Saturday, January 25, 2020

Movie: The Last Supper Essay -- Last Supper Film Movie Movies Essays

Movie: The Last Supper   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Last Supper, by Dan Rosen, supposedly dares to take on deep subjects in a vein of sarcastic humor. But, what it says is that liberals, because of their belief, have the right to pass death sentences on opponents. The story was amusing at times and there was some comedy in the film, but it didn't really go anywhere. The most famous actor in the film was Mark Harmon, and they showed him for about one minute, before he got killed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie takes place in Ames, Iowa. The film is about five liberal graduate students living together, (three males and two females) that enjoy inviting different guest over every Sunday for dinner. The students indulge their sense of superiority by inviting those that they regard as being less enlightened. They enjoy having different types of discussions dealing with all different types of topics. Their first guest that we see, ends up being a trucker who gives one of the five students a lift home because his car broke down. They invite the trucker in to eat, because they had an extra seat at the table and their originally invited guest could not make it for dinner. The trucker ends up being an anti-Semite and he is also an ex-marine. Immediately after the trucker sits down at the table to eat he starts pointing out to the five students that he hates Jews and that they always try to bargain down anything that they buy. All five of the students are stunned by the remarks that the trucker is making, especially one of the students that is Jewish. They all get into a heated argument and the trucker goes out of control; in addition, he grabs the Jewish student and puts a knife to his throat. They are all shocked by this and they immediately attempt to calm the trucker down. He releases the Jewish student and then breaks an arm of another student who was trying to free the Jewish student. The Jewish student picks up a butcher's knife and stabs the trucker in the back, which eventually kills the trucker. At this point the movie picks up a little. They all begin to contemplate about what to do with the body. They decide on burying the body in the back yard. They said it would cause a lot of problems if they contacted the police. They all agreed at this time that killing the trucker was only good for society. After they had buried the trucker they all sat down and the... ...dents drink and they all die. Nicola Machiavelli had a very interesting theory about his belief in having power, "By any means necessary." That is exactly what these liberal students did in order for them to have happiness. I think that in society most of us try to follow the Machiavellian theory on trying to do anything and everything possible in order for ourselves to survive. Machiavelli hoped that, "by helping the Prince rule more effectively, he might help Italy achieve the greatness he hoped for." Machiavelli believed that he didn't need to be appointed leader to run things in Italy back then. These student are the same, they believed that through killing off these few people that they thought were a danger to society, that it was going to make a difference in our government. Maybe it's a good thing that Machiavelli wasn't the actual leader of Italy, because if these five liberal students were leaders of this country we would have nothing but chaos. I think that this film probably would have made more money as a b ook and not a film. Sources Cited Nicola Machiavelli information was located on the Internet at http://rhf.bradley.edu/~liberty/mach.html.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Learning Team Reflection Essay

Alan Litchman and Laura B. Trust, Co-Presidents of Finagle a Bagel, own a bagel business in Boston (Parrino, Kidwell, Bates, 2012). Alan and Laura met in business school and after gaining business experience in other industries they purchased the bagel business with the intent of growing it as much as possible. They have two primary target markets: 1) retail stores and 2) wholesale accounts with large institutions. In this paper, we will briefly discuss a few of the strategies they used to manage their working capital. The owners of Finagle a Bagel were tired of working for other people so they decided to buy one new business. They have used several financial concepts to manage the financial accountability of their small business. They have controlled costs from the beginning of the process to the delivery of the product, as well as the administrative costs. Other items that have been highlighted are the management of cash flow, payback, and the schedule of cash entries, which has allowed the company to pay its debts. They have established a good relationship with the banks in order to negotiate the time frame for payments and rate. Suppliers are also a key success factor for the company, as the payment terms are negotiated to match the flow cash. The company’s focus is to maintain its financial management so that the business may grow and return large profits. The Finagle a Bagel also has a policy of recognizing the hard work of their employees. The owners believe that managers and employees are responsible for the success of the company. Together, the company is growing in a sustainable and financially healthy way. According to Alan Litchman, when making any investment, first one has to understand what the demand for the new product is going to be, and what kind of product can be made with the new equipment (Parrino, Kidwell, ba tes, 2012). Alongside his wife, Mr. Litchman explained how important it is to understand the company’s performance and opportunities to better apply capital investment in the company. They both explained, in their own words, the importance of setting up strategies and planning before putting a new product on the market. The couple also spoke about debt. Laura Trust said that debt is ‘a necessary evil’ and sometimes taking debt has its benefits if compared to finding capital through other means, such as pursuing a partner (Parrino, Kidwell, Bates, 2012). In this case they did not want to take a venture capital partner because the owners wanted to have authority  when making business decisions, thus avoiding ‘working for someone else’ (Parrino, Kidwell, Bates, 2012). This shows that the owners prefer a business structure like a sole proprietorship. Lastly, the fact that interest rates have been dropping for small business also supported their decision to take on debt to invest in the company. The couple is very educated when making business decisions, as they understand that even when a company has financial resources, the business gains more by obtaining financial resources from banks with small interest rates, while allowing the resources they have to generate dividends with higher interest rates. This is generally called borrowing ‘cheap money’ (Investopedia, 2014). Finally, credit is also discussed. They mentioned trade credit, which is the amount of time given to pay back vendors for the products bought. The longer the term, the better, as it allows time to receive revenue before having to pay the debt. This is another very important recommendation on how to properly use cash flow and avoid taking on debt. Overall, Alan Litchman and Laura B. Trust demonstrate a thorough understanding of how to manage their capital so that their small business continues to grow and increase their net profits, despite economic challenges in the community and the country. References Investopedia. (2014). Cheap Money. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cheap-money.asp Parrino, R., Kidwell, D., Bates, T. (2012) Fundamentals of Corporate Finance, (2nd Ed) John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Brokers of Deceit by Rashid Khalidi - 1062 Words

Focus on Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in recent history, where Israel has won time after time and â€Å"the Palestinian people have been shattered and dispersed.† (p.xiii) 3 major patterns in US policy in the middle east have emerged: 1) the US can do as it likes because the Arab gulf states depend on the US in order to not be overthrown 2) ignoring other Arab gulf states wishes and opinions 3) ignoring the fate of the Palestinian people. Intent of the book is to show that USA has acted as a dishonest broker between Israel and the US, and has â€Å"instead acted as israel’s lawyer† (p.xxxvi) Palestinian human rights, peace processes, and their right to self-determination was not brought back up again until George hw bush took office in the 90s. Brokers of deceit is concise and easily accessible examination of how over more than thirty decades the U.S. has been gaming the peace process for it’s own benefit rather than to achieving a lasting and just peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people. Khalidi participated in peace negotiations in the 1990’s as an advisor so he cites original, unreleased documents showing American and Israeli positions. Khalidi says that the foundation of Americas long-term ongoing bias towards Israel is the Palestinians lack of a size-able domestic U.S. constituency. Finding justice for the Palestinian refugees displaced from their homes by Israel would require that Israel displace its own settlers that it encouraged to moveShow MoreRelatedThe New Middle East : The World After The Arab Spring2748 Words   |  11 Pagesthere s much consensus that the Middle East will be greatly impacted if the Israel-Palestine issue is resolved, there s also the belief that such a resolution won t happen soon. For instance, in his book, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, Rashid Khalidi writes that the United States has and continues to act as Israel s lawyer and that therefore it has undermined a real attempt to arrive at a peace accord. That peace accord is a major issue in the changes the