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In Defense of Single-Parent Families
by Nancy E DowdSingle-parent families succeed. Within these families children thrive, develop, and grow, just as they do in a variety of family structures. Tragically, they must do so in the face of powerful legal and social stigma that works to undermine them. As Nancy E. Dowd argues in this bold and original book, the justifications for stigmatizing single-parent families are founded largely on myths, myths used to rationalize harshly punitive social policies. Children, in increasing numbers, bear the brunt of those policies. In this generation, more than two-thirds of all children will spend some time in a single-parent family before reaching age 18. The damage done in the name of justified stigma, therefore, harms a great many children. Dowd details the primary justifications for stigmatizing single-parent families, marshalling an impressive array of resources about single parents that portray a very different picture of these families. She describes them in all their forms, with particular attention to the differential treatment given never-married and divorced single parents, and to the impact of gender, race, and class. Emphasizing that all families face significant conflicts between work and family responsibilities, Dowd argues many two-parent families, in fact, function as single-parent caregiving households. The success or failure of families, she contends, has little to do with form. Many of the problems faced by single-parent families mirror problems faced by all families. Illustrating the harmful impact of current laws concerning divorce, welfare, and employment, Dowd makes a powerful case for centering policy around the welfare and equality of all children. A thought-provoking examination of the stereotypes, realities and possibilities of single-parent families, In Defense of Single-Parent Families asks us to consider the true purpose or goal of a family.
In Defense of Tort Law
by Thomas Koenig Michael RustadLate night comedians and journalists eagerly seized upon the case of an elderly woman who sued McDonald's when she spilled hot coffee in her lap as a prime example of frivolous litigation. But as Rustad and Koenig argue, cases such as these are an incomplete and misleading characterization of tort law. Corporations have successfully waged a public relations battle to create the impression that most lawsuits are spurious, when in fact the opposite is true: tort law plays a crucial role in protecting consumers from dangerous and sometimes life-threatening hazards. Without legal remedies, corporations would suffer no penalty for choosing profits over public health and safely.In Defense of Tort Law is the first book to systematically examine the social, legal and policy dimensions of the tort reform debate. This insightful analysis of solid empirical data looks beyond popular myths about frivolous lawsuits, and tackles a variety of contentious issues: Should punitive damages be capped? Who is favored by tort law? Who loses, and why?Koenig and Rustad's detailed case study analysis also reveals disturbing gender inequities in a legal system that is largely dominated by men. Because women are disproportionately injured by medical products, impermissible HMO cost cutting, medical malpractice and sexual exploitation, restrictions on the rights to recovery in these fields inevitably creates gender injustice. Engaging and up to date, In Defense of Tort Law also identifies aspects of the current law that require further elaboration, including the need for measures to combat cybercrime against consumers.
In Defense of Uncle Tom
by Brando Simeo Starkey"Uncle Tom" is the most piercing epithet blacks can hurl at one another. It marks targets as race traitors, and that painful stain is often permanent. Much more than a slur, Uncle Tom is a vital component of a system of social norms in the black community that deters treachery. In this book, Brando Simeo Starkey provocatively argues that blacks must police racial loyalty and that those successfully prosecuted must be punished with the label Uncle Tom. This book shadows Uncle Tom throughout history to understand how these norms were constructed, disseminated, applied, and enforced. Why were Martin Luther King Jr. , Marcus Garvey, Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and others accused of racial betrayal? In Defense of Uncle Tom answers this and other questions and insists that Uncle Tom is too valuable to discard. Because it deters treachery, this epithet helps build black solidarity, a golden tool in promoting racial progress.
In Defense of Women
by Nancy GertnerFrom a "Human Rights Hero," a memoir of her illustrious career litigating groundbreaking cases In the boys' club climate of 1975, Nancy Gertner launched her career fighting a murder charge on behalf of antiwar activist Susan Saxe, one of the few women to ever make the FBI's Most Wanted List. What followed was a storied span of groundbreaking firsts, as Gertner threw herself into criminal and civil cases focused on women's rights and civil liberties.Gertner writes, for example, about representing Clare Dalton, the Harvard Law professor who famously sued the school after being denied tenure, and of being one of the first lawyers to introduce evidence of Battered Women's Syndrome in a first-degree murder defense. She writes about the client who sued her psychiatrist after he had sexually preyed on her, and another who sued her employers at Merrill Lynch--she had endured strippers and penis-shaped cakes in the office, but the wildly skewed distribution of clients took professional injury too far. All of these were among the first cases of their kind.Gertner brings her extensive experience to bear on issues of long-standing importance today: the general evolution of thought regarding women and fetuses as legally separate entities, possibly at odds; the fungible definition of rape and the rights of both the accused and the victim; ever-changing workplace attitudes and policies around women and minorities; the concept of abetting crime. In Defense of Women is the one-of-a-kind memoir of an exceptional, self-proclaimed "outsider lawyer."
