (2018). “Placebo Effects of Open-label Verbal Suggestions on Itch.” Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 98(2), 268–274. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/10.2340/00015555-2823

Schaefer, M., Sahin, T., & Berstecher, B. (2018). “Why do open-label placebos work? A randomized controlled trial of an open-label placebo induction with and without extended information about the placebo effect in allergic rhinitis.” PLoS ONE, 13(3), 1–14. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0192758

Shapiro, A. K., M.D. (2018, April 30). “Factors Contributing to the Placebo Effect.” Retrieved from https://psychotherapy.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1964.18.s1.73

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Reflective–Daphneblake

Posted on April 29, 2019 by daphneblake25

My Improvements Throughout the Semester

I practiced this core value with the rewriting I did with my essays that went into my portfolio. I chose to rewrite all three of my essays even though only my Causal and Definition rewrites went into my portfolio. But this is how I portrayed the recursive aspect of the first core value. The social and interactive ways I revised my essays was how I developed the information that went into my rewrites and drafts. Finding out information on ocean pollution was very helpful and beneficial but it was a lot of hard work. Finding the information and applying it in the right way took a bit of time so that is how I focused on the first core value. This is the link to my definition rewrite.

Core Value 1. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Core Value 2. My work demonstrates that I read critically, and that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities. 

I used core value two when I was accumulating information from various sources as I was putting my thoughts together. This showed my ability to synthesize because almost all the sources I used tied into my main points that ocean pollution had many negative impacts on the environment, economy, and to humans. Reading critically was a major point in my research because using 15 or more sources proved to be difficult for my topic. This is because juggling all that information together and making it fit into my central topic had to make sense to someone who might not have known that much about the topic. I had to make sure the information and sources I used went together to make sense for the reader. I have my annotated Bibliography linked to show this.

Core Value 3. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Core value three was most prevalent in my rebuttal essay and rewrite of my research paper. This is because I had to constantly evaluate who I was talking to and the purpose for my claims. The feedback I got for this essay was that I was offending the reader by saying they were apart of the problem regarding ocean pollution. My point was to raise awareness by letting people know that their actions contribute the massive amounts of plastic found in the oceans. But I believe the way I was going about it might have weakened my point because if the reader feels offended it might stop them from reading your argument, or not believing it in general. So for me, keeping the audience in mind was a task that proved difficult for. I attached my rebuttal rewrite for insight on how I did this.

Core Value 4: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

Core Value four was to me seeing how all my work came together in the end. My portfolio as a whole is an indication of meeting the academic standards and requirements of whole writing piece. But I will focus on my visual rhetoric assignment and how I met the academic requirements and more. The task was to pick a thirty second ad and pause that ad second by second to evaluate what was going on in the video without sound. This seemed very tedious a first but then after a few seconds I learned the purpose of having sharp analytical skills and was able to hone in even deeper on my video to pick up on the smaller things that might have seemed irrelevant. I learned a lot about picking up on smaller details and this example of how I met the academic requirement for core value four is linked with my visual rhetoric rewrite assignment.

Core Value 5. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

I know I use core value five throughout all my work in my essays for the portfolio. I know I used proper citation and sources in my work before the portfolio as well, but using annotated bibliography for my essays gave me a deeper connection to my sources because I wanted everything to come together. As a writer, I always want the sources and citations to be an addition to my ideas, not take away from them by being the main focus of my paper. I know in my research paper, I had various sources that talked about ocean pollution and using the ransom note exercise in class, I was able to piece together where I wanted to take my audience first before I led them to the destination I wanted them to go. I have my Causal essay rewrite linked represent how I did this and portrayed the fifth core value.

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