When instruments are harmoniously joined together, beautiful music ensues. Just as in a classic symphony, life often occurs in phases, or movements. In his creative comparison Symphony #1 in a Minor Key, literary exegete Alan Block shares his philosophies on four movements reflected in his own life, each loosely modeled on a different musical form linked to the emotions of a life both fully lived and joyously celebrated. In the first movement, "Sonata Allegro," Block juxtaposes biblical stories with personal experiences as he explores the contradictory nature of what it means to leave home in search of another home. In the second movement, representing a slow march to and from the grave, he focuses his examination on the funerals of three very different people from a Jewish perspective. In strong contrast, Block presents a glimpse into his absurd daily world in the third movement, punctuated by jokes and commentary. Finally, he shares a celebration of life and hope inspired by the final movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, encouraging others to be open to the sublime and realize that none of our worlds is perfect. Symphony #1 in a Minor Key shares one man's reflections as he offers a fascinating meditation on life, death, and everything in between.

This new work from Alan Block explores the contemporary discourses of education, scholarship and learning. "Pedagogy, Religion and Practice" offers a strong argument for the centrality of ethics in curriculum, scholarship and the classroom, and presents a powerful argument against the present emphasis on standards and quantitative accountability.

face. As myoid boss when I joined the discout market - who had worked as a "bond-salesman" on Wall Street during the "Great Crash" of 1929, through the Credit Anstalt crash, and served in British military intelligence during the Second World War - always used to say: "Remember The telephone is not a secure instrument. " During the 1960s, foreign banks had flooded into London in pursuit of Eurodollar deposits. Arabs were spending their new found oil wealth in West End casinos. Ex change Control regulations were tight. In 1971, when our story begins, new "banks" on the fringe took advantage of the property boom, fuelled by Tory Chancellor Barber's first Budget. The discount houses (whose functions and special privileges at the Bank were soon arcane) became active traders in US dollar and foreign currency paper, and took stakes in the new money brokers (or "barrow boys," as the snobs called them, since the sharpest brokers were mainly Cockney Eastenders). While the "gentleman's club" was quickly being replaced by the fast growing "interbank swaps" market (now LIFFE), the discount houses had found a new role to pla- opening representative offices overseas (Gillett Brothers, where I was then chairman, in Southern Africa, UAE, Australia and Singapore, with brokering subsidiaries in Europe, Far East, and North America) - gathering market intelligence around the world, as the invisible "eyes and ears" of the Bank of England."

Before Enron, before Arthur Anderson, and before Worldcom, there was the Bank of New York money laundering scandal, which hit headlines in 1999. Promising to be one of the most important books on international organized crime, money laundering, and the complicity between legitimate and illegitimate businesses in both the United States and the former Soviet Union, among other places, during the last decade of the 20th century, All Is Clouded by Desire examines the criminal dealings the led to the revelation that the Bank of New York's Eastern European Division laundered $6 billion for Russian organized criminals and other shady organizations and individuals. In a series of intrigues that involved crooked Geneva banker Bruce Rappaport and high-level members of the Bank of New York, criminal Russian organizations were able to thrive and prosper during a time when the rest of the former Soviet Union crumbled amidst growing corruption and a declining economy. Tracing the financial shenanigans back many years, Block and Weaver illustrate how the underworld of high finance, money laundering, mafia groups, CIA operatives, and legitimate banking institutions can clean dirty money and operate criminal enterprises that span the globe. Block and Weaver carefully assemble a vivid examination of the world of "hot money" in the arena of international banking and the roles played by Intelligence, the politically connected, and the criminally inclined. Focusing on the intensely private Genava banker Bruce Rappaport and the Bank of New York, the authors show how the two worked together with dodgy Russian banks to move and launder billions through channels that include off-shore banks, shadyjoint-ventures, and outright criminal organizations. Relying on primary sources from the logs of the institutions involved, interviews with British Intelligence operatives and former CIA officers, secret discussions with private detectives handling the infamous Marc Rich tax case, and material collected by two private detective agencies in London and New York, the book exposes the various machinations that were instrumental in completing the financial schemes that would ultimately cause the downfall of two top Bank of New York executives.

This book""studies education and curriculum from the perspective of the teacher's stance in the classroom. Writing through the lenses offered by autobiography, a lifetime in the classroom serving as teacher, and drawing heavily on Jewish and secular scholarly texts, Block offers a vision of education that serves as an alternative to the increasingly instrumentalist, managerial, standards-driven impersonal nature of contemporary schools. He advocates not for a pedagogy of ethics, but for the original ethical stance every teacher already assumes by entering into the classroom. It is from this stance in ethics, he argues, that all pedagogy derives.

