gaastra suspect
Loyalty: An Essay on the Morality of Relationships
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Fletcher, George P., PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, At a time when age-old political structures are crumbling, civil strife abounds, and economic uncertainty permeates the air, loyalty offers us security in our relationships with associates, friends, and family. Yet loyalty is a suspect virtue. It is not impartial. It is not blind. It violates the principles of morality that have dominated Western thought for the last two hundred years. Loyalties are also thought to be irrational and contrary to the spirit of Capitalism. In a free market society, we are encouraged to move to the competition when we are not happy. This way of thinking has invaded our personal relationships and undermined our capacities for friendship and loyalty to those who do not serve our immediate interests. As George P. Fletcher writes, it is time for loyal bonds, born of history and experience, to prevail both over impartial morality and the self-interested thinking of the market trader. In this extended essay, George P. Fletcher offers an account of loyalty that illuminates its role in our relationships with family and friends, our ties to country, and the commitment of the religious to God and their community. Fletcher opposes the traditional view of the moral self as detached from context and history. He argues instead that loyalty, not impartial detachment, should be the central feature of our moral and political lives. Writing as a political "liberal," he claims that a commitment to country is necessary to improve the lot of the poor and disadvantaged. This commitment to country may well require greater reliance on patriotic rituals in education and a reconsideration of the Supreme Court's extending the First Amendment to protect flag burning. Given the worldwide currents of parochialism and political decentralization, the task for us, Fletcher argues, is to renew our commitment to a single nation united in its diversity. Bringing to bear his expertise as a law professor, Fletcher reasons that the legal systems should defer to existing relationships of loyalty. Familial, professional, and religious loyalties should be respected as relationships beyond the limits of the law. Thus surrogate mothers should not be forced to surrender and betray their children, spouses should not be required to testify against each other in court, parents should not be prevented from willing their property to their children, and the religiously committed should not be forced to act contrary to conscience. Yet the question remains: Aren't loyalty, and particularly patriotism, dangerously one-sided? Indeed, they are, but no more than are love and friendship. The challenge, Fletcher maintains, is to overcome the distorting effects of impartial morality and to develop a morality of loyalty properly suited to our emotional and spiritual lives. Justice has its sphere, as do loyalties. In this book, Fletcher provides the first step toward a new way of thinking that recognizes the complexity of our moral and political lives.
Boss gx700 guitar effect
Multieffetto rack per chitarra / preamp boss gx700 racchiude in un unico rack tutti gli effetti della serie boss molto caldo e versatile prezzo 200 euro trattabili scheda tecnica boss gx700 guitar effects processor/preamp published in sos june printer-friendly version • noise gate: with user control of threshold setting. • compressor: with variable attack and release characteristics, plus control over sustain and tone. in common with all the other effects blocks, this also has a level parameter. • wah: this classic effect is familiar to guitarists everywhere, and can be recreated quite convincingly with the gx700, either under lfo or pedal control. the resonance of the wah effect can be varied, as can the frequency range over which the effect sweeps. • distortion: i suspect this section is based around the concepts used in the boss analogue pedals. the choices available include vintage od, turbo od, blues, distortion, turbo distortion, metal and fuzz. in addition to an adjustable drive level, the distortion settings also have a basic 2-band bass/treble equaliser. • preamp: this is where cosm modelling comes into play, because here you can select from several amplifier characteristics, including jc120, clean twin, match drive, big lead, ms (i), ms (ii), ms (i+ii), sldn lead and metal . the available controls include the usual bass, middle, treble and presence, as well as the volume/master volume method of setting the amount of amp distortion, and a 'bright' switch. a gain parameter is also included, which affects the distortion amount. • loop: this isn't an effect at all, but rather a means of switching in an external effect or processor. the loop function connects via the rear panel jacks, and has adjustments for both send and return levels, which is a sensible inclusion. • 3-band eq: despite the fact that the overdrive section and the preamplifier both have tone controls, there's also a 3-band equaliser with a fully parametric mid section. • speaker simulator: this again offers several choices: small, middle, jc-120, built-in 1-4, big stack 1-2, ms stack 1-2 and metal stack. there are also three possible virtual mic settings, for close miking and more distant miking, and separate level controls are provided for the mic level and the direct level. • noise suppressor: this comes at the end of the amplifier chain, but before the effects. however, because the effects can be connected in any order, it can be used elsewhere if you have a reason for doing so. personally, i'd be inclined to use it after the modulation effects (for anything that doesn't involve level modulation, such as panning or vibrato), but before any delay or reverb effects. as far as the user parameters go, these are really down to threshold and release time, though you can also choose to key the gate from either the noise reduction block's own input or from the guitar input jack.