Odds are, you have never visited someone imprisoned for life, or for many decades. Prisoners are outcasts, beloved, if at all, only by their families; remembered, if only periodically, by their lawyers. We give them numbers and then forbid their jailers to get too close to numbered souls.
Prison is our effort to create a hell, or, at the very least, a purgatory, here on Earth.
May God forgive us our trespasses.
This past week, the United States Supreme Court gave fresh force to a commonplace enough observation: juveniles sometimes do stupid, even horrible, things. Yet, they...
January 28, 2016
Utopian or dystopian?
You decide. But consider seriously the question: The Muslim Brotherhood forms a new a political party in France, and, in a coalition with the left, forms a new government, with a prominent Muslim as prime minister. Then the Saudis purchase the Sorbonne, an ancient and prestigious French university. What’s a good professor to do?
Michel Houellebecq’s new novel, “Submission,” published in France, and, in translation, in the United States in 2015, is set in the not-too-distant future. The protagonist, Francois, is a French literature...
January 26, 2016
Just why the office of the chief state's attorney is hell-bent on killing people is one of those deeper mysteries I am destined never to understand. But there stood Harry Weller, one of the state's smartest appellate lawyers and prosecutors, in the well of the Connecticut Supreme Court, urging justices to reverse themselves and put the death penalty back on the books.
Why, Harry? Or, more to the point, why, Kevin? I direct this question to Kevin Kane, the state's top prosecutor.
In 2015, the high court ruled in yet another bitter 4-3 decision that put on display once again that...
January 18, 2016
The trouble with appeals to heaven is the answer might disappoint. For the folks who’ve commandeered the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, that could spell disaster.
My pulse quickens and a certain anarchist joy dawns when I hear of a group of citizens reclaiming their sovereignty. But I smile with the uneasy conscience of a limousine anarchist. Truth be told, I depend on the good will of others to enjoy the life I lead. So do you.
Armed men seized the largely vacant compound in rural Oregon to show solidarity with a rancher and his son, Dwight and Steven Hammond,...
January 6, 2016
December 30, 2015
At year's end, it is sometimes customary to name a person of the year, so let me add my nominee: Aylan Al-Kurdi. Odds are, you never learned his...
December 16, 2015
I felt much as a secret agent, or a confidential informant must feel, settling in among strangers, listening to them talk, wary of my...
December 16, 2015
Is gun violence in the United States a public health crisis? There are plenty of people who seem to think so. And these folks are quick to call for...
December 10, 2015
I have a confession to make. It’s not pretty. Indeed, given the argot of the day, it’s pretty terrifying. You see, I’ve been...
December 8, 2015
“So, will you be voting for Donald Trump?”
The question came from a public defender in a quiet voice,...
December 2, 2015
At least two people a day are shot to death by police officers in the United States each and every day. As of Tuesday, the total for the year is 895,...