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Archive: Oct 2007

Dante on Divine Justice

Però ne la giustizia sempiterna la vista che riceve il vostro mondo, com’ occhio per lo mare, entro s’interna; che, ben che da la proda veggia il fondo, in pelago…

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Javert’s Wailings Grow Louder

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montgomery, Inspector Javert has issued the following statement for the press, which we reproduce with a translation into English and annotations. Because the public…

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Licensed to Kill

The Bush Justice Department does have an essential law enforcement mission, though sometimes it seems to behave much more like a criminal syndicate. It warmly embraces the crime of torture…

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One of Nizami’s Pearls

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The Hitler Beetle, and Other Lessons from the British Press

I gave a radio interview yesterday during which I extolled the British press for being far more open about the political views of reporters than we are in the States,…

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A Minor Injustice: Why Paul Minor?

(Continued from A Minor Injustice.) Bagging a Democrat When it came to funding Democratic candidates and causes, prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor was a go-to guy. He was a…

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TIME Reports on the Political Prosecutions in Alabama

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” remarked a nationally known print journalist in a conversation three weeks ago. “Everything I’ve been told by the convicted defendants checks out as…

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Dickinson’s ‘To Fight Aloud’

To fight aloud, is very brave — But gallanter, I know Who charge within the bosom The Cavalry of Woe — Who win, and nations do not see — Who…

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Orwell on Delusional Political Thinking

So far as I can see, all political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their…

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A New Task Order from the Ministry of Love

Of all the ministries, one was the most frightening. Up until the last chapters of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ Winston had never even been inside of it. It was a forbidding place—windowless,…

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Liberal-loathing Partisan Joins “Neutral” Blogger Outreach Program

Turns out there’s more on those supposedly neutral public servants in charge of the Pentagon’s blogger outreach program that I’ve been discussing over the last few months. The Washington Post…

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Still the E Street Band

As expected, Bruce Springsteen had no idea that a Democratic congressional campaign was using him as bait for big donors. I reported yesterday that Congressman Ed Towns of New York…

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Macbeth for the Age of Bush

William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth. Directed by Rupert Goold. Staring Patrick Stewart, Suzanne Burden and others. Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Ave., London. In three decades, roughly from the end of…

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Æschylus on the Tyrant’s Blindness

Thus I rendered my assistance to the tyrant among the mighty gods and in this way he has rewarded me; for in every tyrant’s heart there springs this purest poison:…

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Meet the New Boss: Bruce Springsteen & the K Street Band?

I just posted an item about Washington lobbyists raising money for Republican members of Congress. I should also note here an upcoming fund-raiser being planned for Congressman Ed Towns, the…

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Washington, Post-Ethics Reform: Come out and party tonight

Just three weeks ago, President Bush signed into law a new bill into law that he said marked progress towards strengthening “ethical standards that govern lobbying activities.” Congress had passed…

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Britney Spears and the Holocaust

Below is a press release I just received that manages to combine Britney Spears and genocide in a tidy self-help PR package. Hanala Stadner, the daughter of holocaust survivors and…

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A Minor Injustice

Alexandre Dumas’s most popular novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, revolves around the narrative of Edmond Dantès, the captain of a merchant vessel who visits Napoleon on the isle of…

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Dumas on the Art of Finding the Culprit

“There is,” he said after a brief pause, “an appropriate maxim, which bears upon what I was just telling you, and that is, that unless evil ideas take root in…

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The JIN Debacle: Still a few kinks to work out

Earlier this year I wrote a story about the Joint IED Neutralizer (JIN), a device intended to destroy roadside bombs. The JIN is built by an Arizona-based company called Ionatron—a…

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Doubting Thomas

Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir (Oct. 1, 2007) $26.95 Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared on the Rush Limbaugh Show for 90 minutes. Thomas was pushing his…

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Auden’s ‘Let History Be My Judge’

We made all possible preparations, Drew up a list of firms, Constantly revised our calculations And allotted the farms, Issued all the orders expedient In this kind of case: Most,…

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Machiavelli on the Mercenary

The Mercenary, Considered. Does history not tell us that once there were many soldiers in Italy, who, failing for pay because the wars had at length come to an end,…

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Weekly Review

The Cloaca Maxima, 1872 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hailed by his countrymen as the “Socrates of the Third Millennium” for “disarming other speakers through his sharp reasoning,” gave a speech…

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Supreme Court Upholds Appeals Court Decision in Favor of Harper’s Magazine

New York, NY, October 1, 2007 — The United States Supreme Court today upheld the March 23, 2007 decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of…

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Beating the Drums for the Next War

Last week brought heads of state and senior diplomats in number to New York for the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations. It also brought President Bush…

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Grotius on Pre-emptive War

The danger must be immediate, which is the first essential point. Though it must be confessed that when an assailant seizes any weapon with an apparent intention to kill me…

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