Witch hunt update

May 20, 2004

US authorities have finally released Brandon Mayfield, whom I blogged about here. Turns out the Spanish authorities were right all along and the print — a single, partial print — never matched Mayfield’s in the first place. Spain has made a more definitive match with an Algerian suspect. See this Seattle Times article. Mayfield was […]

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Time out

May 19, 2004

Excellent Enabler In reference to a man we all know, he said, “Marriage has been good for him.” Advanced in age, the man now boasts a wife-mother-lover Washing his delusions With her deft fingers. Rose-tinted, perfect for the time of day, she will absorb And alter for him the impediments of reality, Let the past […]

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Not very nice things

May 16, 2004

Don’t know whether I’ll ever get around to writing that “why Goya is really relevant” entry I’ve mentioned a couple of times already — I think it’s kind of redundant now, we are overtaken by current events with such breathtaking alacrity, who cares about history… For now, a pointer to an article I read today […]

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I’ve got yew under my skin

May 14, 2004

Haven’t been answering my comments or writing about some things I wanted to, mostly because I’m so busy working on off-line things. Among many other things, in the past two days I attacked a yew hedge renovation, and tonight I’m bleeding from the fingertips to the elbows for my efforts. Imagine a hedge that was […]

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The many forms of porn

May 14, 2004

I understand that the execution of Nick Berg is viewable on the internet. Why would anyone watch this? I don’t understand: why would you look? The Washington Post had an article about Berg that included a photograph of his father collapsing to the ground, a distraught relative at his side. An older man, skinny, all […]

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Elena Lappin’s ordeal at LA Airport: journalists, beware

May 12, 2004

Has anyone else read up on the story of Elena Lappin‘s ordeal in the US? I first read about it here a couple of days ago, but it doesn’t seem to have raised much of a stink within the States. Yikes, the USA is following the policy of Iran, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, and possibly […]

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What More Can be Done? (Goya)

May 12, 2004

…. Still haven’t done it — written that entry about how and why Francisco Goya’s life and work relates to the mess we’re in today — but while I was out for an errand this afternoon, I passed a used book shop and saw in the window Gwyn A. Williams’s wonderful book, Goya and the […]

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Heir to rationality

May 10, 2004

This entry is a continuation and commentary of sorts on David Weinberger writing here and here, and Frank Paynter responding here and here. There’s a lot of interesting commenting going back and forth on those two blogs, which you can read for yourself. Although I got into the fray a little bit by commenting on […]

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Witch Hunt?

May 9, 2004

Witch hunts have a certain pattern: first, you find a person you don’t like for some reason. Second, you find a reason to accuse them of something. Third, you create enough hysteria (one fingerprint becomes fingerprints, for eg.) to lock them up under Gestapo-like rulings (“material witness”) and then you squeeze them until they confess […]

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And the beat goes on…

May 9, 2004

David Leigh of The Guardian reported yesterday that UK forces taught torture methods: The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who […]

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