Public Affairs

Parting the Waters

Given the state of post-Berlusconi Italy today, it was perhaps to be expected. Yet the judge’s decision at Erri De Luca’s preliminary hearing—to proceed to trial—is still, to put it mildly, disappointing. That the trial date is set for January 28th at least gives those of us who still believe in free speech . . .

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“Guns Kill People”

“Guns Kill People”

On my computer is a dataset, ICPSR 6399, cataloging every homicide committed in Chicago over a thirty year period, along with all the particulars the police could gather by investigation. The dataset includes nearly 24,000 killings, with murder weapons ranging from ash trays to padlocks to pantyhose. One weapon is preeminent: between . . .

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The Quality of Mercy

Dear Eric Holder: I write, as one of a growing chorus of voices, to ask you to grant early release to Dicky Joe Jackson, a convicted felon currently serving time in the federal penitentiary in Forrest City, Arkansas. Jackson was sentenced in 1996 of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in addition . . .

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Chomsky and Enlightened Law

Many thanks to Jim Hicks of the Massachusetts Review, Amanda Minervini of Salem State University, and Adam Sitze of Amherst College for their very engaging comments about my book, and for the time they took to read it and write about it. I would like to focus on the assertion by Adam Sitze . . .

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The War, in a Footnote

The War, in a Footnote

Folks who follow this magazine will have noted that we keep closer tabs than most on events in the former Yugoslavia. Here MR Contributor Ulvija Tanović reports from streets of Sarajevo on the protests that have lit up cities around Bosnia-Herzegovina over the past week—a revolt that began on the thirty-year anniversary . . .

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Release Tarek Loubani and John Greyson

Detained without charge in Cairo Since August 16, 2013, thousands of people internationally start their days by checking the website tarekandjohn.com, hoping for news of the release of physician Tarek Loubani and filmmaker and scholar John Greyson, two Canadians arrested and detained without charge at the Tora prison in Cairo, Egypt. Loubani’s and . . .

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The Wolf that Cried Boy

The Wolf that Cried Boy

I have something of a rule of thumb when it comes to writing about political issues. If it’s a matter where we only need to listen to historians, political theorists and strategists, or even philosophers, I’d best stay out of it. Not that the magazine itself should: At the Massachusetts Review, “A Quarterly . . .

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Notes on Web 3.0 (Part Five)

Notes on Web 3.0 (Part Five)

Editor’s Note. In press coverage of the Snowden affair, there often seems to be little sense of what is really at stake. We asked Adam Sitze, from Amherst College’s Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, to shine a bit more light on the subject. What follows here is the conclusion of . . .

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Notes on Web 3.0 (Part Four)

Editor’s Note. In press coverage of the Snowden affair, there often seems to be little sense of what is really at stake. We asked Adam Sitze, from Amherst College’s Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, to shine a bit more light on the subject. What follows here is the fourth of . . .

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Notes on Web 3.0 (Part Three)

Editor’s Note. In press coverage of the Snowden affair, there often seems to be little sense of what is really at stake. We asked Adam Sitze, from Amherst College’s Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, to shine a bit more light on the subject. What follows here is the third of . . .

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