a shameful waste of madhouse time

Washington, DC

Originally uploaded by Irena Kittenclaw.

From one my Flickr contacts. I wish i could have been there.

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and who is going to be the urban flaneur of early 21st c. Shanghai?
To sum up, what is crucial to both Benjamin and Baudelaire is -along with every man- to sustain a reason, a motivation, a justification, a narrative for life and for living in their own times. And yet, to achieve this they remain [...]

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From the AP:
WASHINGTON - Protesters energized by fresh congressional skepticism about the
Iraq war demanded a withdrawal of U.S. troops in a demonstration Saturday that drew tens of thousands and brought Jane Fonda back to the streets.
A sampling of celebrities and busloads of demonstrators from distant states joined in a spirited rally under a sunny sky, [...]

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从南方周末转载的文章:
■法眼
　　□李风林(武汉大学法学院刑法专业博士生)
　　
　　《中国青年报》报道，南京某大学226名博士、硕士研究生以及本科生签名呼吁法官轻判一个叫左凡的研究生。被告左凡在一起争风吃醋事件中，先是被竞争对手有预谋地群殴，后奋起反击，用自备刀具捅伤三人。法庭顶住舆论压力，以防卫过当判决左凡有罪。
　　但有顶不住压力的，如佘祥林案。当湖北省高级人民法院发现此案的疑点要求重审时，受害人家属多次上访，并组织220名群众签名上书，声称“民愤”极大，要求对“杀人犯”佘祥林从速处决。某种意义上，正是迫于“民愤”的压力，才最终对佘祥林定罪的。在此，民愤成了考量嫌疑人是否入罪、是否从重处罚的重要因素。佘祥林案中，法官之所以把民愤抬到法律之上，都是基于一个简单的推理，即民意是人民的共同意见，民愤是人民意见的表达，因此民愤也是民意，既然人民的意志是最高的法律，将民愤凌驾于法律之上是不会错的。既然佘案中受害人家属的上访和两百人的联合签名说明民愤极大，那么舍弃案件事实超越法律自然是顺从民意，判处佘祥林有罪就不是错误的。
　　十二年，一个轮回。十二年后的今天，我们与邱兴华案遭遇。邱案事实清楚，证据确凿，一切表明，邱兴华只有以一死方能平息民间包括受害者家属的愤怒，“民愤”的态度是必须从重、从快地处决邱兴华以了结此事，而繁琐的程序将使得邱兴华苟延残喘，甚至逃过一死。这也是司法机关所最为担心的，担心民愤耐心的有限。因此，在人们的喊杀声中，将为邱申请精神病鉴定而奔走、呼吁的专家、学者一并唾骂其中，就不足为奇了。
　　无可否认，所谓的民愤，有其合理性的一面。民愤是一种集体意识对于个体意识的离异或者异己感。由于它为众人所持有，因此获得了相当的正当性。法国刑法学家斯特法尼认为：“民众的愤恨就是惩罚犯罪行为的道德目的，道德目的是与刑罚的报应性质相联系的。人们对犯罪的愤恨影响与引导着社会对犯罪所作的反应，这种愤恨对社会的正义是不可缺少的，长期以来，社会始终在尽力维护这种健康的愤恨情感。”因此，我们可以说，民愤天然是一种报应，在具体案件中，民愤的立场常常体现了道义报应的朴素情感，体现了通过法律对正义、公正的追求。
　　然而，我更要说的是，民愤在大多数情况下是感性的。首先是民愤的情绪化特点。人是感性的动物，愤怒是人情绪化的表现，在愤怒的情绪下行事往往是不理智的。而法律的适用是理性的，这种理性通过罪刑法定、适用法律一律平等等原则体现。如果审判随着民众的喜而轻、怒而重，必将失去法律的严肃性、稳定性进而冲击了司法的应有理性。其次是民愤的易变性。民愤可以先后被最矛盾的情感所激发。“他们像被风暴卷起的树叶，向着每个方向飞舞，然后又落在地上”(古斯塔夫·勒庞语)而且，由于信息的误传以及价值观念的多元化，也使得一定数量的民众的民愤不一定符合人民的共同的正义观，并不能代表真正的民意。
　　在对民愤的辨析中，我们同样需要谨慎。民愤如果不是受到某种异己力量干扰的话，在多数情况下征表的是一种追求正义的冲动。然而，这种冲动仅仅是在寻求一种实质的正义，而无暇顾及程序正义之所在。这种冲动具有明显的感情色彩，不足以保持规范的稳定性，因之，用程序上的正义来做补充，就显得尤为必要。更有甚者，如北京大学法学院陈兴良教授认为：“在司法活动中，当形式合理性(即程序正义、程序合理性———笔者注)与实质合理性发生冲突的时候，我认为应当选择形式的合理性而放弃实质合理性。惟此，才能坚守法的独立价值，才能通过法律实现社会正义。在这种情况下，虽然牺牲了个案公正，使得个别犯罪人逍遥法外；但是法律本身的独立价值得以确认，法治原则得以坚守，这就有可能实现更大程度的社会正义！”
　　因此，对待民愤问题，我认为，让民愤的归民愤，法律的归法律。这也是处于民愤汹涌漩涡中的司法机关必须做出的选择，果真如此，将是民众之幸、法治之幸矣！

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This is not a headline you read everyday.
To Israelis, her name is simply “A,” a former staffer in the office of Israeli President Moshe Katsav, known to the nation through press photographs depicting her shapely figure and streaky blonde hair, yet keeping her face hidden. That’s because the anonymous Ms “A” looks set to be [...]

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I have feelings, too

Originally uploaded by *christopher*.

Caffe Trieste…one of my old haunts, This was shot with the new digital Leica–the $4800 Leica M8. Some people get all the luck.

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Going to Ikea is a sweet bourgeois dream, but dwell too long and flip too many price tags and the unrreality of it becomes all too clear: i cannot afford most of the things there. Generally, i like getting out in the evenings for a change of pace, there’s a certain risk of long-term low-level [...]

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Are you numbed yet? Feeling that compassion fatigue yet? For your own people, no less. I don’t care much who wins the White House, as long as its not a republican. But George W. Bush must hang. For being the least and most un-American of American presidents ever.

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like a ghost haunting American politics, universal health care has returned, albeit no so hauntingly, to the political scene. You got to hand it to Ah-nold, he ain’t as bad as his biceps make him seem. I still loathe all Republicans though (just for the record).
The most influential effort is undoubtedly in California, the nation’s [...]

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Here’s the original link:
Bataille and his poststructuralist successors characterize the twentieth century as the era which breaks radically with the search for absolute knowledge and total illumination. Total illumination (in the Hegelian idealist sense that Derrida deconstructs in his essay on Bataille) ends in a kind of blindness, because it hides the presence of base [...]

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