Human Rights Lawyer Who Took on Chevron Put Under House Arrest: Steven Donziger Tells His Story Georgetown Law. Commentary
‘They will never forget, never forgive’: Flood backlash tipped at polls
A “Psycho” sneaks around Lismore
Ukraine says it has RE-TAKEN Chuhuiv city and killed two high-ranking Russian commanders during the battle. This is going to interfere with Russian efforts to encircle Kharkiv
Veteran U.S. prosecutor to lead task force probing Russian oligarchs Reuters. Task force “KleptoCapture.”
Taxing Venmo?!?
Harry Frankfurt is renowned for his theory of bullshit. But is his account itself an example of bullshit
Superb Owl Sunday VI The Atlantic
The Atlantic – “A special Sunday event: our sixth annual photographic essay celebrating such magnificent birds of prey. These nocturnal hunters hail from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America and are captured here in photos from recent years….I invite you to take a look. It is always a hoot to put this collection together.” [These photos are magnificent and include a portrait of the beloved Snowy Owl]
“You cannot force people to laugh: you cannot give a reason why they should laugh: they must laugh of themselves, or not at all. As we laugh from a spontaneous impulse, we laugh the more at any restraint upon this impulse. We laugh at a thing merely because we ought not.”
Resolutely Unsentimental, Ebulliently Grim'
New Yorker: “A curious legal crusade to redefine personhood is raising profound questions about the interdependence of the animal and human kingdoms. According to the civil-law code of the state of New York, a writ of habeas corpus may be obtained by any “person” who has been illegally detained. In Bronx County, most such claims arrive on behalf of prisoners on Rikers Island. Habeas petitions are not often heard in court, which was only one reason that the case before New York Supreme Court Justice Alison Y. Tuitt—Nonhuman Rights Project v. James Breheny, et al.—was extraordinary. The subject of the petition was Happy, an Asian elephant in the Bronx Zoo. American law treats all animals as “things”—the same category as rocks or roller skates. However, if the Justice granted the habeas petition to move Happy from the zoo to a sanctuary, in the eyes of the law she would be a person. She would have rights. Humanity seems to be edging toward a radical new accommodation with the animal kingdom. In 2013, the government of India banned the capture and confinement of dolphins and orcas, because cetaceans have been proved to be sensitive and highly intelligent, and “should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ ” with “their own specific rights.” The governments of Hungary, Costa Rica, and Chile, among others, have issued similar restrictions, and Finland went so far as to draft a Declaration of Rights for cetaceans. In Argentina, a judge ruled that an orangutan at the Buenos Aires Eco-Park, named Sandra, was a “nonhuman person” and entitled to freedom—which, in practical terms, meant being sent to a sanctuary in Florida. The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, in Pakistan, asserted that nonhuman animals have rights when he ordered the release of an elephant named Kaavan, along with other zoo animals, to sanctuaries; he even recommended the teaching of animal welfare in schools, as part of Islamic studies. In October, a U.S. court recognized a herd of hippopotamuses originally brought to Colombia by the drug lord Pablo Escobar as “interested persons” in a lawsuit that would prevent their extermination. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is currently weighing a bill, backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that would consider the effect of government action on any sentient animal…”
March 1, 2022 – Full text Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address As Prepared for Delivery, United States Capitol. “Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans. Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again. Tonight, we meet as Democrats Republicans and Independents. But most importantly as Americans. With a duty to one another to the American people to the Constitution. And with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny. Six days ago, Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people. From President Zelenskyy to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, inspires the world. Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies. Everyone from students to retirees teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland. In this struggle as President Zelenskyy said in his speech to the European Parliament “Light will win over darkness.”…
- See also YouTube for the entire speech.
Street photographer Juri Nesterov's photos of everyday life in Ukraine from 2001 to 2021.
read on Ukraine and Russia, recommended by Serhii Plokhy, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard.
Hmmm: Revolt among Russian Orthodox clerics over Putin's Ukraine war? Update: Growing?
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church still supports Putin, but 176 of his clerics now have publicly declared their opposition to the war (via Fr. Marcel Guarnizo).