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26 January 2004: "A peek into the Abyss"

Following on from my previous post, morality may be elusive, but there some things one simply viscerally recognises as evil. During my time at the ICTY, my colleagues and I often made jokes which were in poor taste, but which helped us fight back against the stress of dealing with unpleasant material. But there if there was only one topic which was off-limits for humour, it was rape cases.

Today's episode of Fresh Air on National Public Radio consisted of an interview with journalist Peter Landesman, who wrote an article on the trade in sex slaves to and within the United States which appeared in yesterday's New York Times Magazine (registration required). Landesman's report covers some of the most ghastly things I've ever read, and yes, that is saying something. If I had to pick one crime for which I could never imagine a mitigating circumstance, it's probably what you'll read and hear about in these pieces. Do not read if you want to avoid being depressed today.

(The Fresh Air episode requires Real or WMP to play.)

Update: via Normblog, an entry on the NYT article by Timothy Burke, who does a better job of the my last two posts than I did.

au currant
Black Decaf
The Illiterati
Cointelpro Tool
Norman Geras
A Fistful of Euros
Harry's Place
Plastic Gangster
Blogfonte
Tim Newman
€urosavant
Crooked Timber
Gallowglass
Mr. McGillicuddy
eameljenet
Civax
101-280
Colby Cosh
Peaktalk
Mick Hartley
Oliver Kamm

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