Supreme Court Justices: Bobblehead Doll Edition

Thanks to some friends in D.C. and the George Mason School of Law, I am now the proud owner of Justice David Souter, Fidel Castro, and Justice Louis Brandeis bobblehead dolls. (Bet you never thought you'd see those three names in the same sentence.) I am not materialistic, but I love collecting things that are associated with good memories. Justice Brandeis and Justice Souter are two of my favorite Justices. I don't have any good memories relating to Castro, but it's the GTMO version, and I received it from a former law school classmate who is representing GTMO detainees. To me, it represents due process of law, or at least a reminder that America owes all its detainees some form of a fair trial.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasions of their liberty--by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. -- Justice Louis Brandeis

JUSTICE BREYER: On that question, suppose that you are from Bosnia, and you are held for six years in Guantanamo, and the charge is that you helped Al-Qaeda, and you had your hearing before the CSRT [Combatant Status Review Tribunal].

And now you go to the D.C. Circuit, and here is what you say: The CSRT is all wrong. Their procedures are terrible. But just for purposes of argument, I concede those procedures are wonderful, and I also conclude it reached a perfectly good result.

Okay? So you concede it for argument's sake. But what you want to say is: Judge, I don't care how good those procedures are. I'm from Bosnia. I've been here six years. The Constitution of the United States does not give anyone the right to hold me six years in Guantanamo without either charging me or releasing me, in the absence of some special procedure in Congress for preventive detention.

That's the argument I want to make. I don't see anything in this CSRT provision that permits me to make that argument. So I'm asking you: Where can you make that argument?

GENERAL CLEMENT: I'm not sure that he could make that argument.

JUSTICE BREYER: Exactly.

Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same. The difference is that the Fourth Amendment places limits on the official, even with the high degree of deference that courts must pay to the educator’s professional judgment. -- Justice David Souter

Movie Quote

"Stop talking about love. Every a**hole in the world says he loves somebody. It means nothing. What you feel only matters to you. It's what you do to the people you say you love--that's what matters. [Indeed] It's the only thing that counts."

-- from The Last Kiss, the best part from an otherwise terrible film

Best Non-Famous Movies

I love movies. Anyone who knows me knows I do three things with my free time: watch movies, play basketball, and read. Here is a list of incredible films--in no particular order--you've probably never heard of:

1. Elling (2001, Norway)
2. La Haine (1995, French)
3. A Peck on the Cheek (2002, Indian)
4. Street Fight (2005, American)
5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, German)
6. Kiki's Delivery Service (1989, Japanese)
7. Farewell My Concubine (1993, Chinese)
8. Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
9. The Orphanage (2007, Spanish)
10. Shower (1999, Chinese)
11. The Lives of Others (2006, German)
12. Pelle the Conqueror (1987, Danish)
13. Sweet Land (2005)
14. Gallipoli (1981, Australian)
15. Children of Heaven (Persian)
16. Color of Paradise (Persian)
17. Misfits (1961, American)
18. Two for the Road (1967, American)
19. The Message (1976)
20. Muhammad Ali - The Whole Story (1996)
21. Night of the Hunter (1955)
22. No Man's Land (2001)
23. Coraline (2009)
24. A Taxing Woman (1987, Japan)
25. American Teen (2008)
26. Lilies of the Field (1963)
27. The Lion in Winter (1968)
28. Battle of Algiers (1966)
29. Winter Light (1963)
30. Jim Thorpe, All American (1961) [In memory of Westmont High School Wrestling Coach Patrick "Terry" Vierra]
31. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) [This documentary is not for the squeamish. Also, I recommend watching The Oath (2010), before watching Taxi to the Dark Side.]
32. Through Deaf Eyes (PBS 2007)
33. Gideon's Trumpet (starring Henry Fonda)
34. McCarthy Years (hosted by Walter Cronkite) (1991) [not scintillating, but included because of its high American historical significance]
35. The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008, Korea)
36. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
37. The Wrestler (2008)
38. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
39. Persepolis (2007) [dedicated to my grandmother, Mamani]
40. The Garden (2008) (documentary)
41.  Deliver Us from Evil (2006) [difficult documentary to watch, but included, because one rarely sees the banality and cluelessness of evil so vividly]
42.  Source Code (2011).  One of the best modern movies I've ever seen. Jake Gyllenhaal is part of a new military program designed to prevent future attacks. Is he merely part of a simulation or something more?  Similar to Spielberg's Minority Report, but with two love stories--one romantic, one familial--as its foundation.
43.  A Separation (2011) (Persian)
44.  City Lights (1934) (Charlie Chaplin film)
45.  The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite) (2007)
46.  Ken Burns' Unforgivable Blackness: Jack Johnson (2005).  Jack Johnson, a boxer in the early 1900s, was Muhammad Ali before Muhammad Ali.
47.  White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)
48.  Somewhere Between (2011)
49. About Time (2013), a love story.
50.  Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)
51. La La Land (2016) (this movie absolutely broke my heart, which leads me to my next suggestion...) 
52.  Southside with You (2016) (excellent dialogue from the beginning of a love story for the ages) 
53.  The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)
54.  My Son the Fanatic (1999)
55. The Time that Remains (2009)
56. A Man Called Ove (2015, Sweden)
57. Shoplifters (2018, Japanese 万引き家族)
58. Aftershock (2010) (唐山大地震, Chinese)
59. The Fifth Element (1997) [perhaps the least defensible choice on this list, but I loved everything about it.]
60. Cities of Last Things (2018) by Wi Ding Ho (featuring the songs Drone (Omnibus) and Omnibus One)
61. Harold and Maude (1971) [this is a famous movie, but I decided to include it when I realized non-Western audiences may not have heard of it.]
62. Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (2013)