This edited volume in American constitutionalism places the Supreme Court's declaration of same-sex marriage rights in U.S. v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) within the context of the Court's developing understanding of the legal and social status of marriage and the family. Leading scholars in the fields of political science, law, and religion examine the roots of the Court's affirmation of same-sex rights in a number of areas related to marriage and the family including the right to marry, equality and happiness in marriage, the right to privacy, freedom of association, property rights, parental power, and reproductive rights. Taken together, these essays evaluate the extent to which the Court's recent marriage rulings both break with and derive from the competing principles of American Constitutionalism.

What goes on in a classroom? can mean "Are teachers imparting knowledge that will raise test scores?" or it can mean much more. In this series of essays, Block addresses the nature of the classroom as a place for encounter and engagements: with curriculum materials and books, between teachers and students, and with the self.

The other report is published by the U. S. State Department and is more "committed," but only as far as the national interest of the world's only su perpower is concerned. Therefore, the State Department report must be read while keeping in mind the state of U. S. relations with the countries concerned. This report is accompanied by the so-called "certification" process, whose ar bitrary character has often been stressed. For instance, Iran, a country whose determination to fight the drug transit on its territory is well-known - more than 100 Iranian law enforcement agents die every year as a restult - was removed from the "blacklist" of "decertified countries" in the spring of 1999, precisely as it was inaugurating a policy of opening itself to external influ ence, including that of the United States. In retrospect, this demonstrates that the U. S. government had decertified Iran in past years because it was viewed as an Islamic and terrorist country, not because of its supposed involvement in drug trafficking. Neither does the last State Department report explain why Haji Ayub Afridi, a major Pakistani drug baron, who had voluntarily surrendered to U. S. authorities, returned to Pakistan in 1999 after spending a mere three and a half years in a U. S. prison."

than any of the others in this collection. They represent a merging of academic interest with a commitment to environmental activism which occu"ed after several years of research conducted under the wing of the New York State Senate Select Committee on Crime created in the 1960s to investigate organized crime. I had the rare opportunity to work with this committee under the direction of counsel leremiah McKenna at the time attention was focused on organized criminals moved into the hazardous waste disposal industry. Much of my data came rom committee investigations, hearings and reports. In addition, contacts outside of New York were eased by this affiliation. My long association with the committee inexorably led to an integration of research findings with an involvement in the formation of public policy. Part W presents another usually hidden dimension of organized crime; its mesh with transnational political movements, intelligence services, and political murder. Two essays dealing with assassinations a decade apart form this section. One was the murder of Carlo Tresca in 1943, the other of Jesus de Galindez in 1956. The former reveals the inte"elationships between Italian American organized criminals and the Fascist party, the latter the netherworld of professional criminals, private detectives, intelligence operatives, working together in the interests of dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic."

Pennsylvania, a state of diverse geography and geology, is rich in flora. The second edition of The Plants of Pennsylvania identifies the nearly 3,400 species of trees, wildflowers, ferns, grasses, sedges, aquatic plants, and weeds native to or naturalized in the Commonwealth. Retaining the clearly written identification keys and descriptions that made the first edition such an essential reference, this new edition has been reorganized to reflect recent advances in our understanding of plant relationships. Families and genera are listed in a sequence determined by current studies of plant molecular genetics, thus providing new insights for the study of botany. In addition, species have been added to the book as a result of new discoveries. The botanical illustrations of Anna Anisko continue to complement the descriptions and add an element of beauty to the volume. Developed in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Flora Project, and compiled by botanists at the Morris Arboretum, the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the second edition of The Plants of Pennsylvania is the authoritative guide to Pennsylvania's plant life. It will be indispensable to taxonomists, conservationists, ecologists, foresters, land planners, teachers, agricultural county agents, students, and amateur naturalists.

This volume provides a fresh perspective on current democratic theory and practice by recovering the rich evaluations of democracy in the history of political thought. Each author addresses a single thinker's reflections on the virtues and defects of democracy and the relationship between democracy and other regimes. Together, these essays explore the tensions within the democratic way of life that arise from an attachment to equality, liberty, citizenship, law, and the divine. Above all, this work aims at recovering a more complex understanding of democracy, connecting the perennial questions of political philosophy to the perplexities and crises of modern democracy.

This book explores the practical and psychological factors that regulate teaching and learning in the classroom, and illustrates how hope and creativity may arise out of unforeseen, non-standard, or turbulent conditions. Written at the intersection of curriculum theory and psychoanalysis, this volume offers an original pedagogical stance that seeks to ameliorate the impact of the classroom's regulated and standardized environment. The author's approach to classroom education suggests that teachers investigate students' psychological entanglements to explain and transform difficult classroom experiences into productive, educative ones. By promoting an ethos of ironic engagement in teaching and learning, this book also demonstrates the importance of playfulness, imagination, and a readiness to make mistakes in classroom settings. This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, and policy makers in the fields of curriculum studies, teacher education, educational psychology and classroom management.

