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USA TODAY: How Disabilities Law Went Nuts

USA TODAY, July 27, 2015 How disability law went nuts by James Bovard And it has actually been a disaster at helping the disabled find work. Good intentions are no excuse for perpetual legal chaos. The Americans with Disabilities Act promised a bright new era of equality and freedom. Instead, it has spawned endless lawsuits […]

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jpb-police-photos-collage

Police and their Sisyphean Struggle

I’ve seen a lot of unsympathetic comments on law enforcement on the Internet recently. But this great cartoon from the new issue of the New Yorker captures the Sisyphean struggle that haunts police nowadays. Below is a collage of photos I took at DC demonstrations between 2005 and 2007. The individual photos are reposted below. […]

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Shakespearean Fury: Twat Troll, Usurper, Unenlightened, Highbrow Scorn

I am gratified that my Wall Street Journal piece on Silent Shakespeare is spurring thoughtful commentary from D.C. cultural luminaries. Here are a few samples: * “Twat troll”  was the honorific bestowed by a team of four reporters for the Washington City Paper.  Hmmm…  could not find term in my edition of Shakespeare’s Bawdy (1947). * “Highbrow scorn” […]

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Shakespeare Backlash and Brawl

My Wall Street Journal piece on Washington’s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron outraged Synetic Theater and its devoted fans.  Synetic posted a long response on Tumbler and hit the alarms. The Washingtonian did an informative article this evening on the controversy – “Wall Street Journal to Synetic Theater: Do Shakespeare With Words!”  Their reporter emailed me at 5:17 p.m.; at 7:17 p.m., […]

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Wall St. Journal: Washington’s Silent Shakespeare Oxymoron

Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2015 A Silenced Shakespeare in Washington Shakespeare without puns is like French cooking without butter. By James Bovard    Washington In Act 5 of “Love’s Labor Lost,” one character scoffs at pedants: “They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.” The latest Shakespeare fashion, at least […]

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Germany Should Release Courageous Al Jazeera Journalist Ahmed Mansour

  The German government seized one of Al Jazeera’s best known and most courageous journalists, Ahmed Mansour, this weekend at the behest of the Egyptian government.  Al Jazeera has done some of the best work of any media organization in the world exposing the abuses and oppression of the Egyptian government.  It is appalling that a western […]

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National Endowment for Democracy’s Shameless Vote Racketeering

Allen Weinstein, the first chief of the National Endowment for Democracy, died yesterday. The logo to the left illustrates some of the anti-government protest movements that the Endowment helped bankroll (courtesy of the Voltaire Network).  But helping topple foreign regimes that refused to kowtow to Washington has done little to advance self-government around the world.  Ron […]

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