63. Star Trek: Insurrection (1994)  

64. Once Upon a Time in China (1991) (Hong Kong)

65. Queen's Gambit (Netflix, 2020) 

66. Past Life (2016, Israel, החטאים) 

67. Star Trek: Prodigy (2021, American series) 

68. Undone (2019, Amazon series) 

69. Zana (2019, Kosovo) 

70. Slumberland (2022)

71. Russian Doll (2019), Season One only

72. Maniac (2018)

73. The Magician's Elephant (2023), excellent for children 

74. Australia (2008), Faraway Downs (2023)

75. Heat (1995)

Bonus I: HERE is a list of my favorite books.

Bonus II: HERE is a list of excellent horror films.

Bonus III: a list of great movie quotes is HERE.

Sunday Sportswrap: Iran Beats China

Iran's Hamed Haddadi crushed China 70-52 in the 2009 Asian Basketball Championships. Yao Ming did not play, but NBA players Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, and Yue Sun represented China. More here.

Also, try to guess the first non-Caucasian basketball player in the NBA. Would you believe it was Wat Misaka? More here.

Sunday Randomness: Nataliya Dobrynska

I had an advertising idea after seeing Ukraine's Nataliya Dobrynska compete in the heptathlon. (I recommend doing a Google image search for pictures of her.) The heptathlon consists of the following events:

* 100 m hurdles
* high jump
* shot put
* 200 m
* long jump
* javelin throw
* 800 m

After Ms. Dobrynska ran the 800m, Usain Bolt broke a world record by running the 100m in 9.58 seconds. Mr. Bolt is a superstar, plain and simple. If I was a shoe or athletic company CEO, I'd want to sign him up immediately and make him the centerpiece of my advertising campaign. Although Puma currently sponsors Mr. Bolt, I don't think it's done enough to promote him in the States. Maybe Puma can sign up Ms. Dobrynska and do ads involving both Bolt and Dobrynska simultaneously. The theme could be Bolt being able to compete in any sport. One example could be Bolt trying the shot put and javelin throw, failing, and then becoming much better after Dobrynska teaches him. The same idea could be transferred to different supporting athletes with different sports, particularly soccer.

K'naan

Music video from Somalian performer K'naan, who is a cross between Bob Marley and Eminem:

Abu Ghraib

[Warning: I don't usually curse, but this occasion demands it.] 

If you ever think that "law" and "justice" belong in the same sentence, just remember Lynndie England. Apparently, Lynndie "Just Following Orders" England has a book; profited from her conduct at Abu Ghraib; and served only a year and a half (521 days) of jail time. 

So let me get this straight--a bunch of Chinese Muslims get jailed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, aren't given due process, and end up getting deported. 

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, supporters of anti-immigrant measures found common cause with the Bush administration in justifying expansive new immigration authorities in the name of national security. the department of Justice (doJ) began focusing on immigrants almost immediately. In the weeks following the attacks, doJ implemented a new set of policies for a growing category of non-citizens who became known as special interest detainees. In total, more than 760 predominantly muslim men were held as special interest detainees. many of the detainees were held for weeks, even months, without being charged. Ultimately, none was charged with a crime related to the attacks of 9/11; many were deported for visa violations. -- The 9/11 Effect and its Legacy on U.S. Immigration Laws, Penn State Law, School of International Affairs, edited by Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia (2011) 

Meanwhile, some dumb back-country b*tch destroys America's reputation, refuses to take any personal responsibility for her actions, gets knocked up by a sadist, and we're not only keeping her in the country, we're giving her a book deal? (Irony alert: Bad Apple Books, LLC is the publisher.)

Her defense? I wasn't trained as a prison guard, and the power of love (for Charles Graner) made me do it. Bulls**t. Oh yes, Charles Graner, the sadistic jackass who lacks a healthy sense of irony. He once said, "Having the lights on all of the time was torture for me." (Salon.com, Mark Benjamin, 12/1/08). F*ck you, Chucky. 

Some more interesting facts: Manadel al-Jamadi, after being tortured (including by strappado) and beaten to death, was hooked up to a fake IV to disguise the fatal beating. Andrew Ledford, a Navy SEAL accused of inflicting the fatal beating, was somehow acquitted and never served any jail time. In fact, most of the Abu Graib participants received either no jail time or less than a year's jail sentence--effectively rendering their conduct on par with a civil misdemeanor. Meanwhile, life goes on in America. 

The TSA recently detained Shah Rukh Khan, a famous Indian actor, until he made a call to the Indian consulate. The delicious irony is that Mr. Khan is making a film about a Muslim man's experience with racial profiling. I'm willing to bet the TSA won't fire anyone as a result of the improper detention. That means Middle Easterners can look forward to the following treatment at some American airports: "Um, your last name looks funny...wait here for a few hours."

Bottom line: if America wants to be taken seriously as a land of freedom for all, regardless of national origin, it must start openly disciplining government workers, especially military personnel, when they screw up. Thanks to government unions, however, if you're drunk on the Homeland Security kool-aid or the military-industrial complex, it appears you'll continue to get a free pass. God bless America? 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2009) 

Note: this post has been revised since its original publication.