In Doubt
by Dan SimonThe criminal justice process is unavoidably human. Police detectives, witnesses, suspects, and victims shape the course of investigations, while prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, and judges affect the outcome of adjudication. In this sweeping review of psychological research, Dan Simon shows how flawed investigations can produce erroneous evidence and why well-meaning juries send innocent people to prison and set the guilty free. The investigator’s task is genuinely difficult and prone to bias. This often leads investigators to draw faulty conclusions, assess suspects’ truthfulness incorrectly, and conduct coercive interrogations that can lead to false confessions. Eyewitnesses’ identification of perpetrators and detailed recollections of criminal events rely on cognitive processes that are often mistaken and can easily be skewed by the investigative procedures used. In the courtroom, jurors and judges are ill-equipped to assess the accuracy of testimony, especially in the face of the heavy-handed rhetoric and strong emotions that crimes arouse. Simon offers an array of feasible ways to improve the accuracy of criminal investigations and trials. While the limitations of human cognition will always be an obstacle, these reforms can enhance the criminal justice system’s ability to decide correctly whom to release and whom to punish.
In Emergency, Break Glass: What Nietzsche Can Teach Us About Joyful Living in a Tech-Saturated World
by Nate AndersonAn Ars Technica Holiday Reading Title of 2021 A lively and approachable meditation on how we can transform our digital lives if we let a little Nietzsche in. Who has not found themselves scrolling endlessly on screens and wondered: Am I living or distracting myself from living? In Emergency, Break Glass adapts Friedrich Nietzsche’s passionate quest for meaning into a world overwhelmed by “content.” Written long before the advent of smartphones, Nietzsche’s aphoristic philosophy advocated a fierce mastery of attention, a strict information diet, and a powerful connection to the natural world. Drawing on Nietzsche’s work, technology journalist Nate Anderson advocates for a life of goal-oriented, creative exertion as more meaningful than the “frictionless” leisure often promised by our devices. He rejects the simplicity of contemporary prescriptions like reducing screen time in favor of looking deeply at what truly matters to us, then finding ways to make our technological tools serve this vision. With a light touch suffused by humor, Anderson uncovers the impact of this “yes-saying” philosophy on his own life—and perhaps on yours.
In Firm Pursuit
by Pamela Samuels-YoungAfter winning a multimillion-dollar verdict in a race-discrimination case, Vernetta Henderson's career is on the rise. Weeks away from a coveted partnership, she takes on the defense of a major corporation in what appears to be an open-and-shut sexual harassment case. But Vernetta discovers the case isn't what it seems. After passing up a chance to settle, events place the entire case--and her future--in jeopardy. It's bad enough working with a pretentious associate with her own agenda. Now Vernetta is up against the smooth-talking litigator she once beat at trial. Just when she needs her husband most, he finds himself in a compromising position that could destroy their marriage. As revelations about the case emerge, Vernetta uncovers a conspiracy of corporate greed, deceit and violence that will touch many lives. With her private and professional lives spiraling out of control, Vernetta is about to discover what really matters--and how far she'll go to protect the ones she loves.
In Flight from Conflict and Violence
by Volker Türk Alice Edwards Cornelis WoutersThe impact of violence and conflict on refugee status determination and international protection is a key developing field. Given the contemporary dynamics of armed conflict, how to interpret and apply the refugee definitions at global and regional levels is increasingly relevant to governmental policy-makers, decision-makers, legal practitioners, academics and students. This book will provide a comprehensive analysis of the global and regional refugee instruments as they apply to claimants in flight from situations of armed violence and conflict, exploring their interrelationship and how they are interpreted and applied (or should be applied). As part of a broader United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees project to develop guidelines on the interpretation and application of international refugee law instruments to claimants fleeing armed conflict and other situations of violence, it includes contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in this field as well as emerging authors with specific expertise.
