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Tuesday, February 25, 2003 |
This is damming
In a nutshell, here's what's wrong with the death penaly and our system of justice:
Judge Laura Denvir Stith seemed not to believe what she was hearing.
A prosecutor was trying to block a death row inmate from having his conviction reopened on the basis of new evidence, and Judge Stith, of the Missouri Supreme Court, was getting exasperated. "Are you suggesting," she asked the prosecutor, that "even if we find Mr. Amrine is actually innocent, he should be executed?"
Frank A. Jung, an assistant state attorney general, replied, "That's correct, your honor."
That exchange was, legal experts say, unusual only for its frankness.
After a trial and appeal, many prosecutors say, new evidence of claimed innocence should generally not be considered by the courts.
8:44:36 PM Permalink
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Dick Cheney's Thinking?
From Dave Farber's list, here's a remarkable essay by John Perry Barlow on possibly what Dick Cheney -- who he sees as behind the Administration's Iraq and other foreign policy. It's a fascinating piece, and though I have my doubts.
First, they seek to scare Saddam Hussein into voluntarily turning his country over to the U.S. and choosing safe exile or, failing that, they want to convince the Iraqi people that it¹s safer to attempt his overthrow or assassination than to endure an invasion by American ground troops.
Second, they are trying to convince every other nation on the planet that the United States is the Mother of All Rogue States, run by mad thugs in possession of 15,000 nuclear warheads they are willing to use and spending, as they already are, more on death-making capacity than all the other countries on the planet combined. In other words, they want the rest of the world to think that we are the ultimate weaving driver. Not to be trusted, but certainly not to be messed with either.
The best thing you can say about this is that there's a method to their madness. Well, that's a little better, but madness with method behind it is madness still.
What I did't quote is Barlow's short essay on the history of world power's attempts to maintain peace. He points out, correctly, that the last half of the 20th century, during the cold war balance between the US and the USSR, was a lot less bloody than was the first half, when no superpower or balanced group of superpowers dominated. So the idea is that the US, as the sole superpower can maintain peace around the world.
While in one way it's attractive (it's clear that nations won't come to peace by themselves, and if there's only going to be one superpower rather it be the US than the USSR or China or Nazi Germany), it's also incredibly scary. The peacemaker's position is dangerous. No one loves the enforcer. Being the enforcer is very expensive (how many wars can we fight at once). And to the residents of other nations, it's got to be scary to know that this largest of superpowers is capable of most anything; how is a peacemaker different than an empire? And the Bush administration has shown no willingness to work with others and abide by international law on its own (quite the contrary). I can't see how this situation would be stable for more than a generation; it has in it the seeds of its own destruction.
8:32:49 PM Permalink
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The Grammys
The Grammys (or Grammies or whatever) were almost totally wothless the other night; blander than bland, blander, it seemed to me than they ever have been before. There's a piece on Slate today about the shame of the Grammys -- that no one, no one, the other night mentioned the 97 music fans who died in Rhode Island the day before. Kind of shows you what the whole damn business thinks of its fans.
But the show was almost redeemed at the end by the incendiary performance of Clash's "London Calling" by Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and I don't know who else. Everyone put their all into it, and it was rivetting. I've watched it two more times on my Tivo. It almost made those three tedious hours worthwhile.
7:12:04 PM Permalink
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Goodbye Pioneer !0
CNN Reports tonight that Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, and now some 7.6 billion (yes, billion) miles from Earth, has fallen silent. It's a remarkable story, and I always thought a rebuke to those who thought government can do no right. Designed to operate for 21 months and take pictures of Pluto, it obviously performed well beyond its designed capabilities, to last far beyond the orbit of Pluto. If it didn't find the heliopause, well, then that's not for want of trying. It's a testament to all those who worked on it.
This little thing will be sailing into the galaxy for, well, forever. Probably until the heat death of the universe or a galactic catastrophe. The chances of it being found by anyone are so close to null they're not worth calculating -- maybe humans, one day, who know where it is and where it's going will go find it. But you can bet it'll outlive the race, and that's an awesome (literally) thought.
6:59:08 PM Permalink
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How to Eat
I read about half this cookbook over the last couple of days. Nigella Lawson is a good, sometimes great writer. But the book could have used a closer edit; some partial recipes are repeated, and there are some copy editing errors (such as the "see page xx" cross links which apparently never got fixed. In big doses, Lawson's personal reminisecences become a little grating. She does know the merits of a good stock, and has lots of good tips for making one (and a consomme recipe that I must try).
All that said, I will be forever thankful for the onion much recipe, and I wish that DirecTV got the Style network which has her show on it.I borrowed a copy from the library, but I'm sorely tempted to buy it.
7:57:31 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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