« on spending for schools and the idea of "root causes" | Main | wealth-building strategies for communities »

June 14, 2005

profound in their superficiality

While I was waiting for take-out food yesterday, I heard a talking head on what appeared to be a news show announce that the Michael Jackson trial was "without question the trial of the decade so far, and therefore of the century." I can actually think of some other contenders for that title. For example:

  • The trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, billionaire chairman of Yukos, which marked the transition in Russia from a kleptocratic market system to a quasi-fascist regime run by spies.

  • The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, accused of 66 counts of war crimes during a conflict that lasted eight years and directly involved the US as well as many other countries; those charges include genocide and crimes against humanity.

  • Multiple trials before the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, leading so far to verdicts in the cases of one Prime Minister, four Ministers, one Prefect, and five Bourgmestres (among others)--all alleged to have committed genocide in 1994.

  • Bush v. Gore, 531 US 98 (2000), which gave us the president we have today.

  • The United States v. Philip Morris, Inc. et al., originally a $280 billion lawsuit against the whole tobacco industry, reduced last week to a $10 billion suit after the Justice Department suddenly lowered its requested penalty by about 92%.

  • Arthur Andersen, LLP v US, the Enron-related criminal case that destroyed the major accounting firm, only to be overturned by the Supreme Court last week.

    • Any other suggestions for the top ten?

    Posted by peterlevine at June 14, 2005 12:01 AM

    Comments

    Contenders, at least:

    Pinochet's trial, Moussaoui, Hamdi, Mzoudi's trial in Germany, the Bashir trial in Indonesia, the CDU slush fund trial in Germany, the Best Bakery case in India.

    Some of these may be more appropriate for a top 50 list, but Jacko wouldn't make my cut for 50, either.

    Posted by: Brett at June 15, 2005 09:00 AM

    Post a comment

    This blog is under attack from comment spammers, who are causing a problem for the server. I believe I can block them by upgrading to a recent version of MoveableType. However, I do not have time to do that until late December. Therefore, I have temporarily disabled comments. Please feel free to email me feedback at plevine@umd.edu.

    Site Meter