In Good Company
by Dinah RajakUnder the banner of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporations have become increasingly important players in international development. These days, CSR's union of economics and ethics is virtually unquestioned as an antidote to harsh neoliberal reforms and the delinquency of the state, but nothing is straightforward about this apparently win-win formula. Chronicling transnational mining corporation Anglo American's pursuit of CSR,In Good Companyexplores what lies behind the movement's marriage of moral imperative and market discipline. From the company's global headquarters to its mineshafts in South Africa, Rajak reveals how CSR enables the corporation to accumulate and exercise power. Interested in CSR's vision of social improvement, Rajak highlights the dependency that the practice generates. This close examination of Africa's largest private sector employer not only brings critical attention to the dangers of corporate dominance, but also provides a lens through which to reflect on the wider global CSR movement.
In Good Conscience: Do the Right Thing While Building a Profitable Business
by Nicholas Ind Oriol IglesiasWhen a customer, employee, or investor is faced with a choice of companies amidst a sea of competitors, they increasingly consider how responsible that organization is. Customers want to buy ethical and sustainable; employees want to feel a sense of purpose at work, and investors need reassurance that their investments are good for the long term. To be competitive and valuable to society, firms need to develop an organizational conscience that drives key strategic decisions and spurs sustainable and responsible innovation. In this book, the authors argue that organizations need to think critically about their role and to use their conscience to guide actions. With plenty of concrete suggestions based on substantive research, it shows how firms can reconcile the competing interests of stakeholders, create an organization that is fair, open and transparent and do the right thing while building a profitable business.With integrated videos and international case studies featuring multinational companies as well as small firms, this book explains how firms can make the transition to becoming conscientious.
In Her Defense: A Novel
by Stephen HornA lawyer with an appetite for risk. A gorgeous socialite accused of murder. Its the case of a lifetime--if only she were innocent. Following in the blockbuster tradition of Scott Turow and Richard North Patterson comes Stephen Horn and In Her Defense, and intense, riveting debut thriller with a twist. Frank O'Connell's need to live on the edge cost him his family, his home, and a partnership in his father-in-laws prestigious Washington firm. Now he combs the cell blocks for clients and wonders if he's sunk too low ever to come back. His ex-wife wants to see less of him, his therapist wants to see more, and his last link to professional survival just gave him an ultimatum. Then into his office walks Ashley Bronson. The murder of a former cabinet official has just propelled her from the society column to the front page, and, inexplicably, she wants Frank to defend her. She hands him her case, followed by her confession and some damning physical evidence. Frank thinks his biggest challenge is her guilt. He's got a lot to learn. Ashley's admission proves just another detail in a defense in which ethics are bent and morals compromised. As the trial date looms closer, the goverment's case seems insurmountable. A desperate Frank hits upon an inspired strategy--and unwittingly becomes a threat to people in high places when he unravels a tangled web of events that began a generation ago. Their personal lives in tatters and confronted by forces they don't understand, besieged lawyer and client have only each other as the courtroom battle begins. In this fast-paced legal thriller, former federal prosecutor Stephen Horn brings his knowledge of law and government to stunning life with this absorbing tale of love, betrayal, and murder that is sure to be one of the most entertaining and engrossing stories of the year.
In Hoffa's Shadow: A Stepfather, A Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth
by Jack GoldsmithOn July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa, the renowned former leader of the Teamsters union, disappeared in broad daylight from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant, in a Detroit suburb. Hoffa was one of the most famous people in America. His disappearance was a national sensation and proved to be one of the best-executed unsolved crimes in American history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, the distinguished legal thinker Jack Goldsmith illuminates Hoffa's disappearance and influence from a vital--and unexpected--new perspective. As a boy, Goldsmith adored his stepfather, Chuckie O'Brien, who was known to the world as Jimmy Hoffa's right-hand man of many years. Following Hoffa's disappearance, the FBI publicly accused O'Brien of picking up Hoffa at the Machus Red Fox and driving him to his death on behalf of the mob. As Goldsmith grew older and pursued a career in law and government, he began to doubt, and to distance himself from, the man he once revered. It was only years later, when Goldsmith was serving as an assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and investigating the government's misuse of surveillance powers, that he began to reconsider O'Brien and his legacy. In Hoffa's Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he once disowned and then set out to unravel one of the twentieth century's most persistent mysteries and to clear O'Brien's name. Goldsmith presents evidence that his stepfather did not betray Hoffa and relates his discussions with FBI agents who worked the case over the decades. He casts new light on the architects of Hoffa's disappearance, on the century-old surveillance state, and on how government investigators can ruin innocent lives through mistakes, neglect, and abuse. Goldsmith also explores the rise and fall of Hoffa, the mob, and labor unions, and--above all--probes the heartrending complexities of love and loyalty.