This is the story of organized crime's penetration of the islands and the corruption of its high officials during the time The Bahamas become politically independent of Great Britain. It describes secret U.S. Internal Revenue Service operations aimed at American criminals involved in Bahamian-based tax scams and similar crimes. Block paints a devastating picture of a symbiotic relationship among off-shore tax havens in The Bahamas, sophisticated American criminals, and complacent public officials in the United States.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the I.R.S. launched major investigations into American organized crime and the subterranean economy of The Bahamas. Block's access to the private papers of many of the key players in these affairs has given him a unique perspective. He has uncovered details of crime, corruption, and bureaucratic infighting within and among the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments that have been largely unrecognized by previous researchers.

Block shows how important links in the international traffic in cocaine were forged in the Bahamas, in full view of American officials. Masters of Paradise raises major questions about American law enforcement officials' commitment to fighting complex international crime during the 1960s and the 1970s.

While there have been other studies of tax havens, money laundering, and offshore investigations, Block's access to information and his grasp of its meaning is unique. Professionals interested in the history and sociology of organized crime and the underground economy will find this book eye-opening. General readers interested in organized crime and political corruption will find it absorbing.

Members of organized crime syndicates have gained control of key businesses and trade unions through their strategic positions as arbiters of labor-management conflicts and as dispensers of illegal credit. They are managing important sectors of the contemporary marketplace, engaging in activities far more significant than the vice enterprises usually associated with criminal activity. Difficult to access for scholarly study, organized crime is best documented in judicial findings and in legislative reports from criminal investigations and public hearings. In this book, Alan Block has assembled a rich cross section of these reports. Taken together, they illustrate how organized crime has infiltrated important industries and taken control of union pension and welfare funds. Designed for students of criminology, sociology, and deviance, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the business of crime in America today.

Members of organized crime syndicates have gained control of key businesses and trade unions through their strategic positions as arbiters of labor-management conflicts and as dispensers of illegal credit. They are managing important sectors of the contemporary marketplace, engaging in activities far more significant than the vice enterprises usually associated with criminal activity. Difficult to access for scholarly study, organized crime is best documented in judicial findings and in legislative reports from criminal investigations and public hearings. In this book, Alan Block has assembled a rich cross section of these reports. Taken together, they illustrate how organized crime has infiltrated important industries and taken control of union pension and welfare funds. Designed for students of criminology, sociology, and deviance, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the business of crime in America today.

'Combining postmodern critiques with whole language hopes, Alan Block routs the psychologists and pedagogues who have occupied American reading instruction for nearly a century and points out a way in which we can come to know ourselves and the world through reading.'--Patrick Shannon, Professor

This is the story of organized crime's penetration of the islands and the corruption of its high officials during the time The Bahamas become politically independent of Great Britain. It describes secret U.S. Internal Revenue Service operations aimed at American criminals involved in Bahamian-based tax scams and similar crimes. Block paints a devastating picture of a symbiotic relationship among off-shore tax havens in The Bahamas, sophisticated American criminals, and complacent public officials in the United States. During the 1960s and 1970s, the I.R.S. launched major investigations into American organized crime and the subterranean economy of The Bahamas. Block's access to the private papers of many of the key players in these affairs has given him a unique perspective. He has uncovered details of crime, corruption, and bureaucratic infighting within and among the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments that have been largely unrecognized by previous researchers. Block shows how important links in the international traffic in cocaine were forged in the Bahamas, in full view of American officials. Masters of Paradise raises major questions about American law enforcement officials' commitment to fighting complex international crime during the 1960s and the 1970s. While there have been other studies of tax havens, money laundering, and offshore investigations, Block's access to information and his grasp of its meaning is unique. Professionals interested in the history and sociology of organized crime and the underground economy will find this book eye-opening. General readers interested in organized crime and political corruption will find it absorbing.

Most research on organized crime reveals only a limited sense of its history. Our understanding suffers as a result. Space, Time, and Organized Crime shows how arguments about the sources, consequences, and extent of crime are distorted as a consequence of crude empiricism. Originally published in Europe in 1991 as Perspectives on Organizing Crime, this book is a timely blend of history, criticism, and research. Fully one-fourth of this new edition contains hitherto unpublished materials especially relevant to the American experience.

Space, Time, and Organized Crime describes the background of Progressive Era New York. It then broadens its scope by exploring the changes in drug production and distribution in Europe from about 1925 to the mid-1930s. Block addresses such little explored issues as the ethnicity of traders, the structure of drug syndicates, and the impact of legislation that attempted to criminalize increasing aspects of the world's narcotic industry prior to the Second World War. He then goes on to present organized crime's involvement with transnational political movements, intelligence services, and political murders. Space, Time, and Organized Crime concentrates on ambiguities evident in organized crime control, such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service's protection of criminal off-shore financial interests, and the contradictions found in America's war on drugs.

