Category: Entertainment
Rise of the Warrior Cop – Review Part 2 of 5: Justification and Permission
The public in the past have naively avoided consideration of the fact that the principle difference between a democracy and an totalitarian form of government is not so much in the laws under which they operate as it is in the manner by which the laws are applied. — Don L. Kooken, Ethics in Police… Read more
Rise of the Warrior Cop – Review Part 1 of 5: History
Since its inception, the police establishment has conducted itself more as the agent of the power structure than the servant of a pluralistic society. — Former FBI Special Agent William W. Turner. The Police Establishment. 1968. I’ve been waiting a long time for Radley Balko to write a book, and now he finally has. Rise… Read more
In Search of Legal Thrillers
I’m trying to find some good legal thrillers to read, and it’s not as easy as I’d hoped. I’ve mined out most of my favorites: Scott Turow hasn’t published anything lately, Sheldon Siegel ran out of steam with Mike Daley, John LesCroart’s stories have drifted away from the courtroom, and William Lashner seems to have… Read more
Why Don’t Authors’ Websites List Their Books in the Right Order?
Monday night I finished reading Linda Nagata’s far-future epic series The Bohr Maker, Deception Well and Vast back-to-back-to-back, and I wanted to take a break from amazing stories of super-science and find something a little more down to earth, so I looked at my Kindle’s recommendations and something about Mark Gimenez’s Accused caught my eye.… Read more
Zero Dark Thirty – Short Review
Zero Dark Thirty is a terrific spy thriller. Almost nobody mentions that. Everybody talks about the controversial issues raised by Catherine Bigelow’s new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden — the use of torture, the slam at criminal defense lawyers — but if you can set aside your differences with the politics of… Read more