In(-)Kongruenz leben: Eine qualitative Untersuchung zu vegetarisch und vegan lebenden Menschen aus bildungstheoretischer Perspektive
by Marvin GiehlMarvin Giehl zeigt den im erziehungswissenschaftlichen Diskurs bislang unterrepräsentierten Konnex zwischen den ethisch motivierten Ernährungs- und Lebensformen des Vegetarismus und des Veganismus sowie deren biographischer Genese und bildungstheoretischen Überlegungen auf. Durch die Erhebung qualitativer Interviews und die Auswertung im Stile der dokumentarischen Methode entwirft der Autor mehrere datenbegründete Typiken, welche die Komplexität von ‚vegetarischen‘ und ‚veganen‘ Biographien rekonstruieren. Virulent wird dabei ein spannungsreiches Wechselspiel von erlebter Inkongruenz und Kongruenz. Mit dem Forschungsergebnis legt er eine neue Betrachtung von post-anthropozentrisch gedachten biographischen Bildungsprozessen vor, woraus auch praktische pädagogische Implikationen abzuleiten sind. Schließlich erweitert die Arbeit die Perspektiven im methodologischen Diskurs, indem sie bislang vorherrschende und reproduzierte Fokussierung auf konjunktive Wissensbestände und die damit korrespondieren Wissensformen durch die analytische Berücksichtigung von kommunikativem Wissen ergänzt.
In Living Color: An Intercultural Approach to Pastoral Care and Counseling Second Edition
by Emmanuel Y LarteyThe meaning of pastoral care in modern multicultural societies is challenged and reexamined from a pluralistic, global perspective in this book. Emmanuel Lartey stresses the importance of recognizing different cultural influences on individuals in order to effectively counsel, guide and empower them. He provides a clear and concise history of pastoral care and considers its relationship to different models of counseling and spirituality. This new edition has been updated to reflect postmodern and postcolonial studies and provides illustrations of how an intercultural approach can work in practice. Theological teachers and students will welcome its return as an indispensable introduction to the field of pastoral care. In Living Color is an essential source of inspiration to leaders from any religious stream who wish to provide pastoral care in a way that reflects their community's cultural diversity. This book is also a useful resource for practitioners in a wider range of caring contexts who work in multicultural environments.
In My Dark Dreams: A Novel
by J. F. FreedmanA public defender must defend the rarest of clients--someone she believes to be innocent Jessica Thompson is training for a marathon, running fifty miles a week not just to stay in shape, but to help her forget that she spends her days in service to some of California's worst criminals. As a public defender in Los Angeles, this is par for the course. But Roberto Salazar is an unusual client: a kind, mild-mannered man with a clean record who has been accused of trafficking stolen goods. Jessica is happy to get this churchgoing gardener acquitted, but she's shocked when he's accused of murder. Roberto is arrested in connection with three savage murders, each committed on the night of a full moon. Is he innocent? Or did Jessica let a madman go free?
In Nixon's Web: A Year in the Crosshairs of Watergate
by L. Patrick Gray Ed GrayThe last untold story of Watergate "by the FBI director who maintained his silence for more than thirty years. L. Patrick Gray III was the man caught in the middle of the Watergate scandal.
In Our Name: The Ethics of Democracy
by Eric BeerbohmWhen a government in a democracy acts in our name, are we, as citizens, responsible for those acts? What if the government commits a moral crime? The protestor's slogan--"Not in our name!"--testifies to the need to separate ourselves from the wrongs of our leaders. Yet the idea that individual citizens might bear a special responsibility for political wrongdoing is deeply puzzling for ordinary morality and leading theories of democracy. In Our Name explains how citizens may be morally exposed to the failures of their representatives and state institutions, and how complicity is the professional hazard of democratic citizenship. Confronting the ethical challenges that citizens are faced with in a self-governing democracy, Eric Beerbohm proposes institutional remedies for dealing with them. Beerbohm questions prevailing theories of democracy for failing to account for our dual position as both citizens and subjects. Showing that the obligation to participate in the democratic process is even greater when we risk serving as accomplices to wrongdoing, Beerbohm argues for a distinctive division of labor between citizens and their representatives that charges lawmakers with the responsibility of incorporating their constituents' moral principles into their reasoning about policy. Grappling with the practical issues of democratic decision making, In Our Name engages with political science, law, and psychology to envision mechanisms for citizens seeking to avoid democratic complicity.