Space, Time, and Organized Crime demonstrates that the essential nature of crime in the twentieth century (regardless of where it takes place) cannot be understood without sound historical studies and a more sophisticated criminological approach. Block's unique blend of stratification in a historical context will be of special interest to historians, sociologists, criminologists, and penologist.

than any of the others in this collection. They represent a merging of academic interest with a commitment to environmental activism which occu"ed after several years of research conducted under the wing of the New York State Senate Select Committee on Crime created in the 1960s to investigate organized crime. I had the rare opportunity to work with this committee under the direction of counsel leremiah McKenna at the time attention was focused on organized criminals moved into the hazardous waste disposal industry. Much of my data came [rom committee investigations, hearings and reports. In addition, contacts outside of New York were eased by this affiliation. My long association with the committee inexorably led to an integration of research findings with an involvement in the formation of public policy. Part W presents another usually hidden dimension of organized crime; its mesh with transnational political movements, intelligence services, and political murder. Two essays dealing with assassinations a decade apart form this section. One was the murder of Carlo Tresca in 1943, the other of Jesus de Galindez in 1956. The former reveals the inte"elationships between Italian American organized criminals and the Fascist party, the latter the netherworld of professional criminals, private detectives, intelligence operatives, working together in the interests of dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic.

face. As myoid boss when I joined the discout market - who had worked as a "bond-salesman" on Wall Street during the "Great Crash" of 1929, through the Credit Anstalt crash, and served in British military intelligence during the Second World War - always used to say: "Remember The telephone is not a secure instrument. " During the 1960s, foreign banks had flooded into London in pursuit of Eurodollar deposits. Arabs were spending their new found oil wealth in West End casinos. Ex change Control regulations were tight. In 1971, when our story begins, new "banks" on the fringe took advantage of the property boom, fuelled by Tory Chancellor Barber's first Budget. The discount houses (whose functions and special privileges at the Bank were soon arcane) became active traders in US dollar and foreign currency paper, and took stakes in the new money brokers (or "barrow boys," as the snobs called them, since the sharpest brokers were mainly Cockney Eastenders). While the "gentleman's club" was quickly being replaced by the fast growing "interbank swaps" market (now LIFFE), the discount houses had found a new role to pla- opening representative offices overseas (Gillett Brothers, where I was then chairman, in Southern Africa, UAE, Australia and Singapore, with brokering subsidiaries in Europe, Far East, and North America) - gathering market intelligence around the world, as the invisible "eyes and ears" of the Bank of England."

This book explores the practical and psychological factors that regulate teaching and learning in the classroom, and illustrates how hope and creativity may arise out of unforeseen, non-standard, or turbulent conditions. Written at the intersection of curriculum theory and psychoanalysis, this volume offers an original pedagogical stance that seeks to ameliorate the impact of the classroom's regulated and standardized environment. The author's approach to classroom education suggests that teachers investigate students' psychological entanglements to explain and transform difficult classroom experiences into productive, educative ones. By promoting an ethos of ironic engagement in teaching and learning, this book also demonstrates the importance of playfulness, imagination, and a readiness to make mistakes in classroom settings. This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, and policy makers in the fields of curriculum studies, teacher education, educational psychology and classroom management.

What goes on in a classroom? can mean "Are teachers imparting knowledge that will raise test scores?" or it can mean much more. In this series of essays, Block addresses the nature of the classroom as a place for encounter and engagements: with curriculum materials and books, between teachers and students, and with the self.

The other report is published by the U. S. State Department and is more "committed," but only as far as the national interest of the world's only su perpower is concerned. Therefore, the State Department report must be read while keeping in mind the state of U. S. relations with the countries concerned. This report is accompanied by the so-called "certification" process, whose ar bitrary character has often been stressed. For instance, Iran, a country whose determination to fight the drug transit on its territory is well-known - more than 100 Iranian law enforcement agents die every year as a restult - was removed from the "blacklist" of "decertified countries" in the spring of 1999, precisely as it was inaugurating a policy of opening itself to external influ ence, including that of the United States. In retrospect, this demonstrates that the U. S. government had decertified Iran in past years because it was viewed as an Islamic and terrorist country, not because of its supposed involvement in drug trafficking. Neither does the last State Department report explain why Haji Ayub Afridi, a major Pakistani drug baron, who had voluntarily surrendered to U. S. authorities, returned to Pakistan in 1999 after spending a mere three and a half years in a U. S. prison."

This new work from Alan Block explores the contemporary discourses of education, scholarship and learning. The book offers a strong argument for the centrality of ethics in curriculum, scholarship and the classroom, and presents a powerful argument against the present emphasis on standards and quantitative accountability.