In Plain Sight (A Casey Cort Novel #3)
by Sylvie FoxStruggling to pull together the pieces of her life after another falling out with Ohio's most powerful political dynasty, Casey Cort turns her attention toward her budding relationship with rising assistant U.S. Attorney Miles Siegel. Things come to an abrupt halt when circumstances catapult them onto the scene of a horrific crime. Miles investigates the identity of an unlikely criminal mastermind, known on the street as Sledge Hammer. Meanwhile Casey discovers she may hold the key to solve the crime--and to the freedom of innocent women and children in the sex trafficking ring. Can Miles and Casey put the clues together to solve the mystery before the trail runs cold? In this continuation of the Casey Cort series, Sylvie Fox--a former trial lawyer in Cleveland--weaves a tale that blends the best of today's top legal thrillers with the heart and soul of women's fiction, in a story ripped from real-world headlines.
In Praise of Blood: The Crimes Of The Rwandan Patriotic Front
by Judi ReverA stunning work of investigative reporting by a Canadian journalist who has risked her own life to bring us a deeply disturbing history of the Rwandan genocide that takes the true measure of Rwandan head of state Paul Kagame.Through unparalleled interviews with RPF defectors, former soldiers and atrocity survivors, supported by documents leaked from a UN court, Judi Rever brings us the complete history of the Rwandan genocide. Considered by the international community to be the saviours who ended the Hutu slaughter of innocent Tutsis, Kagame and his rebel forces were also killing, in quiet and in the dark, as ruthlessly as the Hutu genocidaire were killing in daylight. The reason why the larger world community hasn't recognized this truth? Kagame and his top commanders effectively covered their tracks and, post-genocide, rallied world guilt and played the heroes in order to attract funds to rebuild Rwanda and to maintain and extend the Tutsi sphere of influence in the region. Judi Rever, who has followed the story since 1997, has marshalled irrefutable evidence to show that Kagame's own troops shot down the presidential plane on April 6, 1994--the act that put the match to the genocidal flame. And she proves, without a shadow of doubt, that as Kagame and his forces slowly advanced on the capital of Kigali, they were ethnically cleansing the country of Hutu men, women and children in order that returning Tutsi settlers, displaced since the early '60s, would have homes and land. This book is heartbreaking, chilling and necessary.
In Praise of Copying
by Marcus BoonThis book is devoted to a deceptively simple but original argument: that copying is an essential part of being human, that the ability to copy is worthy of celebration, and that, without recognizing how integral copying is to being human, we cannot understand ourselves or the world we live in. In spite of the laws, stigmas, and anxieties attached to it, the word “copying” permeates contemporary culture, shaping discourse on issues from hip hop to digitization to gender reassignment, and is particularly crucial in legal debates concerning intellectual property and copyright. Yet as a philosophical concept, copying remains poorly understood. Working comparatively across cultures and times, Marcus Boon undertakes an examination of what this word means—historically, culturally, philosophically—and why it fills us with fear and fascination. He argues that the dominant legal-political structures that define copying today obscure much broader processes of imitation that have constituted human communities for ages and continue to shape various subcultures today. Drawing on contemporary art, music and film, the history of aesthetics, critical theory, and Buddhist philosophy and practice, In Praise of Copying seeks to show how and why copying works, what the sources of its power are, and the political stakes of renegotiating the way we value copying in the age of globalization.
In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility
by Costica BradatanSquarely challenging a culture obsessed with success, an acclaimed philosopher argues that failure is vital to a life well lived, curing us of arrogance and self-deception and engendering humility instead.Our obsession with success is hard to overlook. Everywhere we compete, rank, and measure. Yet this relentless drive to be the best blinds us to something vitally important: the need to be humble in the face of life’s challenges. Costica Bradatan mounts his case for failure through the stories of four historical figures who led lives of impact and meaning—and assiduously courted failure. Their struggles show that engaging with our limitations can be not just therapeutic but transformative.In Praise of Failure explores several arenas of failure, from the social and political to the spiritual and biological. It begins by examining the defiant choices of the French mystic Simone Weil, who, in sympathy with exploited workers, took up factory jobs that her frail body could not sustain. From there we turn to Mahatma Gandhi, whose punishing quest for purity drove him to ever more extreme acts of self-abnegation. Next we meet the self-styled loser E. M. Cioran, who deliberately turned his back on social acceptability, and Yukio Mishima, who reveled in a distinctly Japanese preoccupation with the noble failure, before looking to Seneca to tease out the ingredients of a good life.Gleefully breaching the boundaries between argument and storytelling, scholarship and spiritual quest, Bradatan concludes that while success can make us shallow, our failures can lead us to humbler, more attentive, and better lived lives. We can do without success, but we are much poorer without the gifts of failure.
In Praise of Folly: With Illustrations After Hans Holbein, And A Portrait, Together With A Life Of Erasmus And His Epistle Addressed To Sir Thomas Mor
by Desiderius ErasmusThis sixteenth-century religious satire by a Renaissance critic and theologian is "a masterpiece of humor and wise irony" (Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian). At the onset of his hugely successful satire of medieval European society, Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus invokes the goddess Folly, daughter of Youth and Wealth, who was raised by Drunkenness and Ignorance. She's followed by idolatrous companions, including Self-love, Flattery, Pleasure, and Laziness. Through Folly's wry and humorous speech, Erasmus denounces the superstitions and nonsensical eccentricities of his contemporary theologians and churchmen, monastic life, and the condition of the Catholic Church. An immensely influential humanist text, In Praise of Folly helped lay the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation and marked a transitional time between medieval beliefs and modern ideals.
In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies
by David RieffThe conventional wisdom about historical memory is summed up in George Santayana's celebrated phrase, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. " Today, the consensus that it is moral to remember, immoral to forget, is nearly absolute. And yet is this right? David Rieff, an independent writer who has reported on bloody conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and Central Asia, insists that things are not so simple. He poses hard questions about whether remembrance ever truly has, or indeed ever could, "inoculate" the present against repeating the crimes of the past. He argues that rubbing raw historical wounds--whether self-inflicted or imposed by outside forces--neither remedies injustice nor confers reconciliation. If he is right, then historical memory is not a moral imperative but rather a moral option--sometimes called for, sometimes not. Collective remembrance can be toxic. Sometimes, Rieff concludes, it may be more moral to forget. Ranging widely across some of the defining conflicts of modern times--the Irish Troubles and the Easter Uprising of 1916, the white settlement of Australia, the American Civil War, the Balkan wars, the Holocaust, and 9/11--Rieff presents a pellucid examination of the uses and abuses of historical memory. His contentious, brilliant, and elegant essay is an indispensable work of moral philosophy.
In Praise of Heteronomy: Making Room for Revelation
by Merold WestphalRecognizing the essential heteronomy of postmodern philosophy of religion, Merold Westphal argues against the assumption that human reason is universal, neutral, and devoid of presupposition. Instead, Westphal contends that any philosophy is a matter of faith and the philosophical encounter with theology arises from the very act of thinking. Relying on the work of Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel, Westphal discovers that their theologies render them mutually incompatible and their claims to be the voice of autonomous and universal reason look dubious. Westphal grapples with this plural nature of human thought in the philosophy of religion and he forwards the idea that any appeal to the divine must rest on a historical and phenomenological analysis.
In Praise Of Indecency
by Paul KrassnerPaul Krassner's style of personal journalism constantly blurs the line between observer and participant. Nowhere is this more apparent than this collection of essays and interviews culled from his columns at AVN Online. Whether being interviewed by Susie Bright, or imagining a conversation between Pee-Wee Herman and Pete Townshend about their busts by overzealous cops, or reminiscing about his friend Lenny Bruce, Krassner shines his keen satirical mind on the so-called taboos of today's society and breaks them down to show the hypocrisy of the world's "culture warriors." With a biting wit and tongue firmly planted in cheek, Mr. Krassner reveals the absurdity of our oppressive social mores in this stark, funny, and ultimately thought-provoking collection.